Relic Entertainment’s Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Definitive Edition is a 2025 re-release of Warhammer 40K Dawn of War with all the DLC included and a lot of modern quality of life changes that bring it up to current standards while still retaining the game’s core aspects.
So does the Definitive Edition do the game justice, and is it worth playing through ?
Release and Updates
Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Definitive Edition was released in August 2025 and already has had numerous patches to address multiple issues with the game. The developers are still actively working on addressing problems, and as such, I’m prefacing this review with this fact so that players know exactly what to expect when purchasing this “Definitive Edition”.
Graphics and Visuals
First and foremost, if you expected the game to look amazing, you will be severely disappointed. This is an almost 21-year-old game that’s just been given a fresh coat of paint to make it look decent.
This, however, doesn’t mean that it’s been fully remade from the ground up. This is a remaster, and while the character models and visuals have been upgraded somewhat, this game is definitely not going to blow you away in terms of its graphical fidelity. If you want high graphics, I’d suggest just playing Dawn of War 3 from a few years back. This is a game for the original fans of Warhammer 40K Dawn of War from way back in the day, and thankfully, after loading it up, the game still feels like it did back then.
Hardcore fans who played the original Warhammer 40K Dawn of War and its subsequent expansions might be able to tear apart Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Definitive Edition way more than I can, but for the most part, I thought that it was a serviceable remaster with some major problems that are only problems because of the original game’s age.
One of these problems, for example, is the fact that you cannot change the hotkeys in-game easily. There are presets, but if you want to change specific keys, you’ll have to jump through hoops and do some file editing. The average gamer is not going to do this. It should have been implemented in-game already, and it’s disappointing to see this happening in a remaster.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Moving on to the gameplay itself, Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Definitive Edition plays like the original game did. While this is a good thing, it’s also an incredibly annoying thing, too. The original Warhammer 40K Dawn of War and its expansions were notorious for some atrocious pathfinding and plenty of gameplay problems around faction strengths and weaknesses, as well as bugs related to sound and crashing.
While playing the game, I never encountered any crashes. I did, however, encounter issues with the sound, with some units being way louder than others. The pathfinding also seemed to be just as lacklustre as before, despite the developers’ claims of it being improved. Maybe it was a marginal improvement, but after playing more modern RTS titles, units clumping together and just soaking up enemy gunfire in the worst ways possible, thanks to strange pathfinding, just felt disappointing overall. Rose-tinted nostalgia glasses need to be on to enjoy this.
Campaign and Story
Playing through the campaigns was about what I expected. Yup, this is Warhammer 40K Dawn of War, alright, and that campy early 2000s over-the-top melodramatic storytelling of yore is out in full force here. The base game’s main story is quite fun to play through, with the subsequent expansion’s campaigns being a bit less linear and more focused on the different factions with their own lore being woven into the game via stronghold missions.
The base game’s story is really well done, though, and is truly a part of classic RTS gaming history at this point. The voice acting, the scenarios it set up, the missions… It’s all there in all its old-school cool glory, and it is still so much fun to play through.
If you’re a newcomer to Warhammer 40K, you might feel a bit lost, but you can quickly get up to speed with things just by playing through the game. In summary, there are multiple factions, nine to be specific, and all of them have their own strengths and weaknesses and are vying for power and control in the Warhammer 40000 universe. Each faction has its own story with unique endings available for them, so there’s quite a bit of replayability here.
User Interface and Accessibility
The User Interface in-game has been given an update, but the text is quite small and not all that easy to read and understand. I highly suggest playing through the tutorial and making a mental note of where to find specific things because if you dive into the game without doing so, you’re going to struggle. Disappointingly, I would have expected the UI to be a lot more modernised and improved upon with some more visual flair, but alas, it’s quite barebones.
Modern RTS Comparison
Another major problem that I picked up with the game lies with the fact that modern gaming has probably ruined older RTS titles for me. Things such as waiting around for units to be built or units moving slowly across the map to capture points have become a lot more grating to me, and modern titles often have fast-forward options available or the ability to speed things up significantly.
You can choose to increase the game speed before starting a Skrimish, but an option to control this in-game in say for example, in the Campaign or inside the Skirmish mode, would have been greatly appreciated. It should also be noted that the game does have a learning curve, especially since there are 9 factions available here, and you’ll have to learn their ins and outs if you want to play this multiplayer online against seasoned veterans and diehard Warhammer 40000 fans.
Mod Support and Army Painter
Thankfully, the game does have full mod support, and I’m sure the community of diehard Warhammer 40K Dawn of War fans out there have a roster of mods already ready to go to address the issues that plagued the original title and its expansions.
The army painter is still there and is surprisingly still pretty good. I can see Warhammer tabletop mini fans using this to plan some of their favourite units’ colour schemes since it works just as well as it did back in the day.
Final Verdict
Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Definitive Edition does a lot of good in getting the game working on modern PCs, and the updated visuals don’t look terribly bad. It’s serviceable, but I really would have liked to see a lot more done here. This is the equivalent of taking out an old, tattered hoodie from the back of your cupboard, giving it a wash and then throwing it on. It’s comfy, but the holes are still there, and while it might look clean, it’s definitely past its heyday.
Only grab Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Definitive Edition if you are a hardcore fan or if you’re new to Warhammer 40000 and want to immerse yourself in the video game stories told from decades ago.
Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Definitive Edition Trailer
Read more awesome previews >>here<<.
Game code was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
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