Homeworld 3

Beautiful game, beautiful ships. Many design issues, such as map size, camera controls, and lack of proper supply routes. Ships are not intelligent enough for formations to work properly. Campaign story is abysmal. Unfixed day 1 issues. Game is now abandoned.

A troubled game that is also now dead. No support, no community. Pros - Inspired art and mesmerizing effects Cons - A story that is less than compelling - Simplistic gameplay with frustrating pathing - Dead community - Abandoned by devs

I've been a fan of the Homeworld franchise since the original game permanently shifted my understanding of video games as a storytelling medium. I played Cataclysm and then Homeworld 2 and the franchise forever held a special place in my gaming core memories. I bought the remastered editions when Gearbox scooped up the IP and even bought Deserts of Kharak as I thought that GB and BBI had the same appreciation for the franchise as I did. Then I heard about Homeworld Mobile and how aggressively monetized the game was. I felt a knot in my stomach and hoped that Homeworld Mobile wouldn't be the end of the franchise, so I was happy to hear the Homeworld 3 announcement. That excitement evaporated when the initial clips of the plot began to show up on social media. Homeworld 3's plot is a contrived mess, which is something of an accomplishment considering the backlash that Homeworld 2 received for it's "space magic chosen one" plot. Compounding this issue, we're going to dust off Karan S'Jet - once again (for ♥♥♥♥♥ sake let legendary space jesus retire) to be a supporting character to the protagonist Imogen. I don't know if it's a combination of the pre-rendered cutscenes or the stilted conversation dialogue (not to mention the ♥♥♥♥ tier idioms and sayings that they tried to shove in to it for 'wOrLdBuIlDiNg') but Imogen comes off like a poorly written self-insert that is the next generation of space jesus for the Hiigarans because... she's a S'Jet? A woman? Had some ambiguous and poorly defined relationship to Karan directly and was exposed to her Space Jesus powers? Whatever it is that makes Imogen the only viable candidate to be fleet command for a galaxy spanning civilization that have colonized thousands of worlds by this point in the story line. The logistics feel super forced on that point and I think that they really missed an opportunity to tell a different story from within the Homeworld universe that isn't some galaxy ending apocalypse that only our S'Jet space jesus can save them from. This is further compounded by just how boring Tiaa' Ma is as the main antagonist and how the source of her power or any explanation as to how she and the incarnate can control progenitor tech. Is she a progenitor? Is she the reason that the Progenitor race disappeared? In the initial intro video, we're shown Incarnate hyperspace wavefronts being used to jet the surface of a star on to a planet - but apparently Tiaa'Ma can't utilize that strategy to stop Imogen from ever becoming a legitimate threat to her goals of finding the Hyperspace cores that Karan's ship possessed. General gripes with the story aside, the core gameplay is sufficient for a Homeworld title, but I've also picked up the game significantly later than it's initial release and following a number of balance updates to the game. I'm disappointed that there are a handful of useful ships for each faction and a number of ships that should have been redesigned into something else from previous titles. For example, Suppression Frigates are garbage and should have been something more akin to Homeworld 2's Flak Frigate - Railgun and Disruptor Corvettes feel functionally useless when compared to other ships within their class. At least the Incarnate have some options here that are relatively useful, but Hiigarans only have Railgun Corvettes, so guess what you're gonna build to fill out the pop cap for spare anti-corvette/frigate damage. Speaking of ships - the designs for the ships seem to be lacking inspiration. The Hiigaran ships are essentially just wedge shaped, but flat and Incarnate ships are wedge shaped, but skinny. Gone are the days of uniquely designed ships like Homeworld 1, Cataclysm or 2. I think it's pretty apt to say that this games plot can be easily and accurately summarized as "three women argue as the galaxy burns".

I was so excited for this game. I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition on Amazon. As a fan of the first two, my expectations were high for this game. But oh, how the mighty have fallen. There's not much to add that hasn't already been said. This game is trash. The gameplay is terrible, the story is abysmal with no emotional depth whatsoever. The original games felt like something was actually at stake. This feels like a mobile game. TLDR - Imagine you ate the best two meals of your life, and then the third is day old reheated McDonald's fries. That's this game.

I like to pretend this game doesn't exist, whoever wrote the story should stick to making coffee at Starbucks. Thanks....

