Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III

Buggy + I wonder how they managed to go back so far from the old games

not even a spiritual successor of DoW 1 or 2. The roadmap and advertisement for this game is the reason for the price. There is the graphics and unit comp of a great game but it lacks weight or gravitas. Every few years I download it, use the mods to make it playable, and then get dissapointed at the cartoonish sounds and unit models. DoWII gave such weight and gravitas to each of the units but this feels like an attempt at making Korean eSports vice a game belonging in the DoW series. Some of the DEVs on this I am convinced were pushed this rather than making a game they were passionate about. EA cancelling Titanfall 3 recently just highlights this type of decision tree. Profits over form folks. Trashware. Get in, get out.

Thanks Devs. I see what you've put together here and I know you were held back and rushed.

i like the game, its 40k rts would be nice to have more factions

l enjoyed this game.

A disappointing end to an otherwise great trilogy.

I play DoW for the campaign. DoW 1 and 2 both had different but excellent campaigns. I replayed each many times. DoW 3 has a very weak campaign, with the missions rotating between factions. What previously would have been 3 separate campaigns was hashed into one, reducing the amount of this product I am able to enjoy. Base building and technology trees are minimal, with no feeling of your army evolving as the campaign progresses. Of course since the narrative is bouncing around you never develop a feeling of "your army".

Even several years after release the game is rife with bugs. Some examples:
- Receiving a cosmetic after a campaign mission means the next time I start the game I get a pop-up that I am unable to dismiss notifying me of the new cosmetic. Need to alt+F4 since I can't get past the notification.
- Had to restart a mission since that particular save was somehow corrupted so the game would repeatedly crash at a certain mission transition point.
- Game may randomly crash during battles.
- Elites will not retain experience during the campaign.
* Not a bug but after loading you can't click the "press any key" button, you have to press a key on the keyboard. Although not a bug it feels like behavior from a time when not everyone had mice.

I really love the 40K universe. I played the miniature game. I read the books. I have many of the games on Steam. I find it difficult to recommend this game unless it's at a steep discount AND you've already played the crap out of DoW 1 and 2.

Thank you for reading. The Emperor Protects.

Really loving this. As is typical with the RTS community, good RTS on dogged on until they lose support. It happened to Iron Harvest, it happened to CoH3, and it happened here.

Base building is not very good, difficult to group troops by type. Annoying story with no skirmish option.

Wish they continued development and gave us more of what was promised and shown to us.

other than that i find the game rather fun

love the change up vs each level.
There should be a DLC of this where you can choose the faction you want to play start to finish..

Only 3 Factions...sad had so much potential. I need necrons or atleast Chaos as a Faction...

this game is good but war hammer 2 has twice as many teams 7 to be exacted if you get retrabution and its been about a decade since this games release so i doubt there's plans for more teams in the future. but yeah if you have ever played halo wars and liked it this game is right up your alley.

Base building is pretty bad, MOBA elements are terrifically bad. Basically pick the good qualities from the previous games and ensure they are not included. The campaign is highly irritating as with each mission you are switching between the playable races despite you are annoyed with them it is mandatory so it feels like a chore and an very long tutorial before the multiplayer / moba experience. Hero units are kind of interesting however this diminishes the individual squads to be no more than cannon fodder which is very much against the lore and the previous game's experience.

2.7 hours on record, taken on discount -not worth, bad camera, stupid AI, ugly color scheme, shit base building
the only thing in common with the famous series is the name
it's too much of an arcade hack and not a game you want to play for days

More often than not, negatives reviews in games such as this are not valid as they are from people that are just creatures of habit and can't let go of older designs or adapt or even give a chance to new designs.

This was the case for DoW:II as well. The amount of people that were "true" DOW Fans that hated that game were much larger in count than say steam reviews allow us to know. And that because a large portion of those sales were outside of steam. My Gold Edition at the time was on CD as well and did not require steam at all. A large portion of those earlier whining reviews were lost. But I remember just fine how much the "true" DOW fanbase hated DOW2....

Apparently the rest of us that had played DOW1 as well and liked DOW2 were either not real fans or idiots...

Be that as it may, there was a large portion of players that gave DOW2 a chance and bothered to learn its mechanics. In my opinion, it was a far superior strategy game. And I grew up on DOW1. Its only drawback was the lack of structure building. For me, melee and antiquity styled combat, themes like Ancient Greece, Rome, Feudal Japan, or the Crusades, lend themselves well to large armies colliding. More modern warfare is much about small troop teams carrying out objectives. And DOW2 was great...

Fast forward now to DOW:III

Read Comments for Full Review!

