Relic needs to continue pushing the RTS genre forward

Jul 19, 2014 16:19 GMT  ·  By

It seems that the Warhammer 40,000 universe from Games Workshop is more popular than ever when it comes to gaming, with a number of titles based on it embracing genres as different as MMO, shooter, tactical turn battles and tower defense.

But this rise in interest in the franchise that started life as a tabletop experience has, unfortunately, not included the much-awaited announcement that Relic was working on the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III title.

The series is one that has been highly praised over the years by fans of the real-time strategy genre and has been known to introduce a wide variety of innovations with each new installment.

The first title managed to faithfully recreate a wide variety of factions from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, create complex but fast gameplay mechanics built around resource node control and carefully balanced units, and deliver a few solid expansions.

The single-player campaigns were also interesting, if a little over the top, but meshed well with the rest of the Games Workshop universe and its tendency to deliver huge doses of both heroism and violence.

The second game felt a little more restricted at first, but it managed to deliver a solid re-creation of the Tyranid hordes and to make Commander characters an integral part of gameplay, basically introducing a light role-playing game aspect to the entire experience.

Since it delivered the final expansion for Dawn of War II in early 2011, Relic has been suggesting that it is working on a new title in the series but has not offered any sort of detail about the story it might tell or the way it plans to update the core mechanics.

The studio, best known for its work in the real-time strategy genre, has launched Company of Heroes 2, which was well but not spectacularly revealed, and one expansion for it, called The Western Front Armies.

A change of tone is required for the near future, and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III would be a perfect setting to test out some new ideas and push the RTS genre forward in significant ways, something that has not happened in the last few years.

I would like to see a bigger emphasis on the galactic plane, with a bigger player involvement in the affairs of the chapter of Space Marines they are controlling, and more focused battles, with each level focused on one clear objective that can be reached in multiple ways.