it is better to buy this game for the Emperor, than save the money for yourself.

A library without this game is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded.

I was going to write a review about how this game takes me back to a happy place where I lost hours of my life purging in the Emperors glorious name, but the Blood Ravens stole it.

A good RELIC made remaster with a DISCOUNT for loyal SONS OF THE EMPIRE? Ignore the orcs besmirching the remaster quality! They are probably trying to run the game with a potato or just two rocks put together. Time to "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH" as the Blood Raven captain from the intro said! My only complain? No Trazyn exists in this 40K reality......Come on Relic! We want a Dawn of 2/Retribution remaster and the REAL Dawn of War 3! EMPRAH bless you all.

First game, enemy Necron Lord not even moving.. But they fixed pathfinding. Too bad forgot to test it. xD Also why are the hud portraits are so ugly and pixelated? But i must mention the discount is pretty nice from them and hard to complain about it's price compared to the content you squezze out of it. But ye there is always more that they could do or add, like tyranids or a map pack or something like that. It's also a bit sad that they must release definitive editions instead of sequels since they all suck compared to the original. Anyways, than you for the graphical update and continue the create games along this line instead of DW3 or other failed ideas.

Crashing all the time in multiplayer. Game looks great, but I can't play with friends. Hopefully, they fix this soon, then I will change the review to a positive one.

You should get it if you like the original games want better mod support because of the 64 bit engine upgrade. Looks great textures are nice and sharp. A good discount for owners of the original games is nice to see as well. Widescreen support and ultra wide support is great to have. Only heretics do not like this game.

To the new player playing Space Marines who I fought, I'd like to apologise for swarming your HQ with "slugga boyz" within the first 5 minutes of the game. That was a dick move on my part. I'm not sorry about it though, just to be clear on that.

Ok, I must admit it is a bit of a mixed bag, but overall in plus. There are caveats. Another one the "I wish steam had middle option between 'yes' and 'no'. Long story short - if you expected an AoE2 Definitive Edition level - walk away. If you expect a glorified HD edition - that is what you get. Let's start with the good. - It is good old Dawn of War with all the expansions - The new lighting is nice - The new pathfinding is lovely - units, especially vehicles are MUCH less likely to get stuck, which was huge issue of the original - you can finally zoom out the camera nicely - new UI and resolution fixes are also lovely - 64bit upgrade - so they game should no longer bottleneck on RAM and other things it doesn't see past certain value - will be big for modding. Now the bad - and this is going to get nuanced: - The new upscaled textures reek of AI and all the marks of the beast are there. The 'improvements' are uneven to say the least. For example - the hole on Gabriels backpack is all sorts of messed up, because apparently AI did not comprehend what a circle is, but exactly identical hole on Isador's backpack - that is fine. Some bolts, details on the banners, some imperial Aquilas have three heads and stuff like this. All the artifacts of AI being shoddily slapped onto it with little care. This is especially visilble on some portraits - like Battle Sister Squad - the face on the portrait looks like either a melted cheese or something that desperately needs an exorcist. - some people report major performance issues related to shadows - I have not experienced it myself, but I think it is worth noting. - While you have access to all the campaigns, you only have access to Soulstorm Skirmish - and since base game and expansions all use slightly different rules, like how they treat infiltrated units, imposed unit limits and the like, or the controversial flying units of Soulstorm - it is sad to not have an option. - Bug are NOT squashed - I just finished replaying the original Dawn of War campaign, I noticed all the old bug still present - messed up scripting in some cutscenes (Under Siege, marines with rockets try to melee ork Tanks) or a rare random crash on Destroy the Xenos mission, or plasma pistol sometimes not replacing the bolt pistol properly. This means that bugs of expansions are also likely still there. Now, some people compared it Warcraft 3 Reforged - and this is absolutely unfair. Reforged was expensive and broke a lot of things and never repaired many of them either. It was a fundamentally broken mess. Dawn of War Definitive Edition simply under-delivers, but is perfectly functional. All in all - this is not a proper remaster. It is an HD edition through and through. But it cost me less than a pizza, so I say it is worth that price.

Still one of the greatest games ever made !! Been a long time coming for modern systems but they have done a great job :) FOR THE EMPEROR !!

