Homeworld may have launched RTS gaming into 3D space, but even amid the infinite void, it still found a wall to put your back against. Relic's 1999 classic was a near-perfect blend of spectacle and stress, lending you control of astonishing firepower while constantly making you feel like you were one wrong move away from annihilation.
25 years on, Homeworld 3 can muster that same mixture of awe and anxiety, but it's a little less consistent in its execution. When all engines are firing, Blackbird Interactive's sequel is astonishing to behold, while its campaign can be every bit as imaginative and intense as Relic's original work. But the missions take a while to warm up, and they do so at the exact moment the story starts to go cold. Meanwhile, Homeworld 3's big idea, to make that metaphorical wall you're up against a literal one, is only intermittently successful.