I had a MUCH longer review (17k characters) but this is going to be the very abridged notes I'm a lifelong Homeworld Fan, 1 is basically what Final Fantasy 7 seems to be for a lot of gamers in my generation, Cataclysm has my favorite story in all of gaming, DoK I think is excellent though had some questionable Retcons and even 2 was a good ride. I knew going in HW3's story was bad and was waiting on a 75% off sale (I used a gifted gift card for 30 so technically all I paid was state tax) I also recently played Dawn of War 3, another game that RTS fans see as the absolute worst and came off thinking it was treated too harshly by the fanbase. I'll agree that it is the weakest of the 3 Dawn of war games currently released as of writing, but dont think its a bad game by any means. So i was coming into this one open minded. I played on Linux mint and needed to set Proton to 10.0.3, but it ran like butter with it. [h2]Campaign[/h2] The Campaign at least has solid mission variety and set pieces, even if the gameplay doesn't totally jive with it. It is like the OG homeworld where you will restart missions to do better to carry on progress which is good! It still has that classic homeworld feel of wanting to do better in your missions to put yourself in a better position in the future. Salvaging all the things is viable but its not as easy as it was in H1 (though in a nice twist the enemy tries to do the same to you). Per campaign weaknesses The Early game is a little too tutorialized given there's a proper tutorial. The middle part of the game has too many missions that auto-end before you can rebuild your fleet which kills some of that classic pace. Endgame is like other homeworld games. Roll em with Max Battlecruisers and Destroyers. I found it annoying when at the end of the mission characters kept trying to tell me to go when I was preparing for the next mission. Unskippable "Sensors Manager" cutscenes are annoying when the game is still playing in real time and I'm trying to get my fleet to positions that they need to be. All other cinematics are skippable [h2]CHARACTERS AND STORY[/h2] The story is about as bad as you've heard. Apparently the borderlands 3 writer was involved, to what degree is unknown but given apparent character similarities between Imogen and another BL3 character and the writer was introduced late in development to finish an already late project that was bouncing between unsuccessful ideas, it makes sense it turned out the way it did. Imogen isnt as bad as other "Girlboss" type characters shes often compared to but she's still not a good character and doesnt really sacrifice anything like the other Homeworld Protagonists have. Meatpuppet Karan is here to gas Imogen up and give memberberries and cringey lullabies (which in fairness the Actress is actually kind of a good singer). Fleet Intel is here to give bad character drama Also For the love of Sajuuk can we PLEASE let the S'jet line not be the heroes for a while? There's plenty of cool stories other clans could have (and have had with cata and the manuals). This issue is compounded by the fact that she's a direct descendant of Karan S'jet. The Queen is quite frankly...an idiot and more bluster than threatening. The incarnate she commands are dollar store Gaalsien (without their motivation which the game insults them in a throwaway line in a cutscene), using dollar store Vagyr tactics, using dollar store Progenetor tech. The queen and Imogen having dream hyperspace Zoom Calls is weird and is tonally inconsistent with the franchise The Engineer lead is probably the one good character because he seems to at least be having some fun with his Job. [h2] GAMEPLAY [/h2] The thing about the gameplay is that there's actually nothing wrong with it on paper save that its trying to chase two rabbits and catches neither. Those rabbits being named Homeworld 1 and Deserts of Kharak. In my opinion they should have leaned more into DoK over HW1. The main selling point of the gameplay is the Megaliths, Giant structures in space that act as 3D terrain you can use for cover or flanking routes via physicalized projectiles In theory should reward good positioning like in DoK and for a small selection of units it does, but the fact that everyone is on Homeworld 1 Brain in terms of Formations and maneuvering they don't really exploit it well and the game emphasizes is less as the campaign rolls along. I like the UI and controls, Modern Works fine but I wish more hotkeys were assigned and it is annoying sometimes to move units via clicking on a surface in open space. The UI has an overall very clean and functional look that has some great QOL choices. [h2] FACTIONS/WARGAMES [/h2] Per skirmish/campaign factions, there are no Real Faction unique Gimmicks/Strategies in Campaign and Skirmish. The incarnate gameplay wise try to be a little more aggressive with shorter range higher damage corvette focus but kind of come off as dollar store vagyr and frankly are kind of boring. The Hiigaarans fare a little better with cloaking bombers, very long range torpedo frigates and the underutilized minelayers giving them some interesting tools, but are still boring otherwise. The game does work better for Wargames since you cant normally get battlecruisers and Destroyers to steamroll the enemy and instead you are limited to Frigate size and smaller with a smaller unit cap with a limited tech tree depending on your starting carrier class. Its more about tradeoff decisions and a greater need to preserve your forces than a Macro deathball. Theres nothing wrong with the old ways given HW's normal leanings, but in HW3 the Megalith emphasis is supposed to reward positioning and micro, I think this approach works better here than in Campaign or MP DLC packs are dissapointing despite having some strong picks (mostly due to the fact that most units are reskins kind of like Smash Melee characters) [h2]ART/TECH [/h2] Unquestionably the best thing about homeworld 3 is its in-game art, both technical and stylistically. It looks and performs darn near flawlessly in game, has menus that not only look slick but are very readable too .The Megaliths all look great from the progenitor ruins to more natural formations and lots of really clever use of fog and dust for motifs too that make space seem like an ocean or a desert. Some of the backgrounds are jaw dropping too. The one weakness is the ships aren't as interesting to look at this time but they do make up for it with some wonderful particle effects and animation. Having fully rendered cutscenes was a decision. On one hand they look gorgeous and kind of make sense for the dreamy hyperspace look the writers wanted. On the other hand the series was known for a slick "Moving concept art" style that should have been preserved. The animation feels a little off for how realistic the characters are rendered, almost too animated like they are in a pixar movie. On the sound front Music was kind of forgettable this time around, but the "Professionals under stress" background chatter stays and its just as good as before. Sounds are solid but not memorable. In a rather strange twist it is also apparently the best one to mod! But nobody really cared to do it, which is interesting given how venerable Homeworld 2's mod scene is. [h2]CONCLUSION[/h2] Homeworld 3's story is trash, which is a critical failure point in a series known for its excellent use of tying in a compelling narrative with gameplay and thats why it has had the reception it had. Coupled with a developer who seemed to bite off more than they could chew it was a recipe for disaster for the franchise. If you are to get it, grab it at 75% off and maybe try and find a friend for wargames.

