Dawn Of War 3 Is A Skillful Mashup Of Past Titles
I’ve been a fan of the Warhammer games for a long time. I’ve never really been a fan of the tabletops, but the video games themselves have been excellent for the most part, capturing the massive battles and insane concept of the series quite well. The RTS games in particular have been very popular, with Dawn of War 1 and Dawn of War 2 both having very unique playstyles that both worked well for the series. Dawn of War 3 comes into the mix taking a bit from both worlds, and it does it so well that it feels like the next logical step for the series.
Dawn of War 1 opted for the route of your typical RTS. Base-building was a core mechanic, and by managing your base and not overextending, you could purge the xenos in a fashion that would make the Emperor of Mankind proud. It was a faithful addition to the Warhammer series, and proved to spawn a number of expansions as well.
Dawn of War took things in another direction, opting to focus less on the base building and add a certain degree of RPG elements to it. You could follow a set group of heroes with a supporting cast of various units, making use of what’s known as War Gear to help tweak them out further. It also featured a surprisingly fun horde mode, allowing you to play as various champions from each major faction. Dawn of War 3 opts to innovate by visiting its roots though, creating a title that feels like a successful marriage of both styles of gameplay, and my hands-on time with a demo build at PAX West allowed for some real quality time with the Space Marines faction.
Dawn of War 3 opts to return to the base-building style of Dawn of War 1, while still allowing for the use of hero units that can help turn the tides of a mission or close firefight. In my time with the demo, I had three various Champion-level units I could deploy, all of which served different roles. Solaria The Solar Knight is housed in her Titan unit, which has absolutely massive firepower, capable of huge missile strikes and peppering a 180 degree area in front of her with heavy machine-gun fire. When deploying Solaria on the battlefield, I immediately felt powerful, and that’s a feeling you’d expect of Warhammer’s Titan-class units. They are seriously awesome, and I look forward to making use of the other factions Titan-class units.
Players also get access to a squad of Terminator Marines, heavily armed warriors that make use of teleporters to act as Shock troops. They have alright melee damage, but are insanely tanky and can serve as an excellent distraction. Lastly, we have the captain of the Blood Ravens, Gabriel Angelos. Decked out in the finest War Gear, he can split crowds apart with thunderous blows and serves as a bit of everything, allowing him to disrupt battles, tank a lot of fire, and leave holes in the enemy ranks. They serve as a solid introductory faction, making use of a fine balance of strength in numbers and tactics in order to resolve firefights. There are some new additions to the combat in this case, as well though.
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“When deploying Solaria on the battlefield, I immediately felt powerful, and that’s a feeling you’d expect of Warhammer’s Titan-class units.”
The first new ability that players will have access to is Orbital Bombardment. In the case of Space Marines, it’s a massive laser they can use to cleave through a fortification, and I used this to great effect in the demo. By group my tanky melee units within cover, I was able to draw a massive amount of fire, wherein I could pepper the enemy with salvo after salvo of ranged fire, making very short work of the Eldar. I felt like I wasn’t directly in the fray, but with my tactics being used, I was able to help the Space Marines progress and take down a few objectives as well in the demo. As I was advancing on the main gate however, in an almost fitting fashion, I ran into the Eldar’s titan, who proceeded to chew through my ranks along with a very heavy Eldar foritifcation of various land units. The sheer force of the surprise attack left my guard exposed, and I was unable to continue in the mission. The factions essentially boil down to Orkz having strength in numbers, the Marines being able to make use of both numbers and tech, and the Eldar being generally tankier, but a bit pricier to produce and relying on guerilla tactics. They all present unique playstyles that players will get to try out in the campaign which will have players swapping roles throughout the story.
The new additions, such as the various hero units, variety in the three factions, and the diversity of units allowed me to approach situations in various ways, and with the new feature known as Drop Pods, I could queue up units on the fly to be dropped into the fray, similar to the Force Commander’s ability in Dawn of War 2. There’s an absolute bevy of information in this title that I am unable to provide more info upon, as there is still plenty that needs to be revealed, but Dawn of War 3’s mix of RTS and unique hero units helps the combat feel hectic, fresh, and hellaciously fun. Keep it locked, fellow COGs. We’ll have all the good stuff in the coming months until the game drops in 2017.
