Relic Entertainment has announced it’s giving its much-loved real-time strategy game Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War a bit of modern day spit and polish for a Definitive Edition that’s scheduled to arrive on GOG and Steam later this year. And that’s alongside a re-release for Space Marine 1.
Starting with Dawn of War, the original game launched back in 2004, giving players control (in the single-player campaign at least) of the Space Marines’ Blood Ravens 3rd Company and tasking them with defending the planet Tartarus from Ork invaders. But away from the campaign, players also got to test their skills controlling the Arks, Elder, 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 now time to do it all again, thanks to the newly unveiled Warhammer 40K: 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 feature 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 at present – 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.”
