Blackbird Interactive and Gearbox served up our first look at Homeworld 3 gameplay during tonight's Game Awards pre-show, showcasing the "next evolution" of the hit sci-fi RTS.
Homeworld 3 will tell an all-new standalone story in the Homeworld series: As the Hyperspace Gate Network that brought an age of abundance to the galaxy begins to fail, hope for salvation falls to Karan S'jet, the hero of the journey to Hiigara, who has now "passed into myth and religious idolatry."
"Homeworld 3 is the realization of the vision of what we set out to create in the Homeworld series, with modern technology allowing us to push beyond our wildest dreams of large-scale dynamic space combat packed with emotional sci-fi storytelling," Blackbird Interactive CEO Rob Cunningham said.
Homeworld 3 will be a significant visual upgrade over the previous games, and will also introduce new ships, settings, and strategic options provided by fully simulated ballistics and "megaliths," the massive, crumbling space derelicts left behind by an ancient civilization, which can be used to create bottlenecks and deploy ambushes. Along with the singleplayer campaign, the game will also support a range of co-op and versus multiplayer modes, including 1v1, team battles, and free-for-alls.
Without wanting to come off as overly superficial, I think it's important that any new Homeworld game looks and sounds the part too, and based on this trailer Homeworld 3 definitely does. The opening dialog could use a little audio balancing but once the gameplay kicks in, it's on the money: Big, stylish, and majestically martial. The focus on Karan is a little perplexing, but we'll apparently be learning more about the story soon enough: "We have got a lot more exciting details to share next year as we prepare for the launch of this massive next chapter," Cunningham said.
Homeworld 3 is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2022, putting it somewhere between October 1 and December 31. For now, you can keep up with what's happening on the Homeworld 3 Fig page, which remains active despite halting the investment campaign, and Twitter account.
