Dawn of War III

Last month, Sega and Relic unveiled Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War III with a flashy cinematic trailer that focused on the ongoing war between the Imperium, Orks, and Eldar. The trailer, while enticing, didn’t reveal any gameplay or discuss much about Relic’s vision for its new real-time strategy title. Thankfully, Sega and Relic held an event to reveal more about the ins and outs of the game. Here’s a rundown of the information to give you a better idea of what to expect from Dawn of War III.

• Relic looked back at its last two entries and wanted to combine their best mechanics into Dawn of War III. This means taking the first Dawn of War’s large armies, base-building, and strategic depth along with the awesome heroes and their great abilities from Dawn of War II and creating a modern RTS. 
• Expect fun battles with plenty of explosions. “Relic has a long tradition of blowing stuff up really, really, well, and we definitely continue that tradition with Dawn of War III,” says director Philippe Boulle. “But we’ve taken a hard look at how we’ve done it in the past, looking to make sure that gameplay and the audio-visual pizzazz line up.” Boulle gives an example of them having grenade throws in the games for over a decade, but says the explosion has only been exciting for those throwing the grenades. Now those on the receiving end can see the grenade coming and react.
• As mentioned earlier, the heroes from Dawn of War II are a big inspiration for the army you’re building in this entry. For each match, you can select three elite heroes to bring into the game and they will form the core of your army. This allows you to make choices about your playstyle. For example, if you want to play aggressively as a space marine and get the early rush on your opponent, you want to pick elites that you can deploy quickly. On the other hand if you love firepower, you would go for the opposite approach and choose the biggest elites like the giant imperial knight from the trailer. These can’t be deployed as quickly as other elites, but they can worth the wait for their deadly power. 
• Relic wanted to make sure the campaign was accessible this time around. “This is all about rolling out the welcome mat to those who are new to the franchise, but also people who are coming back after maybe five or even ten years,” Boulle explains. The narrative will play out in rotating Space Marine, Ork, and Eldar missions. “This allows us to expose the full breadth of those races to the player, show them all the interesting things that we have, and they can choose which appeals most to them.”
• The main story focuses three warring factions collide on a mysterious planet, rumored to be home to a mighty weapon, While the three factions are caught up in their own fight over it, a bigger threat is looming.  
• Gameplay was also approached with the goal of accessibility, but Boulle was quick to say this doesn’t mean Relic is “dumbing anything down.” It’s more about giving the player a chance to see the depth of the gameplay with all the mechanics in a “measured and paced way.”
• The story hero is Gabriel Angelos, master of the Blood Ravens chapter of the Space Marines, who was also in previous Dawn of Wars. He comes equipped with his mighty hammer that can not only push back enemies, but reduce foes to craters. This front-line tank may not have a ranged attack, however, he can devastate up-close and is highly effective against large groups of infantry targets. 
• As an ally, you have Imperial Knight Solaria, who has a knack with ranged combat, using twin Gatling cannons to obliterate those who stand against the Space Marines. Don’t expect her to be handy with melee, but she’s effective against base buildings, mass infantry, and heavily armored foes. Even better? She can pick up to six targets and unleash missiles on them. 
• Space Marine units include scouts, snipers, assault marines, devastator squads, and dreadnoughts. 
• Space Marines can also bring down surprise reinforcements from orbit, changing the tide of battle if given the opportunity.. In addition, its super ability, Orbital Bombardment, is a powerful laser beam that grows in size and power the more enemies you take down. Of course, this comes at the cost of speed.

Dawn of War III is coming to PC, but no release date has been set.