Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Review

WWarhammer 40,000 (aka Warhammer 40K) is a tabletop miniature wargame created by Games Workshop. It is science-fiction with some magic. Like its counterpart, Warhammer Fantasy, it is a dystopian universe. Do not come here looking for happy endings or any good feelings. As an example, the main character of this game—Captain Gabriel Angelos—is considered to be one of the “good guys” of the Warhammer 40K universe. He personally ordered what is known as an exterminatus on his own home planet, which resulted in the death of every last living thing on it.

Dawn of War is an RTS-style game. Resources for the game are: Requisition, Power, and Population. Requisition is a resource generated by the HQ building, the central structure of bases, and is also gained by taking control of points on the map. Three types of points offer Requisition: Strategic points, Critical locations and Relics. To capture a point, a unit capable of capture (most often a infantry military unit), must be told to capture the point. There will be a time where they are inactive while capturing it. Points can be taken back from the player by the enemy. If a listening post is built atop the point, then it must be destroyed first. Critical locations cannot have listening points built on them. Points that produce Requisition will eventually be exhausted, but it takes quite awhile for that to happen. Power is created by only two means: Plasma generators and Thermal plasma generators. Thermal plasma generators produce the most Power, but can only be built on top of slag deposits. Both listening posts and plasma generators can be upgraded to increase the rate at which Requisition and/or Power is gained. There are two types of Population, squad and vehicle. They can only be upgraded via HQs, each has a maximum cap and is necessary to training units. Orks are the exception to this as they do not have Population, but instead use Waagh! which operates essentially the same as Population, but allows for far more troops and vehicles.

When it comes to units, each faction within the games tends to focus on a particular area; Chaos Marines are deadly in melee; Eldar are focused on having very fast moving long-range attack units designed to keep out of reach of the enemy, good for hit-and-run and kiting tactics; Orks are designed to swarm the enemy with their sheer numbers; Space Marines emphasize sizeable health pools with a balanced mix of ranged and melee units, etc. The game doesn’t force the player to operate a particular way with a faction, which is nice, but it is generally a good idea to play to the faction’s strengths.

Buildings between factions are generally similar in number and possible functions, although each faction tends to have a unique form of structure to accommodate their play mechanics. The main differences are in the aesthetics and upgrades possible from these buildings. Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines are very, very similar, but this is to be expected since the Chaos Space Marines were once Space Marines in the lore of the tabletop game.

While the multiplayer allows use of all the races, the single-player campaign gives access to only the Space Marines, which is among the simpler factions to play. This article will not offer a level-by-level guide.

The story of the game is okay for an RTS. The main character of the game is the captain of the Blood Raven’s third company, Captain Gabriel Angelos. The campaign begins with the Captain working to hold back Ork invaders long enough to allow the planet of Tartarus to be evacuated as a warpstorm--a kind of random phenomena in the Warhammer 40K universe--is coming, and it will trap anyone on the planet for a time once it arrives. However, as the campaign advances the Space Marines also have to deal with Eldar and Chaos forces in conflict over a special artifact on the planet.

As far as the gameplay of the single-player campaign goes, aggressive is the best playstyle. Due to the limited number of resource points on a map, the side that can attain and hold the most points has quite the advantage over the other side(s). Unfortunately for the player, the enemy always has an established base while they only get an HQ and usually little else. This always results in an uphill battle (sometimes literally) to acquire resource points and build up an army while suffering enemy attacks. Several maps do not utilize bases, at least for a time, and are some of the more interesting encounters in the game. The main flaw with the single-player campaign is the enemy AI--it’s not all that intelligent. Even on the hardest difficulty the AI doesn’t get much better at reclaiming resource points or attacking the player’s base, instead the enemy just gets more and/or tougher units. This makes it more difficult, but only insofar as making the levels take longer. The mechanics and story of the single-player part of the game are interesting enough to warrant a full playthrough, but there’s little to warrant replaying.

Appraisal: 6/10