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Homeworld 3: key facts and latest trailers, news, ship details and more
Homeworld 3 is the sequel to one of the most famous series in real-time strategy history.The first RTS to take place in a fully 3D environment, Homeworld was a revelation in 1999 because its setting was real space, rather than a two-dimensional plane. Maneuvering not just around your opponent but above and below them is the key to winning in Homeworld.
Perhaps most notable, however, is the vibe at Homeworld. The galaxy feels empty, lonely and oppressed. Enemies always haunt you, and the expansive ambient soundtrack makes you feel lost in a galaxy far bigger than your own problems.
Developer Relic Entertainment released Homeworld in 1999, expanded it in 2000, and then launched its sequel, Homeworld 2, in 2003. The games were remastered by Gearbox in 2015 to mixed reception. Developed by Blackbird Interactive, Prequel Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak was released just a year later in 2016 to critical acclaim.
Blackbird Interactive is also working on Homeworld 3, and the conclusion of our review of Deserts of Karak should give a good indication of why we’re excited about the sequel: “Despite this potentially horribly buggy, Cards Rak Desert is a success in just about everything. Not only is it a great real-time strategy game that sets itself apart from other recent games in the genre, but it’s also a great Homeworld game that reinvents the series, while also regaining its magic.”
When is Homeworld 3’s release date?
We don’t have an exact date yet. Homeworld 3 will be released in Q4 2022. In practice, that probably means you’ll see it in November or early December of this year. It’s questionable whether Gearbox will choose early November as it competes with Starfield’s release date, but it’s not unheard of for big games of different genres to release at the same time.
Will Homeworld 3 be delayed? At this point, probably not: Blackbird Interactive has ample resources since Gearbox is part of the Embracer Group. But in a period of Covid-driven development delays, nothing is impossible.
This Homeworld 3 gameplay trailer gives me goosebumps
That’s something.
The narrator of the trailer is Karan S’jet, the protagonist from the original Homeworld game, who also voices the Mothership and Fleet Command. She is some kind of posthuman, known as the Unbounded because of her physical connection to the hyperspace core that powers the mothership. From what we understand, she will also live a long, long time now.
We saw a series of events from the first two games, from the destruction of Karak and Kushan’s crossing of the galaxy to the war with the Vaygr tribe in Homeworld 2. From there, we saw rows of boats in the apartment, the boxy style and colour of our Hiigaraan protagonist. We can also glimpse their angular ships in the distance in the signature yellow and red stripes of their TEDA enemies. There are also some red ships flashing briefly, which is the main color of the Vaygr opponent from Homeworld 2.
Over and over, we glimpse a massive ship over and over: a crescent-shaped flat boat. This could be our new mothership, and its signature large launch bay could be used to produce capital ships. It’s a new design, a flat croissant instead of the giant upright bananas of past motherships in the series – and a nice design callback to the Karak Desert carrier.
So what’s the story of Homeworld 3?
After Homeworld 2, the galaxy entered the so-called “S’jet Age” as Karan’s clan ushered in an age of prosperity with the newly opened network of hypergates. We don’t know anything about what’s going to happen in Homeworld 3, other than a lot of time has passed.
Here’s the official description: “Cycles of abundance and war have come and gone. Now that the hypergate network has failed catastrophically, Karan, who has entered into mythology and religious idolatry, is the key to the mystery that threatens the future of the galaxy.”
So at least here’s the thing: the now near-immortal Karan S’jet is likely to be the last person to remember the distant past, and as the gameplay trailer narrative suggests, that memory may well be the key to saving the future.
Blackbird also made it clear that, like the original game and Desert of Karak, Homeworld 3 will have a deep, engaging single-player story. It could be a real treat after how good the Karak desert is.
What’s new in Homeworld 3? What’s back?
We don’t know much about Homeworld 3’s new features, but I’ve spotted one big thing from the gameplay trailer that might hint at a change in Homeworld 3’s environment.
Some environments appear to be almost low pressure, with large non-ship objects appearing. This is new because asteroids in Old Homeworld are rarely as big as we saw in the game trailer, and no battles take place so close to planets that you can make out geography like mountains feature.
Many of the battles in the game trailer also take place between giant space boulders made by mysterious ancestors that previously only formed very basic terrain in Homeworld games. They appear to be more interactive now as fighters sweep trenches for cover. The official Homeworld website says these structures will “bring 3D terrain to the classic Homeworld battlefield” and they can be used to hide your fleet to ambush enemies. There will also be dangerous terrain, such as asteroid fields and particle storms, that could harm ships.
What’s back? At least attack ships, frigates and cruisers are returning, but it’s hard to tell if frigates and destroyers are a success. Larger ships are also featured in the trailer, with a very distinctive silhouette of a Karak-inspired Hiigaran aircraft carrier appearing somewhere, and the game description mentions a “heavy battlecruiser”.
Also featured in the gameplay trailer is a ship that closely resembles the classic Titan guided-missile destroyer and Ion frigate. But these models are well beyond those of 1999 and 2003, and while inspiration is clearly in the works, direct comparisons are impossible. Just know I found projectile weapons, missiles, and ion cannons, so your favorite Homeworld weapon might be back in some form.
Otherwise, Blackbird Interactive seems very committed to Homeworld’s original vision. Expect to collect resource units from asteroids, maneuver a massive fleet, and hop your most hated ships onto rival motherships in hyperspace for victory.
This is an older trailer
Here’s the announcement trailer for Homeworld 3 we first saw in 2019. In it, it appears that scout ships from our main faction, the Hiigarans, pass through a huge hyperspace door discovered and activated at the end of Homeworld 2. We also got a brief flash from our family girl Karan S’jet.
What else do we know?
Homeworld 3 will have collaborations
Homeworld 3 will have a roguelite co-op mode where one or two commanders fight a series of fleet battles against a persistent fleet. Each battle can earn you rewards for the next, and a successful run will unlock new abilities that “continue over and over again.”
Homeworld 3 will also have PvP multiplayer.
The music will still play
Original Homeworld composer Paul Ruskay is back at least in part, and previews suggest his latest work is as good as ever.Out of curiosity, Gearbox released a 20-minute mini-documentary About the series usage of Adagio for Strings.
“No one left. Everything is gone. Karak is burning.”