Who had a new Dawn of War 4 announcement on their Gamescom bingo card? The signs were there, certainly. We could have guessed. Space Marine did the same thing, re-releasing the original before announcing a new one.
Oh well. Either way, Dawn of War 4 is coming, returning in, clearly, the full RTS glory that put the series on the map in the first place.
RTS Fans are Eating Good Next Year
The sequel, still starring everybody’s favorite magpies, the Blood Ravens, was presented through a trailer which, refreshing included just enough gameplay to let people know we’re back to base-building and large armies. Sweet. There’s even a nod to Dawn of War 2 through Cyrus, whom we met in DoW2 as a grumpy and grizzled scout sergeant.
The ever-unlucky Space Marine chapter is fighting for Kronus again, two centuries later. The planet will be familiar to all who played Dark Crusade, one of the first experiments with form the series experienced.
The game’s campaign will be split four ways between the present factions. The obvious foes will be orcs (having the time of their fungal lives, as usual) and the ominous Necrons, who most recently featured prominently in the Mechanicus tactical dungeon crawler.
On the other side, the Space Marines will probably cooperate with the Adeptus Mechanicus (also best known from Mechanicus, appropriately), but it’s Warhammer 40k, so there is always a reason for factions to fight.
In addition to Cyrus, the campaign will bring back ork warboss Gorgutz and psyker Jonah Orion, both names familiar to veteran DoW-heads.
Interestingly, the game’s development was handed to KING Art Games, rather than the original creators, Relic Entertainment, who created both the Dawn of War series and the original Space Marine, mighty contributions to WH40k. King Art Games recently got recognition for their work on Iron Harvest, which is, admittedly, not too far from 40k aesthetically, and was a solid RTS in its own right.
Oh, and the most welcome for me specifically, is the return of The Last Stand mode from DoW2 and Retribution: a horde mode where you control a hero-tier unit against waves of enemies. It was an absolute blast in Dawn of War 2, a really fun way to do co-op multiplayer in an RTS.
Unfortunately, Dawn of War 4’s release is currently set to “2026”, so in the grim darkness of the far future there is only yearning for more info. And maybe for a little Last Stand demo, as a treat? Please?