Ok, this one is a difficult one for me, on one side Dawn of War is the reason I know and love Warhammer 40k, but to say that this game has problems doesn't fully describe it. The best way I can say it is similar to how people talk about DmC, is a good game, a great game at times, but is not a good Dawn of War game, it seems like it tries to mix the base building of the first games with the more squad centered of the second ones, with varying levels of success. While the base building is good it feels too simple and at times even unnecessary if you have the right mix of elites (Heroes), and in the same point some elites are pretty strong to the point that they can easily butcher an entire army, while other feel too weak or too much specialized to the point they can do one thing very well, but they pretty much suck on others.
The fact that the game isn't that difficult, even while playing at the hardest difficulty and that is too close to a MOBA for some people are points to have in mind too.
Overall, the game is pretty decent and if you give it so time you can actually grow to like it, is not for everyone that's for sure, if you want to buy it I recommend two things:
1. Buy it at a discount, a good one.
2. Look for a guide of how to level the elites fast, otherwise you will be like a month doing the elite mastery achievements.

pretty much a carbon copy of the campaign in dow2 but dow2 had more playable races!
you dont really get much of a chance to play a full battle in campaign with a full and fully upgraded army and there are WAY too many levels with specific champion only maps where u can only use specific elites and dont build bases just collect the troops as u go through the level........zzzzzz
i came here for a propper battle .......and gun fight........like a western! (lmao quoting tom hardy in legend)
with there only being 3 races in the campaign there should be an individual campaign for each race not a campaign where u get to play a mix and match of levels for each race alternately taking in turns!
feel ripped off and should of bought and completed the 1st 2 dow's ......again....on hard.....again at least i would have been able to play all the races there!

For the Emperor

needs the other races and a heretic legion in the campaign making it longer and more fun but this game is legit and elite i advise playing it it is amazing

5/10

I cannot recomend this game until the Imperial Guard is added as a playable faction.

Due to this game I understand how rts games work as I started "READING" either the troops, upgrades, requirements, etc.

Great game-play. I enjoy the battles and the new layout. At times the AI seems to build faster than I can, but this new mod is fun. It would be great if the field of play could be increased to give someone the ability to build an army faster for bigger play and strategy.

Honestly, on discount its not a bad buy if you're invested in the series but I can see why it flopped, veered a little too far off course from the earlier entries, didn't buy it for multiplayer so no thoughts or feeling on how wonky that apparently feels but solid 50 hours ran through on hard for something like £7 isn't bad.

other than graphics, its in every way less than the previous game, sooo NO

DOW 2 and Retribution was better, the sense of progress with your Team is not as good as those, plus the individual customisation of squads is deeply missed. Graphics are a bit better and playing with Chapter Master Angelos is fun. Still could have used some good elements from previous titles.

good

Worst Warhammer 40k game ever made. 7.99 is still too much to play 40k that is not 40k. What are these game studios doing nowadays. Hot garbage.

great game

Dawn of War III has become too complicated to be fun. Base building is not as entertaining as DOW I and hero system gets worse in than DOW II. If anyone wanted an all out war in Warhammer 40K, might as well get the Total War: Warhammer 40K than DOW III. Been playing 7.9 hrs, trying to like it. I don't. Uninstalling.

Beautiful game with a solid story. DOW Soulstorm remains the standard :D

i didnt play this for long but what i did play made me get a refund. Glad i stuck with the first 2 and mods

Not fun. Boring core units with a lack of upgrades in a world chalked full of creative options. Feels uninspired.

IF you can get this game on an 80% off sale, and you are looking for a fun relatively light relic rts to play with friends, and IF you install a few mods, its actually not too bad tbh. Good bit of warhammer themed fun. Its alot like company of heroes 2, but warhammer themed and with alot less complexity in terms of positioning frankly. Still, imo Dawn of War one is still best game of the series, especially if we are talking UA mod.

good game but you need mods to love it

its fine but no recent updates and lack of factions

so so , 7/10 . Hope they could do some thing like warcraft editor , where the magic , lack type of map , unit , skill and mode map . Story so so again must learn form warcraft plz ,get more heros in story make .

I got bored so fast playing this game. No depth no interesting mechanics. Only 3 factions that worked with starcraft as every faction has a lot of stuff but here is just not good.

I am enjoying this game, and feel like it is worth playing if you like the other Dawn of War games.

I just completed the campaign and I enjoyed almost every section of it. This was actually a very good game! I would rate it 8/10. I can kinda understand why a lot of players were not happy, as there were a few things that were missing and it is different to DOW 1 & 2. However, I feel that that a lot of the criticism is unfair and I think that it was over dramatic.

Cons:

1. I personally feel that there were not enough missions with the Blood Ravens, however, despite a lot of comments, the other factions stories being interwoven actually worked quite well.

