New Dawn of War 4 trailer turns my childhood Warhammer 40k dreams into reality

I am unbelievably excited for Warhammer 40k Dawn of War 4. I grew up on the battlefields of Soulstorm and the new iteration is including my favorite faction, the oft-overlooked Adeptus Mechanicus. We can even ally with Imperial Knights. This game was practically made for me. With every new trailer, I get more onboard with the strategy game, as it looks fantastic - the latest dive into Dawn of War 4 is no exception. Whether the gameplay will hold up, we don't yet know, but I'm keeping my mechadendrites crossed.

The most impressive part of the new trailer is the focus on sync kills, which now apply to the entire fight. No longer do your units stand there completing random attack animations in the general direction of the enemy. Every battle is a perfectly choreographed fight to the death thanks to Dawn of War 4's combat director.

One particular moment in the trailer shows a Redemptor Dreadnought and Ork Deff Dread locked in close combat. The pair of mechanical behemoths struggle to penetrate each others' armor, before the Deff Dread starts to pick its opponent up. You can practically hear its servos and motors whirring under the strain, but the camera cuts away before the climatic blow. This is the sort of emergent narrative that I can't wait to explore when the game releases next year.

"When you do a new version or reinterpretation of a classic game, the challenge is always that you're not trying to recreate the old game, but you're trying to recreate the feeling that people had when they played the old game," King Art co-founder and creative director Jan Theysen tells PCGamer in the extended trailer above.

This reimagining of the sync kill system is exactly what I thought was happening when I played Dawn of War 20 years ago. Looking back, my imagination was working overtime, but the memories remain strong. This nostalgia, Theysen says, is what the developers have to compete with. And King Art seems to be competing.

We also get to see a couple of new units. Sicarian Ruststalkers leap into battle with the grace of a robot ballerina, and the Ork Stormboyz are the exact opposite, crashing into battle like a herd of elephants who've just come off the spinning teacups at the fair. Each unit represents its faction perfectly.

However, there are things that have been left in the past. Firstborn armor, for starters. The forces of Chaos don't appear, either. This wasn't an easy decision, but King Art needs to carve out its own future in the 41st millennium as much as it needs to remain true to this series' past.

"It's more about having a great game today, not recreating a game that was great 20 years ago," Theysen says. Dawn of War 4 looks like the modern iteration of the series that we've all wished for.

If you want a more in-depth look at the game, check out my Dawn of War 4 preview, in which I play a tutorial level four times in a row to catch every detail. With a multiplayer campaign, I can't help but wonder if it'll make our list of the best co-op games when it releases.

Who would win between a Dreadnought and a Deff Dread? Let us know what you think in our community Discord server, where readers and staff discuss the intricacies of Warhammer lore. It's the Deff Dread, by the way, no contest.