There’s a comforting hum when you boot up Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War again. It’s the kind of sound that transports you back to a time when RTS games were plentiful, base-building was sacred, and Space Marines still shouted “For the Emperor!” without worrying about frame pacing. Now, in 2025, Relic has decided to dust off its legendary strategy series and hand us the Definitive Edition—a version that promises sharper visuals, modernised foundations, and a smoother battlefield for both old warlords and fresh recruits. With Dawn of War IV creeping over the horizon, this rerelease is both a love letter to the past and a promise that the WAAAGH isn’t over just yet.
Available On: PC
Reviewed On: PC
Developed By: Relic Entertainment
Published By: Relic EntertainmentI received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.com
The good news is that the beating heart of Dawn of War remains intact. This is still that distinctive blend of base construction, resource node grabbing, and squad-focused tactics that made it stand out from the Command & Conquer clones of its era. You won’t find resource harvesters or sprawling, AI-choked city builders here—just a few strategically vital points to capture, some requisition to gather, and then the glorious march of heavily armoured men, xenos, and heretics smashing into each other like a Warhammer 40K tabletop session come to life. There’s a simplicity to the loop that has aged remarkably well, even if modern players used to endless upgrade trees and hyper-complex unit counters may raise an eyebrow at its relatively lean structure.
That lean design carries into the campaigns, which remain as varied and entertaining as they were in their heyday. Across the four included expansions—Dawn of War, Winter Assault, Dark Crusade, and Soulstorm—you’ll bounce between linear story-driven missions and the more open-ended war map style, where turn-based territory control frames your RTS clashes. The early campaigns, with their scripted narratives and cinematic flair, are still solid introductions to the universe, while Dark Crusade and Soulstorm shift things up by letting you pick a faction and wage a longer, more sandbox-style war. The structure might not blow modern minds—mission objectives often boil down to “capture this” or “blow that up”—but the 40K universe provides the spice. From the stoic Space Marines to the shouty, cockney Orks and their obsession with red paint, it’s all drenched in character. Even two decades later, the banter of commanders and the gruff mission briefings still make me grin.
Throughout it all, I still appreciate the balance between the macro and the micro. Across your army, one or two units and commanders will typically have a special ability that can be used, whether it’s grenades designed to crack open mechs or psychic assaults to crack open minds. It’s not enough to force you into constantly trying to juggle managing individual squads and units all the time, though, letting you focus on strategy.
Skirmish, meanwhile, has been locked to Soulstorm’s version of the game, which means you get the full roster of factions and maps right out of the gate. That’s a smart choice for sheer content density, but it does come with one caveat: you’re also stuck with the divisive flying units introduced in that expansion. Personally, I’ve never minded them, but I know some players would have loved the option to toggle different expansions’ rulesets. It’s a missed opportunity—one that would have made this “definitive” package feel more, well, definitive.
Visually, the Definitive Edition does a surprisingly decent job of dressing up a game that’s older than some of its current players. Textures have been upscaled to 4K, and while they can look muddy up close—especially on weapons and vehicles—the overall effect is that the game looks cleaner without losing its original aesthetic. Lighting tweaks give the battlefields a touch more depth, though this isn’t a transformative overhaul. Think “polished boots” rather than “new armour.” Portraits and UI elements have been AI-upscaled for now, and they can look a bit odd, but Relic has promised proper hand-drawn replacements down the line, so at least this part of the army is still mobilising.
One of the biggest under-the-hood changes is the shift to a 64-bit engine, which won’t make your jaw drop visually but does open the door to better stability and modding potential. Gone are the memory restrictions that once choked larger overhauls. Mods like Unification and Ultimate Apocalypse are already being updated to run, and aside from a few niggles—like certain menus being stubbornly stuck at older resolutions—they’re mostly functional right out of the digital box. That said, the lack of Steam Workshop support feels like a dropped bolter shell. This series has always had a passionate modding scene, and integrating it more directly would have made the transition smoother for everyone, and simpler for newer players.
Pathfinding, long the bane of Dawn of War’s heavier units, has seen some love. It’s not miraculous—your squads will still occasionally form a polite queue when ordered through a chokepoint, and flying units remain as directionally challenged as ever—but it’s an improvement. The game just feels that little bit less inclined to make you swear at a Dreadnought because it got lost behind a wall.
Not every decision is a triumph, though. The lack of keybinding customization stands out as a glaring oversight. In an RTS, where competitive players often craft their own elaborate hotkey layouts, this kind of restriction is peculiar. Personally, I muddled through just fine—I’ve said before that I’m a devout RTS fan but an utter dunce at actually playing them well—but the omission is hard to ignore. I’d love to know there’s a technical reason behind this. But whatever the ultimate reason is, being unable to pan a camera with WASD in 2025 is bonkers.
Performance on my machine has been smooth, even in the thick of large-scale battles, but there are reports from other players about framerate dips linked to shadows. This isn’t a graphically intensive game by modern standards, so most rigs should handle it without a whimper, but clearly, a few bolts need tightening here and there. Hopefully, Relic will be able to update the game quickly.
As for the asking price? Reasonable, I’d say. There’s a chunky discount for existing owners of the Anniversary Edition, and for newcomers, the value is strong considering the amount of content packed in here. You could argue that the Anniversary Edition is cheaper and still delivers the core experience, and you wouldn’t be wrong—but this is a better, cleaner way to play in 2025, and it lays the groundwork for years of modding and community support to come.
In Conclusion…
When the dust settles, the Definitive Edition doesn’t reinvent Dawn of War—and it was never really supposed to. This is a preservation project, a way to future-proof a classic and make sure it doesn’t collapse under modern operating systems like a Guardsman under a Titan’s foot. It’s also a reminder of how strong the core game was to begin with. Two decades on, it’s still a blast to send Orks screaming across the battlefield, to watch Space Marines stand unflinching in the face of a green tide, and to hear the clank of a Defiler stomping into the fray. It’s not perfect—there are some bugs to squash, some portraits to redo, and a few quality-of-life features crying out to be added—but it’s a worthy revival of one of the best RTS series around.
And, if nothing else, it’s made me even more eager to see where Dawn of War IV takes us. If Relic can marry the lessons of the past with the power of modern strategy design, we might just be on the brink of a proper renaissance for the series. For now, though, this is the definitive way to revisit the WAAAGH.
