Gabriel Angelos prefers to stay out of the fray in the new Dawn of War – which is good news for the Orks, because nobody likes to mess with the hammer-wielding super soldier.
Dawn of War 4 is supposed to be based primarily on the first part of the strategy series. But in one crucial respect, the new offshoot deviates from its great role model. This time around, we will (apparently) not be going to war alongside Space Marine Captain Gabriel Angelos again.
Especially since the captain has now become a Master of the Order – but that didn’t keep the uncompromising super soldier away from the battlefield in Dawn of War 3. In Dawn of War 3, we saw what Gabriel Angelos is capable of with the devastating warhammer Godsplitter in his hands.
For the new developers at King Art, this enormous power probably became a problem, as they explain in IGN in an interview.
“We don’t want Gabriel Angelos in the game.”
Heroes were already an important factor in the first Dawn of War, but with major differences compared to the two sequels. From Dawn of War 2 onwards, heroes were essentially the focus of the entire gameplay, with simple units serving as cannon fodder in comparison. This is where demon-slaying super marine Gabriel Angelos fits in perfectly, of course.
Dawn of War 4 aims to bring the power level back to that of the first game, which also means that heroes are still strong, but no longer weapons of mass destruction. Heroes are normal units that quickly bite the dust when left to their own devices. Gabriel Angelos does not fit into this vision:
That was actually one of the decisions we made relatively early on. We don’t want Gabriel Angelos in the game. Because to us, he seemed a little too powerful. It’s also strange, either we have to have this slightly overpowered character in from the beginning of the game, which would be a little inappropriate, or we have to say, “Oh, well, he’s lost his memory and all his powers,” which is also a strange cliché. So we basically opted for more “normal” heroes. Cyrus and Jonah return, but in terms of their power, they are more on the level of normal units.
Of course, Cyrus and Jonah are no pushovers either, and can easily take on a small group of orcs, Necrons, or worse:
- Cyrus can do this: Cyrus is the Blood Ravens’ best scout and specializes in covert reconnaissance. He often remains undetected and then strikes from ambush with a sniper rifle.
- What Jonah can do: Jonah is a Librarian and thus has psionic powers. This means he can basically cast spells and use them to hurl lightning bolts or slow down entire groups of enemies.
The fourth installment of the strategy series is currently being developed in Bremen by King Art. Previously, development was always handled by the Canadian development studio Relic. There is no release date for Dawn of War 4 yet, as the game was only recently unveiled at gamescom.
Many details about the story are still unknown. We would therefore not rule out the possibility of meeting Gabriel Angelos again, at least in the context of the story.
