Dawn of War III
It’s been seven years since the last core Dawn of War release: a game whose campaign gameplay felt radically different from its predecessor. Dawn of War III is poised to splice the RTS logic of Dawn of War with the hero-centric gameplay of Dawn of War II.
Relic Entertainment’s original Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War was, for the most part, a traditional RTS, complete with the usual trappings: base building, economic considerations, and managing your army. For the sequel, Relic took a step away from the RTS balancing of macro (economy/base building) and micro (controlling squads and individual units) considerations and forged a campaign that was more Diablo than Dawn of War, ditching big picture stuff in favour of a smallscale, exclusive solo (or co-op) experience.
For Dawn of War III, Relic hasn’t gone back to the drawing board as much as it’s thrown the first two games into a blender. From what I’ve played of it and discussed with game director Philippe Boulle, Dawn of War III is very much a marriage of the first two games which, for better or for worse, lets players run rampant with base building and economic management alongside the managing of larger-than-ever armies led by powerful heroes and supported by Elite units that have the potential to solidify or turn the tide of battle.
WARRING CHOICES
Merging two disparate campaign gameplay styles together is an interesting concept, but it’s not necessarily one that works by simply splicing them together. “Our main priority was to make a really fun game moving forward, so nothing came forward unexamined,” said Boulle. “We liked the larger armies from Dawn of War. We liked some of the fun heroes from Dawn of War 2. Where the fresh injection came, really, was finding ways to marry those two things. At first, it was very experimental.
“We took our time figuring that out, but I think the result speaks for itself. We’ve got a really fun game going where you can play it hero-centred, with your line units serving as a shield. Or you can focus a lot on the line units and your heroes are just other units that are especially powerful, and it really depends how you want to play it. Both are effective strategies.”
Alternatively, you can play ineffectively, as I did, moving around a giant ‘blob’ army, microing occasionally, but mostly relying on the relatively high hitpoints of Space Marine squads and individual units to soak up damage while figuring out the intricacies Elite and Hero units. For my demo on the ice planet of Acheron, my army was led by Gabriel Angelos:
a melee-focused hero whose God-Splitter war hammer made short, squishy work of many a squad of Eldar.
His manually activated Retribution ability functions as both shield and projectile deflector, which makes him an incredibly powerful first-wave attacker, while his targeted God-Splitter ability makes him leap at a position, bowling over and stunning enemies. With a squad of Tactical Marines running close to Angelo, their united assault can quickly turn a defensive position into red mist and body parts.
MORTAL COMBAT
Obviously, RTS blob tactics aren’t the best way to play Dawn of War. Dawn of War III isn’t like riding a bike, though. While it’s similar to its two predecessors, with certain mechanics and controls being particularly familiar, Dawn of War III still has a steep learning curve. To start, there are faction strengths and weaknesses to consider. Then there’s the tried and proven rock-paper-scissors RTS logic at play between warring units, complicated further by heroic abilities on separate cooldowns. Along with all that, you’ve got powerful unlocks tied to base progression, as well as unit upgrades.
Thankfully, economic management is incredibly straightforward. Resource Points are the solitary income stream for factions, that provide both Requisition and Power. There’s a third ‘resource’, Elite Points, which trickle in over time and allow players to unlock powerful Elite units. Despite the combination
of these initially tricky mechanics, it doesn’t take long to learn (or relearn) the ropes.
“I think it’s added depth; I don’t think it’s added complexity,” said Boulle. “By that, I mean that it has given lots of avenues to explore, but it hasn’t presented you with a thousand options right at moment one. That’s the big challenge with RTSs. Certainly, for newcomers to the genre – or people who haven’t played an RTS in five years, or haven’t played Dawn of War in five years – focusing on the heroes is an easier entry point. It’s sort of like, those are the entry-point characters in a fighting game where they have some easier moves that get you through the first few rounds, but then you start building on, working in the depth, and that’s where the line unit and the armies come in. Then you add onto that your ability to choose which heroes to bring in. As a player, you have a nice ramp, which really helps.”
TOWERING HEROES
Later in my demo, I earned enough Elite Points to call in a three-man squad of Assault Terminators. This trio of death-bringers plays like a squishier version of heroic leader Gabriel Angelos. I foolishly teleport-spawned them into the fog of war, behind enemy lines, and they materialised in front of three angry Eldar squads protecting a Resource Point. The aptly named Terminators deal a whopping 490 explosive damage, but are exclusively melee units, which meant I had to take some hits while closing the gap.
Once closed, though, the Hammer Slam ability stuns and slows enemies captured in the radius of its effect. Eldar like to teleport in reinforcements, though, which makes them a tricky foe, particularly when you’re over reliant on melee squads. I had to teleport my solitary Assault Terminator to safety to avoid a squad wipe, before sending in the bulk of my army led by a literal big gun Imperial Knight.
