It’s been over two years since Homeworld 3 was first announced, and things had gotten so quiet on the publicity front that earlier this year I wrote a whole blog about footage of a single ship firing a weapon.
This short video of a Railgun Frigate blowing a hole in another ship is brief, silent and very much a work-in-progress, to the point where you wonder why they’re showing it at all.
Except, you know, they must figure they need to show something, even as a proof of life, or just as a reminder that hey, we announced this game, please remember us. Which shouldn’t have been a problem for a direct sequel to one of the most beloved strategy series of all time, but then this is exactly what happens when you announce a game way too soon!
I was worried! That was a very long time to have shown practically nothing from the game—mostly down to the fact they announced Homeworld 3 months/years before other games would have whipped the covers off—and as someone with a deep love of Homeworld I think I just needed to know that everything was OK.
I don’t know if the game is OK, since I haven’t played it and won’t be for a while, but we can at least finally see how it’s shaping up in this first gameplay trailer, and it looks big. Like, wow, a lot bigger than the older Homeworld games, with platforms and ships and battles that dwarf those we’re used to seeing.
Another thing I’m liking are those cutscene shots, which hark back to Relic’s old 2D illustrated sequences, only now new developers Blackbird are using 3D models with a sketching effect layered over the top in homage.
Homeworld 3 has a release date pencilled in for sometime in Q4 2022, and will be out on both Steam and the Epic Game Store.