Dawn of War 4 clearly celebrates the earlier Warhammer 40,000 strategy games, yet it forgets how much they loved reinventing themselves.

Background: A Series Built on Reinvention

The reviewer's concern after playing two campaigns is that the long-awaited sequel, Dawn of War 4, may have taken too few risks or been too reverent of earlier games. The expectation was high because the series, to their mind, never retreads the same ground, and the disappointment is that the sequel may not have matched that history.

The original Dawn of War, back in the hands of Relic Entertainment, sat close to a traditional RTS. Cover mechanics, unit customisation, and onscreen violence made it feel new. For a player shaped by Age of Empires and Command & Conquer, and for someone who spent Saturday afternoons sliding static Warhammer figurines around a tabletop, watching units pair off in animated scuffles made the battlefield feel alive.

The source material's image credits include Sega and Deep Silver / King Art.

Development: Dawn of War 2 and Dawn of War 3 Moved the Formula

Dawn of War 2 changed the shape of the battlefield. Relic dropped traditional basebuilding and pushed the camera in to focus the action on commanding just a few squads. The hard unit cap meant it simply was not possible to assemble a vast army with which to overwhelm the enemy. Success depended on using each differently-specced squad as it was designed: heavy bolters could supply cover, assault marines could launch into the fray to break up enemy defensive positions, and recon units could circumvent the frontline to attack a vulnerable flank. The reviewer calls this a bold reinvention when Relic could have offered more of the same.

Dawn of War 3 reacted to the RTS environment of its time, when Dota 2 and League of Legends were ascendant. Relic did not ignore the former mods of RTS games; it tried to thread their DNA back into the Warhammer-y battlefield. Hero characters were beefed up, and each unit gained special abilities to be used in combat. Armies became both larger and weaker, meaning there was a much higher death toll in each mission. Base building returned, but cover was ejected, changing the dynamics from the previous two games. The reviewer admits they played much less of Dawn of War 3.

This history explains why Dawn of War 4 can be both a good game and an unexciting one.

Latest Progress: Dawn of War 4 Feels Competent but Familiar

King Art Games, the studio behind Dawn of War 4, has made no secret that it has mostly cribbed from the original. From the previewed Orks and Adeptus Mechanicus campaigns, the game can produce enjoyable afternoons of pushing virtual soldiers around a sci-fi battlefield, but all the while it feels too familiar to what came before it. The battles are not as large as Dawn of War 3, but the unit cap is significantly larger than Dawn of War 2, and both base building and cover make a return. As a result of this deference to the 2004 original, the reviewer's first impression - and this is a preview rather than a review - is that Dawn of War 4 is a competent RTS that immediately feels dated.

The promotional material includes a trailer titled Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV - Space Marines CGI Trailer, listed in the source with a Watch on YouTube prompt.

Comparison with the Original: More Tools, Same Tactical Pressure

The reviewer went back to the original Dawn of War to compare the two. Dawn of War 4 does not entirely miss the opportunity to expand. Units, for instance, have far more customisation options, allowing players to swap out their weapons and equip them with additional abilities. There are also more tools available for grouping units, selecting all units on screen, and selecting all units of a single type, making it a little easier to manage forces. In all the ways a player would expect, it looks like a more modern game, with sharper looking textures, more detailed models, and a camera that lets the player peer even closer upon the violence.

While the original Dawn of War is fun to play today, it has decades-old issues that nonetheless crop up in Dawn of War 4 as well. Despite the ability to group units, select all on screen, and select all units of a single type, the larger the army grows, the less the ability to make meaningful tactical choices becomes. The unit toolbar, which Dawn of War 4 places at the bottom of the screen, fills with squashed unit portraits that eventually become indistinguishable. The Orks suffer from this more than the Adeptus Mechanicus, as their roster is so cheap to recruit. With the growing inability to be selective, in mission after mission, the reviewer grabbed as many units as possible and threw them at the enemy's defences. It was effective, but the victories were not satisfying when attaining them involved so few meaningful choices. This was also the weakness of the original Dawn of War's design, and why the move to smaller squads was so effective in its sequel. The ability to roll over the enemy with a large army was removed entirely.

