Homeworld 3 is the Worst Homeworld

I didn't expect to be disappointed, but I was prepared for the reality that I could. Blackbird Interactive has made some games I truly enjoy, but the expectations for Homeworld are so high that there was no chance of universal satisfaction. But I'd have been more likely to believe a carrier would hyperspace into my ass than accept the campaign story would be the weakest part of the game.

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Watch all of the Abbreviated Reviews ever made here. It takes less time than you'd imagine:

Music: Homeworld 3 Soundtrack

Game Review, Abbreviated Review, #homeworld3

[AbbreviatedReviews]

Homeworld 3? More like Homeworld Brie... cause this shit's cheesy...
That's the type if creativity you get around here.

[NightNord]

It honestly feels like it was rebooted a couple years ago at best, using content from the previous game. I can't believe they spent 6 years on this - even with all the service stuff. The gameplay, the story, everything screams that it was done not by people who knew homeworld but rather people who knew StarCraft and tried to make the game using principles for another game. In the end they got neither homeworld, nor StarCraft

[Kuhesgewehr]

It feels like last minute rewrites by committee.

[Skittles]

Someone should honestly do a side-by-side comparison between Homeworld(1), the non-remastered version, and Homeworld 3. I’ve been thinking a lot about how well-crafted the entire game was. Ships had to maneuver, accounting for their mass, drifting and adjusting their trajectory, not coming to a stop instantly. Large projectiles would knock ships off their course when hit. How formations and stances mattered. Fighters focusing their fire and staying in formation on aggressive tactics, basically engaging as a single unit. On evasive, they would engage targets of opportunity, maneuvering and dodging projectiles. They would split into pairs of two where every fighter that was actually executing the attack got a wingman assigned to guard his back. I honestly also liked that fighters had fuel, which made forward operations much more tactical. You needed to have dedicated support ships acting as forward bases for your strike craft.

Formations had a purpose. I remember the claw formation, where ships in the front would engage the target and regroup at the back, making it look like an actual claw collapsing and devouring the enemy. Or the sound design, as Mandalore put it, “Professionals under stress”. The dispassionate and cold unit chatter worked wonders for the game. When ordering to kamikaze, the professional tone would sometimes slightly shatter, revealing the distressed, actual pilot in that fighter craft, doing what he has to for his people to survive. I remember, if you ordered units to attack friendlies, how they would respond hesitantly, almost mad, like they were contemplating refusing that order.

The protagonists and everything they said felt important. I never disagreed or questioned what Karan S’jet said. She was basically the player. Everything she said served to convey information and emotion between the screen and the player, while Fleet Intelligence* was exactly that, Fleet Intelligence*. Processing situations in real time and creating mission objectives, that’s their job. Sure, they may be devastated, but if they hesitate or argue or break down, that could be the end of their entire race. Fleet Command knows that, Karan knows that, the fighter pilot I just ordered to kamikaze into the enemy frigate knows that.

In all honesty, even a single scout fighter in Homeworld(1) had more character than whatever the name of the HW3 protagonist is. I could go on. There’s so much detail, the music, the story, the cutscenes… I guess the term to describe that game would be “Ludonarrative Harmony” in journalist speak.
Homeworld is by no means "the perfect game" but man was it good, and to think they made that 25 years ago.

[JerodTrd]

I mean…

They wanted to make Cataclysm canon, why not make the big bad the source of The Beast, or the reason the Progenitors hid Sajuuk and scattered the cores after shutting down their gate network…

Why not have your Fleet Command tormented by whispers every time she charges the hyperspace core, with the crew hearing and seeing disturbing things with every jump, making it clear than an ancient eldritch thing from hyperspace has turned its eye upon the Higaraans, and their galaxy…

[gerarderloper]

The antagonist is she-space-shrek, once you make that connection it makes sense. Shrek in space, 1000 years old, is a mentally disturbed girl. Genius! :)

[RGARnator]

You can tell the story was written with the "help" of special consultants, with the wattpad quality of it.

[RVeLatioN]

I miss the Taiidan and really wanted homeworld 3 to be a homeworld game. I got neither

[roahnosh]

"Homeworld 3 is not a bad game. It's just a bad Homeworld game."

Bro, if it was a good game people would be playing it right now. But I check the steam charts and there's barely anyone playing the game. It's a bad game.

[Shadowdragn]

"Homeworld 3 didn't drop the ball in every aspect"

Yer only in the main area where it matters for a Homeworld game.

Like people have said, it was made by people who googled what a homeworld game is.

