How Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 Aims to Reignite the Fires of War – IGN First

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War has been successful hibernation since 2017, and its astir caller installment was acold from universally well-received. So erstwhile King Art Games was handed the task of bringing it back, determination were a batch of tricky decisions to navigate and an anxious but picky fanbase to face. We precocious got to chat with Creative Director Jan Theysen and Senior Game Designer Elliott Verbiest astir however the squad is calling the shots. (Read connected oregon ticker the video interrogation below.)

It was King Art's erstwhile game, Iron Harvest, that seemed to drawback the attraction of idiosyncratic astatine Games Workshop. And it's not excessively hard to spot why, if you look astatine its big, stompy robots.

"So we were moving connected Iron Harvest, our erstwhile game, an RTS crippled arsenic well," Theysen recalled. "And that was a Kickstarter game. So we were precise unfastened astir the improvement and we showed a batch of worldly we tin bash with the motor and what we bash successful presumption of creation and truthful on. And arsenic idiosyncratic astatine Games Workshop indispensable person seen that and they fundamentally contacted america and asked, 'If we were doing Dawn of War 4, what would you do, basically?' And truthful we made a small transportation and we sent them implicit our ideas and the presumption and we didn't truly perceive backmost from them a lot. And truthful we fundamentally thought, okay, that's it, right? It's like, chill that they asked us, basically. And past erstwhile Iron Harvest came retired and was successful, they fundamentally came backmost and said, 'Okay, let's speech astir it for real.' But you can't truly judge it, right? Yeah, well, okay, present they're asking us, but successful reality, we're not going to marque Dawn of War 4. And past dilatory but surely it becomes much realistic and you don't truly situation to judge it, right? And past astatine immoderate constituent you motion the declaration and it's like, holy… it's there. We're doing it."

For many, myself included, Dawn of War was the gateway to the full Warhammer 40K universe. And King Art hopes this adjacent installment mightiness beryllium arsenic well. It's a sprawling and… sometimes convoluted setting, truthful that's not precisely a straightforward task.

"It's comic due to the fact that we perceive that a lot, right?" Theysen agreed. "And that was besides 1 of the large things for Dawn of War 4, that a batch of radical say, 'Okay, Dawn of War, yes, that was similar the archetypal clip I truly interacted with Warhammer.' And truthful for us, it was precise important to fundamentally marque a Dawn of War 4 that is of people for fans, but besides a imaginable introduction constituent for idiosyncratic who's new.

"Yeah. I deliberation I retrieve fundamentally however I felt erstwhile I played Dawn of War for the archetypal clip and it was like, okay, ace cool, but besides I don't recognize a lot, right? But I understood capable truthful the crippled was fun. It was not similar I had to cognize what each the antithetic weapons bash oregon thing similar that. It was much like, okay, I tin fig it out. And I deliberation that is besides the attack we instrumentality for Dawn of War 4, which is fundamentally without immoderate anterior cognition of Warhammer, you inactive request to recognize what the factions are about, what the units are about. You won't recognize each the antithetic weapons and instrumentality and each of that, but it's fine, you tin fig it out."

Taking the brutal, assertive Orks arsenic an example, the extremity with the plan of the full faction is that you should people beryllium capable to fig retired however to play without knowing a ton astir their lore oregon having to person it spelled retired for you. But those of america who person been surviving portion of our lives successful this beingness for years should inactive person worldly to get excited about.

"We don't truly archer the players, if you play Orks, you should person a batch of units and a batch of buildings and conscionable person this explosive expansion," Theysen explained. "It conscionable benignant of feels earthy to play that way, right? Because buildings are cheap, units are cheap, you suffer a lot, truthful you physique a batch ... We marque definite that adjacent if the radical don't cognize what Orks are about, they tin inactive play them correctly, basically."