The Good: - Graphical improvements and widescreen support - All of DOW1 in one package - Discount for owners of the previous games - Units are more responsive - Game stability is improved The Bad: - Skirmish/Multiplayer mode is Soulstorm rules/units only - No achievements - Some visual oddities relating to the improved textures - No WASD camera control - Some of the upscaling is poorly done (Unit icons) Hopefully these issues can be resolved with a patch or two.

Warhammer 40k? 40k in debt yes.

The conclusion that Relic Entertainment will never include custom keybinds to a game that so desperately needs them, is most certainly definitive...

While I appreciate that the game has some improvements including borderless fullscreen play, I am incredibly unhappy with the lazy AI upscaling on portraits, cutscenes, even the classic intro sequence. Whoever was in charge of revitalizing artwork was employed without a proper background check and was not monitored through the entire process of the game's remastering. Edit: Since some of the people can't do critical thinking before commenting. The game is fine, I like it, it's fun, as fun as it was before. I only dislike the AI upscaled art (portraits and pre-rendered cutscenes). Not the game. Just the AI upscaled stuff. Edit 2: Guys, I wanted to share my thoughts on the game, not start a youtube comments section, please, let's be civil.

Not yet. May eventually turn into positive IF (hopefully, as stated by the devs) fixes start to roll and fix few things. The game launched with some important annoyances: Let the first one the mouse cursor unlocking from the main screen (even if there is an option specifically to lock it) wich makes the game hardly playable (as moving the camera around is usually made by moving the mouse to the borders) You can use a third-party software to lock cursor if you really want to play (there are some simple, free ones). But still that should not be a thing at all. Unit icons seems to be weirdly upscaled versions of original game, and look... weird. In theory they are going to change this, but... why changing it post-release and not before? guess launch has been rushed, idk. Not tried multiplayer yet. There are some reports on issues, but can´t say by myself. Just stating it as a warning so you take a look at forums about it first. Few other problems have been listed, and there is already a "roadmap" of fixes on Steam forums. I recommend to check it to better be aware of the state of the game and the most needed fixes. Link on the next line: https://steamcommunity.com/app/3556750/discussions/1/591779517900522135 So hopefully all that will be fixed... ...but until its done (and i hope it will be, but lets just wait and see) i cannot really recommend getting it. Will update the review once (if) those fixes roll out and try the game again.

not being able to change versions of multiplayer is really disheartening.Having to deal with soulstorm's....everything is really lame, i would like to just be able to choose between og/winter assault/dark crusade for the multiplayer

Alright, so as a huge WH40K fan and an even bigger fan of DoW 1 and 2 (DoW 3 does not exist), i have to give it a thumbs down for now. As much as they touted the improvement in graphical fidelity, the team did a half a**ed job of it. Here are some examples: 1. Some gun barrels got the pentagon to full circle treatment and texture work, but most like the plasma pistol, flamer, sniper rifle, Orc shootas still have smudged low res textures and an even more apparent pentagon since you can zoom in now. 2. The texture work overall looks to be done by bad AI model, and little human touch was applied. The terminators look washed out as always, but now more apparent. 3. The unit portraits... they are just straight up bad. AI took what little pixels there were and tried to make 4K out of it, and now it looks like a GPU artifact. The SM Servitor and Terminators look unrecognizable up close, and maybe like themselves from 5 feet away. 4. Terain textures on skirmish maps leave a lot to be desired. This is all from a quick skirmish game SM vs Orks. If i spent more time, I would probably notice more stuff that is off, but i have a sour taste tonight. The rest of the work seems decent, full resolution and widescreen support, game runs well on modern hardware, and I hope mods will work nicely as well. It just feels like a quick cash grab off of loyal fans and more like a mediocre moder got his hands on the source material and had a few weeks to slap the 4 games into one, run the textures through AI and called it good. If it were a free upgrade for Aniversary edition owners, I wouldn't bat an eye at these faults, but having to pay for it, even with the 30% veteran discount I can't recommend it. I hope this nudges them to fix the issue in a patch or two. Give the marketing team a raise, but the artists need to be sent back to drawing board and to do a better job.

