Relic has cherry picked the best parts of the first two games, which should make the third Dawn of War the best of the bunch, right?
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Relic and Dawn of War are good examples of how much variation a game genre such as real-time strategy (or RTS) can provide. The same studio has now produced three games with the same dark futuristic setting of Warhammer 40K, and none of them is quite like the others.
It ain’t easy being a grunt in the 40K world. Life expectancy is measured in minutes or seconds the moment you’re churned out of your respective production centre, and hazards are numerous. In Dawn of War 3, the battleground is set on the remote world of Cyprus Ultima, where three factions are fighting for control. Skirmishes are soon replaced with something far greater and sinister, though, as the lost planet Acheron suddenly appears with all its secrets ready for plunder.
The campaign, which lasts around 15 hours, constantly switches between the three factions, so this means you’ve always got an up-to-date understanding of the same grand campaign from all perspectives. This also means that it’s a bit more challenging, as you only get to play a single mission with one army at a time before getting swept away to control something quite different. Blood Ravens, lead by the illustrious and grumpy Gabriel Angelos, are the most straightforward army of the lot. Space Marines can take a beating, dish it back in spades, and use conventional weapons and special abilities such as grenades or rocket barrages. They’re definitely the easiest to get to grips with, and so will probably be the favourite of many a player, at least in the beginning.
Orks are lead by the war boss Gorgutz, and his lot resemble the Space Marines at times, but with weapon and skill designs conjured up by a mad scientist instead of a team of weapon specialists in a lab. Ork weapons deal huge damage, but are erratic and constantly either falling apart or exploding. The faction’s special trait is the scavenging and looting of scrap, and scrap is either generated periodically by their towers or from destroyed vehicles and buildings. When collected by a squad or vehicle, scrap boosts their stats and unlocks their unique ability. Scrap can also be scavenged to create a new Ork unit out of it, and the bigger the scrap, the bigger the unit. To fully exploit the trait, the player must be ready to micromanage the troops a bit more, but can, in turn, rebuild much faster after a big group fight.
The third party involved are the Eldar, with Warseer Macha as their leader. Eldar are the most vulnerable of the bunch, but can offset this with their regenerative shields and pure speed. The shields (called Battle Focus in the game) can withstand a bit of a beating, after which the rest of the damage goes straight to health. These two traits make Eldar the optimal hit-and-run army, especially with their hover tanks and bikes. During the campaign and especially in the multiplayer, they require the most micromanagement, since they can’t hold the line the way Space Marines or Orks can.
Dawn of War 3 plays a bit like an amalgamation of the previous two iterations. It’s got the streamlined base-building from the original, with half-a-dozen structures per side to build and very little incentive to go for multiple barracks, for example. The slow intake of requisition and power points from the captured resource nodes is usually the limiting factor when building an army, not the speed in which the units are manufactured. From Dawn of War 2, this game takes the customisable hero units and slightly downgrades them into less fleshed-out elite units, some of which have a whole backstory (like factions leaders) while others are “just” very powerful versions of existing troops like Dreadnoughts.
Elites can be called into the fray after accumulating enough elite points, and vary wildly in terms of their skillsets. Cheap early game units like Ork Kommandos are excellent in capturing requisition points right from the start, while mid-tier assets can start pushing the frontline. Late-game mega units are bigger than ever with Gorkanaut, Eldar Wraithlord and Imperial Knights towering over the other, already impressive elites. They’re not invulnerable though, so calling one in is unlikely to turn the tide of war in your favour if the enemy is already knocking down your base. They can, however, provide an edge to break the gridlock in an evenly-matched contest.
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Depending on what you’re looking for from an RTS, Dawn of War 3 offers something for both single and multiplayer. The lengthy campaign does the slow trickle of new troop types and mechanics perfectly in terms of teaching you the ropes and how to deal with various units and elites. Normal difficulty can be challenging at times especially in the beginning, though, when the controls and the metagame are still a bit hazy, but once you’re accustomed to the pacing, various skills and whatnot, it’s fairly easy to beat a level without saving and loading, although the end-level fights can get ugly real fast if you’re not ready for them. Since almost every single unit has an activated ability at their disposal, fast reaction times and control are most appreciated here too, and a single good stun grenade throw can make or break a big fight, allowing wounded soldiers to back off to safety and so forth.
The multiplayer has also changed into something… interesting. At this moment, there’s no simple “build a base, destroy opponent” game mode. Instead, Dawn of War 3 uses an objective-based mode where both players must first destroy their opponent’s shield generator, then a massive turret, and finally the base core to win. In practice, this results in two things: rushing isn’t really a thing, and fights are often concentrated to certain areas. Since you can’t just build a quick force to attack the enemy base after five minutes, the early game is comprised of small skirmishes around central map capture points. Here “stealth areas” like steam vents and heavy cover are more important since the units are few and their firepower is about even. From scouting and harassment, the game transitions into the mid-game with greater requisition and power generation, bigger units, and the first proper fights with armies led by elite units. It’s usually at this point where the victory is claimed, and if you’re able to cap more resource points, take down the shield generator, and possibly the turret, you’ve got the enemy on the ropes.
It’s too early to tell how the game balance between races ends up, but space marines seem to have an edge, at least during the early stages when people are still learning. And if you’re wondering about customisation options, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s an Army Painter that you can use to found your own neon-pink chapter. Army customisation is still a factor with unlockable elite units and doctrines, as well as grand special skills – both active and passive – which are applicable to certain unit types. Doctrines are a great tool to separate your Orks from others, by specialising in Big Trakks with Supa Cannons instead of Nobz, for example.
There are a couple of minor flaws worth noting. There’s only a couple of multiplayer maps at the moment, with three 1v1 maps, two 2v2 maps, and three 3v3 maps. The bigger issue is the army selection, though. While they’re admittedly different to play with, Space Marines, Orks, and Eldar equal to vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavours in the Neapolitan ice cream box. Having one slightly more left-field race would have raised the game one more notch. We’re almost certainly going to see Chaos Marines, Tyranids, Tau and the like in the near future, but it would have been nice to see one of them in the base game, and while the big battles are impressive to behold, the level of detail is about the same (and in some cases even a bit downgraded) as it was in Dawn of War 2. Granted, DoW2 concentrates on smaller scenarios with fewer units on the battlefield, but it’s from 2009 and still looks great.
All in all, Dawn of War 3 is the game Warhammer 40K fans have been looking for. With a deluge of less-than-stellar games set in the universe, this one gives you the grim and dark future with larger-than-life characters and events that so many others have failed to deliver. The game plays great and offers a robust campaign and solid multiplayer at launch, and no doubt its release will be followed by a slew of additional content drops in the months ahead. It doesn’t take huge risks, but it delivers on its promises in spades.
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Keyword: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3