Homeworld 3 Review

thesixthaxis.com:

The wait for a third Homeworld game has finally come to an end. The pioneering 3D space RTS was a brilliant sun flare of excellence at the turn of the millennium, but faded into an almost mythological status amidst acquisitions, IP purchases and more. After a two decades wait, Homeworld 3 is ready for launch.

Homeworld remains one of the outright coolest strategy games I can think of, though that admittedly comes from a relatively juvenile male perspective on space and military actions, real and imagined – this game series lives in the same pantheon as the 2000s Battlestar Galactica’s most action-packed episodes. The crackle of unit comms, the professional and controlled tone of voice, the design of the ships and the cinematic mass fleet actions were excellent in 1999 and that same tone and style persists through to Homeworld 3.

It’s around a century on from the events of Homeworld 2, with the Hiigarans the presiding empire in the galaxy and an age of abundance thanks to the Hyperspace Gate Network, but all is not well. There’s the looming threat of The Anomaly, and Karan S’Jet’s expeditionary fleet disappeared decades ago. When massive planet destroying attacks hit a number of planets on the fringes of the Anomaly’s territory, a new fleet is launched with Karan’s granddaughter Imogen plugging herself into the new Mothership and overcoming her initial doubts and fears, teaming up with the steady Isaac Paktu (Ike Amadi) as the fleet’s Intel officer – he honestly has exactly the right voice for this role.

It’s another desperate journey across the galaxy, facing another unknown and daunting enemy in a retread of the arcs from the first two games, but Homeworld 3 puts a lot more personality into the tale than before. In contrast to the cool and detached nature of the fleet combat, this aims to be a more personal story, putting these characters before you through lavishly rendered cutscenes between missions. Doing that, though, leans very heavily into a messianic story arc