Homeworld 3 game review — the perils and pleasures of steering a spaceship in three dimensions

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If ever you find yourself staring idly into the cosmic dust of a nebula in Homeworld 3, fingers idle on your many controls, it’s probably because there’s something you’ve forgotten to do. Real-time strategy games such as this, a follow-up to the long-dormant sci-fi series, thrive on the idea that every last tactical decision you’re making is contributing to your chances of victory; the more you’re doing, in theory, the higher your chances of getting the upper hand.

As Imogen S’jet, commander of a galactic fleet tasked with investigating a mysterious part of space called the Anomaly, where planets seem suspiciously prone to spontaneously exploding, you have quite a lot to keep track of: resource collection, research, production, movement, attack stances, battle formations, ability cool-downs and so on. For better or for worse, the fate of the galaxy depends on you and the host of hotkeys you’ll need to have at your command at the helm of your mothership.

Unfortunately, Homeworld 3 doesn’t always make that process an intuitive one. First of all, this is space, so get used to operating across three axes. Forget the neat, top-down, isometric view you might have in some real-time strategy titles — here the third dimension is forever reminding you of its complications. Many of the first few hours will be spent learning to manipulate the camera so you’re actually able to look at the raiders attacking you rather than at the rocky underside of an asteroid.

Navigation presents similar problems. Space may be vast and deep, but your computer monitor is stubbornly flat. So when you click on a location, are you directing your fleet to the spot right in front of you, or several hundred kilometres further into space? You’ll attempt to distinguish by assigning not just one position but two, indicating altitude as well as direction. You’ll gradually get the hang of it, but a succession of maths-exam-resembling triangles is a lot to deal with when everyone’s trying to blow holes in your hull. If you’re anything like me, you’ll resort to latching on to physical objects — rocks, debris etc — like a nervous kid clinging to the edge of the pool.

The real problem is that these teething problems speak to a wider clunkiness in pacing and polish. Orders you give to units can feel delayed in execution or haphazardly followed; ships deselect or get distracted without reason; selecting objectives or targets can be infuriatingly finicky. The game also has the annoying habit of jumping to cutscenes without warning, like an overenthusiastic lieutenant grabbing the controls to show you a supernova.

None of these pose insurmountable problems, and when the stars do align in Homeworld 3, its sense of scale and occasional flawless manoeuvres make you feel like a bona-fide space commander. The frantic radio chatter and pounding of some suitably space-age drums make for an immersive experience, especially as battles increase in size and consequence.

But for all that the game vaunts the depth of its strategy, it doesn’t quite back it up with the precision needed to make it work. Too often you’ll be cursing at your mouse or regretting not having paid closer attention in trigonometry classes — not quite the right angle for a real-time strategy game.

★★★☆☆

Homeworld 3 is available on PC