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Planetary conquest - cautious approval

Now that we've pumped hours into the final version of Soulstorm we can safely say that there's nothing that fundamentally changes what's brilliant about Dawn of War. However, developer Iron Lore (Relic Entertainment shipped out development duties to the now defunct studio) has implemented a turn-based meta-game that's sure to divide fanatics straight down the middle. Built into Soulstorm's campaign, the meta-game focuses on requisition, taking control of some 31 territories across four planets and three moons, and fortifying strongholds as you bid to conquer the deep-lying Kaurava system. Soulstorm's story revolves around a warp storm which has attracted the attention of the game's nine races, who all want the Kaurava system, and the secret behind the warp storm, to themselves.

When you start the campaign your race already has a stronghold on one of the system's territories. During each turn you can move your forces to a nearby territory and attack (triggering a traditional, on the surface Dawn of War battle which you control). Win the battle and you'll take over the territory and gain requisition points, to be spent on buying buildings and units that guarantee a force of some description will be immediately available should an enemy force attack you and draw you into ground combat. Each faction has a racial ability - the Dark Eldar for example can travel across the Kaurava system via Ancient Gates, while others races can only move to nearby territories. Conquer an enemy race by capturing the territory which houses their stronghold and you'll obliterate them completely and assimilate their racial powers.

The point to make about this campaign meta-game is that, while initially amusing, it quickly gets in the way of Dawn of War's traditional RTS combat. Indeed we found it became quite an annoyance pretty quickly. We suspect some gamers will love it and some hate it, since it's effectively ended the cut scene-style single-player campaign story we're used to from the series. We'll reserve ultimate judgement for the review of course, but we reckon that despite it being an easy to understand and pretty cool bonus feature, it may end up being a hurdle through which fans will be forced to jump if they want to get down with the nitty gritty.

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