WaysouthDark Crusade Review
November 19th 2006 01:30
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War: Dark Crusade Review
Developer: Relic
Publisher: THQ
Price: $49.95AUD - $59.95AUD
Website: www.dow-darkcrusade.com
This is the second expansion pack instalment for the ‘Dawn of War’ franchise released so far and does not disappoint in any way at all, and in my opinion is a step better than Winter Assault. Why? Because instead of just one new race, ‘Dark Crusade’ adds two more, bringing the total number of playable sides in Dawn of War up to seven. This is the largest diversity in playable sides that I have ever seen in a sci-fi based real time strategy game (RTS). The two new sides included in ‘Dark Crusade’ are the Tau and the Necrons two very new sides with very different play styles. Along with the two new races ‘Dark Crusade’ includes an all new style of Campaign, in the form of a large map of the planet Kronus (where the game is set) laid out in a style like the game ‘Risk’ or more recently similar to ‘The Battle for Middle-Earth 2’. There are also new units for all the older races, new maps and new game options as well. This expansion is packed huge and better still doesn’t require the original ‘Dawn of War’ or ‘Winter Assault’ to play, though you will need them to play online with the older races.
The Tau: The Tau are a confederation of three different races; the Tau themselves, grey coloured aliens that wear powered armour suits with a style very similar to Japanese anime robots; the Kroot which are carnivourous aliens that are suited to close combat; and the Vespid flying insect like aliens that are very good at tearing apart buildings. The Tau themselves are pretty hopeless at fighting in close combat an so rely on the Kroot and the Vespid to back them up on this, their main strength lies in their ranged attacks which are the best so far out of the seven races. A large group of Tau fire warriors can easily gun down an enemy army in a matter of seconds, however if you let them get into close combat then you might be in some trouble. The Tau are backed up by Battlesuit infantry that can jetpack around the map and take down vehicles and large groups at ease, and can easily hold their own in close combat with flamethrowers. The vehicles the Tau use are hover style tanks that either fire missile barrages, laser cannons or release squadrons of robotic drones to attack the enemy. The also use large Kroot monsters like look very similar to dinosaurs and huge apes as vehicles. The Tau have a very ‘eastern’ futuristic feel to them, like I said earlier with an anime look. The most powerful attack the Tau possess would most likely be the Air Caste bombardment, that can take out numerous buildings and units with ease while looking pretty damn cool.
The Necrons: The Necrons are lifeless robots hell bent on galactic genocide or so the game says, and they look just like robotic skeletons that fire green electric lasers from their guns. The units in the game are pretty slow moving but are extremely powerful and are even able to come back to life when killed. They don’t get requisition points like all the other races from taking control points, instead they get a percentage increase in the build speed of all their units and buildings for each one controlled. Instead they rely upon power from generators to supply all their resources, with some units such as the builder scarabs and necron warriors requiring no resources at all to build. The vehicles used by the Necrons are basically just hovercraft versions of the walking warriors, with the exception being the Tomb Spider, which is a giant hovering robot spider of sorts that is very good at close combat. The ultimate weapon of the necrons however is the ability to upgrade their headquarters (a giant black pyramid called a monolith) to a floating fortress that can move (very slowly) around the map firing giant beams of green energy at whatever comes close. To make up for the slow speed it can teleport short distances and takes a lot of punishment to take down. The other power unit for the Necrons is the ability to transform your Necron Lord into a C’tan Night Bringer (a giant grim reaper) for a limited time who gains health whenever he dishes out damage. This unit is a bitch to play against especially when you think you have their army beat only to have this practically invincible unit come out of nowhere.
The new campaign map is a great feature of ‘Dark Crusade’ and adds a whole new level of gameplay mixing turn based strategy with real time strategy. As you can play as each of the seven races in the campaign map it really becomes seven different campaigns, with the introduction and conclusion videos all different depending on which race you play as. I’ve personally been playing as both the Tau and the Necrons and have found the A.I on the campaign to be pretty difficult especially on the hard setting. Regular conquest of territory creates either a skirmish game or a custom game (such as getting only a certain number of units without the ability to build more). And attacking an enemies capital territory results in a large scripted battle similar to the original Dawn of War, win this battle and you that race is out of the game.
Overall ‘Dark Crusade’ is an excellent addition to the ‘Dawn of War’ series and I find it really hard to fault, it may be the same game with basically the same graphics but the inclusion of two more races and a turn based campaign map really makes this the best expansion out yet. ‘Dark Crusade’ is just great all round with basically no technical errors that I could find and great polished sci-fi RTS gameplay. Go out and get it, and if you haven’t already played the original ‘Dawn of War’ and ‘Winter Assault’ go and get them too. If you love RTS games then you’ll love ‘Dark Crusade’.
