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I noticed that the Dawn of War series was all on sale on Steam and I was wondering about Dakka's opinions on what/if I should buy.

I have never played a DoW game but the first two seem to have good reviews while the third seems. . . mixed at best. I like tactics and strategy games like the XCOM series and the Total War games, so would I like these? Should I buy the first two or are they similar enough that I should just buy the second one? Finally what are your opinions on DLC for these games, are they money grabs or cool new content?

Thank you very much.

Hi there,

I've played a lot on DoW: Dark Crusade and Soulstorm and they are excellent games, typical RTS. I think they have aged well and you'll feel the 40K atmosphere with every faction.

I'm almost done finishing the campaign on DoW II and it is completely different from the first games. It's not really a RTS anymore, more like Diablo with 4 squads. You control your small force of one Commander and 3 different squads among 5 choices. Basically missions are going from point A to point B while completing the objectives, who are generally a boss fight, destroying enemy bases or defending a point. In my opinion it's a really fun game and it can be really challenging with increased difficulty, but it's nothing like the first games in terms of gameplay.

I stopped DoW III at the third campaign mission because I had to play Eldars and I dislike their gameplay. Essentially DoW III is a mix between the first and second games, as you still have to go from point A to B while completing your objectives, but this time you build your army and base with building to accomplish it. In my opinion there is way too much micro management with the sheer quantity of units you'll have to control, each has one or more special abilities and it'll require good reflexes and keybinds to activate them in the right situation. I don't know for others but this game is kind of exhausting to play.

So in short, it depends on your preferred gameplay, but if you love RTS you'll love the DoW 1 series.

I own all 3 games.

Dawn of War 1 is, in my opinion, one of the best RTS games of all time. It's a really terrific game, well balanced, tons of mods. There are a lot of expansions to it - I think Dark Crusade was the peak of the development. There was one more after there, Soulstorm, which is pretty legitimately bad I think, but it did introduce a lot of new units and factions, so if you really want to play Sisters for example, you're going to need to do that.

Dark Crusade is what got me into Warhammer 40k. The first mini I ever bought, assembled, and painted was a (metal) Necron Immortal.

Dawn of War 2 isn't an RTS, it's a real-time-tactical game, which is a little different. I didn't like this one very much because I like base building, and that's not an element of RTT games. The game itself is OK, but it's just not really my genre.

It includes a standalone game, The Last Stand, which is an absolute blast, even if the Necron Lord is wildly, insanely overpowered. You're playing against AI, though, so no big deal really.

Dawn of War 3 is graphically the best game, and it moves back to being kind of an RTS - it straddles between the 2 games. There is a little but more base building. I've had a really hard time getting into this for no discernible reason. The campaign just hasn't really spoken to me, and the actual skirmish vs AI matches just seem kind of eh.

None of them are exactly an analogue for XCOM2, though. I like XCOM2 but these games are all realtime. The only one I find myself going back to is Dawn of War 1 - Dark Crusade, though.




for $35 for them all, I'd sure grab it even if you only get into one of them.

Just buy the first one

Speaking purely from a single player perspective;
I wouldn't bother with the first one personally, whilst it is a more traditional RTS the campaign mode is pretty uninspired (like most traditional RTS games!) and the graphics look very muddy in this day and age.

The 2nd game however has a really interesting campaign that blends RPG and Real Time Tactics elements. It lets you customise your units and really brings across the feel of being part of a Space Marine chapter.
You can give the 2 expansions a miss as they don't do anything better than the base game.

I would get the first game and its expansion for sure. Dark Crusade is one of my favourite games of all time and I think, the best of the bunch.

DoW2 is a different kinda game like what's been said before. I haven't enjoyed it so much but it has a bit more to it.

I have DoW3 but my backlog hasn't let me get in and play it yet. The graphical changes and reviews haven't really made me want to move other things out of the way for it yet.

Get DoW1 then we can all jump on and have some multiplayer I had a go on this the other day and jebus, was I slow. I can't remember all the build orders I used to do either.