2. Although, there was some hints and a certain teaser at a point, there could have been at least one or two other factions, given how good Dark Crusade was and also given there important presence in previous titles.

3. It was a shame that a number of units from the previous games were missing or only available as special units.

4. Story was good, but there were a lot of things that could have been explained better. In particular, the fates of certain other important characters from previous titles.

Pros:

1. The story was pretty good and felt in place with the other titles (I have played them all starting in 2005)

2. Graphics, attention to detail and ambience were very good, with some good upgrades from the other games

3. A welcome return to basebuilding and controlling larger forces. However, a few buildings were missing, which would have made it even better. Overall though, it was great having larger epic battles again like in DOW 1 and the dlc.

4. The elite units were really cool. In many ways this was like DOW 2, in that even fielding a few well selected elite units, could turn the tides of battles against larger forces.

5. The soundtrack was great, not as good as the first two, but was still really good and felt like it belonged.

I heard all of the bad things that were said about Dawn of War 3 and figured I'd try it out. This is legitimately the worst in the series and I wanted to like it so much. Whether the change from massive battles in DoW to the more focused squad based combat of DoW 2, but this is objectively the worst. They shrunk down the size of maps you fight on while sticking to the smaller armies of DoW 2. I hate that this failed, but I totally get it. I couldn't even make myself finish the game. The story is told through multiple viewpoints of the different factions and while that sounds interesting, it isn't. I can't even recommend this game on the deepest of discounts.

Its been years since I picked up a great RTS. Sadly that holds true still. I miss games like battle for middle earth. But having said that, this game still scratches that itch. You should still have some fun here but id say only like 3/5 or so if that helps.

The Gretchin Genocide of M41 was a battle of utmost horror...

would be good if there where more factions to play as in the campaign like in soulstorm and retribution or if each faction had there own campaign i hope the will be more content for this game in the future but i doubt it lol

The basis of the game is alright, but why no DLCs for Tau and other races, Im sad !!!

It's okay, I guess. definitely the weakest of the three. only has three factions and tends to be flash no content. course I would argue that Lord of The Rings Battle for Middle Earth Two spoiled me there. damn do I miss that game.

It turns out this game is very good unlike what many people say
In terms of graphics and animation this game easily beats top rts games like starcraft 2 and others
8/10

I am gonna be straight forward its not the worst game I have seen many other games that are potentially worse, I would and could recommend it to maybe some friends that have a lot of love/experience for games like these but on any other side its fine game tho I don't think that someone who is new to this kind of game should touch Dawn of War 3 rather playing the other two first and then have a taste of it but yeah in conclusion.

1 The Graphic is better than in the others (not a remarkable thing since we live in 2025)
2 The Characters looks really good but there aren't many factions to choose from
3 the Game play is REALLY sloppy what I mean is it is not hard to adapt to it but it dosent feel good to play it (its a feeling I had when I did my 1 match against A.I)
4 Idk why but Christ why is this guy doing a flip with the hammer (Basically stick with the lore accurate thing that was existing in Dawn of War 1-2)

well I guess these are the only 3 Criteria I had not counting the 1 one but yeah I will keep playing it but yeah ( I would rather like more if the older dawn of wars gets updated rather than having a poor new one that is not as good as the old versions)

I love Dawn of War: Dark Crusade and its expansions, but Dawn of War III is nothing but a disappointment, a disgrace, and an insult to the Warhammer 40K universe.

Dawn of War III as a MOBA with only three factions? No.
Dawn of War III as a great RTS like Dark Crusade, with multiple factions and no MOBA elements? Yes.

This game is not worth buying, even at a discount.

Im enjoying the game so far I dont see any of the issues everyone is crying about

This game tries to blend large-scale battles with the hero-focused mechanics of DOW2, but it ends up feeling like a compromise that doesn't fully satisfy either side.

The campaign is a mix of Space Marines, Eldar & Orks. However, the story itself is forgettable, and the constant switching between factions prevents real attachment to any of them, I'm only half way through the campaign and I feel like i just want it to be over.

The core game play reintroduces base-building, but unit tactics feel shallower than DOW2, and the new MOBA-like hero mechanics don't integrate smoothly.

The game GFX look good, but its art style lacks the grit and brutality that defined the earlier titles.
The lack of cover mechanics and reduced squad micromanagement also hurt the depth of battles.

Ultimately the game struggles to grip me, failing to satisfy my RTS itch and probably those who enjoyed DOW2 tactical combat. With no expansions, this will fade quickly—making it the weakest entry in the series, worst part is i told my friend to get it so we can play together online.

It's OK i guess.