Flight simulators, point-and-click adventures, World War II shooters... Over the years, a lot of gaming genres and settings were declared extinct; some were revived, others came back to life on their own, and a small number emerged from hibernation. Not a single one was lost permanently since outmoded preferences eventually come back into style. Nowadays, fads are the undoing of real-time strategy. Certain convulsions may be seen, even though they now seem to be quite near to True Death.

Homeworld 3 is one of those little blips, the ticking chitin legs. This newest installment in a series that has been around for 25 years wants to make a name for itself by outshining its magnificent forebears in terms of looks but abandoning the innovation that made the first one so memorable. That may be sufficient, I guess, for the segment of the audience who are RTS viewers and old fans who are experiencing a severe lack of interest in this genre. However, the enduring memory is a different tale. After three days, everything about it began to disappear, at least in my own experience. The new proprietors of Homeworld IP produced an instant space strategy syrup that is adequate but quickly becomes boring, rather than an epic sequel.

Karans in Space

The objective of the game, which takes place around a century after Homeworld 2, is to correct the anomaly endangering hyperspace travel. The introduction, titled "History of Homeworld," is a little awkwardly staged in Homeworld 3, requiring manual activation from the main menu. I knew the history of the game from having played the two major games, a spinoff and a prequel (Cataclysm and Deserts of Kharak), as well as the most recent remasters. I purposefully skipped the video that also described the newest danger. For a time, I was in the dark and assumed the game will make everything clear on its own. And it did, although awkwardly.

Regretfully, the narrative never quite achieved its potential. Assuming the role of Imogen S'Jet, the youthful Hiigaran navigator who interacted with a Khar-Kushan mothership, you will be assembling the remnants of the preceding expedition, which vanished while investigating a hyperspace-threatening phenomenon. The majority of the game will be spent looking for the fabled Karan S'Jet, who oversaw that expedition, and discovering more about the enigmatic queen who is determined to get priceless hyperspace cores and become more powerful than anyone could have imagined. The reasons for the cloaked female Thanos wannabe's rage and enmity are never made clear, and she never tries to explain herself. Karan and Imogen aren't doing much better. In the cutscenes, the young navigator will mostly make agonizing looks, while Karan S'Jet will behave and speak as if she is under the influence of barbiturates. Poor characterisation, shoddy writing, and strange performance throughout.

Space stations, planetoids, asteroids

Like its predecessors, Homeworld 3 gave players the option to choose between the original control scheme and a new one that had been significantly modified. The space landscape is the sole source of true creativity. Giant asteroids, planetoid surfaces, massive space stations, and other things constitute the main departure from the prior two games' (mainly) empty open cosmos. Those barriers in the single-player game are mostly decorative, containing very detailed graphics that say something like, "Look at us, we are the modern visuals OMG!" Sometimes the game will encourage you to use cracks and tunnels for tactical advantage, but it's simply not worth the trouble. Cover is useful in PVP multiplayer, I guess, but every time I lost a fight, my opponent had more skillfully used special powers and greater force optimization. It would have been as easy for me to sneak my fleet in from behind and be annihilated.

With a few more specialist ships and type limitations, your ship selection is very much the same as it was before. You are always need to utilize a varied fleet in Homeworld 3 since there are no spamable omnipotent marvels. A unique ability like the burst ability of Rail gun corvettes, which may provide significant damage increases, or a utility benefit like Battlecruiser's damage aura, which can influence neighboring ships, are also necessary for success. Defensive turrets may be placed on flat terrain, so at least you won't have to tether your mobile troops to mothership protection. You merely pull the big gal up against the wall and set her up with torpedo launchers and automatic weapons.

War Games: Winning Strategy

The War Games mode in Homeworld 3 is its greatest feature. It is a randomly generated, rogue-lite game that may be played in solo, cooperative, or cooperative modes. On top of that, it has meta-progression. Despite the change in format, if you have played the roguelike mode in No Return: The Last of Us II remastered, you are familiar with how it operates. Every match begins with a carrier and a very basic, very restricted force. Reaching the mission goals is necessary to unlock more choices and improvements for currently available buildable kinds. A certain degree of chance and, in cooperative games, player cooperation are required for success. I believe that War Games will be the last destination for most individuals, since the single-player mode ends after seven or eight hours. Additionally, there is the traditional PVP multiplayer option, where you may practice with AI before interacting with actual players.

Homeworld 3 is a passable relic of its legendary 1999 predecessor. Additionally, it isn't as good as any of its follow-ups, not even the 2016 grounded precursor Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. Even the Denuvo infection doesn't appear to have a significant impact on performance—it looks amazing. Unfortunately, other from a thin, surface-level mask, it lacks any character. This is not the Ages' continuation. After finishing the campaign for nostalgia's sake, you may play War Games or multiplayer for a few days, but that would be all. Unlike one man from my high school, you won't acquire a tattoo of the Second Higaraan Empire. Even though it seems humiliating, it is a genuine tale.

At least Khaleesi isn't tattooed on there.