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Warhammer 40K: Dawn Of War

Warhammer 40K: Dawn Of War Review

Information
Reviewer: Colin McCormack
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Publisher: THQ
Reviewed: PC
Genre: RTS
UK Release: 01st Oct 2004
Article Date: 02nd Oct 2004
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price: £39.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 93%

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Pros

Excellent graphics, sound and gameplay.

Cons

Not enough levels, cut scenes could be better

Screenshots

4 of 44

"While vile mutants still draw breath, there can be no peace. While obscene heretics' hearts still beat, there can be no respite. While faithless traitors still live, there can be no forgiveness."

- Legiones Astartes Silver Skulls' Catechism of Hate, Verse 1 of XXV

This is it, this is the game I have been waiting for more than anything else this year. More than Doom 3, more than Half life 2, more than anything. Was I to be disappointed? Was I hoping too much for this game? Was I building it up in my mind only for it to be knocked down once I played it? Was I hell. Here we are, in my opinion this is the RTS game of the year.

The Warhammer 40,000 series has been around for years, just not so much in computer format. Every week, hundreds of people up and down the country and in fact all over the world, go to their local Game Workshop store, gather round gaming tables with immaculately painted metal models in one hand and dice in the other and create what can be quite intensive role tabletop battles. (I should be know, I used to be one of them). Since its conception there have been a few attempts in creating games based on Warhammer 40,000 series and none of them have really worked. Well finally somebody has gotten it right. Relic, who are best known for the Homeworld series and THQ have gotten together and made one of the best RTS games I have played. It takes a lot for me to clock up over 30+ hours on a game in 3 days on top of my normal work but this has done it.

The game starts off with an amazing introduction movie showing the dark violent and bloody future that the human race has to endure. It shows a intensive and brutal confrontation between a squad of Blood Raven space marines and an Ork brood. This is a good introduction to the game as it peaks your attention and makes you want more (I can’t wait for the day that games look as good as this intro movie).

Dawn of War features four of the most popular Warhammer 40,000 races. You have the fearless and unforgiving human space marines. These are the forces of the Galactic Emperor. Their warriors are some of the most feared and tenacious warriors in the galaxy, they are highly motivated, highly mobile and have an array of deadly firepower from the deadly predator tank to the Space Marine elite, The Terminators to the Mighty and Ancient Dreadnoughts, space marines who have fallen in the field of battle and have been resurrected in massive armoured war suits, basically tanks on legs .

You then have the barbaric Orc legions. What they lack in skill and tactics, they make up in numbers and sheer bloody determination and savagery. They have seen the space marines, like what they saw and have tried to copy it, they just didn’t get it quite right. Some of the Orc units mimic the Space Marine units, they are just not quite right. The Orc equivalent of the deadly dreadnought is called a Killer Kan, kind of like dusty bin armed with a plasma gun, rocket launcher and a chain saw. The also have the deadly Squiggoth unit. These are like giant dinosaurs that can go charging into the enemy units and knock them flying but the Orcs main tactic is just sheer numbers, they can create more units than anyone else.

Then comes the ancient and mystical Eldar. They rely more on speed, stealth and technological advancement than sheer strength. The Eldar have access to a large number of specialist units. These include deadly psychic units. These are a race that you have to play carefully because in the right hand they can be deadly, but in the wrong hands they can get wiped out quite quickly by heavy weapons fire.

Finally, you have the Chaos Marines. These are former Space Marines who have been tainted and altered by the massive powers of the demonic Chaos warp storms that plaque the universe. These are the Emperor’s fallen, the bane of the Space Marines. They have access to similar units as the Space Marines but they have been tainted. They also have access to some demon units including the terrifying Bloodthirster unit, a deadly demon that thrives on war and destruction.

