Monday, February 26, 2007

Review: Dawn of War(Dark Crusade)


Well,here's may be the ONLY RTS(real-time strategy)game that I REALLY like in a long long time.Dawn of War :Dark Crusade.

Graphics: 9/10

One word,AWESOME!The graphics are very detailed for a RTS game with well,alot of these games has very low detail if you zoom in the object.But in this case,it look like it wasn't stretch at all,though there some parts which are not that detail but overall it has some nice surroundings



Game Play:9/10

The game play in DOW:DC is pretty much the same as other RTS games,except it is the very few RTS game that has army based on squads.You won't have individuals and basically when you want to summon something like soldiers,it won't be a single soldier,but a few in a squad.So if you click one one person,you will clock the whole squad,which is easier when you assemble a large army to invade or defend.

DOW:DC like most RTS games,will also focus on getting money or gold to build up your squad,except this time you capture strategic points,critical location and relics.There are places you'll get your gold,or should I say,requisition points.Some of these points can be upgraded with listening posts that will increases your requisition points collecting and able to defend itself.

The factions you can play with a lot,consisting the Space Marines,Orks,Eldar,Chaos Marines,Imperial Guardsman,Tau Empire and the Necrons.Each have their own strength and weaknesses.There is no guarantee that even if you mastered using the Eldars,you know how to battle with Orks as they have different styles of battle like the Space Marines,they need to have add-ons to maximize the number of squads available,but the Imperial Guardsman need to build more barracks(which is the builing to make infantry) to maximize the number of squads.There a a lot more examples.You can't guarantee that every factions has the same items,like the Space Marines Predator,which is a equilavent of the Eldar's Falcon Grav Tank,but different design and attacks but even the same type of vehicle in different Factions has different weakness and strength(example:The Predator has a longer shooting range but less armor that the Falcon Grav Tank)

Infantry units are also unique to different factions and a new thing to RTS-You can attach Commanders to squads to boost their morale,which is also a new thing,like in war,the higher the morale of your soldiers,the harder they will fight which is the same as in DOW:DC.Morales play a major role in every invasion and evasion.If your squads morale is low,they will break up and lose the will to fight.Luckily if you add a sergeant (Space Marines) or a Commisar(Imperial Guardsman) they can rally their squads and boost their morale to the fullest.You can also reinforce your squads which give your squad more firepower and upgrade their weapons to help you.

Speaking of Factions,in the Campaign you will play as any factions you like to be and go on a Dark Crusade as the title says to conquer all the areas in Kronus and become the sole ruler of the planet.It is basically like a chess game,you move your turn,either you conquer or move to your other bases to conquer another area ao you can't attack point C if you are in Point A,you need to move to point B to conquer point C.The main objective to conquer an area is mostly destroying your enemies,but there are different ways to win to,example,you need to collect enought power before the time limit and also find and take wandering servitors back to your base,but these objectives are mostly secondary so you don't need to achieve this objective to win only,but are more interesting and sometimes easier.

The only thing which stop Dawn of War : Dark Crusade's game play to get a perfect score is that you tend to get easily bored of this game as well,you basically build up your base,assemble a army and destroy the enemies base.

Sound:7/10

The sounds in DOW:DC are quite nice ,like the musical score and the dialogs of your units,which has some (what I would say) some "war-feelings" to it.Pretty nice.

Value:8/10

Well,I wouldn't say it may be your favorite game and show it to your friends,but it is well worth keeping,quite good for times when you think time is getting longer...DOW:DC is a long gameW.

Total Score:

82.5% (A)

Not the best game for me,but 100% the best RTS game for me


A@rOn



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