Homeworld 3’s demo has me feeling slightly concerned about the RTS legend

Blackbird Interactive has just released a demo for Homeworld 3, the long-awaited third (and perhaps final?) installment of the legendary RTS franchise. The demo, available through Feb. 15 on Steam and the Epic Games Store, highlights the game’s roguelike “War Games” mode, allowing you and your friends to play through progressively difficult stages with randomized objectives and enemies.

I spent several hours with the demo, which provides a small vertical slice of what we can expect when the game launches on Mar. 8. The demo features an abbreviated version of the War Games mode with just three stages, but it does include the full progression system that will be present in the retail version of Homeworld 3, which allows you to unlock new ships and cosmetics. As an added bonus, any progression that players make during the demo will carry over to the retail version of the game.

The demo serves as an excellent showcase of Homeworld 3’s technical and gameplay improvements, but a number of frustrating issues have somewhat shaken my confidence in studio Blackbird’s capabilities in delivering a follow-up to a beloved franchise chained to more than two decades’ worth of expectations.

Image: Blackbird Interactive

While the demo may be representative of an older build of the game, I ran into problems like notably cumbersome camera controls and questionable pathfinding. A key addition in Homeworld 3 is terrain in space that is intended to provide a tactical advantage to your units. However, this feature often resulted in my units having difficulty finding the most direct route to a target. The in-game camera also struggles to provide the best view, often clipping into the terrain and obscuring units. This issue is made worse by the painfully slow controls, which rotate and zoom at a glacial pace, even with their sensitivity dialed up. It’s possible that these concerns have already been addressed by Blackbird Interactive, but seeing them in the demo left me questioning the kind of game we should expect roughly four weeks from now.

Image: Blackbird Interactive

Despite its issues, I still enjoyed the Homeworld 3 demo and respect the immense effort Blackbird Interactive is putting into this title. If you’d like to try the game out for yourself, make sure to check out the demo before it leaves on Feb. 15.