A new trailer for Homeworld 3 appeared during the Open Night Live showcase at Gamescom, giving us a look at some of the advanced combat tactics that will be available to players when Fleet Command returns to action.
"Our team has been hard at work creating the Homeworld experience we’ve always dreamed of and we hope after watching this trailer, fans will believe we are making THEIR game,” Blackbird Interactive CEO Rob Cunningham said. "Homeworld 3 will deliver deeper strategy and decision making with easier controls. Players will explore ancient megalithic structures and experience space at an extraordinary level of detail while following an epic narrative fit for the biggest sci-fi fans."
It's a very pretty video, as you'd expect from a Homeworld game, and it sounds right, which is important: Music and audio effects play a huge role in generating the unique Homeworld ambience.
But I wonder if it's perhaps a little too Homeworld for its own good. The new game is set well after the events of the original, as the galaxy faces a brand new threat known as The Anomaly, but aside from the more advanced tactics—using cover to evade attacks, moving through massively large structures to attack from unexpected angles—and very impressive visuals, it all looks very much like the first game: Defend resource harvesters from attack, gather enough space dust to build better ships, capture an enemy ship or three, and then move on.
Space tactics are great, but what struck me (and stuck with me) about Homeworld was the epic story of escape and survival through a gauntlet of unexpected and exotic locations. Compared to that, watching an enemy carrier explode doesn't carry a whole lot of weight.
That's just me though, and obviously it's impossible to make any sort of meaningful judgment based on a single trailer—a trailer which, my own personal feelings about space opera adventures aside, looks very good. Homeworld 3 is set to come out sometime in the first half of 2023, and yeah, misgivings aside, I am very much looking forward to it.
Catch up with our full list of Gamescom announcements from Opening Night Live and check our Gamescom schedule to find out when to watch everything else.
