This standalone expansion is created by the makes of Company of Heroes (or should I say Company of Heroes is created by the makers of the Warhammer 40000 series?), which includes 2 more races, Necrons and Tau, which brings the total to 7 races (Chaos, Imperial, Eldar, Blood Ravens, Orks, Necrons and Tau). Now that’s a lot of races. In the beginning, there has been a lot of talk going on in the Dawn of War forums in Relic about how these two new races are imbalanced. This talk is now very minimal, as people have started to learn methods to counter these races, or have found the weak points of these races.
The campaign does not really involve a storyline, and all you have to do is to capture all 25 territories of the world of Kronous. You can start with any of the seven races, and the speech and story will be put in your perspective. What makes the campaign interesting is how your commander is able to earn wargear from battles, making him look different. The wargear is also able to give your commander damage boosts and special abilities. After collecting all the wargear, your commander will be able to go through a transformation, changing him into a crazy, powerful creature/person.
One problem with the campaign is that the AI is not aggressive enough, as they do not attack other territories often enough. Therefore, you hardly have to worry about defending your territories. If your territory happens to be attacked, all your previously built buildings you built when you captured the territory will remain, except those that come in the way of the enemy’s starting point.
The Dawn of War series always had a different way of gathering resources. Requisition points are earned by capturing strategic points, and energy is earned by building plasma generators. The more of these you have, the rate that you will earn the resources is increased.
This game doesn’t apply much rules based on flanking or taking cover, thus the person with more and stronger units will usually emerge the victor. However, units can take less damage when in some sort of a crater, and take more damage when in open shallow water.
I’ve said a bit about commanders previously. In a skirmish battle, there’ll be no wargear, but your commander possesses many different powerful abilities. If you’ve played Warcraft 3, commanders are the equivalent of heroes.
The graphics and animation in this game is great. Expect to see many detailed units with beautiful lasers and intimidating plasma shots. This game is also relatively gory, with bloody spraying everywhere. Stronger and bigger units like to finish off enemy units with style. For example, picking them up and throwing them aside, stomping on them, banging them on the ground, and many other cool moves.
If you haven’t played any of the Dawn of War games before, I suggest that you should. In my opinion, RTS games by Relic are the best after the RTS games by blizzard. Below is a screenshot of what the tactical map looks like.
Dark Crusade Trailer (1:06)
Graphics: 9.1
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 8
Lasting appeal: 8
Overall: 8.8
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