Dawn of war -- Gold edition
Steam games of mine being reviewed one at a time, we now look at the first Dawn of War game.
I game to this game late. In fact I bought a pack that had Dark Crusade, Winter assault and this one included as well when it was on sale. This is before I found steam. So I guess it's important enough to say that I enjoyed the series enough that when I saw THQ had a packaged deal on steam I didn't mind that I was paying for these games again.
Out of the series this version is the weakest (until Soulstorm comes along). The all of the dawn of war games, it is an RTS based on the warhammer 40,000 universe. Humanity has spread amongst the stars but has spent so much time at war with itself and everything out there that it has created a new dark age of technology. Xenophobic and paranoid human warriors fight over straps of lost technology they have no way of repairing or rebuilding.
Like a number of RTS games, the swarm and click approach will work with Dawn of war, a least at the easy and normal difficulty levels. So my own tactical approach is to build up a defensable position, get my units up to the cap level (20 points in troops, 20 points in vehicles - most vehicles and troops cost more then 1 point however) and then swarm to the next point I wish to control on the map and repeat.
I do not have to micromanage and click on units to activate special powers at just the right time, nor do I have to make sure that X unit is attacking C creature. If you do the game goes faster, and I have no doubt is the level required to battle strangers online. I just have no desire to go that route.
The reason I felt that the first game was the weakest is how THQ does all their RTS games. The first of a series will be a single campaign with beautiful - sometimes not so beautiful, this game uses in game animations - cut scenes to frame each level. Company of Heroes does the same thing. Then once the engine is built and selling the second game will include Two more campaigns with only a few adjustments on the formula. (They did this with Dawn of War 2 as well. The first game has only a single campaign, while the second has a moral choice of good/bad for two.)
So with only a single campaign there is almost no reason to replay it. Trying it at different difficultly levels could give you three times through the rabbit hole, but I personally find Hard to be so vexing that it is unplayable. The enemies come faster then you can make your own and the only way to win is to make sure that you have a unit that is strong against whatever is coming at you. And you are using their abilities to the fullest. It becomes a click fest of making sure everything is in play.
Another sour note for me is the unfinished way the campaign ends. I had vague hopes that Dawn of war - Winter Assault (the sequal) would continue the story started in this one. It doesn't, nor do any of the other games even reference it. (Dawn of war 2 references Soulstorm with some of their in character dialogue to each other.)
I never played the multiplayer of just this first game. Theortically you would just have a couple of armies to pick from. Chaos, Space Marine, Eldar and Ork I believe. In a clever touch, that is just a bit evil, if you wanted to play those races in the multiplayer matches of the later dawn of war games you had to enter your unique cd key into each version of the later games. (So winter assault wanted to know the first dawn of war, Dark crusade wanted to know both those before it and the final one soulstorm asked for all three of the earlier ones.) With each code unlocking two to four armies. Clever reason to buy the earlier games if you liked the later ones. (Again, they do with Company of Heroes. So if you want to play Able company in the second Company of Heroes multiplayer you have to register the code of the first one. To be fair to them they do it better with Company of Heroes having an online gateway that you have to register your games at only once instead of with each game individually)
In the end I enjoyed the game, inspite of it's faults. It isn't a very true adaptation of warhammer 40K to a computer game. But it did keep the world view and the xenophobic hatred. I played the game through once with my own copy and then again with my steam copy. Finishing it and spending 52 hours playing gives the game a steam value of 10$. A good start towards making the package I bought worth it.
I game to this game late. In fact I bought a pack that had Dark Crusade, Winter assault and this one included as well when it was on sale. This is before I found steam. So I guess it's important enough to say that I enjoyed the series enough that when I saw THQ had a packaged deal on steam I didn't mind that I was paying for these games again.
Out of the series this version is the weakest (until Soulstorm comes along). The all of the dawn of war games, it is an RTS based on the warhammer 40,000 universe. Humanity has spread amongst the stars but has spent so much time at war with itself and everything out there that it has created a new dark age of technology. Xenophobic and paranoid human warriors fight over straps of lost technology they have no way of repairing or rebuilding.
Like a number of RTS games, the swarm and click approach will work with Dawn of war, a least at the easy and normal difficulty levels. So my own tactical approach is to build up a defensable position, get my units up to the cap level (20 points in troops, 20 points in vehicles - most vehicles and troops cost more then 1 point however) and then swarm to the next point I wish to control on the map and repeat.
I do not have to micromanage and click on units to activate special powers at just the right time, nor do I have to make sure that X unit is attacking C creature. If you do the game goes faster, and I have no doubt is the level required to battle strangers online. I just have no desire to go that route.
The reason I felt that the first game was the weakest is how THQ does all their RTS games. The first of a series will be a single campaign with beautiful - sometimes not so beautiful, this game uses in game animations - cut scenes to frame each level. Company of Heroes does the same thing. Then once the engine is built and selling the second game will include Two more campaigns with only a few adjustments on the formula. (They did this with Dawn of War 2 as well. The first game has only a single campaign, while the second has a moral choice of good/bad for two.)
So with only a single campaign there is almost no reason to replay it. Trying it at different difficultly levels could give you three times through the rabbit hole, but I personally find Hard to be so vexing that it is unplayable. The enemies come faster then you can make your own and the only way to win is to make sure that you have a unit that is strong against whatever is coming at you. And you are using their abilities to the fullest. It becomes a click fest of making sure everything is in play.
Another sour note for me is the unfinished way the campaign ends. I had vague hopes that Dawn of war - Winter Assault (the sequal) would continue the story started in this one. It doesn't, nor do any of the other games even reference it. (Dawn of war 2 references Soulstorm with some of their in character dialogue to each other.)
I never played the multiplayer of just this first game. Theortically you would just have a couple of armies to pick from. Chaos, Space Marine, Eldar and Ork I believe. In a clever touch, that is just a bit evil, if you wanted to play those races in the multiplayer matches of the later dawn of war games you had to enter your unique cd key into each version of the later games. (So winter assault wanted to know the first dawn of war, Dark crusade wanted to know both those before it and the final one soulstorm asked for all three of the earlier ones.) With each code unlocking two to four armies. Clever reason to buy the earlier games if you liked the later ones. (Again, they do with Company of Heroes. So if you want to play Able company in the second Company of Heroes multiplayer you have to register the code of the first one. To be fair to them they do it better with Company of Heroes having an online gateway that you have to register your games at only once instead of with each game individually)
In the end I enjoyed the game, inspite of it's faults. It isn't a very true adaptation of warhammer 40K to a computer game. But it did keep the world view and the xenophobic hatred. I played the game through once with my own copy and then again with my steam copy. Finishing it and spending 52 hours playing gives the game a steam value of 10$. A good start towards making the package I bought worth it.