In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war (Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - The Complete Collection (PC))

Member Name: edinburgher

Product:	Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - The Complete Collection (PC)
Date:	06/03/09 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant RTS game with various gameplay options and *9* races!

Disadvantages: Takes up a lot of space on your HDD, quite demanding in terms of system requirements

Dawn of War is a fantastic real-time strategy (RTS), based around the tabletop war game Warhammer 40,000. Warhammer 40,000 has been around for over twenty years and is one of a series of similar fantasy and science fiction offerings from the hobby supplier Games Workshop (www.games-workshop.com). In the table top game, hobbyists build and lovingly detail exotic armies of super soldiers, grotesque aliens and hideous demons and then battle them in their spare time. The blend of competitive strategy, enjoyable game and craft project has always proved a lucrative one and despite current financial troubles, the brand has been emptying the wallets of parents and devotees alike since 1975.

*Nine armies you say?!*

That's not a typo - this wonderful collection features nine armies pulled from the world of Warhammer 40,000 and each has its own destructive niche. Without meaning to go into too much detail, the key protagonists are:

Space Marines - Genetically enhanced human super-soldiers in suits of heavy armour. Their strength lies in good ranged attacks, strong armour support and various clever strategic options.
Chaos Space Marines - The warped version of the Space Marines. Rely upon demonic support and destroying the morale of their foes.
Orks - Just like Storm Troopers, these guys can't shoot to save themselves. That doesn't matter, however, as there are 300 of them and they all have guns! Uses a unique gameplay model to allow for very large armies.
Eldar - While limited in numbers, these technologically advanced aliens can easily win the day with a blend of fancy armoured support and powerful specialised infantry units.
Imperial Guard - Although the individual guardsmen are weak, there are a lot of them and they receive support from incredibly large tanks.
Necrons - Like scary robotic skeletons, these horrors from the universe's past come complete with a range of dazzling attacks and special abilities, including the option to temporarily freeze time! Think Jason and the Argonauts, but with lasers.
Tau Empire - The young upstarts of the Warhammer 40,000 world, these vauely Asiatic warriors attack from range with a selection of energy weapons.
Sisters of Battle - Fanatical warrior nuns in body armour? Odd as they sound, the Sisters of Battle can be a a formidable force. Slightly weaker individually than some of their competitors, the Sisters have good infantry units and a unique faith-based source of dazzling psychokinetic attacks.
Dark Eldar - The twisted version of the Eldar, dedicated to carnage and the satisfaction of their darkest desires. S&M jokes aside, some unusual armour support and strong infantry units make the Dark Eldar a force to be reckoned with.

*Fan service*

For those of us who appreciate the level of detail in the virtual worlds thought up by Games Workshop and their designers but don't have the manual dexterity, patience or budget to craft a huge army of figurines, this product is a dream. It gives you the chance to play in a well-realised game world with beautifully rendered models and a lot of the challenges of the table top game with the far easier combination of your mouse and a few keyboard controls. There are, no doubt, purists who complain about discrepancies between the computer game and what went before it. The fact of the matter is, however, that Dawn of War is an accurate reproduction of a specialised hobby, with great balance and a wide range of possibilities from the moment you install the disc.

*So, what's a RTS?*

Real-time strategy games are games in which a player/commander takes an omnipotent view of a fixed map or battlefield and then seeks to destroy his competitors, who may be human or computer-powered. Players seek to control supplies of resources and areas of the map which offer a tactical advantage with the ultimate goal of building a massive army and battering their opponents. Well-known examples of the genre would be Starcraft or the Red Alert Series.

*What's gameplay like in Dawn of War?*

Dawn of War largely follows the tried and tested tenets of the RTS genre, with an equal focus on controlling strategic objectives, hoarding resources and scrambling to develop a huge army to lead into war. The scale of the conflict is truly staggering and it's theoretically possible to have eight players in a game each controlling upwards of 200 soldiers! Armies are typically divided between commander units, light and heavy infantry and armoured units such as tanks. There are also a wide selection of esoteric super-units, ranging from saints to demons and back again.

