Feature-Length Dawn of War III Gameplay Puts Focus on Huge Battles, Base-Building

Sega and Relic Entertainment have shown off an extended look at the debut gameplay for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III.

Featured above, the narrated look at the game shows off Relic’s new focus on huge, somewhat mesmerizing battles filled with all the guns and mecha you can imagine – as well as a new focus on base-building.

This change up in the game’s scale and focus makes sense, considering the game’s announcement was boldly positioned as Relic’s biggest RTS to date.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III is set to release sometime next year, for PC.

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19 comments

Madbrainbox
July 11, 2016 at 10:58 am

My heart weeps for the future of DoW.
Tereus Kolibri
July 11, 2016 at 11:02 am

So bad. I hate to use the term but it looks like they dumbed the mechanics down a lot. Cover complexly stripped of its nuance and complexity for a “shield bubbles”.
The new voice actor for Gabriel Angelos sounds nothing like the level headed, tactical thinking commander form the previous games. Now we have generic “angry” man voice.
Welcome to Dawn of war 3, where everything you love it taken away and replaced by Shiny toy soldier visuals, a mockery of past characters and strategy that revolves around the shield bubble of halo 3.. wonderful innovation.
NuclearKangaroo
July 11, 2016 at 12:37 pm

you have to thank dow1 fans for that, they wanted their dumb game back instead of a real sequel to dow2, and they got it

as a general rule of thumb, when a strategy game increases its scope, it has to make compromises in the combat department, simplifying it a bit in order to keep the game manageable, this is the results of all those fags bitching about “MUH SCALE!”, hell just look at dow1 and the dumb crater cover system

now if im being honest i dont think it looks back, it actually reminds me a lot of warcraft 3 with all the elite unit abilities and shit, but id be lying if i said i wouldnt have prefered something more along the likes of Company of Heroes/Dawn of War 2
Neojames82
July 11, 2016 at 1:13 pm

Well I do like that base building is back but yeah, COH had base building as well and yet it had good; tactical combat in it. This sounds more like its more about making the game look good.
Kev Lew
July 11, 2016 at 1:46 pm

putting back base building did not specify the dumbing down of combat, starting to think that the ashes of the singularity fluff articles about multicore hindering RTS may be true, we are at a plateau until DX12 opens up the PC components for further exploitation. Until then we get dawn of starcraft 3. no sync-kills, no AI self control, no cover (bubbleshield is effectively a bunker), yet to see if the super units pathing is worth a damn, the maps look little different from starcraft 2 singlelplayer maps not particularly large. we’re setting up for a supreme commander 2 scenario.
Kev Lew
July 11, 2016 at 1:54 pm

RTS seems to be in trouble, we trade one feature for another and yet no one is expanding the setting. what happened to scaling up DoW2 and bringing back base building, instead we are headed towards robotic micro control of armies no larger than we had in dawn of war, no cover system, I’m yet to see any melee combat (the units have stayed ranged or have been dedicated melee) and the effects are covering the screen so the simplified aesthetic helps no one when explosions and abilities are covering areas of the combat. I’m also in agreement with archwarhammer in that the general units seem to be dealing minimal damage but the abilities are tuned to exterminate the enemies they hit.
Smug
July 11, 2016 at 1:54 pm

“you have to thank dow1 fans for that, they wanted their dumb game back instead of a real sequel to dow2, and they got it”

No if anything it’s still closer to DoW2 actually (focusing on heroes that act like main overpowered units rather than acting like support in DoW1)

DoW3 is going to be ASSFAGGOTS:Edition. Reminder the devs wanted to tone down the grimdark of the franchise
Madbrainbox
July 11, 2016 at 2:12 pm

What?Gabriel Angelos jumping around the battlefield like a kangoroo

while he’s throwing his hammer around doesn’t count as melee?
Arbitrary
July 11, 2016 at 3:11 pm

I was hoping the new Dawn of War would be able to compete with Battlefleet Gothic: Armada in terms of “40k-ness”, but it seems they have completely dropped the ball.

Go watch the trailer for Battlefleet Gothic’s “Space Marines” – DLC, then watch the latest trailer for Dawn of War 3. Then weep.
Dawn Blast
July 11, 2016 at 4:37 pm

But that would require out SPIRITUAL LIEGE to wake up. Which would be stupid. if they are gonna rez any Primarch it should be Sanguinius.
Zanard Bell
July 11, 2016 at 9:15 pm

I’ll be honest, I’ll still play this game regardless. But it will be so disconnected to the first two DOWs that any lore introduced here would have no significance. Even if they started off with “Blood Ravens, sons of Magnus The Red”…
NuclearKangaroo
July 11, 2016 at 10:48 pm

you wanted your big scale back, here it is

let me remind you that dow1 had an almost equally terrible cover system
NuclearKangaroo
July 11, 2016 at 10:49 pm

sure, but it lacked the scope dow1, this means the devs could focus more on making the combat mechanics deeper
NuclearKangaroo
July 11, 2016 at 10:51 pm

the increase in scope did imply the dumbing down of combat, the bigger the scale, the less complex the combat mechanics become, you just need to look at multiple RTS to notice this, with a few exceptions

also sync kills dont really add anything to the game
NuclearKangaroo
July 11, 2016 at 10:52 pm

to be fair, relic kind of tries to reinvent the wheel with each dow game it seems, DoW 2 is very different from dow1 for instance
Zanard Bell
July 12, 2016 at 8:26 am

And I seriously have no problems with that. But considering that this is the third game, they ought to have found the perfect balance by now.

Then again, I may be too harsh in judging this.
Zanard Bell
July 12, 2016 at 8:26 am

Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

~ Imperial Thought of The Day ~
Madbrainbox
July 12, 2016 at 10:02 am

It’s also one of the librarian lines from DoW1.
https://youtu.be/rf_3ZTp4eG4?t=16s
NuclearKangaroo
July 12, 2016 at 10:10 pm

i dont know if they are looking for a balance as much as they are looking to make something different each time