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XGD > PC > Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War -- Dark Crusade
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Reviews Seven races fight for supremacy in the 41st millenium. It's all good., January 11, 2007 Rating: 9.0/10 By zeroinitiate Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is a real-time strategy game set in the Warhammer 40000 universe. It's the third installment in the Dawn of War series and features two new races: the Tau and the Necrons, adding up to a total of seven playable factions. The game's standalone nature and addicting gameplay makes Dark Crusade a worthy addition to the critically-acclaimed series.
Familiarity with the Warhammer 40000 universe or any of the previous games is not required to play Dark Crusade, although some background information might help a little. As the name implies, Warhammer 40000 is set in the 41st millennium, a dystopic future where war has become a way of life. Fighting this war are several factions and races, represented in Dawn of War as the Space Marines, the Chaos Space Marines, the Orks and the Eldar. The first expansion, Winter Assault, introduced the Imperial Guard. The second expansion, Dark Crusade, adds the Tau and the Necrons.
Dark Crusade is a standalone expansion. You don't need to have any of the original games installed to play it. Another added bonus is that you can use the other five factions during the campaign and skirmish modes. Multiplayer games are restricted to the two new races though, so make sure you have the earlier games installed if you want to play as the other races.
As an RTS game, your task is to build an army and use it to defeat your opponent. This is done by collecting resources to build units and structures while climbing up the tech tree to unlock even more powerful units. In Dawn of War, resources come in the forms of requisition and power, both of which slowly accumulate naturally. To speed up gathering requisition resource, strategic points scattered on the map have to be captured and maintained. Additional power is acquired by building generators. This method of resource management is also used in Dark Crusade. This way, players are encouraged to go out and seek strategic points to gain the early advantage. Expect battles to occur early and often.
One of the innovations of the Dawn of War series is the focus on squad-based combat. When you buy infantry from your barracks, it will come out as a squad. You can fortify that squad by adding squad members and, after purchasing required research, upgrade their abilities and weaponry. Individual squad members have their own health, so when one of them die, you can re-fortify that squad in the middle of combat. This system allows room for exciting and extended engagements, especially when the two sides clashing are almost evenly matched. Unlike most games, infantry play a key role in Dawn of War, so don't count them out when you gain access to the higher tech levels.
The two new races are the Tau and the Necrons. The Tau are humanoids whose greatest strength is ranged combat. To make up for their weakness in melee, they use the Kroot, another alien race available in their tech tree, to deal with their enemies. They have no defensive structures other than fortified Listening Posts. Listening Posts are constructed on captured strategic points to speed up requisition resource gathering. As you progress through the tech tree, you are given two paths to follow: the Killing Blow and the Patient Hunter. Both paths will give you additional units that specialize in either melee or ranged combat. You can't have both so choose what you're more comfortable with. The Tau's extreme long range is balanced by the fact that they deal very little melee damage and that their squads are next to useless when broken. The Kroot and the Vespid, alien races available to the Tau, are more suitable for melee combat.
The Necrons differ from the other races in several ways. The goal of every Necron army is the revival of their monolith, which is a pyramid-like structure that serves as their headquarters. Traditionally, such buildings only produce the builder unit, who in turn constructs other buildings that will eventually create the army. In this case, the monolith creates the army. Every Necron unit, from the scarab builder to the fearsome Necron Lord, is produced by the monolith. The other structures serve as upgrade centers, which will equip your units, and your Necron Lord in particular, with powerful abilities and artifacts. As you climb the tech tree, your monolith will reassemble itself until it becomes a fully-revived pyramid. When that happens, it becomes a unit itself, a mobile fortress that is literally capable of laying waste to your opponents. Not only will it continue to function as your unit supplier, it will also arm itself with powerful energy weapons that can decimate your foes. They also use a different economy model than the other races because they don't use requisition resource. They only need power to build units and structures. They can't completely ignore strategic points though since capturing them boosts their slow build speed. Overall, the Tau and the Necrons have distinct looks and technologies that add to the already diverse gameplay of the Dawn of War universe.
Unlike other expansions where the focus of the campaign mode is on the new races, Dark Crusade's campaign mode starts with all seven factions vying for supremacy of the planet Kronus. After selecting one of the seven races, you will be taken to an overview of the planet where it has been divided into provinces. Here, you take part in a turn-based conquest mode where you and your opponents fight for control of the planet, one province at a time. Colors indicate what faction controls which province and each race's commander appears as a token to represent their current location. Each race also has a home province that they must defend. Failing to do so will kick them off the planet and off the campaign.
Conquest mode is simple: you move your token to a neighboring region and fight the opposing faction controlling it. Winning that battle not only gives you control of that region but also gives certain advantages like honor guard units and special bonuses. Honor guard units are upgraded versions of your normal units. You use planetary requisition, awarded with each successful conquest of a province, to train them. They are deployed immediately along with your faction commander as long as they remain alive, allowing for early offense and defense. Special bonuses vary, with one example being the spaceport. If you gain control of the province that has the spaceport, you can raid any region that you want, disregarding the usual adjacency limitation. If an opposing faction attacks your territory, you have the option of auto-resolving the conflict or actually defending your province. Choosing the latter will take you to your province where you will find the structures you built during the time you conquered the region intact, giving you plenty of room to build an army early.
The presentation of the campaign mode offers players with a lot of different angles, which in turn makes for plenty of replay value. Winning battles are very rewarding since you get to upgrade your commander with various wargear. Conquering and controlling different provinces grants an accomplished feeling, especially when you kick one faction out of the planet. Since the game is pretty tough even at the default difficulty level, the overall feeling of the campaign mode is extremely satisfying.
Dark Crusade looks and sounds great. There's a lot of detail in the models and the environments are impressively rendered. The fights themselves are spectacular to watch. It's a treat to see how infantry trade shots with each other, only to be skewered by a lumbering mechanized unit or vehicle as it makes its way through them. Explosions send infantry flying, who then scream in panic. Destroying buildings have a satisfying feel to them because you actually feel like you leveled something to the ground. Bodies and blood litter scarred terrain after battle. The game does an excellent job of showcasing war: even in the 41st millennium, war is war---brutal, bloody and messy. Quoting Fallout, war truly never changes.
Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is an excellent expansion to the Dawn of War universe. With two new races, an engaging campaign mode and a total of seven races to play with in solo mode, you're looking at a solid RTS game with a lot of replay value. Its emphasis on squad-based tactics creates a field for fast-paced, exciting gameplay. If you're looking to get into Warhammer 40000 or simply looking for an RTS to play, Dark Crusade should be on your list.
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