As someone who grew up playing Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, I was genuinely excited to revisit this RTS classic under the promise of a “Definitive Edition.” Sadly, what we’ve received is far from definitive — and worse, it borders on misleading. 🔧

Lack of Technical Improvements

The term "Definitive Edition" usually implies technical and graphical enhancements, or at the very least, quality-of-life upgrades. This release has none. The graphics are untouched — still locked to dated resolutions unless you manually tweak config files or rely on fan-made mods. UI scaling is non-existent, making it practically unplayable on 2K or 4K monitors without a magnifying glass. There is no native widescreen support, and performance is inconsistent on modern systems. 🧠

No AI or Gameplay Tweaks

The AI is as clunky as it was in the early 2000s — prone to getting stuck, failing to respond properly, or turtling indefinitely. Pathfinding issues, poor unit responsiveness, and an archaic control system all remain unfixed. For a re-release, some refinement of core mechanics would have gone a long way. But alas, it’s a direct port with no optimization. 🛠️

Compatibility and Stability Issues

This edition struggles to run on newer hardware. Random crashes, long load times, audio desyncs, and startup errors are common. Compatibility with Windows 10/11 is hit or miss unless you apply unofficial patches or community fixes. Considering this game was re-released under a “Definitive” banner, the lack of official support for modern systems is unacceptable. 🤝

Multiplayer is Essentially Broken

Multiplayer, once a major strength of the original Dawn of War, is essentially non-functional. With the shutdown of the original servers years ago, there is no robust matchmaking or lobby system in place. While there are fan patches and third-party tools to restore some functionality, nothing official has been provided here. The developers missed a perfect opportunity to revive the community. 📦

No Added Value

There’s no new content, no bundled artbook or soundtrack, no developer commentary, no mod support improvements—nothing. This edition adds zero value over the original game available on digital platforms for years. Even modding is less accessible due to directory issues and broken compatibility with existing tools. ⚠️

Misleading Title

Calling this the “Definitive Edition” is not only misleading but also feels like a cash grab targeting nostalgic fans of the franchise. There’s no justification for the rebranding beyond marketing. This is, at best, a lightly reissued version of the same game, with the same flaws, in a shinier wrapper. 📉

Conclusion

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is still a landmark RTS title, but this release does nothing to preserve or enhance that legacy. If anything, it tarnishes it. If you’re new to the game, you're better off buying the older version and applying community patches and mods. If you're a returning fan, be prepared for disappointment.

Pros:

Core gameplay and atmosphere still solid Campaign is still enjoyable (if you can get it to run)

Cons:

No graphical or performance upgrades Poor compatibility with modern systems Broken or missing multiplayer features No new content or improvements Misleading branding Final Score: 3.5/10

This is a definitive edition of an amazing 20 year old game but it has no Steam achievements or badges, hence I can't recommend it, as it stands the price isn't worth what little it adds. Update: Devs have acknowledged the achievements and are looking into it but have made no promises as of yet.

Thumbs down untill they add basic features like Steam Workshop, key bindings, achievements and fix bugs. Let's be honest, it's a low effort remaster with AI scaled textures, even if the game is still as awesome as it was back then. So low effort that when I move the cursor to the left, it goes to my second screen instead of moving the camera. Ridiculous.

While the graphical updates are nice, there are actually several changes that seem backwards. 1st: theres no option for windowed fullscreen, its either full screen or window which is super annoying as someone with multiple screens. 2nd: while the models seem mostly updated quite nicely, for some reason some of the icons weren't updated at all leading to the icons at higher resolutions looking horrible. 3rd: While having all the games in one is nice, there is no way to choose which game rule set matches follow in skirmish. Meaning if you don't want the air units from soulstorm, you're out of luck. All skirmishes are played with soulstorm rules and units only, really seems like being able to switch between the 3 for skirmishes would be a no brainer. There are some good things from this though 1: The new camera is actually pretty great, being able to finally zoom out to a reasonable level is a great addition. 2: The models actually do look quite a bit better, I didn't think I would notice a difference, but especially in up close fighting the models look pretty great and more vivid. 3: Having all games in one game is pretty nice on the campaign side, its nice to be able to access all campaigns without having to boot up a different game. Requests: - Please add windowed fullscreen. - Improve the icons to match the fidelity of the models, its rather jarring - Please add more options to skirmish games in general, there's alot more they could do here, namely adding the ability to toggle between different game limitations, but also more game modes if they are willing to do anything beyond visuals. - Would really appreciate full unit lists in the Army Painter, it was always sort of annoying to only see 2-3 units there.

