Best Warhammer 40,000 games that please the God Emperor
By Marco Wutz
Don’t expect peace, harmony, and tranquility in the best Warhammer 40k games — after all, the 41st millennium only offers one thing: war. Or WAAAAAGH, if you’re a barely sentient green mushroom that thinks the color red makes cars go faster. It’s difficult to explain what this setting is all about. There are no good guys, everything wants to kill you, and your planet might be blown up at any moment by your own government because someone said something mean about the deified corpse you’re supposed to worship as a leader. Oh, and it’s all just an ad for plastic crack. Just enjoy the overblown ridiculousness of it all and don’t take it too seriously.
No matter if you’re simply curious about Warhammer 40k because of Henry Cavill’s new projects set in the universe or if you’ve finally found faith in the God Emperor after watching Astartes, these video games will be a great way for you to experience the grim darkness of the 41st millennium.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Before Saber Interactive’s Space Marine 2, Relic Entertainment’s original Space Marine game was the ultimate power fantasy that let you don the iconic power armor — the third-person shooter franchise delivers the action of Warhammer 40k’s battlefields like nothing else. Playing as Titus, a lieutenant of the fabled Ultramarines, you’re tasked with fending off a Tyranid invasion, but nefarious Chaos forces intervene in the conflict to execute their own agenda. Just like in the first game, you charge headlong into the fray, Bolter blazing, before slicing up enemies with a chainsword and an assortment of other melee weapons.
Space Marine 2 features spectacular visuals and a great campaign that’s set about a hundred years after the first game, resolving some of the open questions we were left with back then. And if that isn't enough for you, PvE co-op missions and a PvP multiplayer mode are waiting.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters
This XCOM-like tactical RPG puts you in command of the Grey Knights, a Space Marine chapter with Knights Templar aesthetics that specializes in killing daemons. You need to investigate the origins of a mysterious plague, discovering a plot by the followers of chaos god Nurgle. As you travel the sector on your upgradeable capital ship, you send out small teams of Space Marines to combat missions, using the power of their equipment and psyker-abilities to beat the odds. Cover and terrain play a huge role in your success, as you balance your resources carefully on every mission.
DLC added an additional class as well as powerful Dreadnaughts into the mix, giving you additional options when building up your squad.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2
One of the best RTS games ever made, Dawn of War 2 excels at squad level battles in which every unit is important and can be customized with additional upgrades or equipment. Adapt on the fly to changing circumstances as you play the campaign, lead a versatile assortment of factions in multiplayer, or survive in a surprisingly well-made and fun horde mode with a personal hero character. A deep cover system and destructible environment are key ingredients to make this formula work, while base-building is almost completely absent from this title.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
From the creators of Vermintide and Vermintide 2, Darktide brings the co-op game formula from Warhammer Fantasy over to 40k seamlessly. Join a penal battalion in service to the inquisition, choose one of four unique classes, and survive dangerous missions that bring you face to face with every horror grandfather Nurgle has to offer. Fun melee and ranged combat await you and your three comrades as you delve ever deeper into the fangs of chaos while preserving your resources and balancing your individual objectives with those of the team as best as possible.
Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War
Though the 4X game launched with a few problems in 2018, Proxy Studio really put in the work to make it a fantastic strategy title with subsequent updates and a lot of DLC that expanded the available factions and options. Mixing elements from games such as Civilization and Age of Wonders, Gladius provides strategic depth as well as intense combat. Keeping your units alive – and sane – is an important aspect of the game, especially when it comes to your powerful heroes, who gain equipment and experience as they discover new artifacts and vanquish their foes.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2
Whoever chose Gothic cathedrals as the primary aesthetic for spaceships of the Imperium of Mankind in Warhammer 40k is a genius — just look at them! And now, get this, you can ram them into other spaceships! Yeah. Battlefleet Gothic originally was a spin-off from the tabletop game and was used by Tindalos Interactive as a base for Armada and Armada 2, two amazing tactical space combat games. You have access to different factions, each coming with their own ship classes, abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and playstyles. Line up your ships for broadsides, use nebulas and asteroid fields for ambushes, send Space Marines out to board the enemy, or boost the engines for an all-out ramming attack — the choice is yours.
Armada 2’s campaign covers one of the most important events in 40k lore, the Fall of Cadia, and features appearances from heavy-hitters like Belisarius Cawl and Trazyn the Infinite.
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
Another XCOM-like tactical RPG, Mechanicus does away with the usual Space Marine hurrah and instead focuses on the Adeptus Mechanicus, the tech-priests of Mars worshiping the Omnissiah. You’ll be going up against a unique enemy in the Necrons, a long-forgotten species that forsook its meaty existence and instead uploaded its consciousness into robots — which is something the Adeptus Mechanicus would also love to do, giving the story some great additional background. The more you augment your Tech Priests to make them more efficient in combat, the more they begin to resemble the enemy they are fighting. Difficult decisions, a great story, crisp tactical gameplay, and one of the best soundtracks in video games — praise the Omnissiah!
This one has a sequel on the way as well, giving you all the more reason to check it out.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Yes, it’s the OG from 2004 and also one of the best RTS games ever made — Relic Entertainment was on quite a roll back then. While its sequel did away with base-building almost entirely, it’s still present in Dawn of War, making it the better option for anyone who isn’t averse to a bit of macromanagement and economic space control in the style of the original Company of Heroes. Presenting action-packed battles between massive numbers of units with great art design behind it all, Dawn of War really did this combat-focused universe justice. Several expansions added additional factions and features, enhancing the game further, and you can still play some amazing mods today.