"I deliberation that's really 1 of the main appeals for the Warhammer 40K beingness is that tremendous breadth and extent of things that you tin perchance learn," Verbiest added. "It's decidedly 1 of the things that attracted maine to it was that, okay, sure, of people determination is simply a aboveground level knowing of it that you tin present to the games, for example, done a communicative oregon a run that benignant of gets you into that satellite essentially. But there's truthful overmuch much to it. And I deliberation that that committedness of, hey, there's overmuch much going connected beneath the surface, I deliberation is what attracts truthful galore fans to it. And I deliberation that's besides however you tin service some fans aged and caller is that you present a story, thing to assistance onboard players into this world, but you person capable item and different things wrong that, that awesome to much established, much seasoned fans of the universe, hey, we are alert of this and we talk the aforesaid language. We person the aforesaid knowing here."

But adjacent wrong the Dawn of War envelope, determination are antithetic players bringing antithetic expectations to the table. Dawn of War 1 was much of a accepted basecraft RTS. Dawn of War 2 enactment the absorption much connected upgrading a fewer elite squads, astir similar an RPG. And Dawn of War 3 was… well, I effort not to deliberation astir it excessively much. But adjacent it had its fans, apparently. So deciding what Dawn of War 4 was going to beryllium successful discourse of the erstwhile entries was a judgement telephone each its own.

"I mean, that was decidedly 1 of the large questions astatine the beginning, right?" Theysen said. "What is simply a Dawn of War game, right? Because Dawn of War 1 and 2, astatine slightest everybody present astatine the institution truly loves, but they're precise antithetic games. And you tin say, okay, possibly we tin marque a benignant of champion disconnected of some of those. But we're not definite that that really works. And truthful successful the extremity we said, okay, we person to spell with 1 of them. And we said ultimately, okay, let's spell a small spot backmost to the roots, right? Let's bash Dawn of War 1, oregon our mentation oregon our mentation of Dawn of War 1. Let's spot if thing from Dawn of War 2 oregon adjacent 3 works with that. And if it does, sure, past let's enactment it in. But Dawn of War 1 was intelligibly our guiding star."

"And it's truly absorbing due to the fact that that besides informed a batch of the gameplay and plan decisions that we made arsenic well," Verbiest elaborated. "The existent clip strategy genre is besides thing that has precise antithetic marketplace segments oregon antithetic audiences that person precise different, sometimes conflicting needs. And I deliberation that having that clarity of imaginativeness of, we privation to spell for Dawn of War 1 and however radical felt astir that decidedly besides informed a batch of the choices that we made arsenic to what benignant of parts of the crippled are we focusing on. So that's wherefore we person this accent connected the campaigns arsenic benignant of similar our flagship feature, arsenic good arsenic having each these fantastic cinematics and CGIs that we past person past to pass that story. Because that's thing that I deliberation a batch of radical were missing from the genre for rather a while."

And storytelling is poised to beryllium front-and-center for Dawn of War 4. While galore RTSes person led with a competitory multiplayer mindset, King Art is putting a batch of accent connected their dynamic campaigns and the single-player experience.

"Because that is similar the archetypal large determination we made was basically, okay, if we bash a Dawn of War 4, we privation 4 factions backmost and not lone three," Theysen continued. "And if we person 4 factions, we truly would similar to archer a communicative for each of the factions, right? And past each of the 4 campaigns person this overarching story, basically. And for us, that conscionable felt similar a earthy happening we wanted to bash due to the fact that we similar campaigns, we cognize that a batch of RTS players similar campaigns, and truthful let's truly absorption connected that. And past we made our lives adjacent harder due to the fact that we decided, okay, let's possibly besides person the campaigns beryllium a small spot non-linear. So determination are things like, you tin prime which of the Ork bosses you privation to play, for example. Or determination are missions that are mutually exclusive oregon things that you tin optionally bash and truthful on. And truthful for us, it's similar this: the run is similar the bosom of the full happening and that has to work. But of course, past besides we person multiplayer and we person Last Stand and truthful on."

If you're funny to perceive much astir the nonlinear aspects of the Ork campaign, support an oculus retired for our hands-on preview aboriginal this month. Then beryllium definite to cheque retired each of our different Dawn of War 4 sum arsenic portion of IGN First, including the Ork cinematic trailer. And for everything else, support it close present connected IGN.