Dawn of War’s grand strategy RTS game was a triumph when it launched back in 2004 and recently remastered to boot, it stands tall as one of the classics of the RTS genre. Empire at War, other remakes of its time stand the test of time and with the recent launch of the definitive edition and the mind-blowing trailer for Dawn of War IV, are ahead of the game. Dawn of War itself began as an introduction to the Blood Ravens Chapter; created specifically for the game, as part of Games Workshop’s mammoth Warhammer 40,000 Universe. There are multiple story modes where you follow their Chapter through a battle to retake a planet besieged by Orks, which dovetails into a sinister Chaos invasion, as it always does in Warhammer 40k games, and escalates from there in bravado fashion.
The characters are simple, well organised, well-structured and well-drawn. The Blood Ravens have compelling flair about them and the base-building is exquisite, blood-soaked base building combat. You expand and conquer and are sucked in instantly from the immediate opening cinematic that is over-the-top, thunderous and glorious – the Ravens fighting the Orks in close combat, tightly packed – it makes no tactical sense and is nothing like what the rest of the game is like but that doesn’t matter, it’s Warhammer 40,000 – it’s pure chaos distilled into a sub-2 minute sequence of an invasion of the Orks that not even Hollywood can capture the sheer carnage. The reveal – the Dreadnought, the Drop Pods in the background – this is 40k at its unrivalled, brilliant best. There’s just nothing else capable of producing the destruction on a sheer scale that this franchise asks – this is a universe, for the initiated, that has already survived every single apocalypse imaginable; been through the dark-dark-darker than dark timeframes, and yet at the same time when that banner goes up in the air, it’s hard not to feel a little bit of hope.
Now – onto the gameplay. The chaos is fantastic and that lets you know what you’re in for when you start playing the game – a Space Marine on the menu screen starts the most iconic dawn of war sequence in the game; and lets you in from the get-go. Tartarus is that planet that we find ourselves thrust into, the understrength human Imperial Guard are attacked and laid to waste by the Blood Axe Ork Clan. It’s up to the Space Marines to save the day – lead by their Captain Gabriel Angelos and their Librarian (not that kind, but one that dabbles in warp magic) – Isador – a man who shoots lightning out of his arms and reads minds.
These superhuman soldiers are all deadly, all powerful and all-killing, perfect to counter the Orks then – who thrive on the need for speed, power and are restless unless there is a fight involved somehow. Chuck in the Eldar; a wizened veteran race – and the Chaos Space Marines, Bearers of the Word, you’re in for a real variety of factions: Eldar operate for stealth, carnage is the watchword of the orks, and the Chaos Marines are the factions of dissent and daemon hood. Later on; the endless swarm of the Imperial Guard are added, and Soulstorm even had the Sisters of Battle featured, a race of warrior-nuns capable of rivalling the Space Marines themselves.
It’s a sandbox of Warhammer’s races that allow everyone to play as their favourite faction. All are searching for a secret in the planet at its heart and as the narrative builds, the once-rigid trust between Isador and Angelos is shattered, with Isador preferring a rasher approach; both characters slowly driven mad by Chaos. It may not be the most subtle but to see an RTS, especially an RTS of this era, attempt something like this is a feat unrivalled, and the fact that this is pre most of the famous 40k novels that did their best to flesh out the setting a bit more into the narrative driven that it is now is admirable, and you can’t help but be engaged. I love how committed the voice actors are all to making the Orks dramatic funny; accents and all, and the triumphant grandeur of Gabriel Angelos – it’s a barnstormer of an ensemble cast. It is cheesy and over the top but remember, this is 40k, the king of over the top cheese.
The game mechanics are fascinating and the unique well refined gameplay is aggressive and encouraging which demands engagement at strategic points that encourage you to capture and gain as much ground early on – by capturing them with flags and paying your respects to your gods. It’s aggressive and demands tactical assessment – for example, the enemy could come up on you and capture you whilst you are holding onto a strategic point forcing you to choose to hold or fight – and you can only build new strongholds on these strategic points, making sure that it’s essential that you capture as many as possible if you want reinforcements closer to the fray. Certain chapters such as the Space Marines can deploy Drop Pods to engage in immediate impact and you can get transport vehicles such as Rhinos and later on Land Raiders to create mobile; forward thinking armies, but the more powerful tools are hidden behind the arsenal of the Space Marines themselves.
Unlike other RTS games infantry units come in squads and can be reinforced by spending XP to build them up as you go along: unit size is key, space marines are smaller squads but more powerful, orks weaker individually but stronger as a collective whole – each faction has its own strengths and weaknesses that Dawn of War just about finds a way to strike a balance. Special weapons can be customised depending on whether you’re engaging tanks or infantry and once you’re in close quarters it’s a tense; bitter firefight that grabs your attention and refuses to let go. You can’t withdraw and moral is key – you can improve moral with Sergeants etc and later games, Commissars – but once a unit breaks, it is BROKEN – and will be easy prey for a skilled enemy. The bodies can be kept as visible on the planet and the gore is HUGE – think Tarantino ramped up to eleven and it’s gloriously over the top, blood splatter damage can be kept on and combined with keeping the bodies staying on the floor it makes for such a unique position. After all: in the grim darkness of the far future – there is only war, and we wouldn’t have it any way.
Range is optional – daemons help and do damage to moral and it’s key to making it work; it makes sense – and the gameplay allows you to be drawn into the long-form narrative that gets you to get to grips the most of the units before being thrust into AI-generated combat or the online mode, depending on your preference. It’s eleven-ish hours long and the storyline is engaging that makes the most out of every Space Marine unit so if that is your favourite faction you are in luck.
Later games such as Winter Assault add the Imperial Guard and make them the key focus of the narrative and Soulstorm’s glorious multi-planetary campaign grand strategy where you can play as every single race in the game (that’s Necrons, Orks, Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Sisters of Battle, Tau) keep any Warhammer tabletop fan happy. The soundtrack is suitably atmospheric and the sound design enables you to make you feel every blow.
The game is impressive and won over new waves of fans just appealing to as much as the pre-established lore. It’s a masterful groundwork to a series that is now packageable with the definitive edition of Winter Assault and Soulstorm for probably 40+ hours of play, if we’re being generous and you want to do the campaigns plus each of the factions in the Soulstorm one and give them a solid runthrough as there is enough variety to make every faction feel different enough; even amongst the Space Marines and their traitor cousins. It’s glorious – even Games Workshop were impressed by just how well it created the tabletop. Dawn of War 2 followed suit and allowed more intimate combat, and I never played Dawn of War 3 but its reception at launch was a disaster – so it will be interesting to see what Dawn of War 4 brings us upon release and how well it holds up to Total War’s ambitious new take on the franchise. Fans are right to be spoiled right now given the good reception and regular updates to Space Marine 2, and the long-awaited Henry Cavill-involved Amazon Prime series. Plus, you know, the actual tabletop – and Black Library’s all new Scouring series.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition is now available to purchase.
Learn more about the game, including how to buy it, on Steam.
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