8.9/10
Developer: Relic
Publisher: THQ
Price: $49.95AUD - $59.95AUD
Website: www.dow-darkcrusade.com
Title Screen
This is the second expansion pack instalment for the ‘Dawn of War’ franchise released so far and does not disappoint in any way at all, and in my opinion is a step better than Winter Assault. Why? Because instead of just one new race, ‘Dark Crusade’ adds two more, bringing the total number of playable sides in Dawn of War up to seven. This is the largest diversity in playable sides that I have ever seen in a sci-fi based real time strategy game (RTS). The two new sides included in ‘Dark Crusade’ are the Tau and the Necrons two very new sides with very different play styles. Along with the two new races ‘Dark Crusade’ includes an all new style of Campaign, in the form of a large map of the planet Kronus (where the game is set) laid out in a style like the game ‘Risk’ or more recently similar to ‘The Battle for Middle-Earth 2’. There are also new units for all the older races, new maps and new game options as well. This expansion is packed huge and better still doesn’t require the original ‘Dawn of War’ or ‘Winter Assault’ to play, though you will need them to play online with the older races.
The Tau Leader
The Tau: The Tau are a confederation of three different races; the Tau themselves, grey coloured aliens that wear powered armour suits with a style very similar to Japanese anime robots; the Kroot which are carnivourous aliens that are suited to close combat; and the Vespid flying insect like aliens that are very good at tearing apart buildings. The Tau themselves are pretty hopeless at fighting in close combat an so rely on the Kroot and the Vespid to back them up on this, their main strength lies in their ranged attacks which are the best so far out of the seven races. A large group of Tau fire warriors can easily gun down an enemy army in a matter of seconds, however if you let them get into close combat then you might be in some trouble. The Tau are backed up by Battlesuit infantry that can jetpack around the map and take down vehicles and large groups at ease, and can easily hold their own in close combat with flamethrowers. The vehicles the Tau use are hover style tanks that either fire missile barrages, laser cannons or release squadrons of robotic drones to attack the enemy. The also use large Kroot monsters like look very similar to dinosaurs and huge apes as vehicles. The Tau have a very ‘eastern’ futuristic feel to them, like I said earlier with an anime look. The most powerful attack the Tau possess would most likely be the Air Caste bombardment, that can take out numerous buildings and units with ease while looking pretty damn cool.
The Necron Lord
The Necrons: The Necrons are lifeless robots hell bent on galactic genocide or so the game says, and they look just like robotic skeletons that fire green electric lasers from their guns. The units in the game are pretty slow moving but are extremely powerful and are even able to come back to life when killed. They don’t get requisition points like all the other races from taking control points, instead they get a percentage increase in the build speed of all their units and buildings for each one controlled. Instead they rely upon power from generators to supply all their resources, with some units such as the builder scarabs and necron warriors requiring no resources at all to build. The vehicles used by the Necrons are basically just hovercraft versions of the walking warriors, with the exception being the Tomb Spider, which is a giant hovering robot spider of sorts that is very good at close combat. The ultimate weapon of the necrons however is the ability to upgrade their headquarters (a giant black pyramid called a monolith) to a floating fortress that can move (very slowly) around the map firing giant beams of green energy at whatever comes close. To make up for the slow speed it can teleport short distances and takes a lot of punishment to take down. The other power unit for the Necrons is the ability to transform your Necron Lord into a C’tan Night Bringer (a giant grim reaper) for a limited time who gains health whenever he dishes out damage. This unit is a bitch to play against especially when you think you have their army beat only to have this practically invincible unit come out of nowhere.
The new turn based campaign map
The new campaign map is a great feature of ‘Dark Crusade’ and adds a whole new level of gameplay mixing turn based strategy with real time strategy. As you can play as each of the seven races in the campaign map it really becomes seven different campaigns, with the introduction and conclusion videos all different depending on which race you play as. I’ve personally been playing as both the Tau and the Necrons and have found the A.I on the campaign to be pretty difficult especially on the hard setting. Regular conquest of territory creates either a skirmish game or a custom game (such as getting only a certain number of units without the ability to build more). And attacking an enemies capital territory results in a large scripted battle similar to the original Dawn of War, win this battle and you that race is out of the game.
Overall ‘Dark Crusade’ is an excellent addition to the ‘Dawn of War’ series and I find it really hard to fault, it may be the same game with basically the same graphics but the inclusion of two more races and a turn based campaign map really makes this the best expansion out yet. ‘Dark Crusade’ is just great all round with basically no technical errors that I could find and great polished sci-fi RTS gameplay. Go out and get it, and if you haven’t already played the original ‘Dawn of War’ and ‘Winter Assault’ go and get them too. If you love RTS games then you’ll love ‘Dark Crusade’.
8.9/10
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