To handle balance and army size, there is a cap on the amount of units that can be produced, but perhaps unusually in this sort of game, your units don't typically start out at full strength and rely upon reinforcement to bolster troop strength. As an example, many units will start out with four or five members, but can grow to as much as fifteen troops after they are reinforced. This strength in numbers can be vital for some armies that seek to swamp their enemies with cannon fodder!

Morale also plays a large part in the game and there are a wide range of units that can help you break the will of challengers (not to mention the strength of their army).

Controls are simple and are a largely intuitive division between mouse controls and a few simple keyboard shortcuts. While there is a fair focus on micro management (controlling your army and technology development down to the last level), it's done in a manner that doesn't detract from the enjoyment of watching skirmishes unfold.

*Do I have a lot of gameplay options open to me?*

You'll be pleased to hear that the answer to this is a definitive 'yes'. As I will go on to describe, this collection features a massive nine independently playable armies. Each of these can play through a massive campaign mode in which they seek to drive their enemies from a huge world map. In addition to this, there are options to play skirmish games against an AI (artificial intelligence) opponent on all of the maps available in the game and the always-popular online version of the game (essentially the same as skirmishes, except you get to play against real people!)

Difficulty controls are handled fairly well for the most part and there are a wide range of options available, from total newbies (easy), to seasoned generals (insane). Another refreshing aspect of the game, there are perhaps five or six difficulty settings for skirmish play.

It is also possible to customise your armies appearance with easy to use menu options for changing the look and feel of your forces. This will appeal greatly to those who enjoyed this aspect of the table top game and there is a certain comedic charm to crushing your enemies with bright pink tanks!

My one gameplay complaint is that this is a complex package of software. In all you end up installing four separate programs and the wealth of options, Internet permissions and the online gaming server (Gamespy) can lead to real problems setting up games online. You can have terrible difficulty connecting to the online portal at all if you're not a confident computer user and this may put people off. For example, I'd consider myself a healthy 'A-' when it comes to computing. Even after an hour or more of tinkering and manually setting up permissions and options with my wireless router software, I can still only create games online and cannot join other people's.

*System requirements and all that jazz!*

While this isn't the most demanding piece of gaming software ever, it does seem to take up a staggering amount of hard drive space and RAM to run smoothly. The manufacturer's specifications (with my additions) are below:

Windows® 2000/XP - Will also run under Vista.
DirectX® 9.0c (included) - Can easily be updated online if future patches require it.
2.0 Ghz Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon XP or equivalent processor - The faster the better. I'm currently running a laptop with a 1.66 Ghz dual core processor and things can be a bit slow.
512 MB RAM - Maybe this would work on a computer where this was the only piece of software! In practice, you still get some lag/slowdown with 1 GB of RAM, so 2-4 GB would be lovely.
3.5 GB free hard drive space - Again, not sure where they got this figure from. With all of the expansion packs installed my Dawn of War folder is a staggering 11.9 GB!
64 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible AGP video card with Hardware Transformation and Lighting, DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card, 16 bit - Again, a bare minimum. I'm running an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card and there is some slowdown when the computer is trying to render battles with lots of explosions, effects and general things in the background that utilise physics to make things happen.
Keyboard
Mouse
Multiplayer Requirements:
Internet: Cable modem, DSL modem, or better for online multiplayer play - I recommend broadband unless you want your fellow gamers to hate the fact that you lag behind them constantly!
Network: LAN or broadband WAN

*Mods, community and strategy tips*
Dawn of War is a wonderful franchise in that lots of clever fans with programming skills have banded together to make some brilliant mods for the series that alter the basic programming to add new units, missions and to address gameplay issues. Some of these are every bit as good as the official add-on packs and are well worth a look once you've mastered the attention to detail that this game has to offer. There is a thriving online community and general banter as well as specific strategy tips and guides can be found at either:

www.dawnofwargame.com or http://forums.relicnews.com/forumdisplay.php?f=89 (links correct as of 06.03.2009)

© Edinburgher/Luke Fojut at www.dooyoo.co.uk

Summary: RTS fans owe it to themselves to play this complicated gem