The Hardware: Shipbreakers debut gameplay trailer has a style that will be very familiar to fans of the classic RTS Homeworld.
The lineage of Hardware: Shipbreakers will be immediately obvious to anyone who’s played Relic’s brilliant space opera Homeworld. The similarities are blatant and undeniable, from the weaving trails of exhaust and dust to the pulsing, percussive soundtrack and even the clipped radio chatter. Even the logos are virtually identical; if I didn’t know better, there’d be almost no doubt in my mind that this is Homeworld 3, especially since this trailer could very well be about the discovery of the great ship in the desert that launched the original quest for Hiigara.
Alas, it’s not to be. While Hardware: Shipbreakers boasts a similar visual style, it will be a free-to-play multiplayer RTS set on the graveyard of LM-27, a world littered with wrecked spaceships. Players will struggle to survive the harsh conditions of the planet while battling one another for the wealth of salvage.
Hardware: Shipbreakers is more style than substance at this point, but a beta test is on the way that will reveal to participants whether the developers at Blackbird Interactive have been able to capture the “feeling” of Homeworld as effectively as it’s nailed down the look. If you’re curious, you can sign up here; if you’re more than curious and want to guarantee yourself a seat at the table, you can pre-purchase the game here.
The Hardware: Shipbreakers closed beta is scheduled to begin sometime in the final quarter of 2013.
