Homeworld 3's War Games DLCs add new strategies to the roguelike mode

Blackbird Interactive has been working hard on Homeworld 3 even following its release in May 2024. The team has put out some updates here and there to address bugs and issues, but this season, the devs have launched what could be considered the swan song for the game: A massive free update and two DLCs focused on the game’s roguelike War Games mode. This might not win folks back that were looking for more in the single-player campaign, but it does substantially revamp combat, and for War Games, the DLC adds four fleets worth of new strategies and tactics to employ.

A Mothership-sized update

One of the biggest things to come to Homeworld 3 is a major revamp of the game’s systems with Update 1.3. You don’t need to buy DLC to enjoy this free update, but it overhauls much of the game’s units, defense, offense, behaviors, pathfinding, combat feel, look, and much more… You name it, it’s probably in Update 1.3’s patch notes.

Some highlights of this patch included reworking the dynamics, offense, defense of various units and their weaponry. Strike craft in particular got a notable tweak that makes them a little better at surviving and staying engaged in combat, including being able to dodge large enemy weapons better and turn faster to begin fresh strafes of targets. TLDR: Strike craft spend more time fighting and less time buzzing around uselessly or getting mauled, and that’s great for commanders that want more out of Homeworld 3’s small unit game.

There are also a ton of optimizations, bug fixes, and general quality of life here that make the game play quite a bit better than it did before. One of my favorite new features was the ability to separate damaged units from undamaged ones, allowing me to dock and repair my injured squadrons efficiently before they went out to fight again. Generally speaking, ship pathing, combat, control, and execution feel improved over what I played when I reviewed the game in May. It just feels better than it did.

War Games have a few new players

The other half and less free end of Homeworld 3’s new content are the new fleets added to War Games. The Somtaaw and Taiidan Fleet Packs are two separate DLCs (both included in the $19.99 USD Year One Content pack or $7.99 separately) that both bring two extra fleet options per pack to the War Games roguelike mode. The four fleets represent a solid diversity of options that excel in defense, long range, short range, and strike craft specialties, just in time for the update that buffs strike craft no less.

The Taiidan Fleets include the Taiidan Defense Fleet and Missile Destroyer Fleet. The Defense Fleet is really something interesting. Instead of specializing in any kind of offensive capabilities, this fleet excels in bringing enemies into its range and disabling them. It sports highly versatile Defender strike craft and a variety of units and Artifacts that buff the fleet’s ability to disable enemy forces and strip them down to space dust once they’re ensnared. The Missile Destroyer Fleet is much more straight forward. It trades defensive and disabling countermeasures for long-range ballistics made to kill enemies before they even arrive. It’s much simpler to handle, but still formidable, as long as you can keep enemies at range and off your Carrier.

Meanwhile, the Somtaaw Fleet Pack provides the Pilgrim Fleet and Beast Slayers Fleet. The Pilgrim Fleet focuses on a specialty strike craft to hit enemies hard and fast. The Heavy Acolyte Strike Craft is a solid unit and building a formidable force of them and powering them up will turn you into a buzzing hornet’s nest of fast aggression. That said, the Beast Slayers Fleet specializes around what might be my favorite new unit in the game. It features the Storm Frigate. This capital buster is a monster in short-range, unleashing a barrage of lightning discharge that hits a wide field and does vicious damage. The hard part is that the Storm Frigate is at the end of the Beast Slayer Fleet tech tree, so you’ll have to gather resources efficiently and work fast if you want the best part of this fleet in play. Still, it’s a great fleet and I implore you to try the Storm Frigate at least once if you can.

Homeworld 3 and a half

Blackbird Interactive has announced that these DLC and Update 1.3 will be its swan song for Homeworld 3. The group set out to make a game that series fans and newcomers alike could enjoy, and while it might not have hit the mark for everyone, this free update feels like an olive branch to those who passed Homeworld 3 up or left it behind. Meanwhile, the DLC packs are fun. War Games has been one of the biggest highlights of Homeworld 3, and these new fleets are exctiing to explore for all of the diversity they offer. If this is the curtain call for Homeworld 3, it’s quite a good one and I’m hopeful it’s just one more feather in Blackbird’s cap before something else new and exciting.

These impressions are based on a PC Homeworld build that included the new update and DLC packs. Homeworld 3 Update 1.3 and the Fleet DLC packs launch on November 21 on PC.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.