Jan Theysen, creative director of Dawn of War 4 at King Art Games, recently told IGN that Dawn of War’s original protagonist Gabriel Angelos won’t be returning for their sequel. “That was actually one of the decisions we made relatively early. We don’t want Gabriel Angelos in the game,” he said.
Gabriel Angelos was the star of the story campaign in the original Dawn of War, though he didn’t feature in all of the sequels and expansions. If you played Dark Crusade as the Blood Ravens they were commanded by Davian Thule, and in Soulstorm by Indrick Boreale. For Dawn of War 2 you played a nameless force commander known only as “Commander,” though Angelos did eventually appear at the head of your reinforcements, and took over in Dawn of War 3—though the less said about that the better.
“For us, he felt a little bit overpowered,” Theysen said. “It’s a little bit weird to have either this slightly overpowered character from the beginning of the game, which is a little bit off, or you have to do, ‘Oh, well, he lost his memory and he lost all his power,’ which is also a weird trope.”
The trailer for Dawn of War 4 does show the return of other Blood Ravens. It’s narrated by Scout Sergeant Cyrus, who seems to die at the end—though if he stays that way I’ll be shocked. (He probably crosses the Rubicon Primaris, though if he became a dreadnought that would be neat too.) The chapter’s Chief Librarian Jonah Orion is back as well.
“We basically said we want more ‘normal’ heroes,” Theysen explained. “So we have Cyrus and we have Jonah coming back, but they’re all, power level-wise, more similar to normal units.”
Which is neat. Dawn of War 4 does seem like it’s toning down the disparity between wildly OP characters and paper-thin troops in Dawn of War 3 to return to something more like the original, where your heroes were badass, but if you didn’t keep an eye on them could suddenly find themselves in a world of hurt.
As our Fraser Brown said after a few hours going hands-on with Dawn of War 4, “Blood Ravens—even their Terminators—ain’t immortal. The relentless green tide can whittle them down, and the orks have some mean machines that can crack open space marines like tins of beans.”
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