Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War

Genre: RTS

Release: 2004

Platform: PC

Graphics: Nice. Quite detailed and the effects were also cool to look at. Of course it isn't on par with todays graphics, since there is already a successor, nevertheless they are good.

Story: If I remember correctly some Orcs tried to conquer some planet and "you" are send to get rid of them. "You" being the commander of the Blood Ravens. So much for the campaign. There are also two other factions, the Chaos Space Marines and the Eldar, which are also in some kind involved in the story, but mh, I can't remember how. I guess I just played the multiplayer part of the game.

Which is really awesome. During that time I wasn't really into any kind of RTS-game, apart from Warcraft III that is, so I was really surprised how fun it could be. I really can't say anything about balance and stuff, but I still like the idea behind this game. Instead of the usual resources like GOLD or MINERALS or MONEY you have to collect some kind of RESOURCE-POINTS (RP from now on :F) by capturing certain special points which are spread out over the map. The more you control, the more RP you get, the more you can build. You capture these points-producing-points by moving a squad of marines or whatever next to them and if you are the only player around for a certain time the location will be yours.

Match-End-Conditions are interesting, since you can choose what the goal of a match should be. It could be the usual DESTROY THE ENEMY PLAYER, what we know from nearly every RTS like Warcraft, Starcraft, AoE and whatnot. It could also be CAPTURE XXX RP or HOLD MORE THAN HALF OF THE POINTS-GENERATING-POINTS-OF-WHICH-I-FORGOT-THE-NAME FOR A CERTAIN TIME or CAPTURE ALL RELICS or or or. Really funny. And since you NEED to capture these points in order to advance your army the matches are really fast paced and action packed. Personally, I really liked it.

Awesome Fact: There are three addons, which add a total of five new factions, so the overall number of playable races is now nine. Which is pretty cool, because if I remember correctly every faction is played differently. The Necrons are slow and pretty hardhitting, the Eldar are swift hit-and-runners, the Imperial Army is a meat-shield, dealing damage using big tanks, and so on. As stated, awesome.

RATING: 8/10