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Sneaking into a fire-fightSo apart from reinventing resource gathering, does DoW do anything else different? The answer once again is yes. For the most part DoW does away with single units and introduces squads. Not only will this keep the 40k devotees happy, but it makes for a very different RTS experience, possibly even a better one. No longer are you forced to build five units and a special to go with them; when you build something in DoW you build a set amount. When you order the construction of a Possessed Chaos Space Marine, you'll build a squad containing four. This squad cannot be divided and must always fight together. This may sound inhibiting at first, but when you realise how versatile this makes the game, you'll never want to go back. Using a standard Space Marine squad as an example, you'll build four marines straight out the barracks. These marines can then be reinforced up to an 8 man squad. This will of course mean they survive for longer and have more fire power. You can then add a Sergeant to increase their morale and damage yet further. You can then upgrade their weapons, adding so much depth that RTS fans will be in heaven.
I briefly touched on moral in the above paragraph and this is another little feature that is present in DoW. All squads have moral and when the moral breaks, they become as weak as kittens. Moral can be reduced in two ways: when a squad comes under heavy fire, or when a squad is hit with specific moral breaking weapons. Having a 'broken' squad get torn asunder by weaker enemy troops will ensure that you rethink your tactics for future games.
The campaign is a mere 11 missions long with an ending on par with Halo 2 for sheer disappointment
So that's DoW: full of excellence and new features that you'll love it for. But didn't I say that it's a bit of a letdown in Skirmish and that the campaign is painfully short? Why yes I did and this is where the excellent multiplayer extends the game and uses all of its innovative features to achieve greatness. I have to say at this point that if you are thinking about buying DoW solely for single play, then you may be disappointed. The campaign is a mere 11 missions long with an ending on par with Halo 2 for sheer disappointment. And of course, while the skirmish mode can be fun, it's hard not to start cursing the damned AI and all those little faults and niggles that are seemingly just there to annoy you and spoil your enjoyment.
Alas, DoW is perhaps the best multiplayer RTS I have ever played, easily besting Warcraft III and perhaps even StarCraft as well. Every feature I have listed above works so perfectly and with each race behaving so differently the seasoned player will soon develop tactics for each army in each possible form.
A myriad of game types are available although the 'self explanatory 'Annihilate' game type seems to crop up the most. This is by no means a bad thing as everyone loves battling it out in a straight out scrap, but if you do want to play some of the more diverse game types you'll have to host a game yourself. Sudden Death is a particularly fun game mode, wherein if you lose just a single strat point your force is defeated.
Three-way battleThe dreaded issue of lag is always the bane of the online gamer and DoW has it in droves. This is usually down to "newbies". There are a few veteran players that should know better, but quite frequently you'll jump into a game only to discover that you're on a 56k host, or that someone with an old computer is trying to play an 8 player game. Whereas lag can be ruinous, it only occurs in times of major battles and is quite a relief to the novice player as he'll be able to micromanage more efficiently. You'll come to grind you teeth in some games until the lagger is auto-booted. Then you may find yourself grinding your teeth yet further as a member of your team is booted.
Some users in the online community have been quite vocal regarding better servers to counter this, but when this fault is usually down to users themselves, there is little that Gamespy can do. A few extra features for its online interface would be nice, but on the whole, DoW is a great game to play online.
So in conclusion, Dawn of War is a great game that should certainly be owned by all RTS fans out there, as well as the 40K diehards. The single player, whilst good, is terribly short and the skirmish mode can be very annoying indeed. The multiplayer is certainly the most enjoyable mode, be it over LAN or Internet, offering terrific laughs and hours of entertainment. Players who just wish to play single player should approach with caution, whereas online gamers should lap up this excellent title.
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