The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, Star Wars and Star Trek. Certain franchises feel like they were always meant to transit beyond the medium they began their existence in and do wonders in others. In the humble opinion of this critic, there’s no universe better for that than Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000. Having said that, while the possibilities are almost endless, moving from a tabletop with plastic figures to any other form of entertainment is no easy task, something that, in the case of video games, has been proven time and time again by mediocre or straight-up bad releases. Quite possibly influenced by the extremely popular WarCraft III, Relic Entertainment’s RTS Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War was one of the first to not only create a fun title, but understand its source material. This retrospective look focuses on the complete Anniversary Edition and checks if it’s worth a try after two whole decades.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War follows the Blood Ravens, a chapter of the Space Marines who, under the command of legendary captain Gabriel Angelos, embark on a campaign to rid the planet of Tartarus from the green taint of the Ork. It’s soon made clear that there’s more at stake here, as the Imperium of Man’s BFF, Chaos, seems to be the one pulling the strings on this world with the purpose of unearthing something of immense value to it. Now, this won’t exactly win any awards for its plot. It’s a typical Warhammer 40K tale of Space Marines and Imperial Guards trying to win against all odds and looking cool while at it. And being canonically stupid. Oh, the Imperium of Mankind can be so stupid. Distrustful of everyone around them, apart from those who are clearly under the influence of demonic forces.
Wait, though. What exactly are Space Marines and who is this Emperor they keep mentioning? What exactly are the Eldar, and how on Holy Terra can brutish greenskins wielding ramshackle tech stand toe-to-toe with an army of highly trained super soldiers? Warrior nuns? Egyptian-flavoured Terminators? Sadistic elves? This doesn’t explain anything to newcomers, and fortunately it’s simple enough that it doesn’t really need to. That said, it’s undoubtedly something that was made with fans in mind. Heroes utter pleasantly silly and at the same time badass phrases as if in a Shakespearean play, while evil sorcerers laugh maniacally in a way that it’s not hard to imagine them twirling a laughably big moustache. The voice actors aren’t concerned with realism. Having clearly understood the assignment, they’ve approached this as a Saturday morning cartoon. Just one that’s grimdark.
While solid in terms of plot and presentation, from the first scene to the last there’s plenty of room for improvement, and putting this side to side with WarCraft III (where a far better team of artists and writers worked on it) makes it easy to see how much better this could be if only. In the end, this is just an excuse to pit digitised versions of the tabletop’s armies against other digitised versions of the tabletop’s armies, and in that regard, this does a fine job of recreating the epic combat feel of the W40K universe. Could the visuals be better? Sure, but it’s still immensely satisfying watching Imperial drop-pods hitting the surface of the planet, a whole battalion showering an imposing Bloodthirster with bolter bullets and artillery fire, or observing a glorious Dreadnought grabbing an Ork, lifting it up into the air and splatting it to the ground. Dawn of War is a gift to the fandom.
An important element of the gameplay is that this approaches the battlefield in a different way than usual. Instead of dealing with a complex economy of numerous kinds of resources, focusing on building defensive fortifications, or fusing the whole thing with RPG mechanics, this plays almost like an action game, simply by being built around constant forward momentum. The main resource, Requisition, is gathered by strategic points that need to be captured, upgraded, and of course defended from the clatches of the opposing team. In essence, from the moment a match begins, players must quickly start taking strategic points faster than their enemy, while also making sure to never stop moving. The result is a fast-paced experience where there’s never a dull moment, as your squads are either capturing locations or throwing wave after wave of units at their heretical foes.
Again, like WarCraft III, Dawn of War has shifted the focus from big groups of troops to controlling a small party of units. That said, unlike Blizzard’s fantasy RTS, here the basic units are actually squads. Initially a small team of three soldiers, their number can increase with the simple push of a button, or by attaching specialised units to the squad to enhance its overall effectiveness, while also adding unique abilities. In terms of content this is kind of light, to be honest, as each faction could do with a little more units or upgrade options, but the factions themselves are decently varied and the gameplay is so darn fun that it’s easy to forgive the developer for not adding more ingredients to its tasty, tasty dish.
If wondering what the deal is with the Anniversary Edition, well, it’s not what such packages usually are. Instead of having all released expansions in one game, it’s basically one purchase that gives you all four separate pieces of software. To play the original campaign, then, Dawn of War has to boot up, and if you want to try the Imperial Army’s storyline you’ll need to shut Dawn of War down and play the separate Winter Assault expansion. The same applies if wanting to check out the Dark Crusade or the fourth addition in line, Soulstorm. Oh, and since there’s no unifying title here, to enjoy Skirmish battles (solo or multiplayer) with every single faction that has been added after the original, the only way to do so is to turn on Soulstorm…
In terms of modes, Winter Assault adds one more typical campaign like the one in the base game. Dark Crusade and Soulstorm, on the other hand, only feature a Risk-like war map, where simple matches against the AI must be fought to capture territory, which in turn produces Requisition that can be used to strengthen each locale. Fun and all, but can get a bit boring too soon. Content-wise, the races that are included here are the Space Marines, the Orks, the Eldar and the Chaos Marines, with the expansions adding Imperial Guards, Tau, Necrons (woo!), the Dark Eldar (boo!) and the Adepta Sororitas/Sisters of Battle (reluctant woo!). Fans of the franchise will have a blast with the way their favourite killing machines look and play, and with the unique elements of each race, but has there been any rebalancing for the Anniversary Edition?
This is a great RTS, plus one of the best titles that uses the W40K universe. It has some flaws, its age partly being the thing to blame for many of them, but generally it’s an easy pick for genre fans. On the other hand, the Anniversary Edition is a bit disappointing, as it offers each individual instalment almost as it was when it first hit the shelves. A bug fix here and a patch there aren’t really what most would expect from the latest re-release of an age-old product. To be more specific, there has been no major rebalancing, widescreen support is still unavailable for Dawn of War and Winter Assault, the camera is still way too close to what’s on screen, and there’s still no way to rebind controls – unacceptable for such a fast-paced strategy. Thank the Omnissiah for the existence of a great modding community…
