Relic Entertainment is giving its much-loved real-time strategy game Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War a bit of modern day makeover for a Definitive Edition that’s scheduled to arrive on GOG and Steam later this year. Additionally, a Space Marine 1 re-release is on the way.
Starting with Dawn of War, it originally launched in 2004, casting players (in the single-player campaign, at least) as the Space Marines’ Blood Ravens 3rd Company, charged with defending the planet Tartarus from Ork invaders. But away from the campaign, players also got to test their skills controlling the Orks, Eldar, and Chaos. “It’s a perfect gaming world,” Keiron Gillen wrote in Eurogamer’s 8/10 review back in the day, “being exploited perfectly, for the first time.”
Skip ahead 20 or so years, and it’s time to do it all again, thanks to the newly unveiled Dawn of War – Definitive Edition. This bundles together the base game alongside its three expansions – Winter Assault, Dark Crusade, and Soulstorm – all of which equates to “four Classic Dawn of War Campaigns, nine Armies, and over 200 maps”, according to Relic.
And because it’s now 2025 and computers have come on a bit since Eric Prydz’s Call On Me was at number one, there’s also 4K support, upscaled textures (4x the originals), an enhanced battlefield camera, “optimised” HUD and screen layouts for widescreen viewing, plus improvements to world lighting, units reflections, and shadows. Additionally, the Definitive Edition remains compatible with “over 20-years of lovingly crafted community mods”.
Dawn of War’s Definitive Edition – which doesn’t have a release date yet – isn’t the only Warhammer glow-up announced as part of today’s Warhammer Skulls showcase. The original Space Marine is also set to return as an enhanced Master Crafted Edition, being handled by developer SneakyBox. This “thoughtful restoration” of the 2011 shooter launches for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Game Pass on 10th June, and features 4K resolution support, modernised controls, an interface overhaul, improved character models, remastered audio, and more.
“This is more than just Master Crafted Edition,” publisher Sega writes in its announcement, “it’s a respectful dialogue between past and present, preserving what made the original special while making it shine for a new generation of players.”