I really want to recommend this, but its just too unfinished. This is clearly a minimum effort way to cash in on the Dawn of War IP. There's no way this should have shipped as is. I'm sorry, I really wanted to like this. Pathing is still very rough. I had two destroyers (fast hover units) get stuck behind a monolith (large hover unit, probably the slowest in the game by a wide margin) - no other units around. Camera still does not zoom out very far. A lot of the upscaling on the textures looks bad. And a lot of it was unnecessary - GW has mountains of high resolution images of faction logos, honor markings etc. Running a low resolution image through an AI upscaler instead of spending the time to find an actual high resolution original is so lazy. I do not want to encourage this. Features were literally removed - cannot use WASD for camera panning, for example. No keybinding. Come on guys, features like this are like half the point to buying a refresh if the graphics aren't going to be modern. As far as I can tell, no new novel features added other than some very minor HUD adjustment options. Loads of old issues persist - teleportation still cancels your movement commands, for example. Eldar will not lose the game if they have a cloaked building even if literally everything else is dead and that building cannot produce units. New issues added. Lots of much more noticable texture seams for example. Cannot save game in Soulstorm campaign. Loads of issues in soulstorm in general, actually - literally they come at you the second you load it up. It feels like they didn't even do that - or how else would it have made it in? I thought this was an easy W, but again, its ultimately a minimum effort way to cash in on the Dawn of War name. If they improve it I will happily change my review to positive.

My face is my shield!

One autistic fanboy's list of notable changes after half an hour of play- TL;DR - Cannot recommend in current state, will need to see how well it supports *dedicated* mods and for some of the vanilla functionality to be reimplimented (perhaps "expansion selection" in the mods menu for those who want to play WA or DC balance) before flipping that thumb right-side-up. For now, take that eye-catching red as one half "~Neutral" one half "got your attention, didn't I?" -=The Good=- >skippable cutscenes >new, far more stable, engine >native widescreen >multiple UI customization options >three hotkey presets for classic, modern, and gridded (ini files can be edited to create own bindings) >visible hotkey overlay option >fixed mouse cursor for Windows 11 >new accessibility features like more colorblind friendly colors on the minimap, large mouse cursor mode, various levels of 'help' detail, ability to turn unit responses off, sticky selection, auto-attack-move, and larger numbers for your resource supplies. >Units much faster to respond to orders, especially queues >ability to turn chat off >flying units overhauled to no longer get stuck on the terrain (since they were just skimmers with a vertical offset) >Imports soulstorm profile (name and paints) >Campaigns are balanced to match their relevant expansion pack >Game comes with pack-in Mod Maker and Custom Mission Designer tools not unlike WarCraft III's "WorldEdit", as well as a unit editer for easy fan rebalancing -=The Bad=- >Double the price of the originals (equal price if you're upgrading) >Game switches from fullscreen to borderless fullscreen, seemingly at random, and lacks mouse binding, for multi-monitor users, this puts edge-scrolling out of question. >Skirmish is restricted explicitly to Soulstorm v1.2 (so those wanting the classic experience must buy the originals or wait for a mod) >LAN support is still missing (removed by SEGA to 'prevent piracy') >No cutscene viewer despite cutting XP intros -=The Ugly=- >Game is 18 GB install, but has updated content for all four previous installments (clocking in at 2.6, 2.7, 4.2, and 5.4 on original release, for a 3-6 GB profile increase total depending on version) >new textures with reflection mapping, making the game look 'newer' but shinier >AI can now use unit abilities (this, theoretically, makes the game harder) >Load screen art replaced with screenshots of the new units in gameplay >Game uses a mix of assets to match what devs felt were most 'iconic', -=The Mods=- >Mods are FAR more stable, testing early versions of unification, despite broken graphics (WIP), run at a buttery smooth 60fps instead of plumetting down to 8-12 because the engine's dying trying to display larger armies from multiple factions.

unoptimized piece of crap "better graphic" almost unnoticable better to stick with anniversary edition Edit: Thanks for free points!