10 Reasons to be excited about Dawn of War III

"Knowledge is power, guard it well"- Gabriel Angelos, Chapter Master of the Blood

Dawn of War III is the next sequel in the successful line of RTS’s developed by Relic. Set in the expansive Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Dawn of War series helped define what the modern real time strategy game is by moving strategy games away from mass attack and simple resource management to gameplay that relies more on tactics like use of cover and fire and maneuver. Dawn of War III looks to be a return to form for Relic after Dawn of War II’s departure from base building and resource gathering. Load your bolter and prepare to purge the Xenos; here are the top ten reasons to be excited about Dawn of War III.

Dawn of War III Announcement Trailer

1. Knight Titans and Wraithknights make their Video Game debut.

In tabletop terms, he rolled a six

In the tabletop wargame, the Titans are massive war machines bristling with weapons, armor and shields. Until now they had been exclusive to the tabletop and fan-made mods, but now they will make their digital debut in Dawn of War III. These super heavy robots will be late tier units that will devastate your enemies one Gatling cannon burst or wraithcannon shot at a time.

2. An interwoven campaign between the Space Marines, Orks and Eldar.

In previous Dawn of War games the storyline had more or less been limited to what the Space Marines were doing or divided into separate non-canon alternate storylines. This time around Relic has said the campaign will jump between the three announced races: The Blood Ravens chapter of Space Marines, war-obsessed Orks and the ancient and mysterious Eldar.

And death will come for them all.

3. A return to base building from the first game

Dawn of War II (with the exception of multiplayer) completely removed base building from its mechanics to the point where it was more of an action RPG than a real time strategy game. Dawn of War III looks to go back to its roots by placing an emphasis on building and defending bases in both single- and multiplayer games.

And defend it you must

4. Elite units to tip the balance of power a la DoW II

DoW III gameplay reveal

Dawn of War III is primarily focusing on the grand scale of warfare that Warhammer 40,000 is so well known for. Having said that, Relic is including elite units that are designed to do specific jobs better than the rank and file troops that players have at their disposal. Some of the announced elite units are Terminators, Wraithguard and character units. Speaking of Characters…

5. The return of a playable Gabriel Angelos

In the first Dawn of War game, Gabriel Angelos was the Captain who represented the player in game and was present in every mission. He was the quintessential badass: taking on Ork warbosses, Chaos Demons and the Inquisition…

...and you better believe he expected this inquisition.

In Dawn of War II, the player got to control Gabriel Angelos for one mission… at the very end of the game. Now, at long last, players will get to wield his giant Demonhammer once again and if the early gameplay is anything to go by, the Blood Ravens Chapter Master will be in a leading role. For the Emperor!

6. A retooled cover system

Relic strategy games have always been notable for the importance they place on cover. Something I, as a former infantryman, hold near and dear to my heart; no good soldier is going to stand in the open while he’s shot at. In Dawn of War III, cover now takes the form of shielded bunkers that make the units in them all but bullet proof requiring players to utilize melee units to dig them out, a far cry from the near uselessness of the dedicated assault units in previous Dawn of War games. On that note, Dawn of War III will feature…

7. Visceral Combat (A returning standard)

Dawn of War III Gameplay Walkthrough

Chainswords cutting into flesh, high density laser beams vaporizing everything in front of them, gibs and blood exploding in every direction. Dawn of War III will certainly be a violent game and that’s OK. While early footage has shown primarily basic combat animations, it has already proven to be chocked full of destruction on a scale players have come to expect from a Dawn of War game. We can only expect it to get more awesomely gruesome as the release date gets closer.

8. The massive scale of battles

Dawn of War III is all about the big battles. Massive armies of near indestructible Space Marines, burly Orks and lightning quick Eldar will wage war on a grand scale while the aforementioned elite units and armored vehicles of the factions you play disintegrate and gib anything that gets too close to them. In the Grim future, there is only war and it is glorious.

DoW III is aiming for a balanced mix of micro- and macromanagement in battle

9. Relic returning to its RTS roots

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Relic created the modern real time strategy game when it released Dawn of War. No game before it had so drastically changed the way we play RTS’s like DoW did. Dawn of War II was an even bigger departure from what they had started with the first game and now we see that Dawn of War III is going back to those roots with all the improvements and time tested features that Relic has refined through, not just Dawn of War but Company of Heroes as well. If that’s not enough to get you excited, Relic has promised an increased amount of support for multiplayer. That means once you finish the campaign, in true Warhammer 40,000 fashion, the battle never has to end.

10. It's a new Warhammer game

Relic has promised variants for the super heavy units, like the Knight Titan, that will fit gamer’s different playstyles

Before the Dawn of War games, Warhammer games made in the digital realm had never stood up quite as well as the tabletop game ever could. Relic changed that with a game that was chock full of the details that fans of the original miniature game desired. Since then we have had more successful 40k (as the fans call it) games than ever before. Dawn of War III is setting itself up to be another one of those successes. It is a 40k game with the look and feel of the tabletop, powerful characters, towering battle machines, psychic powers and devastating special abilities. Everything a 40k or RTS fan could hope for.

Dawn of War III has a release date of 2017, which is vague enough to tell us players that Relic is taking their time to make this game a real gem. Constant updates to their website, developers blogs and Q&A’s are showing the fans that Relic wants the community involved and that shoould excite everyone. With the scale, combat and backdrop of the Warhammer 40,000 universe; Dawn of War III has all the pieces to make it one to look out for when it releases sometime next year.

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