This game comes in two guises, your standard single player campaign mode and the immensely fun and highly addictive skirmish / multiplayer game. The single player mode has you playing the Blood Ravens, a Space Marine chapter, descendents of one of the original Space Marine chapters, the Blood Angels. While trying not to give too much away you are introduced to your main character, The Space Marine Commander Gabriel, who has just come back from performing a Exterminatus (total annihilation) of his home planet for heresy against the Empire. You are the called in to assist the Imperial Guard in the defence of the planet Tartarus against the rampaging hordes of Orcs assaulting their cities. Whilst dealing with the Orcs you find there is more to Tartarus than meets the eye. You encounter a detachment of Eldar who are there to stop you finding out the true nature of the planet – Chaos.

The campaigns are fun, if a little similar as the last. They normally are just a case of build up you base and army and wipe out your enemy. They shouldn’t hold any problem for anyone that is skilled in RTS to complete in no time at all on normal setting which would just leave you with the other two difficulty stages to deal with. The graphics and sounds effects are great but I will go into this in more detail later on. The only real gripes I have with the missions are two simple things. The first is there is just not enough of it, I need more levels. There are only 10 missions. The second are the cutscenes in between levels just don’t look as good as they should and the voices where a little off. They should have hired the animator who did the opening sequence to do the cutscenes as well that would have been amazing.

The skirmish / multiplayer is the where the real fun of the game begins. This is where you can really test your game playing skills to the max. If you are playing against the computer in a skirmish game you can set the difficulty level of the computer to whatever you want. This can make things quite interesting if you set the computers level quite high and see if you can beat it. In the skirmish you have the choice of all four races, not just the Space Marines. You find all the races are quite evenly balanced so it comes down to the skill and tactics of the play to see if you win the war. When you choose your side you also have a choice of colour scheme. You can either pick from one of the pre-made options or create your own complete with your own team logo’s (I prefer the Ultramarines colours myself). The army painter can be quite fun as you can make them any colour you want, bright pink and gold army here we come. These games can be won in a variety of different ways. You can either have it so you have to take and hold various strategic points or my personal favourite of total annihilation of your enemy.

Both the single player and the skirmish / multiplayer share some simple components no matter who you are and what your objective is. You need an abundance of two things, strategic points and power. You gain your strategic points buy capturing points on the map that are quite helpfully called “Strategic Points”. Once you have captured a Strategic Point which is signified by your flag being stuck in it you can then build a listening post on it which the helps you by getting more SP’s for you. These can be upgraded with armament so they can be left to their own devices while you go off conquering more Strategic Point’s. These points are then used to create more units or buildings. These are used in conjunction with your power resources to create weapon upgrades and vehicles. You gain more power simply by creating more generators.

There are also Relics that are scattered across levels. You need to capture one of these before you can create your most powerful units. Each race has their own “Super Units”. The Space Marines have the deadly Terminator squads, the Orcs the Squiggoth, the Eldar have whats called an Avatar which is their god of war and Chaos has the Bloodthirster. These units are very powerful but also very expensive, guard them well.

Graphically this game is excellent. Your normal position is your standard top down view but you can zoom right into the units to find they are very detailed and they have spent a lot of time on them. The effects are all really well animated from the bolter flashes right the way up to the flames streaking across a group of troops and an explosion when a rocket hits.

The sound is also of a very high quality. The vocal work is amazing with some nice touches in there with different units have different phrases. My favourites for this are the Orks, their gretchin builder unit’s sound like Gollum from Lord of the Rings which is quite amusing and fits quite well. The sounds effects are great with everything sounding the way you would imagine it to, nothing better than a Predator tanks laser hitting something soft and fleshy.

To sum up this game is easy, If you like RTS in any way, shape or form then get this game. While not breaking any new barriers in the genre it certainly shows everyone how the best just got better. If the single player was a bit longer and the cutscenes had been improved then this would be the perfect RTS but as it is its still damn impressive. I can wait too see if they are bringing out any expansions because I will be first in the queue, I can tell you that for nothing.

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