Tried to give it a shot. ~2.5 hrs (5 missions) in to the campaign and I just had to step away. Veteran of HW1, HW2, & HWDoK. Firstly, the controls for the view navigation were first of all very frustrating. Frequently found myself trying to zoom out, move the view upwards, or anything to actually be able to see whats going on. This will be reset numerous times out of your control. I found the best way to counter this was to use my flagship offensively, and then maintain zoom on it. The campaign is simply very frustrating to play. It might actually be fine but literally every 5 seconds of game play is interrupted by an unstoppable cut scene. Eg. Your interceptors are defending your resource collectors... You'll see a blip on radar, select your interceptors, prepare to command them to attack the enemy, then a cut scene will start. They reveal in the cut scene that there is enemies nearby, and that you should ready yourself. Once the cut scene is over you see the battle is already over and you lost half your fleet 'cause you were watching a cut scene. Rinse and repeat... like a lot. I gave up when I arrived in a system after fleeing an overwhelming force, and while assessing the damage I was immediately told about the new place. F- off for a second while I count the dead! I understand that this style of storytelling is a railroaded, but there is very little freedom to how you complete the individual missions. To make this even worse, the 'characters' are less than interesting. I found myself vaguely interested in the plot, but not enough to endure the game play and dialogue. The 3D debris and asteroids seemed actually pretty cool, and I was looking forward to using it for navigation, surprise attacks, etc. But it really wasn't well integrated into the game play. You could send ships to hug the hull of a giant remnant hull, but as soon as the enemy appeared they'd just default to regular old space combat anyways, so nothing really gained. I tried to ambush some barrage frigates by attracting their attention with the recon team, then having my interceptors fly at their rear from a giant wreck - mild success at first but the lack of dynamics in the combat meant that the interceptors just flew back and forth after their first strafe. Combat is somehow dumbed-down from original HW1. I was incredibly disappointed when I saw the interceptors adopt the same 'back and forth' strafing that the recon units were using - Not as individuals either, as a mob. The enemy also just follow the first unit they attack too, so if they take damage and you send them for repairs, the enemy will just trail them to your carrier/flag... while your other interceptors follow them shooting. I didn't feel I really had any control over it other than just send more fighters. Active commands are available, but I didn't see a point.. the interceptors get increase attack rate for a short time with a disadvantage to armour for a long time. So if I was going to win an engagement, I could trigger that to win it faster, or if I was losing an engagement, I could trigger that to lose it faster. Again, they are just strafing each other continuously until the lesser force is dead. Shoot the cat and stay out in the rain. I probably didn't see a lot as far as ship upgrades and unit types. What I did see was stripped directly from older games with no thought to how to revolutionise this. Carriers, recon, interceptors, bombers... assault frigates, beam corvettes, etc. Yeah, those are the base elements I'm sure. But what about giving us some control and choice for how these units present, act, and are upgraded. What about, as an idea; an optional upgrade that gave recon more speed in exchange for radar range, or the opposite. Give us choices with consequences that play to our personal styles! As it was, I couldn't see a reason not to upgrade fleet armour, for example - so how is this even a choice in the campaign? I unlocked the assault frigate and immediately built 5, thinking to myself that the coin spent would give me a big advantage against strike craft - a choice? Then I just felt entirely underwhelmed as they bobbed around and gave me no real advantage, more it was just the expected action I should take on the rail road. Overall, I wouldn't recommend spending money on this one. I got it for a bargain on CdKeys and even still I regret bothering. There are plenty of better options out there. I feel for the HW community that they've seen hope for something they loved dashed. A flavourless clone of much better games.

Got the game as a FIG (kickstarter-like) supporter. Had extremely high hopes for the return of the franchise considering some of the devs in blackbird are former Relic Employees. Words cannot describe the immeasurable disappointment i felt upon playing through the first few missions of the campaign. This game falls flat on the ONE THING Homeworld was known, and loved for - story. It tells the story of a Mary Sue scientist that has no idea about hyperspace interdictor technology, or weaponized hyperspace jumps, even though they were known technologies in HW1 and Deserts of Kharak respectively. Big Bad is at the end forgiven because she feels lonely... Really? THAT is the story of Homeworld 3!? Unfixed issues since day 1 and now apparrent abandonment of the game solidifies HW 1, HW 2 & Homeworld Emergence as the only legitimate Homeworld titles. This game would be mediocre at best, if it hadn't "Homeworld" in its' title. There's a standard of quality expected with this legendary RTS, a standard which wasn't even attempted to be met. My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined. If you have no idea what Homeworld is, and want a pretty-looking but that's about it RTS, give it a shot. In any other case, Avoid like the Bubonic Plague.