'Homeworld 3' Releases First Official Gameplay Footage
Image Source: Epic Games Store
From the tell-tale space-time tear and wobbling hum of a hyperspace jump to the characteristic colored contrails etching a line through three-dimensional space, the new trailer of the upcoming, and long-awaited, return of the Homeworld franchise has some tantalizing bits for fans.
With Gamescom 2022 doing what gaming conventions do, fans of the franchise were treated to the first in-game gameplay footage of the game.
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The trailer is narrated like a mission report, detailing an ambush by some raiders with a name that sounds like “Kalan”, though a deep search was unable to turn up an actual spelling. It details some of the new gameplay features of the new game. Line-of-sight seems to be a new factor to incorporate into strategy, as the massive space derelicts that used to be relegated to the background of the first two games are now up close and personal. The missile frigates displayed launched missiles at the defenders, only for the defenders to sweep behind a massive piece of space debris, the missiles harmlessly detonating along its surface.
Those nearby chunks of debris are useful terrain.
Image Source: PC Gamer
While the missile frigates were occupied with one strike force, another utilized more of the terrain (in space) to slip behind them. It showed a small group of strike craft descending into a long tunnel of an absolutely enormous derelict ship of some kind. It’s clear that the new developers, Blackbird Interactive, are leaning heavily into the cornerstone characteristic of the series, fully three-dimensional space warfare, and zooming in on what used to be the background. In previous games, each mission often had a backdrop of these truly monstrous derelict megastructures. It was incredible to try and comprehend just how big they were considering they were unreachable and massive enough in the background.
Just imagine how large those things in the background are to create that lighting effect in space!
Image Source: Mod DB
The footage wraps up with a call back to some familiar features of the series. Bombers were built to take on capital ships, and frigates to finish off the enemy carrier. A nice touch at the end was the return of one of the more strategic choices one can make, capturing and salvaging an enemy ship, as salvage ships latched on to one of the raiders’ missile frigates and taking it over. Now the enemy’s weapons were turned against them.
Image Source: YouTube
Homeworld, when it was released in September of 1999, and real-time strategy games were never the same. It ushered in a new age of strategy games with its use of three-dimensional use of the map. It opened a whole new avenue of strategy beyond moving units forward, backward, or flanking. With the introduction of a z-axis means of movement, units could now literally attack from above or below. Many a time I’d sent an attack group deep below the main attack plane to wait, lost to the background of the vastness of space, and then surprise the enemy with an attack from below.
After releasing a spin-off game called Homeworld: Cataclysm where players were fighting off some sort of plague that could infect ships and turn them into biological weapons, the popular game released a sequel to the main game. However, after Homeworld 2 was released, nearly two decades went and the original developers went defunct in 2008. THQ acquired the rights, which were then sold to Gearbox in 2013. Blackbird Interactive took up the mantle and released a prequel to the original game title Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. Deserts of Kharak was a blend of the series’ mainstay of a mobile home base where all construction was done, but it ditched the emptiness of space for the deserts of the planet where the story originated.
Image Source: Steam
Homeworld 3 was announced in 2019 during Gearbox’s PAX West show, to the excitement of fans everywhere, and they did so alongside a crowd-sourcing campaign for $1, where fans could invest in the new game. Backers were also able to influence the development of the new game through surveys sent for feedback from the investors.
Homeworld 3 launches in Quarter 4 of this year according to Gearbox.
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