Adeptus Mechanicus: The First Missions Show the Best Tactics

The Adeptus Mechanicus, at least, make a much better first impression. Unlike the Waaargh-obsessed boyz, it is hard to grab a lump of soldiers, chuck them at the enemy, and expect results. The reviewer was more inclined to play around the specialisations of certain units. Skitarii Rangers are excellent long-range anti-infantry snipers who, when plonked into cover, will whittle down any greenskins or Necrons that march on their position. Skitarii Vanguard, armed with radiation-emitting ammunition, can vapourise the more heavily-armoured troops.

However, both Skitarii ranged units are truly awful in melee, so to keep them effective, the reviewer paired them with units of Sicarian Ruststalkers. These blade-armed cyborg assassins are brutal in close combat and can hold back infantry while the Rangers and Vanguard finish them off. Combine and position units well, and the army will scythe through enemy troops. Do it haphazardly, and they will crumble just as quickly.

Spoiler Alert: Early Adeptus Mechanicus Campaign Details

The early missions in the Adeptus Mechanicus campaign introduce Potentia Delta-9, a Technoarcheologist exploring the surface of Kronus to learn about what stirs in its depths, and Skitarii Marshal Sek-IX-23, who is doing his best to put down the Ork uprising. It was the opening where the Adeptus Mechanicus were most enjoyable to command, because the shape and smaller scale of the battlefields gave a lot more opportunities to embrace the tactics of managing their extreme strengths and weaknesses.

In one early defence mission, Potentia finds herself surrounded by newly-awoken Necron troops. For players who have seen Dawn of War 4's trailers, or who know the history of planet Kronus from the previous games, this is not surprising: Necrons are stirring from a decades-long slumber, compared by the reviewer to Sleeping Beauty clad in self-repairing battle armour. The mission requires holding out against waves of the immortal robots with their fizzing green eyes and even fizzier laser cannons. It is a set-up that pressures the player into thoughtfully applying resources, ensuring that each entrance to the base has a firm defensive line composed of mixed troops.

Then, as the waves against the base grow stronger, and the attacks come from different angles, the player must relocate forces to bloody the nose of the attackers. Complicating things is the appearance of trapped Adeptus Mechanicus units around the map. If the player can break out from the base and rescue them, they will bolster the army, but at the risk of depleting the defences. The reviewer notes that this mission design has been seen before in many RTS games, which undermines the enjoyment, but it hints at the tactical play that is missing in the Ork campaign.

Later Campaign Structure: The Bolter-Blob Returns

The further the reviewer gets into the Adeptus Mechanicus campaign, the larger the battles become, with fewer opportunities to focus on unit-specific tactics. The result is that these later fights are also won by treating forces as a bolter-armed blob that just rolls over the enemy. It does not matter whether the opponent is Necrons or Orks; they all fall down before the bolter-blob.

Current Stage: A Preview That Could Still Improve with Difficulty

The reviewer says they may have set expectations for a new Dawn of War game too high. Over the past year, they spoke with the team about attention to detail in capturing units in the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necron armies, like the perpetual motion machine walkers that cannot stand still, or the mega unit that can be summoned and makes no secret of the fact that they hate the player. Those conversations stoked hopes, which also may point to why the current experience feels a little deflated.

Dawn of War 4 remains a preview. The build is limited to two of the four factions, and the reviewer has only been able to talk about the opening six missions in each of those stories. They still intend to play through the full four campaigns when the opportunity arrives. One planned change is to whack the difficulty up. If whomping the enemy becomes harder, perhaps the game will push the player into thinking more tactically.

That change could make Dawn of War 4 more enjoyable, but it will not hide the sense of a missed opportunity. In a series that has marked itself by reinvention, this sequel recreates weaknesses of the original game that were addressed in its sequels.