With the release of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, the DOW: Anthology also came out. For just $99.95nz this is a great deal that throws all three Dawn of War games (DOW, Winter Assault, Dark Crusade) into a single large box.
I’ve played friend’s copies of DOW and WA for years at local LAN games so couldn’t resist grabbing all three at once and picked up the anthology late last week. I’ve managed to get a bit of play over the weekend and am really enjoying the Dark Crusade Campaign. It’s a simple map based campaign, exactly the sort of thing you’d play with friends on the tabletop but it works suprisingly well when combined with the excellent Dawn of War RTS engine.
Reviewers have given DOW:DC high points all round (click the image to go to the Meta Critic page), largely I expect because of this new campaign mode which differs from the slightly tedious linear campaigns of DOW and Winter Assault. I’m only playing it on Standard and am still getting solidly challenged which is a good feeling when dealing with AI players.
Although possibly that reflects my own skills more than anything! I generally loathe PC RTS games and the DOW family is really the only RTS game I’ve played in the last three years.
Necrons and (boo hiss) Tau arrive in Dark Crusade and I have to say the Necrons feel a tad overpowered. However like all of the races in DOW they’re very true to their tabletop originals - being a small but very tough army. The ‘Get Back Up’ rule is still in effect and it’s more terrifying on the PC because you do actually see the damned Necron Warriors get back up!
I’m enjoying hunting the Tau in the campaign as well, at this point I can’t quite bring myself to play them though…
Ahhh this is my new fun for a while, I really like the customisable wargear thats handy especially if you’re the Tau leader- Fusion Canon, Missle Pod, Flamer and 2 gun drones but for the mean time I’m playing Chaos nothing screams evil like a demon prince!
I’m partial to Chaos too, but thought I’d start with the good old Space Marines. If they can’t win a Campaign there’s something seriously wrong!
Even thought its the same game as DOW and WA it just feels and plays better I know nothing much has changed I just seem to be getting into assualt alot more always good to see bits flying off things, can’t wait for the next armies…….hopefully tyranids and extra add-ons for everyone.
Bad news man. I believe Relic have stated Tyranids won’t be coming to DOW in it’s currently incarnation. Something about not being able to do the Tyranids (with their high model count) justice in the current engine?
Me I’d like to see a ‘City Fight’ edition of DOW, where you can get into buildings etc. like you can in Company of Heroes.
Well they best make something cool with Nids after this series perhaps they should borrow the new Total Annihilation Supreme Commander Engine 50,000 units on screen at once, oh yea the new zerg rush!!!!
They made a spacehulk patch for DOW, I havent tried it but the made some big mods so it would be more like spacehulk… No genestealers though, I think they just used chaos spawn. I havent played either Official expansion, maybe nows a good time to buy =\