WARHAMMER 40,000: DAWN OF WAR

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Relic Entertainment

Publisher : THQ

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Sci-Fi Real Time Strategy

Release Date : September 20 , 2004

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon 3000+ / Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 512 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0b Compatible Video Card with Memory 64 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce FX 5500 Series
ATI : Radeon X800 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 2 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Warhammer 40,000 will get the perfect primer in the game's brief, spectacular, introductory cinematic that shows off a pitched battle between two forces that are bent on ripping each other to shreds--and are well equipped to do so. Dawn of War actually features four of Warhammer 40,000's most popular factions: The tireless and imperialistic space marines, highly versatile warriors who have access to a variety of vehicles as well as terminators, the strongest infantry in the game; the savage green-skinned orks, whose tough forces can vastly outnumber and therefore overwhelm their enemies; the enigmatic and technologically advanced eldar, who are the sneakiest and most maneuverable of the races, and who have access to numerous specialist units; and the traitorous forces of chaos--former space marines who have been warped by demonic energies, and whose strong infantry are assisted by terrifying demonic creatures. The game's relatively brief campaign of around 10 missions begins when the Ravens are called in to assist with the defense of the planet Tartarus, which has suddenly been overrun by the warmongering orks. In addition to fending off the orks, the Ravens soon experience some "misunderstandings" with the eldar, who are already on location investigating something sinister--something that chaos is after. It's a good setup to pit you against three of the game's four factions, and the main character of the story, a veteran space marine commander named Gabriel, is quickly likable because of his ruthless, loyal, and valorous attitude. In addition, the game features four separate interactive tutorials--one for each of the game's factions--which get you acclimated with the respective sides' buildings and units. As mentioned, the four sides in Dawn of War aren't drastically different, since they're each dependent on the same resources and have roughly analogous military units. Moreover, upgrades to these structures also increase the flow of resources from that point, so they're a good investment. In addition to strategic points, maps contain similar points that represent relics and critical locations.

Relics also unlock the most power elements from your arsenal, while capturing and holding the map's critical locations for a sufficient length of time may win you the match. That is, if you play with the default settings, in which you may alternatively achieve victory in this fashion--or by capturing and holding two-thirds of the map's strategic points. Interestingly, Dawn of War lets you upgrade and customize individual squads. So while you might research an upgrade back at base that allows you to equip your squads with additional heavy weapons, you then need to decide which squads to equip with which weapons. Furthermore, infantry squads can be reinforced, since they usually don't start out at full strength. You'll also need to keep an eye on your units' morale, which is governed by a blue meter above the green meter that represents health. The game's morale system is simple, but it works well. Basically, units lose morale in addition to hit points as they take damage, and some types of attacks--while not necessarily the deadliest in the game--are particularly damaging to morale. A unit's morale is broken when its meter empties, and while the unit won't automatically turn and flee at this time, you'd do well to get it out of the fight. There actually aren't a ton of maps that ship with the game, and, surprisingly, Dawn of War doesn't ship with a scenario editor either. Nevertheless, it's possible to squeeze a lot of variety out of the available maps, the largest of which support up to eight players. Dawn of War also supports LAN and online play, and its online player-matching service optionally lets you easily get into a random game via an automatch feature. There's a lot of potential for fun to be had online, especially since some of Dawn of War's superunits--including a couple of huge demons that stand about a hundred feet tall--are so satisfying to watch as they crush their foes. We expect many players will forfeit the match at the mere sight of these things.

As suggested previously, Dawn of War features a superb presentation, and it's also a case of when a game's audiovisual elements serve to significantly enrich the gameplay experience. Few real-time strategy games pack in this much detail and personality into their units. Dawn of War's units are not only spitting images of the meticulously detailed pewter miniatures that Warhammer 40,000 is known for, but they're animated extremely well. The larger units are especially a joy to behold since they boast a surprising variety of different attack animations. Space marine dreadnoughts will grab hold of enemy infantry and squash them like grapes before tossing their listless bodies aside like garbage; the eldar's avatar of Khaine, which takes the form of a fiery demon, impales its victims on its burning sword and causes the earth to blacken with ash in the wake of its footsteps. Dawn of War also features a fittingly grand orchestral score by Jeremy Soule, who's been responsible for many other such great game music compositions over the years. The game also sports some great audio cues for when units' morale falters or for when your forces first catch glimpse of their enemies. Unfortunately, you'll notice a few weak points in voiceovers, such as chaos' whiny cultists and heretics, who sound just a little too sycophantic. Fans of the source materials will especially appreciate Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. However, this is simply a great game, regardless. It's also another step in a good direction for the highly evolved real-time strategy genre, because it takes what's great about this style of game--the process of outmaneuvering and outsmarting opponents to defeat them through military might--and puts pretty much all the emphasis on the parts of the gameplay that inherently seem exciting and satisfying. Dawn of War is a testament to what can be so great about real-time strategy, and it captures the grim and brutal world of Warhammer 40,000 extremely well.

GAME REVIEW :-

9/10

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War Trailer :-