Marksman Gaming - Review - Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War

Author: Incubus

Type: PC Game

Released: 2004

Designer: Relic Entertainment

Publisher: THQ

Genre: Real-time strategy

If you have not yet tried this game, I'm not sure if you will be able to still get into the Beta (from what I know, they re-closed it). Anyway, on to the game. This is an RTS based on the popular table-top all-out-war game. There are 4 possible races, including the Space Marines, Chaos, Eldar, and Orks. From what I hear, single player will only include a storyline for the Space Marines, but I dont have confimation on that yet. The beta is multiplayer only, much like War3 and War3:TFT were, the latter of which I participated in. All races are playable in multiplay, and a few maps of each size are available.

The game plays like a basic RTS: build some buildings, get some units, and keep upgrading, all the time. However, why this game is different than most is that it forces expansion. The only way to get the main resource (Requisition) is to capture strategic points. The more points you have, the more requisition you are gaining. The other resource is power, which you simply get by building power plants. However, unlike C&C, the power is not a limit to how much stuff you can have, but instead acts like most other resources, and continues to add up, and you spend an amount of it when building certain things, and whatever you build doesn't drain power.

Not only are there strategic points to be captured (it takes time to both uncapture an enemy point, and then recapture it for yourself), but there are critical locations, which I will get back to.

The game provides more than one win condition also: on top of the typical "Kill Shit and Win" stuff, you can enable other ways to win. If you control the most critical locations, or the most ruins (another type of capture point) for a certain amount of time (a counter starts once they are captured) then you can win the game that way. Also reinforces the need for expansion.

Another new twist is that the game is squad based. You train squads of units at a time, normally 4, and you can have up to 9 units in the squad, each for a cost dependent on the type of the unit. Also, there are 4 possible weapons that you can give individual units in the squads. A squad commander can also be created which is a much stronger unit. These give many more options to gameplay then a straight build order. Not all units are squads though, there are hero type units that are extremely strong, but you are limited to one at a time, and then there are vechicles which can truely sway a battle into your favor.

All of these make the game amazing, with limitless possibilities, and if you can, you must give it a try. In my opinion, it is better than WarCraft III (and im saying this after only seeing the beta!).

I can't wait till the full version!

Breakdown

Graphics: 9/10

Its tough for an RTS to have amazing graphics. The sheer fact that so many units at once can be at a battlefield, and that the battlefield itself has to look great, and untiled, non-repetitive (for in my opinon, the gameplay itself lacks when you can see little effort was put into the battlefield), makes it difficult to give an RTS a great look, but Dawn of War pulls it off. It has a need for not only low-detail graphics while in a birds eye view, but like in WarCraft 3, the camera is fully controllable, and the units must look good when fully zoomed in, and they do. The graphics of the flame throwers, lasers, rockets, and explosions all look great, and the game really got the graphics part down.

Effects: 8/10

Like mosts RTS games, there is always stuff yelling at you. "Not enough resources", "Your troops are under attack" etc. etc. And Dawn of War is no different. Also like most RTS games, all the units say their own things when clicked upon, some of which are humorous, other of which are annoying. Dawn of War doesn't add too much more to the genre in this sense. However, it is a great sight seeing an army of marines with some vehicle support march head on into a wall of orks, and then hearing the screams of death as body after body falls. One thing that is hard to notice without zooming in, but is really cool, is that each Hero-type unit has many different kills. For one, he may run a sword through an enemy, and then use his foot to push the body off the blade. Little things like this really give a game depth.

Gameplay: 9.5/10

There is always something to be upgraded, there are always squads that need units and weapons, there are always strategic points left barren by an enemy for the taken, or points of yours under heavy assult that may need to be defended or fortified. The sheer amount of stuff to do completely eliminates build orders at the current time in the game. I'm sure eventually, one will figure out the best thing to do for all situations, but as of now, no two games are the same. You cannot fall behind in the tech race, but a devotion to upgrading will mean a lack of expansion, or a weak army, either of which will not allow you the resources to upgrade as you wish. If you go all out with units early off, and capture as much as the map as possible, a direct attack could cripple or kill your base while your army is scattered, or you may not be able to compete with upgraded units from your enemy, who stuck to a portion of the map, but didnt spend as much resources on early units. The key is to find a happy medium, where you are not out-teched, resource starved, or overwhelmed. And this can be extremely hard due to each player plays their own way, and you never know what to expect.

Replayability: 10/10

Because the gameplay is so good, and because no two games are the same, the multiplayer alone will keep bringing you back to this game, more so if you are playing with friends. Because they are only focusing on one race for the single player storyline, I'm hoping they will make an extremely indepth story, that really draws you into the game, an element most RTS games are lacking. The typical RTS single player is a quick talk from a higher up, and then just doing meaningless objectives. Some RTS games have had some cool stories, but could not focus on one true story because all races had to be playable. I predict the single player will be rather in-depth, and fun to play more than once. Also, will probably be a good deal of expansion packs adding units and races to cover more of the tabletop game's units, and each of these will make the game even more different each time you play it, but before we get too hopeful for expansions, let's hope for the full game.

Overall: 9/10