Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Demo

It is quite difficult to innovate the RTS genre, given the fact that so many giants have already cemented the formula many years ago. In order to be taken seriously, new releases must at least respect the rules set by games like StarCraft and C&C, otherwise they are categorized as something else and lose the chance to get noticed in the crowd.

Relic entertainment took a leap of faith with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, because although it adhered to most genre standards, it also changed a lot of the core mechanics in the favor of a fresh approach. The base building is still there, but instead of gathering resources to acquire more troops, you must fight with the other players for control points out on the map, which make the matches that much more intense and violent.

A few other changes affect the gameplay as well, such as the fact that your units come in squads, which can be augmented with more members in exchange for resources. Not only that, but it is also possible to upgrade their weapons, or even assign captains with superior skills. This makes the experience a lot more flexible and customizable, because you have complete control over how well-equipped your troops are to handle various situations.

You can choose to play with the Chaos Marines, the Space Marines, the Orks, or the Eldar, each one of which comes with unique strengths and weaknesses. While the Orks are all about numbers and brute force, Eldars can deliver a lot of damage with far fewer units, thanks to their powerful special abilities. In essence, the gameplay pace changes depending on the race you play as, which should lengthen the game’s life by quite a bit.

A few other new mechanics are part of the deal too, such as the fact that you can use impact craters for cover and build listening posts on the captured strategic points, in order to prevent them from being claimed by other players too quickly. All of these combined make for an epic RTS, especially in multiplayer, where you can unleash the power of the four races and apply your best tactics.

All things considered, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War gambled a lot on the original mechanics, but the end result is a hit and every RTS fan should give it a try. Moreover, the Warhammer 40k universe has been superbly captured by the developers, so this should please the fans of the tabletop game as well.