We iz da orkz, and you iz not!
Written: May 11 '05 (Updated May 11 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Top notch RTS in all aspects.
Cons: Too violent for younger gamers, steep learning curve, some minor flaws.
The Bottom Line: A deep, well polished, and well balanced RTS geared towards a mature audience.
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| Action_Snark's Full Review: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War |
I've always been a nerd. I'll admit it, hell, I'll even revel in it from time to time. Back in my Magic: The Gathering/Junior High/was convinced I'd die a virgin days, I happened across a few guys sitting in the back of the gaming store, playing some strange game. It involved lots of rulers and dice and strange, intricately painted little figurines. Annoyed by my incessant questioning, one of the players simply pointed me to a stack of glossy paperbacks with pictures of guys in battle-scarred zero G armor and hideous beasts. The game of course, was the Warhammer:40,000 tabletop game. Those paperbacks were a collection of army Codexes. I never got into the tabletop game, as it was beyond even my limit of nerdiness.
However, I devoured every crumb of the rich backstory (fluff) that I could lay my hands on. Here was a game universe that I could really sink my teeth into. Dark, gritty, and uncompromisingly violent, the Warhammer:40k universe had me instantly hooked. Long have I waited for a game on any platform that would let me enjoy Warhammer and not hear the words 'd20' or 'dry-brush'. Finally, THQ and Relic have answered my prayers with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (or just DoW for short). Anyway, on to the full rundown:
Plot: Um, yeah, plot. Well, you'd need a single player campaign for that, and there's not much of either in DoW. What little plot there is centers around a Space Marine Chapter known as the Blood Ravens (The chapter was specifically created just for DoW). The Blood Ravens have stumbled into a plot by the forces of Chaos, and need to start cracking some hellspawned skulls to keep things in check. That's pretty much it for the single player campaign, it's really an afterthought. Of the 4 races in the game, only the Space Marines have a SP campaign, and it's a disappointingly short 9 missions or so long.
Overall, plot scores a rather disappointing 6 out of 10. There really is no plot to speak of, but most Warhammer grognards are going to be saying something along the lines of 'Screw the plot, when do I get me some Dreadnoughts?'.
Graphics and Sound: Graphics and sound are all around high quality. Units are quite detailed, and sport good polycounts and fairly high quality textures. Pretty much everything you'd expect from a high quality 3d engine RTS is in DoW. Well rendered units, structures, and terrain? Check. Camera controls that are both fairly intuitive and useful? Check. Good environmental and damage effects? Check.
Ok, we've got the whole package here, but what really sets DoW above the rest is the little touches. For starters, individual units actually fight. Units don't just walk up next to each other and go into canned attack animations, they actually thrust and parry with melee weapons, and wildly spray enemies with a variety of nasty projectile weapons. Certain units, such as 'hero' units and some of the heavier infantry units even have 'finishing move' animations, where they will deliver a violent coup de gras to an enemy unit. All the units are faithful representations of their Table Top (TT) counterparts, and have their own personalities.
Sound work is also top notch. Everything has a solid, gritty feel to it, which really enhances the feeling of immersion when you're playing. Voice work is good as well, with each unit getting a unique voice and responses that really add to it's personality. Of course, this has it's drawbacks. THQ nailed the 'mindless, slavering' aspect of Chaos characters so well I can hardly play them anymore, as they annoy the hell out of me.
Also, I think the game's lone cinematic deserves some special recognition. Made by Blur studios, DoW's introductory cinematic just about the best cinematic in gaming history. Well rendered, action packed, and fitting perfectly within the context of both the game and the universe, it makes me yearn for a feature-length film in the same vein. I can understand why the game won't let you skip the cinematic the first time you play, but I don't think many gamers will want to.
Overall, graphics and sound score a 10 out of 10. Everything looks great, sounds great, and is dripping with that Warhammer atmosphere. Price of admission for all the eye candy isn't too terribly bad by todays standards. My ti4200 handled the game quite well, and it fairly flies on my 6600gt.
Gameplay: DoW's gameplay is top notch, but rather unforgiving. THQ and Relic did a great job of translating a hardcore (nerdcore?) tabletop strategy game into an RTS. Anyone familiar with any RTS made in the past 10 years or so will be familiar with the basics of DoW's gameplay. Build units, structures, and vehicles, take territory, pound the tar out of your opponant, etc. DoW does use a Starcraft/War3 style unit capping system, so players won't simply be able to make huge armies and steamroll the opposition.
DoW's resource model is something of a departure from RTS standards. Obviously peasants mining gold or Tiberium-gulping harvesters would be out of place, so DoW's primary resource is 'requisition'. Requisition can be gained by capturing and holding specific points on the map. This is supposed to be analogous to the mothership saying 'good job taking territory, here's some more troops'. There is also a secondary 'power' resource that is required for certain units and structures, and is gained by building generators.
