Homeworld 3's new Steam demo has atmosphere, but I'm not sure about the controls

rockpapershotgun.com:

Good news, star admirals with decent CPM! Gearbox and Blackbird Interactive's strategy escapade Homeworld 3 has a demo on Steam. It's been live for a few days, actually, but whether due to the bombardment of other Steam Fest goodies or my being led astray by the similar-but-nerdier Nebulous: Fleet Command, I didn't try it till last night. The demo includes a tutorial mission, four maps and the War Games mode, a one-to-three player affair which essentially turns Homeworld into a roguelike - pitching you up against unpredictable opposition while unlocking new fleets and doling out Artifacts that augment your vessels.

If you already have your heart set on the game, you might feel like waiting till the space sim's full release on March 8th (Feb 8th update: it's been delayed till May 13th). But here's the kicker, O would-be Commander Adama: any War Games progress you make in the demo - Steam link here - will transfer to the final release. Besides, I have a feeling you'll want to give the controls a try before buying.

Homeworld 3 gives you a choice of two, somewhat deceptively-named camera control schemes, "modern" and "classic", which determine whether you'll need to say, right-click to engage WASD camera movement, or whether you can mouse-wheel-zoom right through the ship you're locked onto. Neither system feels intuitive, with much of the tutorial given over to belabouring their differences, and there's been a certain amount of player pushback on the Steam forums and Reddit.

Part of the problem is that Homeworld 3's encounter design emphasises precise control more than its predecessors. One of the threequel's headline selling points is the ability to have units take cover behind larger celestial objects, including your own capital ships. There's also more in the way of micromanaging formations than I remember from Homeworld Cataclysm, the last Homeworld outing I played properly, with different groupings suiting specific combinations of little and large