ANNOUNCED: Dawn Of War 3

OH MY GOODNESS IT’S HAPPENING. 12 years after the release of the first Dawn of War and 5 years after the latest iteration of the series, Retribution, Relic Entertainment and Sega have finally announced something that many Warhammer 40K players and real time strategy players around the world have been waiting for:

DAWN OF WAR 3

Many thought that the franchise had died along with THQ‘s bankruptcy. Despite Relic’s continued support for Retribution and Sega picking up the license, both companies have remained incredibly silent about the future of the Dawn of War series. Well, they have broken that silence in quite a sublime fashion. Check out the reveal trailer and let me know what you think!

Epic, right? It looks like we’re going to see some action between the Blood Ravens, the Eldar, and the Orks on an undisclosed world somewhere in the 41st Millennium! Not a lot of details exist right now, but in an article by Tom Senior over at PCgamer, he reports that Relic plans on making DoW 3 their biggest RTS yet by scrapping the small unit tactics present in DoW2 and bringing the series back to its roots with the first Dawn of War and its larger battles. According to Mr. Senior, one of the biggest points Relic wants to make with their newest game is that they want to convey the feeling of playing the tabletop version of Warhammer 40K except through a videogame.

“…some close detail has been sacrificed so Dawn of War 3 can shine in large-scale encounters, and Relic’s artists have taken more inspiration from the colourful paint jobs of the tabletop game.”

And They Shall Know No Fear

 

Super Units

Just like in the tabletop version of Warhammer 40K, players have the option to bring Super Units (Lords of War) which dominate the battlefield and provide a planet-shaking punch to any army. The Imperial Knight looks like the Space Marine’s Super Unit and while Relic has yet to reveal the Eldar and Ork Super Units, the reveal trailer showed several gracefully destructive Wraithknights and we can reasonably assume that the Eldar will be able to incorporate these monstrosities into their forces. As for the Orks, who knows! If I could guess (sticking with the walker theme), we’ll probably see the Ork’s premiere ramshackle Stompa. I can’t wait!

The Wraithknight. Lithe. Graceful. Utterly deadly.

 

Multiplayer

Let’s face it, any Dawn of War game prides itself on a fun and dynamic multiplayer. With the singleplayer campaign, you will be able to select and level up special Elite and Super Units. For the multiplayer, however, it’s rumored that Relic plans on having a hero selection phase much like DOTA or many other MOBA games though the company has yet to disclose any exact details on this process. They have mentioned that players will still have the opportunity to bring along certain Elite and Super Units, but it remains to be seen if these will level up across multiplayer games like they do in singleplayer.

It looks like it’s time to play the waiting game, everyone! I’ll provide updates as I get them.

Happy gaming and Victorus aut Mortis!

-Valiant