[teecee]

It's like they did not understand what made the series unique

[Antheraws]

Gosh that's so tragic. I remember playing the first one because it was included in an eBay purchase I made in grade school. I had never heard of the game but when I got around to playing it I look back with fond memories on that story and how submersive the sound, story, cutscenes and gameplay was. Unlinke anything else to this day really. I had hopes when I saw the trailer but was reserved about buying it. Such a shame. I'll still have those memories in the dark room in front of the computer desk though.

[ANewHuman]

Homeworld and Homeworld 2's cutscenes used music and suggestion to evoke ideas and emotions. Sweeping strings, haunting chants, choirs. Characters had few lines. Voice acting was understated but impactful. They played out like myths, moving paintings. It's art that allows you to experience it, and let your mind and imagination wander.

Homeworld 3's cutscens are like Pixar movies. Characters are constantly rattling off how they feel and what they think and won't stop talking, and their expressions telegraph their feelings too in case you somehow missed what they were saying.

[nonyabisness]

its not even homeworld.
making something this remarkably not homeworld is actually an achievement in itself.

[matteste]

Fun fact, from what I gather, it seems like one of the original writers for Homeworld did indeed write the manual. Sadly, they did not write the rest of the game.

[ReaVen]

I just dont feel homeworld from it, if you look at homeworld 1 there is a story of an entire race in search of their home while uncovering their own forgotten history as well as the universe at large. The Cutscenes lost their charm, the simple scribbled/pencil drawn style cutscennes allways stayed with me, they conveyed so much with so little. Homeworld 2 was the first game of the series I played but even then I find Cataclysm to be the best game of the entire franchise, the Beast War is such a great story and the progression of the Kuun-Lan and her crew ist just done so well.

In my eyes Homeworld 3 is not part of Homeworld except for the name

[jcdf]

Not surprised. There seems to be something wrong with a lot of modern game developers. Their efforts are lackluster and infused with weird ideology.

[hfric]

Old games : Spend 2 years on pen and paper developing the story and game design. Then Spend 1 year on translating this all into a Custom Made Engine and polish it more simulating armies with cube models. When all this is done. Then make maps, music, movies and model Units to fit the scene from the dev bible. End result a game that after 24 months, aka the window when game returns itself becomes cult.A passion project that will be remembered by generations to come.
New games : Spend 1 year on Graphics, Models, Maps made in Unreal. Then 1 year to make up a story that would glue those assets you made. 1-3 months to transfer it all to Unreal. End Result a money printer scheme that has to return fast. With little to no QA, that happens after the game is shipped but only for 6 months... not before. But done in a way, those that buy the game transfer Unreal Engine Analytics to snitch what to fix. Saving money on QA testers. Game is soulless, forgotten after 3 months.

Now your here...
and you got HomeWorld 3 at Home, Live Service Edition

[mikerowave]

Honestly it was painful to watch all those unnecesseraly long and still meaningless, cringy cutscenes. Homeworld story supposed to be epic and cool, but this is like something a 12 years old girl would come up. This title definetly didn't get love and respect from the developers and it is an outrage. Most sequels nowadays are going on the same path.

However having a bad story would not entirely ruin the game, it is still just an inconvenience compared to core flaws of the game:
- No destroyable subsystems (engines, turrets), we lost a huge amount of tactical opportunities
- No production modules, research modules, sensor modules, no modular ship design at all
- Oversimplified resource collectors, no need for carriers or resource controllers for distance mining
- Oversimplifdied research and unit production
- Meaningless and boring ship designs without any creativity, Hiigaran ships are just boxes, Incarnate ships are Sajuuk ripoffs
- Unit AI is definetly downgraded, no combat maneuvers from ships in battle, they just get in range, stop there and stay stationary while firing. Units are just dumb
- Many minor bugs, like pathfinding bugs, units stuck in terrain, stands in the middle of nowhere, not entering tunnels... and many more
- Controls are annoying many times, I use the "classic" camera controls which I got used to in the last 25 years, but it is still difficult to get a good overview on my control groups, especially in sensor mode. In sensor mode, selected units are difficult to distinguish from non- selected units, control group numbers are not visible in sensor mode
- Missions are not bad but they are very short and easy for a HW veteran
- The game is very demanding on GPU but especially on CPU
- No soul, no atmosphere, I can't feel getting involved in this game nor the story, it is just so uninteresting, I just don't care about the insecurities of the little girl nor the big bad girl, and not even the old bald girl

To say something positive:
- I must admit that the scenery is beautiful in most maps, and I welcome the HW2 style soundtrack

[Drakon_Minaka]

The one thing I enjoyed about Homeworld 3 was the Incarnate. No, not their leader, but the faction itself as well as their ships and design. Its just a shame they were introduced in such a bad way, as well as a shame the game is...well....not great.