Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo is bringing its previous game, Honkai Impact 3rd, to Steam this month.
That's according to Honkai Impact 3rd's newly minted Steam page, which lists October 2021 as its planned release date. MiHoYo announced the Steam version of the game, which was originally released on iOS and Android back in 2016, via its official Twitter, teasing a "mystery present" for players who give it a try.
Somewhat surprisingly, MiHoYo also confirmed that the Steam version of Honkai Impact 3rd will not support cross-play with the existing mobile version. In other words, if you already play it, you won't be able to bring your account to Steam. With Honkai Impact 3rd already playable on PC via mobile emulators like BlueStacks, the Steam version will likely be more popular among new players. If nothing else, it ought to simplify the process of playing the game on PC, and hopefully yield better performance too.
Honkai Impact 3rd is the spiritual successor to Honkai Academy 2. Compared to Genshin Impact, the game MiHoYo is now best known for, it's much flashier and over-the-top. The biggest difference compared to Genshin Impact is that it's not an open-world game. Instead, Honkai Impact 3rd challenges players to clear levels upon levels of hordes and bosses as they command powerful warriors called Valkyries.
As an older and more established gacha game, Honkai Impact 3rd already has a mountain of characters, currencies, and content to dig into, so it may be overwhelming to new players whose first gacha experience was with Genshin Impact. It's built and maintained a loyal community for a reason, though, plus it's free, so whether you're looking for a new action RPG or you just like MiHoYo's style, it's worth a play. If nothing else, everyone and their dog should watch the incredible Honkai animated shorts MiHoYo has put out over the years.
