Homeworld 3 is rated 'Strong' after being reviewed by 16 critics, with an overall average score of 80. It's ranked in the top 17% of games and recommended by 79% of critics.
The TLDR of the steam reviews seems to be to just buy and play the old ones. They are less pretty but much better mechanically and story wise. They also lack intrusive Denuvo DRM and data collection policies. I haven’t played the game personally but that seems to be the consensus from the top couple of reviews.
Personally this one will be staying on my wishlist for a few years.
The campaign is a little cutscene-heavy and a little short, but the story isn’t much worse than HW2’s, maybe a little better imo.
Mechanically though, it’s (probably) better than the remasters. Directional damage is still there, homing projectiles are gone, fighters dynamically form squads instead of staying in a big blob or fixed-width squads in 2. I read some of those reviews at most of them don’t appear to have played more than the first 2 missions? Like, there was one lore error in one line of dialogue and people lost their goddamn minds.
I think it was really just a victim of 1) Embracer’s implosion meaning it had to launch now or not at all and 2) people’s expectations being all the way up at 11 since the last game was so long ago. Really, a little bit of story DLC to flesh out the main campaign and there would be no problems.
The TLDR of the steam reviews seems to be to just buy and play the old ones. They are less pretty but much better mechanically and story wise. They also lack intrusive Denuvo DRM and data collection policies. I haven’t played the game personally but that seems to be the consensus from the top couple of reviews.
Personally this one will be staying on my wishlist for a few years.
I’m hearing a lot of OG Homeworld fans turned off by this one.
Instead of retaining unique charm, they spent a shitload of money on generic video game story #6 and generic wet-looking cutscene render #4.
Simultaneously, many core gameplay mechanics were dumbed down and made more palatable for the masses.
It’s a tough pivot to make, but what else are fans of the genre gonna play hahahah
Sins of a Solar Empire 1
And hey, we get to hope Sins 2 remains great.
Nebulous Fleet Command 🤘
Fuck yeah
The campaign is a little cutscene-heavy and a little short, but the story isn’t much worse than HW2’s, maybe a little better imo.
Mechanically though, it’s (probably) better than the remasters. Directional damage is still there, homing projectiles are gone, fighters dynamically form squads instead of staying in a big blob or fixed-width squads in 2. I read some of those reviews at most of them don’t appear to have played more than the first 2 missions? Like, there was one lore error in one line of dialogue and people lost their goddamn minds.
I think it was really just a victim of 1) Embracer’s implosion meaning it had to launch now or not at all and 2) people’s expectations being all the way up at 11 since the last game was so long ago. Really, a little bit of story DLC to flesh out the main campaign and there would be no problems.
Doubt we’ll see it though.
Sounds like there’s a gap in the market to me
Add Homeworld to “game successfully enshitified” ever growing list.