It’s a sad fact of modern life that, as far as any game development studio has announced, nobody is working on a new Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War game. In between binge eating ice cream and rewatching the original Dawn of War Trailer on ten hour loop, I’ve found something else to look forward to – a grimdark indie RTS called Dust Front.
Dust Front is being made by solo developer RtsDimon. While it isn’t using the Warhammer 40k license – and certainly isn’t marketing itself as an official Warhammer 40k game – one look at the trailer below will tell you that this developer absolutely loves grimdark scifi.
According to the Steam page, the game “takes place on a planet devastated by many wars and upheavals, where under a thick layer of soot and concrete [are] buried remnants of humanity’s former might”. You will lead the human Empire in wars against aliens with superior technology, hordes of mutants, rebels within your borders, and even secret conspiracies.
It’s a single-player game, which will apparently feature elements of grand strategy games with a “procedural world and non-linear campaign”. The developer adds, in a post on X, that the RTS gameplay will focus on “sieges and breakouts”, while you’ll face tough decisions on the global map, some of them taking the form of narrative driven events.
Now, I said this wasn’t an official Warhammer 40k game, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the developer is incredibly deep into 40k lore. No, not just the superheavy tanks that look like Astra Militarum Baneblades. It’s deeper than that – the whole framing of the game reminds me of the Unification Wars.
Though they’ve hardly been mentioned outside of a few Horus Heresy books, the Unification Wars were the very first stage in the Emperor of Mankind’s grand plan. Leading armies of mortal soldiers and proto-Space Marine Thunder Warriors he conquered the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Earth and brought the other Techno-Barbarian warlords to heel. All manner of mutant aberrations and cults to dark gods were expunged in that first act of conquest.
Other inspirations are evident in Dust Front too, of course – the sheer number of units on screen is right out of Total Annihilation and its successors. The Steam page has a lovely gif of a factory retracting into a wheeled chassis and trundling off – a mobile construction unit, one might say. And on X, RtsDimon references the early 3D RTS Earth 2150 as a big inspiration.
Then there are the “rare superweapons that can wipe cities to dust, turn them into a breeding ground for incurable diseases, or move entire armies straight into the chasm”. Sounds like a mix between the superweapons from Red Alert, and Nuclear Gandhi from every Civilization game.
No release date is listed for Dust Front yet, and RtsDimon seems content to take their time – their X account shows pictures from builds going all the way back to 2013. But as the most recent teaser dates to April 5, it seems that development is still very much ongoing! So until the glorious day when we hear news of Dawn of War 4, this is where my steely gaze shall be fixed.
Want to know how the Unification Wars ended? Check out this heartbreaking diorama that shows the reward the Emperor’s most loyal servants received…
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Source: Wargamer
