Dawn of War: Dark Crusade

[eXistence of Fly]

I didnt see a thread about this at all this year so if i missed it feel free to yell at me. :P

Anywho i just picked up this game considering i enjoyed Dawn of War and Winter Assault, even if i was a tad annoyed that the campaigns were far too 2 Dimensional and not allowing full exploration of 1 race besides the Space Marines or Imperial Guard. Thoguh Dark Crusade more then makes up for this, it is sheer perfection in a RTS.

Basically im an Eldar player, i absolutely love them in all their cheesy hide and go warp around the map goodness, so i was hoping theyd become more then a secondary add on race (in DoW they were used in the last few missions as a secondary ally, in Winter Assault they were secondary ally until the 2nd last campaign) and this greatly exceeded my expectations. The great thing about the campaign is that its an actual RTS, in the sense of taking a territory and moving on ala ye olde Command and Conquer, and the diffulty is waaaaay better.

Now im not one to brag, but in Winter Assault im relatively good with the Eldar so i cna tackle 3 insane AI's on a 4 player map and come out 2nd most the time with a few victories and few 3 second 'stfu get off my map noob' fails, it really wasnt much of a challenge since it all depended on if the AI chose to beat each other up or march siude by side into my base. This however, the AI is much smarter, that if you heavy infantry they'll produce a counter like that, so you're constantly thinking. Also by gaining territories you gain specialties, bonuses, 'pimp your hero' and requisition so you cna start off the next round with more troops, a more powerful hero and some extra tidbits of bonuses.

The downside is that for a new player playing normal you will get owned hardcore, it is like an exponential growth in the difficulty from easy and without Dawn of War & the WInter Assault expansion youre stuck at playing only 2 of the races (Tau, Necron) rather then all 7 (Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Eldar, Tau, Necron, Chaos, Orks).

So anyone even thinking of getting this game, omg get it and get it now, THQ and Relic have outdone themselves with it!
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[Yvl]

Gah, the way you and gunny keep ranting about it, I sorta do want to get the series. But I've already got way too much else that comes first (such as the rest of the Suikoden series...)
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[eXistence of Fly]

We rant about it cause its a damn good game which expanded upon the whole resource requisition which was tired and dumped previously, plus the Warhammer races are such cool races. :P

This though actually reminds me of the old 2D pc strategy games in which youd have little lemming men run around a map swinging sticks and clubs though of course it looks waaay snazzier now and its warhammer.
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[Tullaryx]

I'm glad there's people who enjoy Relic's Dawn of War RTS series. Of any current role-playing and strategy franchises in the West, Games Workshop's Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 are set-up perfectly to be made into real-time strategy games. I've been playing the original table-top games for almost twenty years and seeing them made into video games have been great.

But as great as the Relic games have been reviewed I still think they could've gone even further in translating the Warhammer 40K world into a better real-time strategy game. The units included in the original Dawn of War and the two follow-up expansion packs have been good and accurate enough that I can't really nitpick. I think Relic dropped the ball in not allowing for more customization for players when they pick a certain faction. One of the fun parts of the original table-top game was the ability of players to create their own unique army from the different race factions. Give the created army's their own unique personalities, background history and even special abilities and flaws to make them stand out.

The Relic games are a very good starting point for those wanting to learn more of the intellectual property that is W40K, but with the many different kind of engines that could've been used to create an RTS off the original game, Relic could've easily licensed Creative Assembly's Total War engine to make the games. Now that would've made the perfect transition from table-top wargaming to video real-time strategy gaming.

Hopefully, Dark Crusade will be the final expansion pack for Dawn of War so Relic can work on a better sequel. Maybe they can finally integrate the Tyranids (the original Zergs) or go way back in W40K's history and adapt The Horus Heresy into an RTS.
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