Dawn of War 4 Has the Potential to Be the Best Warhammer 40,000 Game Ever

Dawn of War is back and ready to fight for the Emperor

True satisfaction in real-time strategy games comes when the base-building and army-commanding systems come together as you furiously rush the opposing army and annihilate them. The Ork faction in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 feels built for that style of play, as they get more powerful the more you build, spawn, and kill during a match.

Activating Waaagh! (yes, that’s what the mechanic is called) stratagems by filling up its meter and unleashing hordes of units on my opponents is some of the most fun I’ve had in a game this year. I’m not surprised it’s the campaign that Dawn of War 4’s developers recommend players check out first, as it offers a fantastic crash course in what’s shaping up to be a great RTS — and the ultimate Warhammer 40,000 game.

The Dawn of War series may have switched developers and publisher – this one’s made by King Art and Deep Silver rather than Relic Entertainment – but it has not lost a step in offering a comprehensive Warhammer 40,000 experience in RTS form. Having only scratched the surface of the vast content on offer in Dawn of War 4, I’m already setting my expectations high to close out the year with one of the franchise’s games yet.

My preview build gave me access to a sizeable chunk of the game, including its Prologue and two of its four campaigns. I got to try a bit of the Space Marines and Astra Militarum in the prologue before going hands-on with the Orks and Adeptus Mechanicus. In Dawn of War 4, all four factions are fighting over the planet of Kronus for their own self-serving reasons. The narrative is emblematic of Warhammer 40,000 as a franchise: grand in scale, very violent and brutal, and overwhelming in an enticing way that makes you want to learn more about the lore. While gameplay is king in an RTS, I suspect Dawn of War 4 players will be happy with its story.

During that moment-to-moment gameplay, Dawn of War 4 hits all the hallmarks of an RTS. At its core, every faction wants to build up their bases, gather resources, build units, and then tactically take down the opposing faction. A thoroughly tutorialized prologue ensured I was up to speed on the basics, so by the time I got to the campaigns, I could enjoy how each faction shakes up that core formula.

The Orks, for example, focus on building and spawning units quickly. Meanwhile, the Adeptus Mechanicus will have you playing more defensively with their Void Shield mechanic and plethora of vehicle units. I’ll need more time to truly learn the ins and outs of each faction, but so far the Orks are definitely my favorite.

RTS games can feel overwhelming at times, because players have to manage so many units and structures simultaneously, but I found Dawn of War 4 surprisingly approachable. Each time it introduces a new mechanic, it takes the time to explain it in detail. Players can also set units to automatically use their skills and abilities, so they can focus more on grand strategy than micromanaging individual units. For those who care about individual fights, Dawn of War 4 lets players zoom in close enough to clearly see what’s going on.

Outside the campaigns, I also got to mess around with Skirmish mode, a player-versus-AI mode where players can adjust the mission, map, and other gameplay-impacting parameters. Some of my favorite licensed games, including Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, are at their best when they serve as playful sandboxes for their respective franchises. Skirmish mode does exactly that in Dawn of War 4.

Through its Skirmish modes and other gameplay systems I can’t discuss yet, Dawn of War 4 already seems poised to do the same for many corners of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. That alone would make it easy to recommend, and there are still four whole campaigns to play through in addition to that.

King Art’s past experience working on RTS games like 2020’s Iron Harvest shines through here. This genre has been in a bit of a slump lately, with the likes of Stormgate failing to catch on the way series like StarCraft or Dawn of War did decades ago. That said, we haven’t seen an RTS as content-rich and polished as Dawn of War 4 in a long time, and I can see this game reigniting interest in the genre.

So many Warhammer 40,000 games launch each year that it can be tough to tell which ones are worth your time and which ones are best left for the die-hard fans and loremasters. The Dawn of War games are some of the best to bear the Warhammer 40,000 name, and my hands-on time with Dawn of War 4 suggests that it will live up to those expectations.

And while Dawn of War 4 is full of details and content that will satisfy the hardcore fan base, it’s also worth checking out if you want an approachable yet satisfyingly complex RTS game. It’s just the shot in the arm that the genre needs.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 launches for Windows PC on Dec. 3.