WARHAMMER 40,000: DAWN OF WAR
It’s a tragedy that Warcraft III got an HD remaster—albeit a half-assed one—but if I want to play Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War I need to download widescreen hacks and an app just to remap the controls and get it into a playable state. Blizzard’s seminal RTS no doubt deserves all the praise it gets, but all these years later Dawn of War feels like the strategy game that really pushed the genre into new and interesting spaces. It’s not just the glorious, violent battles that erupt constantly across each mission, but the way Dawn of War cleverly trims the fat to create a strategy game that feels innovative and exciting even 16 years later.
I didn’t appreciate that the first time I played it, though. For most of my and its expansions sitting in my Steam library, it was a natural place to start. I just wanted something to tickle my fancy for this new universe I suddenly developed an appetite for—but I didn’t expect this to rocket to the top of my favorite RTS games.
