Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Definitive Edition Review

The Warhammer 40,000 property has never been bigger than it is right now. Following the gargantuan success of Space Marine 2 last year and ongoing video game efforts of all kinds and sizes, the digital side of Games Workshop’s business alone is big enough to turn up the heat around the tabletop-game universe. This is why now is the ideal time to drop remasters of beloved titles such as Dawn of War – Definitive Edition.

Earlier this summer, the original Space Marine’s Master Crafted Edition was largely an overpriced disappointment, which is why we were a bit cautious going into a refresh of Dawn of War despite design director Philippe Boulle’s encouraging words. With Games Workshop pushing the IP hard on all fronts and original developer Relic Entertainment trying to reignite its relationship with the rights-holder as it also pursues other projects, the chances of walking into a quick cash grab weren’t low. After spending some time with this new iteration of a game I’ve played for countless hours in the past, I’d say it ain’t a low-effort remaster, but there are some caveats.

Newcomers needn’t know much about Warhammer 40K and its many factions to enjoy Dawn of War. The original and expansion-pack campaigns do a fine job of establishing the dark sci-fi fantasy universe and who wants what from the very beginning, all while slowly introducing the warring alien species and describing what the Imperium of Man exactly is if you aren’t knee-deep into WH40K lore already. Most Warhammer games are typically good at being ‘for everyone’ and Dawn of War continue to be a notable example of how to successfully tackle dense universe-building while keeping things moving almost 21 years later.

Many, myself included, will tell you the Necron-centric Dark Crusade campaign is the peak of Dawn of War’s life cycle, but playing through the entire single-player package is a must if you’re passionate about the RTS genre and/or WH40K. That said, most of your time with the Definitive Edition will be spent playing offline skirmishes across the massive map selection. All nine factions – Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Imperial Guard, Necrons, Orks, T’au Empire, and Sisters of Battle – in this package reflect their Soulstorm state, meaning the unit selection is huge but balance might not be tailored to the original game’s diehards’ liking. (Soulstorm remains a very divisive expansion to this day.)

The aforementioned skirmishes and online multiplayer, ranked matches included, also use the Soulstorm ruleset. Again, this might annoy the hardcore crowd, but let’s admit it: Most players don’t care. The most obvious advantage of the Definitive Edition over the original iteration of the game (the Anniversary Edition was just a complete bundle) is that everything is under the same roof (no more jumping between executables) and just works out of the box, with improvements to path-finding and new control scheme options giving the experience a smoother flow. Such updates alone make this release easy to recommend. There are rough edges worth discussing though.

On the visual front, Dawn of War instantly looks sharper and more grounded if you’ve spent time playing the original version recently. There’s no graphical makeover which substantially alters the presentation, but it’s all cleaned-up and more detailed, with the unit shadows and better water adding more depth to the entire thing. The cherry on top is that modern resolutions are correctly supported with the option to zoom out properly, UI that scales as it should, and more distant fog of war. So, what’s the issue here? Well, despite the 64-bit upgrade (mods will greatly benefit from accessing extra resources), performance dips as armies grow larger and battles get busier still happen. Mind you, the under-the-hood refreshes allow the framerates to stay healthy, but it’s still annoying to see Dawn of War struggle in certain scenarios due to engine-related limitations – just look at the hardware utilization – which are impossible to fix without reengineering the entire game.

Also disappointing (but far easier to patch up) is the wobbly online infrastructure and a number of connection issues at launch. Dawn of War’s official multiplayer support was cooked before this remaster was announced, so even this is a marked improvement, but there’s work to be done if Relic wants the Definitive Edition to have staying power. The mod support is also hit-and-miss for now; some user-made pieces of content install just fine, but the more complex packages are giving veterans some trouble. Lastly, the audio mix upon launch is more chaotic than a band of Orks, so you better spend some minutes adjusting the different volume levels.

Everything else is a more polished and tuned-up version of what you loved about Dawn of War. It continues to be an excellent game to quickly hop into for a quick match or two; the mix of aggression-oriented expansion, layered unit control, and traditional base-building blends beautifully and never feels too daunting or micromanagement-heavy; its deeply asymmetrical factions are still among the RTS genre’s best… The positives go on and on. If you can put up with a few remaining disturbances and aren’t seeking a remake-ish remaster, it’s hard not to enjoy this large-scale return to “the grim darkness of the far future.”

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition is now available on PC (Steam & GOG) for $29,99. There’s a permanent -30% upgrade for Anniversary Edition owners plus a limited-time, introductory -10% discount. This review was done with a code provided by the publisher.