For the Space Marines, Lady Solaria pilots her Imperial Knight Drakaina, whose slow movement speed, limited manoeuvrability, and tendency to overheat is more than offset by her Titan-class weaponry. Drakaina’s twin cannons make short work of everything, and that’s before adding in the well-timed use of her two manually activated abilities. Gatling Barrage mulches every enemy thing caught in a 90-degree arc in front of the Imperial Knight, while Ironstorm Missiles bombards up to six chosen locations with explosive results. The Imperial Knight is the Super Unit for the Space Marine faction, but fans of the other two Dawn of War III factions can expect Wraithwrights for the Eldar, and Grokanauts for the Orks.
Gatling Barrage mulches every enemy thing caught in a 90-degree arc in front of the Imperial Knight
VISUAL CASUALTIES
It’s easy to distinguish these Super Units from the smaller ones on the battlefield, but with larger armies, units can get lost amid the visual noise. “We’re obviously emulating the tabletop in terms of the look of the units,” said Boulle. “That’s part of the property. A lot of different Space Marines with different game functions tend to wear very similar armour, so that can mean it takes away from some of the traditional ways that you would distinguish units [in an RTS].
“We can’t have Space Marines in radically different-coloured armour, for example. That means we lean more heavily on things like effects and animations, [and] giving some verticality to movement, giving different movements to different squads.”
The camera also pulls back further than ever before in the series, but has been limited in its ability to pan
and zoom in, which is something that Boulle acknowledge may change based on player feedback. “We wanted to limit ourselves a little bit to make sure we were producing the game for the camera that people were using,” reasoned Boulle. “Always, with a strategy game, the optimal way to play is with the camera all the way back because it allows you to see more. It’s always fun to be able to zoom in, but when you have unlimited zoom, you do end up having to produce units that look good when you’re all the way up close, even though what’s really important is that they look good at the default view.”
This logic around the restricted zoom also ties over to how Relic is approaching optimising Dawn of War III. For Dawn of War and Company of Heroes franchises, Relic has tended to create impossible high-end requirements, with minspec suggestions that aren’t entirely accurate. For Dawn of War III, Boulle is hoping to address this concern.
“We took an honest look at that problem that Relic has had: that sort of thing where when you’re playing it on high spec, it looks great, but on the spec that you actually have, there are some problems,” admitted Boulle. “We really wanted to pursue a game we had honest specs about, and the gamer out there can expect the game to run well on the min spec. It will look good on the min spec. Things will always look better at maximum awesomeness when you have it all the way up at the top of the specs, but we know most gamers are in that space of they have a good PC, but they’re not bleeding edge. We’re aiming to have a more forgiving footprint in the specs, basically.”
COMPANY OF HEROES
There hasn’t been a Dawn of War game since Retribution, and that was a Dawn of War II expansion. During the time between Dawn of War sequels, Relic has been predominantly focused on Company of Heroes 2. While the World War II setting is lightyears apart from Dawn of War III, Relic has borrowed from Company of Heroes 2, starting with a patched version of the Essence Engine 3.0. This means that genredefining features such as TrueSight – a realistic line-of-sight system – have made the jump between IPs.
“[TrueSight] is there,” said Boulle. “Because we have more open maps, it’s less of a moment-to-moment thing. The major way it manifests for us is with elevation changes. You can’t actually see up a ramp, so you can set up an ambush by staying on high ground and you have better visibility than the guys down below.”
Where Company of Heroes favoured urban combat, with plenty of cover, Dawn of War III prefers more open combat spaces, with a greater emphasis on melee combat. “We’re a game that has a lot of melee in it,” said Boulle. “You want to be able to close the gap a little more quickly and have tools to enable that, like, the Jump Packs, and tools to prevent that. Counter that with Devastator Marines, who will slow down enemies with their guns, for example. That’s a way to keep melee units back.
“Unit blocking plays a roll, where you can move your own melee units to prevent the enemy from getting to your ranged units, and all of that requires a little more flexibility in movement, so open spaces tend to help with that. There will be maps that are tighter and more open that serve as a nice change of pace, but I would say that if the default Company of Heroes map is, like, hedgerows and blasted-out buildings, the default Dawn of War III map is a more open map.”
VANILLA SPACE MARINES
While Relic games have a legacy of being pretty at the time of release, the visual fidelity isn’t so impressive compared to today’s top-of-the-line. Computer hardware has come a long way in the five years between Dawn of War II’s last release and today, and while Dawn of War III opts for a more stylised look, it’s still a visually impressive title. On top of this, when asked about features that have been afforded by advances in computer technology, Boulle pointed at correcting an omission that’s been present since the original game.
“One of the things we really wanted to do was double down on the personality and character of the factions,” said Boulle. “Space Marines have always been in the Dawn of War games, obviously, but I’d say they’ve been a little vanilla; they’ve been the default choice that’s sort of middle of the road, and that’s not the fantasy of the Space Marines. They’re supposed to be these insane crusader knights coming from space and