Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Could Help Bring This Popular Series Back

With the imminent release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, there is certainly a fever pitch for titles in the franchise. Warhammer being cool is always entertaining to me as someone who used to get mocked for it, but it also means that there is a chance for other games in the series to become popular again and even see a resurgence!

If you know your Warhammer gaming history, you will know that it is… convoluted at best, and the quality is very up and down. There are some great games, like the Total War: Warhammer series, and some not-so-great games, like Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior. However, one game brought the series to the public in a way no other did. I am talking, of course, about Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

If you have never played Dawn of War, let me give you a brief rundown. The initial game had you take control of the Blood Ravens and run through a solid campaign against the Orks, and eventually Chaos. It also included the opportunity to create maps to fight in and even paint your troops. It all came together to make an enjoyable experience for veterans and newbies. There’s even a story, which is appropriately epic yet corny, which is everything we want from a title, really. 

Dawn of War, at least the first one, is an RTS where each mission places you on an enclosed map with several resource points. You’ll need to construct buildings to improve your forces and train soldiers to eventually take the enemy’s base (or other objective). It’s simple enough but fun to go through, and the campaign offers enough variety in your objectives that it doesn’t get dull. This was sadly forgotten in later expansions, with the final two dropping the campaign completely. 

Now, I won’t get too into the official sequels and expansions because, well, they’re not amazing. In truth, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IIhas its moments, but it changed the game's focus and made it more squad-based. Meanwhile, the less said about Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, the better. What I want is to see the series return, either in the form of a new game or as a remaster of the original, and I think now is the perfect time. 

Hear me out: action games are great, but the real soul of Warhammer is on the tabletop, and we need a game that lets players experience that as much as the joy of chainsawing people. Now, there is the chance of a Warhammer 40,000 Total War, but honestly, that seems unlikely at this point (not to mention Total War has never been great with guns). However, the original Dawn of War managed to capture the same energy thanks to limited troop numbers and dynamic actions in combat. 

A resurgence is coming for the small-scale RTS genre in general, and Warhammer 40,000 is a great series to take part in this revival, especially if the groundwork is already there. It's one of the better genres for showing off some of the epic scale that we know 40K can reach, which can sometimes be lost in action games. That isn’t to say that FPS and third-person shooters in the universe don’t have a place; they absolutely do, but Warhammer needs to remember its roots as well as its future. 

I want Space Marine 2 to be successful, I want more 40K games and I want to see a resurgence of some of the history. But not Fire Warrior… never Fire Warrior.