Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3

RTS specialists Relic Entertainment are back with the third instalment in the Dawn of War series. It's a long-running Warhammer 40,000 offshoot about Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, Chaos and others duking it out in an infinite war originally created by Games Workshop. There are no good guys here, which is probably part of the charm. Even the Space Marines, who are often portrayed as heroes, are just a power armour-clad extension of the immortal Emperor, feeding himself with the psyche of a thousand (more-or-less) volunteers. The setting constantly goes way beyond ludicrously epic, and it's a good thing that it does.

Games Workshop has turned 180 degrees in the last few years when it comes to its licensing agreements. Ten years ago the current avalanche of mobile Warhammer games would have been impossible. Though the times they are a'changing, and Relic didn't have to labour after the crown jewel license of 40K as much as they did before.

Dawn of War 3 is still in the hands of Relic Entertainment and follows up the seven-year-old Dawn of War 2. We went to see the second iteration in Vancouver what feels like ages ago. But thanks to mod support, new DLC, and other content, even the original 2004 game still has a core audience. The first game was very much a product of its time with base-building and tactics, but the second took a more postmodern direction with hero units, forgoing the slower build-up altogether.

The campaign in DoW3 is divided for three different races. The first (and which was shown to us) was the Space Marine chapter Blood Ravens with their mysterious past. So no Ultramarines, for once. The demo has their chapter leader Gabriel Angelos go through a tutorial-type scenario showing basic movement, special skills and so forth, all against hapless Eldar opposition. The units were divided into three categories. Normal grunts handle one thing well, like busting up tanks (Devastator marines with laser/LAS cannons) or attacking entrenched enemies (Assault Marines with jump jets and chainswords).

Hero units such as our perpetually grumpy Gabriel Angelos have special skills to level lesser units with ease. Gabriel could bring down his massive Warhammer with a powered leap to a location with his God-splitter attack and so on and so forth. One rather curious (and not entirely positive) decision Relic made was to omit the cover system from previous games. In Dawn of War 2, for example, units could take cover in artillery-shelled holes, behind walls and rocks. In DoW3, cover comes in the form of a bubble-like force field you garrison with units. It's definitely clearer but at the same time duller and less organic than the old system.

Super units are the biggest and baddest of the bunch. We saw the Blood Raven Imperial Knight Solana drop down from the sky in all her glory. The war mech is bristling with weaponry that can be used to level a cone-shaped area in front of her, or drop rockets from the sky to several locations in succession. It's too early to tell what the final unit balance will be, but everything looks rather epic. A giant space-laser ended the demo in an appropriate fashion by levelling the final Eldar base. The first level was set on an ice planet with lava-filled crevices, but the final game will have several more varied locations. Many are tied directly into the campaign story, so no further info was provided at this point on where we'd be fighting next.

We interviewed the executive producer, Stephen MacDonald, discussing the progress of Dawn of War 3's development. The sequel has been a long time coming, but Relic has been continually impressed on the dedication of their fans to the two previous games. The modernisation had to be done just right, so the development team had to do some back and forth. Hero units were considered a priority as well as bringing back the fan-requested base-building to accommodate the larger scale of battles. The latter also provides more strategic options in addition to the existing tactical ones.

The demo showed us one core mechanic Space Marines have that separate them from other races. Drop pods can be used to both train units on the fly but also disrupt enemy formations by slamming onto them from the sky with new units inside. Every race will have a core mechanic like this to make them feel unique in comparison to others.

The visuals this time weren't just about the looks. As the battles grew bigger, the need for accessibility and clarity rose. The development team worked hard to strike a balance between epic action and readability for special skills and effects. MacDonald loves the end result and said the development team was proud of what came of it. They also wanted to emphasise the Space Marine unit doctrine of "metal against rock" in the game visuals as well.

Real-time strategies have succumbed to the sidelines in recent years. The few exceptions haven't been able to pierce through the first-person shooters and arena battlers that dominate the multiplayer scene. Relic sees an opportunity here to bring back the genre in a big way. MOBA-type arena brawlers have demonstrated the basic mechanics of top-down click-based gameplay to a new audience, some of which might enjoy the depth a traditional RTS brings to the table.

Dawn of War 3 seems to aim for that "best of both worlds" execution with base-building from the first and hero units from the second. The visuals are revamped in an interesting manner. The philosophy isn't just "bigger and badder", but to bring limited order to the chaos of a battlefield. This would hopefully help the player to make the right calls while the battle rages on. The end-result might not be the jaw-dropper some people are expecting, but we're eagerly waiting for an opportunity to get to play it ourselves. Only then we'll see if the new direction pays off. It's going to be a long wait till 2017 for PC players, but if the Emperor forbids, it'll be worth it.