Gameplay also has some unique features. First, there's a fairly intricate level of customization available for your units. Not only are there warcraft style 'across-the-board' upgrades (more health, better armor, etc.), but there are also upgrades and reinforcements that can be purchased on a per squad or per vehicle basis. This adds a ton of depth (and more than a little guesswork) to the game, as not only does your force package need to be balanced, but you need to make sure your troopers and vehicles are properly kitted out to get the job done.
Dawn of War features four of the Warhammer:40,000 races. Below is some background and a little rundown of the strengths and weaknesses of each race. I draw a lot of comparisons to races from various Blizzard games here. While most will think that DoW is 'ripping off' Blizzard, do keep in mind that the Warhammer:40k tabletop game predates anything Blizzard has made by years or decades, in some cases.
Space Marines: It's the 41st millenium, and most of the past 40,000 years haven't been kind to humanity. During thousands of years of almost constant war, humanity has turned into a warrior theocracy, with the legions of mankind pledging their allegience to their eternally undying Emperor. The Space Marines are the frontline forces of humanity, with Space Marine Chapters tooling around the galaxy, busting heads for the glory of the Emperor. The Space Marines are obviously the influence for their Starcraft bretheren, as both are adaptable and balanced races, relying on ranged attacks from multipurpose infantry backed up by heavy armor.
Chaos: The forces of Chaos pledge their allegience to the four Chaos Gods, demons who live in dimensions outside of our own. Chaos forces are a mixture of extradimensional daemonic horrors, and corrupted Space Marines. Driven mad by the horrors of the Chaos dimension, Chaos seeks to spread a tide of horror and madness across the entire galaxy. Obviously serving as the inspiration for Warcraft 3's Undead race, Chaos's play style is similar to the Space Marines in most respects, but with more of an emphasis on heavy, powerful infantry units.
Eldar: The Eldar are an ancient and mystical race that relies on magic and psycic energies. Again, the inevitable Blizzard comparison: Protoss, through and through. The Eldar philosophy is quality over quantity in both vehicles and infantry. Eldar units tend to be highly specialized, very expensive, and very powerful.
Orks: As far as personality goes, the Orks take the cake. Imagine a horde of dimwitted, muscular greenskins with cockney accents and a penchant for 'choppin oomies' (Translation from Orky-speak: "Chopping up humans"). Orks are definitely the most entertaining race to play. The Ork philosophy of technology is something like an episode of Junkyard Wars, just with guns and edged weapons. Orks tend to excel at melee combat, but have enough punch with ranged weapons to be dangerous in any situation.
Relic did a wonderful job of balancing all the races. Each race has it's strengths and weaknesses, and each is countered by other races. The balance is almost flawless, and all the races are viable for expert level play.
As I'd laid out above in the plot section, the single player campaign is really just an afterthought. It's a decent enough campaign, but the real meat 'n' taters of DoW is in the skirmish and multiplayer aspects. There is a lot of strategic depth to the game, and it is an "expert's game", with a steep learning curve. However, it's also the best RTS game to come down the pike since Starcraft.
Really, my only gripes with DoW's gameplay are in two areas: First, the aforementioned steep learning curve. It takes a lot of practice and good, solid tactics to keep your enemies from mopping the floor with you. DoW has a pretty impressive set of features for recording and replaying games, and replays from skilled players are hot commodities for learning how to properly play DoW.
My only other gripe is with unit pathing. Your units are pretty good at finding their way around the map, but a big melee makes for some wonky pathing behavior. This is espescially apparent when a squad's morale breaks, and it tries to retreat from the battle. There are also some issues with bounding-boxes for larger units, as they tend to create bottlenecks that make infantry squads do some oddball things in the heat of battle.
Overall, I'll give gameplay a 9.5 out of 10. DoW is a tough game to learn, and it's got a few flaws to it, but it's proof positive that Relic knows it's stuff when it comes to building a quality RTS game. Pretty much everything about DoW, from the jaw-dropping introductory cinematic on, is 195 proof awesome.
Overall: Overall, Dawn of War gets a 9 out of 10. This is a mature, deep, and well rounded RTS game that makes for hours of enjoyment. The singleplayer campaign is disappointingly short, but the stellar multiplayer aspects more than make up for it. The one drawback to the game for many players is it's unapologetic violence. The Warhammer universe is incredibly dark and violent, and Dawn of War pulls no punches in it's translation of the source material. Rated 'M' for Mature, Dawn of War is definitely not a game for kids, as it's subject matter is very dark and violent.
Recommended:
Yes
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