Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3 - Multiplayer Hands-On

Relic Entertainment relies on basic math. In Dawn of War 3's case, one plus two equals three. The third iteration of this grim and dark real-time strategy title grabs elements from the first and second game to bring us the most spectacular Warhammer 40K title yet.

The surprisingly sunny London played host to a multiplayer-focused event for the game in late February. Rows of computers were waiting for us to dive straight in at the deep end with little time for preparation for what was to come. We also had a quick chat with the game's designer, Caro Mastretta.

Relic's long-awaited strategy title comes with three races at launch, with several hero options to boot. Space marines, Orks and Eldar (think space elves) each come with their own campaign, but that was laid to the side for this event. Instead, the journalists and writers were pitted against each other in 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 3 scenarios. The lack of any sort of tutorial, however, turned the first match into a race of getting to grips with the mechanics.

The majority of our playtime was spent with the 2 vs. 2 mode, playing on a relatively compact map. Both teams start at the opposite ends with plenty of objectives to capture in the middle. Some "flags" produce energy or requisition points to summon or upgrade units, others dole out small amounts of "hero points" used for conjuring up your most powerful warriors. Your initial selection matters a lot here. After you've selected your race, you pick three hero units with variable skills and cost. Cheap ones can be summoned early on and if killed, return to the fray relatively quickly. Doom-bringers like Imperial Knight or Gorkanaut take a lot of points and are best used at the end-game push towards the enemy base.

To discourage cheesy rush tactics, the base is protected by a tiered emplacement system. To hit the power core, you must destroy a massive turret. To damage the turret, you must demolish its generator. These are also placed away from your base and thus create natural war zones and pockets of continuous battle. It's a curious system and offers up many strategies from a strong late push to continuous harassment. During the first and second match we divided our forces so that one of us was always on defence and the other on offence. It's interesting to see how the strategies evolve when the masses get their hands on the multiplayer. This mini-objective based game mode might offer a clear way to victory for some, while others might prefer more immediate tactical options.

The game is definitely more micro than macro heavy. Several units have activated abilities such as stun grenades, missile barrages or rocket pack jumps. Resource production relies on capturing resource points and defending them with your units rather than strong emplacements such as turrets, mine fields or bunkers. Your attention is almost always required in a couple of places at once, so quick thinking and reflexes can make up for the lack of firepower. Match length is aimed at around 30 minutes, so there's very little production ramp-up from one tier to the next. Resources are always limited, so at least during our multiplayer session multiple barrack equivalents seemed a moot idea.

Space Marines seemed like the easiest team to get in grips with. Their roster is balanced and the somewhat expensive troops can take a punch in the face with ease. The drop pod mechanic allows them to drop pretty much anything from orbit directly into the thick of battle. If you've graduated from Dawn of War 1 or 2, these marines will feel very familiar.

Orks have been said to be the hardest of the three races to play, but we'd reserve that spot to the Eldar. Orks are big, mean, mostly green and all about masses. Their makeshift weapons hit like a truck, but they can't take quite as much punishment. Their distinct mechanic comes in form of scrap. Destroyed units both friendly and otherwise leave remains behind. This scrap can be collected by pretty much any green-skinned unit to improve their stats. So once a battle is over, Orks must scavenge to remain competitive.

The cunning Eldar rely on hit-and-run tactics. Once their regenerative shield runs dry, their low health pool forces them to either take a hike or die. Out of the three races, the Eldar seemed like the most difficult to work with. This might have been due to not having either tutorial or previous campaign experience. Their warping capabilities are as good as ever, but building a proper network of teleportation nodes while being constantly under assault felt overwhelming for a beginner to handle. Playing as the Eldar handed us our only lost match during the entire event, so there might be some bias and lingering resentment.

Dawn of War 3 is rather spectacular to look at. While a single unit might not have as much detail as in Dawn of War 2, the increased scale more than makes up for it. Once bolter fire, lasers and artillery barrages fill the battlefield, it feels like proper 40K warfare. It's a very loud environment in the best possible way. To help the player to keep up with all this, the team have emphasised the important events such as soon-to-boom special abilities with clear markings. It's also worth noting, that the Retreat button has been removed entirely. Previous DoW's had a special button to make units flee to the nearest base with bonus defence and speed to boot. This made finishing off units incredibly difficult as they could just scamper off to the distance and reinforce back to full strength.

There's also a level system to consider. Campaign and multiplayer games are awarded with skulls and experience points, which can be used for cosmetic upgrades or "side-grades" to further customise your multiplayer army strengths and weaknesses. A proper army painter tool provides the icing on the cake.

Though we were dropped from orbit straight into the deep end, we adjusted and the title showed a lot of promise. By combining old school real-time strategy sensibilities from the first game, and hero units from the second, Relic has found a nice balance in-between. Heroes are not completely unstoppable, but can perform tremendous feats if put to proper use. If you let them just run with the crowd, they'll go down without having much impact.

We were also happy to hear that Relic plan to offer full modding support. Mods have been instrumental in keeping the first game alive for such a long time, so they'll want to make sure the community has access to the game's innards as was the case previously. All in all, Dawn of War 3 is shaping up to be a very promising real-time strategy with base building, heroes and a war that looks and feels like one. It's especially welcome during these times, where smaller scale MOBA skirmishes are dime a dozen, but proper old school RTS games are few and far between.