Rise of the Necrons ... or, um, Tau. (Warhammer: 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade Add-On (PC))

Member Name: DaveAshton

Product:	Warhammer: 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade Add-On (PC)
Date:	21/09/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Graphics, accurate to the 40k universe.

Disadvantages: You need the original and Winter Assault to get everything out of this game.

Dark Crusade is the 2nd expansion to THQ's Dawn of War series. Set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Dark Crusade adds to the original premise of Dawn of War's strategy game play by giving you both 2 more races (the Necrons and Tau) and an enetirely new way to play the campaign mode. Instead of a mission-based story, the campaign in Dark Crusade gives you a map of the planet Kronus. The map is divided into several small regions, and you take it in turns with the opposing races to move your army to another region, and fighting for control of it. These regions all have distinct advantages to capturing them, from more troops to start each fight with, to the opportunity to attack two regions in a turn instead of one. Each race in the game (the 2 new races, plus the 5 races from the previous game) has their own stronghold region, and capturing this region will remove the race from the planet. The objective is simply to be the last race left on Kronus.

Despite it being an expansion, you will not need to own the original Dawn of War game to play it. However, I'd reccommend owning the original Dawn of War and Winter Assault (the 1st expansion). Otherwise you can only use the 2 races this game introduced to the series in the skirmish mode. Skirmish is basically a custom mode, where you pick the race you want to play as, pick the opponent (or opponents), choose a map, and then wage war.

Graphically, this game is pretty much the best you can expect for a game a few years old, and the sound effects are spot on, too.

Summary: If you're a fan of 40k, get this. And then get the rest of the series too.