One of the greatest RTS games in history is getting remastered! Okay, I admit that I may be biased, but I’m super excited to say that Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War is getting remastered in a new Definitive Edition.
There is some bad news: as remasters go, this one is pretty light on improvements as developer Relic Entertainment, who last year went independent, apparently wants to keep things simple.
So what’s new? Well, there’s a minor visual improvement across the board thanks to better lighting, up-rezzed textures and 4k support. And there’s proper widescreen support across the whole bunch! The base game plus all of the excellent expansions have been unified into one launcher for a more streamlined package. The camera has also been pulled back a little for a wider view of the battlefield. It’s also now running on 64bit to help modders keep working on the game.
Speaking of which, PCGamer interviewed design director Phillippe Boullee of Relic who addressed the topic of mods and how important they are to the game.
“That was one of our very first goals: to make sure mods for the original game still worked with the Definitive Edition,” Boulle told them. “There’ll be one or two things that people installing mods will need to do a little differently, mostly just instead of installing in this directory, installing that directory, but we’ll sort of have materials to walk people through that.
In 2004 my teenage brain was blown apart by a Bolter shot to the skull. Not only was I discovering the crazy world of girls and hormones, but Relic Entertainment had just released one of the greatest RTS games ever. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War brought the daunting table-top game to PC in spectacular fashion,…
“We’re testing with the major mods, we’re interfacing with mod makers, and we really want, on day one, for you to load all these different mods onto your machine and actually make it a little smoother to choose the mods that are playing on your machine.”
Personally, I am a little disappointed that Dawn of War isn’t getting a deeper remaster treatment, but can respect that Relic doesn’t want to potentially screw up the incredible mod scene. That said, Relic lost a lot of employees prior to going independent and then laid off a further 40 when it did, so this barebones remaster might come across as a way for Relic to boost their coffers for minimal work.
Honestly, though, I’m just psyched to see Dawn of War getting any kind of remaster treatment. Sure, I’d love more, but even in 2025, Dawn of War is a fantastic RTS.
