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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade (PC)

• Developer:
• Publisher: THQ
• Genre:
• Official Website: http://www.dow-darkcrusade.com
• Score: 5 of 5: Purchase

The Warhammer 40k universe is one brutal melting pot, filled to the brim with warlike alien races and militant humans, each bubbling with their own particularly violent agendas that they would love to ‘share' with their unenlightened foes. But that's how the creators of this latest Dawn of War expansion pack, Dark Crusade, like it. Those ‘creators' are Relic Entertainment, and they've been on quite a roll lately, if you hadn't noticed. First they released the stunningly impressive WW2 RTS, Company of Heroes, and now they've released a $30 mega-expansion pack that not only adds two new races to the already generous five pre-existing races in the game but provides an entirely new campaign mode that's sure to be well-received by Dawn of War fans everywhere.


If you're new to the Dawn of War series, all you really need to know is that it presents some of the most brutal and individualized RTS combat action in the genre, all wrapped around (previously) five well-balanced warring factions: the Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, and the Imperial Guard. New to the party are the youngest race, the enlightened, high-tech Tau, who specialize in long-range damage and who utilize a mercenary race called the Kroot to handle their close-combat chores, and the oldest, perhaps most diabolical race in the universe, the undead robotic Necron, who seek the extermination of all living beings and who are remarkably like the killer robots in the Terminator movies. They simply do not stop and are extremely difficult to keep dead as they have a nasty habit of returning to life.

This new expansion pack is, surprisingly, a standalone retail package that does not require you to own any other version of the game. However, you'll only be allowed to use the two newly provided races in the expansion pack's campaign mode. In order to tap into the game's other five races, you'll have to have the original game, Dawn of War, for the first four races and the first expansion, Winter Assault, to use the Imperial Guard.

As it turns out, you'll really want to have access to the other races because playing through the new ‘living' campaign mode is extremely enjoyable. Gone is the series of chained-together missions that told a story and in its place is a much more dynamic campaign. You're faced with a world map of the planet Kronos, composed of 25 provinces to conquer, each providing unique bonuses in the form of extra units for your ‘Honor Guard' (another new concept that I'll explain in a bit), additional requisition for your Global Requisition total, and occasionally, very special abilities that'll assist your overall war efforts immensely.

When you start a new campaign, you're granted control of your chosen race's Commander unit, who is persistent from battle to battle and upgradeable with specialized Wargear that you acquire via pre-set achievements during the course of the conflict. These pieces of Wargear eventually turn your Commander into one lean, mean fighting machine.

Alongside the Wargear, your Commander will also retain an ‘Honor Guard' of units won by conquering provinces. These units form a personal retinue that joins you in each battle. They can be lost in combat, however, and you'll be forced to re-purchase their services if that happens, using the requisition that you'll gain from conquering the aforementioned provinces. This requisition is known as ‘Global Requisition,' and it drives your ability to succeed in the campaign. You'll use it to reinforce provinces and rebuild Honor Guard units lost in battle. Careful management of your Global Requisition is crucial to early-game success as you strive to achieve an elusive balance between having well-fortified provinces or a fully stocked Honor Guard. While this system isn't terribly in-depth, it adds enough strategic decisions to the campaign map to make that portion of the game nearly as fun as the actual battles themselves.

Most provincial battles are basic skirmishes between your race and the defending race and play out as expected. The battles become truly interesting when you fight over one of the 6 unique provinces that contain special ‘bonus' abilities or when you finally decide to tackle one of the opposing six races' stronghold provinces. These two types of provinces usually involve several interesting gameplay twists. Some notable examples include the Imperial Guards' home province of Victory Bay that contains a massive energy cannon plucked from a long dormant Titan. You must shut it down before it wipes out too many of your units (it fires at regular intervals); another example is the province of Pavonis that contains the Spaceport bonus which allows you to attack anywhere on the map versus having to attack from an adjacent province. In the battle of Pavonis, you must round up and herd a group of 6 Servitor robots back to your home base all while trying to stay alive yourself, in order to win the map. It's this kind of variety that is not only unusual in a RTS but very much welcome.

Graphics are as attractive as ever, though it's a bit of a letdown to come from the graphical splendor of Company of Heroes back to Dawn of War's somewhat more mundane offerings. Relic apparently tweaked a setting in the game engine that freed up some more processing power, as lag, even in large battles, seems to be a thing of the past. Sound and unit responses for the new races are aptly handled and feel appropriate. The Tau, in keeping with their almost anime/mecha style have slightly Asian-sounding voices while their mercenary associates, the Kroot, have growly, animalistic sounding voices and throw out some fairly amusing unit responses during the game. The Necron are mute, deathly silent beings who emit only faint mechanical sounds as their robotic frames glide into motion on the battlefield.

Online multi-player is still, unfortunately, handled by Gamespy. While it's not the best solution - it would have been better if Relic had used their slick new Relic Online service for Dark Crusade instead - it's adequate. When I popped into the service, I found a good number of opponents, so its popularity is certainly not in question. It's nice to know that you'll have someone to play against for quite some time in the future.

The only slight negative I could find with Dark Crusade is the possible imbalance between the Necron in Tier 3 (at their highest tech levels) and the rest of the races. They can be very tough customers, indeed, when they have all their ‘pistons' firing, so to speak. There has been some talk among fans of the dreaded nerf bat giving the Necron a good ‘Whap!' but I think that any imbalance might be more perceived than real, so this shouldn't be a huge issue. Relic is known for the very careful hands-on tweaking of game balance between the races, so you can rest assured that they'll stay abreast of any necessary changes.

Buying an expansion pack isn't always an easy proposition these days as you're frequently wondering if the expansion's content will be as limited as the price, but instead, in the case of Dark Crusade, you're left feeling like you ripped off Relic by paying a measly $30 for what is basically a fully functional and very enjoyable game. If you're a fan of either the Warhammer 40k universe or RTS games, you're sure to get your money's worth and then some.

Nov 30, 2006 | 0 comments
Tony DuLac