Get back to old-school role-playing game with Dawn of War III

There hasn't been a good real-time strategy (RST) game in a very long time. Sure, we have seen some indie developers tackle the genre, but it always seems like there is something missing.

Dawn of War III, the latest Warhammer 40,000 title does a good job of tackling the intricacies of a massive RTS game.

There are three factions to play - namely Space Marines, Orks and Eldar. Space Marines are your typical human species, Orks are like the orcs you see in Lord of the Rings, and Eldars are elves. Each faction has its own unique abilities that make for interesting gameplay. They also have elite units that gain experience from battle and get better with time.

Unoriginal yet fun
The plot line has the factions looking for a weapon called the Spear of Khaine. The mode lets you try out each faction by constantly switching between them for every mission.

The game is not all that original. This is not necessarily a bad thing - a lot of things in RTS games are already set in a certain way because they work well and almost every game in this genre will follow those rules. That said, DOW III builds on these rules, adding a bunch of its own, making the gameplay more complicated than it needs to be. It can get tedious when you couple the complicated rules with massive battlefields. The good tutorial mode helps you through every step of the way.

The battle unfolds
Another problem was the inability to zoom out to get a birds-eye view of the map. This made it difficult to quickly move around, and we had to rely on the control shortcuts to switch to different battles.

The multiplayer mode has only eight maps of different sizes, and only one mode. The mode pits up to six players across two teams with a victory declared only when you manage to destroy the enemy's shield generator, turret and their main base. Elites play a big role in how the battle unfolds and it is very multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) inspired, think DOTA. The multiplayer can get complicated soon because of several factors, including three teams on each side, huge maps, huge armies and the annoying capped zoom levels. Despite this, the multiplayer has huge potential, especially if it manages to repair things that are wrong with future patches.

Truthfully, DOW III is the closest you are going to get to an old-school (role-playing game) RPG in a long time. It is insanely fun despite its flaws. We hope the developers add some more multiplayer modes in the future. It is a great game for the price.