Releasing on PC in February 2024, Homeworld 3 is a space combat RTS in which players command their fleet of starships in aerial dogfights across diverse battlefields.

While the game will contain the traditional singleplayer campaign that fans of the series are familiar with, Homeworld 3 will also include a brand new mode called War Games. The mode introduces randomized gameplay elements similar to what you’d find in popular roguelikes like Hades, and ties it together with a need for cooperation. I got to go hands-on with War Games at a recent preview event and came away genuinely impressed at how well the mode integrates roguelike elements and co-op into the flow of a real-time strategy title.

War Games sees up to three players squad up and set out to complete a trio of back-to-back missions. The goal is to return safely to Hiigaran space without running out of resources or losing your fleet to enemy units. A single death and the run ends, sending your squad back to the start.

Each War Games run in my demo played out a little differently, but the first mission of each involved some variation on a traditional combat encounter. In one run, the first objective had us engage enemy fighters in order to provide cover for friendly transport ships and get them through a battlefield unharmed. Another involved destroying enemy frigates before they could reach their target location and jump to another system.

Both required mobilizing our units and engaging enemy targets as quickly as possible, though we had plenty of time for initial resource mining and fleet construction. Units built in one mission that are not destroyed persist into future missions, so the more initial preparation you can do before initiating contact with enemy starships, the better prepared you’ll be for later missions with shorter warm-up periods.

The second mission of the run involved taking control of guarded bases, rescuing civilians, and keeping control of those bases—all while keeping resource-gathering ships safe from enemy attack and maintaining a healthy fleet. There was less prep time before enemy units started advancing, so a lot more consideration needed to be put into ensuring existing units were kept healthy, and that production of new units remained steady even with our attention on combat.

Regardless of mission type, completing your marked objectives doesn’t automatically end your quest. Once all objectives are complete, you have the option to either jump to your next mission or stick around longer and collect more resources, acquire additional gameplay buffs, and generate more units. It’s a balancing act, though. Stick around, and enemies will continue to appear in waves, forcing you to weigh the possibility of additional resources against escalating attacks from strong enemy units.

Add onto this the ability to unlock randomized upgrades and bonuses for your ships during runs—or even unlock different starting fleets—and War Games does a really good job of combining that “one more run” roguelike energy with a grand tactical twist.

And while roguelike modes in games are usually very luck-focused, Homeworld 3 doesn’t use randomization to determine whether projectiles collide with enemy units, instead using physics simulations to plot trajectories. This provides a degree of consistency and predictability that really helps victory in War Games feel earned, rather than random.

There’s a lot of mystery still surrounding Homeworld 3’s main story-driven campaign, but the roguelike-inspired War Games mode has us really excited. There’s a lot of replay potential, and runs seem short enough that it’s not going to be a huge time commitment to get a couple of friends together and spend a few hours trying to fight your way out of a hostile corner of space.

You can find Homeworld 3 on the Epic Games Store.