Meanwhile, the Eldar’s regenerative shields and stealth make them ideal for hit and run strikes, with portals that buff defence and even teleport entire squads. They salvage scrap from enemies to obtain unit upgrades and even new vehicles. The Space Marines don’t have the largest number of forces on the battlefield, but they’re resilient, making a small force insanely tough to kill and their drop pods allow for reinforcements that can turn the tide in combat.Īs for the Orks, they specialise in overrunning foes by sheer numbers. This was not the case in previous games, which at best gave you one to choose from and play through before moving to another.Įach faction approaches war differently.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III’s single-player campaign gives you the reins of each faction for a mission at a time. Unlike past entries, this time you’ll get to grips with each faction sooner than you’d think.

Without spoiling much, there's enough in the way of plot and unlocks (which we'll get to in a bit) to keep you ploughing forward. All three factions are vying for an artefact known as the Spear of Khaine, which serves as the MacGuffin to take the plot forward. Instead, the events take place in a far distant future where human soldiers are known as Space Marines, have several hearts, stand seven-feet tall, pilot giant robots with chainsaws, and battle against hordes of monstrous green Orks (think the kind in The Lord of the Rings but with access to laser guns) and Eldars, an elf-like race that once ruled the galaxy, but now teeters on the brink. Like Total War: Warhammer, the latest game is set in the Warhammer universe, but it forsakes the fantasy setting of the former. A snappy tutorial does a great job of explaining the basic details of gameplay, while the campaign explains the series’ lore well. That makes Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III a welcome addition to an otherwise near comatose genre.Īs the name suggests, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III is the third instalment in the long-running franchise - not counting its five expansions - but don’t let that deter you if you can’t tell an Ork from an Eldar. We saw Halo Wars 2 hit Windows 10 and the Xbox One, but little else has grabbed our attention in recent times other than the Starcraft 2 trilogy. The real-time strategy (RTS) genre has had an extended period of hibernation.

Dawn of war 3