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Great online play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Since there are a lot of reviews about the general single-player gameplay, I thought I would review the online aspect of this game, which I believe is superior to the single-player (which is also excellent).

Why I like this game?
This is one of my favorite single player games and is also my favorite online game. Playing the computer is fun, but playing a game of 3v3 adds a whole new dimension. You can easily argue that HL2 has better graphics or that Act of War is a better RTS, but I still feel that Warhammer 40K is the best online game. Period.

How does online play work for this game?
Online play uses the standard Skirmish maps (not the campaign maps). You can practice these maps against the computer. You can choose one of the four races and your strategy needs to changes based on what race(s) you are playing with and against.

The games are typically 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, free for all, or sometimes a variant (such as 2v2v2). You can choose what type of game you want to play, as well as what map. If you don't like the choices, you have the option of creating your own game. There are different win choices for the game as well, such as annihilate, hold strategic points for a time period, and kill the leader. Cheats can (and typically are) be turned off.

The game I enjoy playing the most is 3v3 with the annihilate win condition.

Games typically last 20 minutes, which is much better than getting killed in the first 5 seconds playing Farcry online.

Why is playing online fun?
No matter how good the AI is, it eventually gets boring playing against the computer. When you play online with different teammates and competitors, every game is unique.

The team aspect adds an entirely new dimension. In order to win against good players, your team needs to work together (fending off attacks, flanking the enemy, sharing resources, ...).

Another cool aspect of online play is you can customize the colors of your force, you can even customize the war banner for your squads as well.

What are the drawbacks of this game?
As previously stated, the graphics aren't the best, but they are pretty good. This is not a new game so you will likely be playing against people who have been playing this game online for a long time. Don't get discouraged, just do some strategy research online and look for true Newbie games to play in.

What am I comparing this game to?
In order to baseline a review, you need to know the frame of reference of the reviewer. The most applicable RTS games I have played are: the entire C&C Generals series, Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth, Starcraft, and Act of War. I prefer Warhammer 40K to all of these.

ONE OF THE BEST

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Read the Title. This is one the the best games there is to play. with almost perfect graphics,cool game play, great sound,a great storyline and the ability to change your entire armys color sceme. This game exceeds what I and most people expected for a game from games-workshop (remember firewarrior?)The main downside to this game is the lack of gameplay (common flaw of games from relic). There is only 1 campain of around 16 scenerios (although they take a long time to beat) and 21 small maps.

Now that my review out of the way Ill just like to say to the people that think that this game is like or based on starcraft. Ill tell you that the creators of this game did not copy starcraft becuse the races of eldar,space marine, orks, and chaos where made over 10 years before starcraft came out (but there are some guys in warhammer 40k that seem extremely close to the zerg (Tyranids) and the protoss (Tau) you can check out what I mean by going to the games workshop websight www.games-workshop.com)

a breakthrough for RTS imho

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

teamwork is stressed in this game, no simple massive troop can win the war anymore.

the good:
diversity of troop/upgrade/strategy shall rule the day.
deep depth in units.
very good visual if your computer can handle it.

the bad:
short single player campaign, though the story is ok.
not too many maps for you to play with.

ultimately this game encourages multiplaying and cooperation, which is "Strategy" should be about, in the real world. when you play rts by yourself, that's kind of like playing in a cocoon, you won't ever know the challenges out there. so I feel that the short single player campaign is acceptable. good game good price by amazon, referred by www.whosave.com. in war there is always a loser, just play again.

Based on 10-minute video: simply amazing!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: June 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Although this game will not ship until the fall of 2004, I was lucky enough to see an astounding video of game play that was roughly 10 minutes long at the recent Games Workshop Games Day in Maryland. Reviews and previews in PC Gamer magazine earlier this year were very favorable. A brief trailer is also available at the Dawn of War website. Based on everything I've seen so far this game has the potential to be one of the most spectacular futuristic strategy games ever released. Note that I've annotated my review below with parenthetical comments for non-Warhammer 40K players.

If the actual game play is as astounding as the simulated play in the video and trailer, this game should be very pleasing not only to Warhammer 40,000 fans, but to everyone looking for a terrific fantasy/science fiction strategy game. The images of the Chaos Defilers (walking demon possessed machines with claws and huge cannons) tearing a Land Raider (large tank) apart, the Eldar Avatar (fiery space elf demon) wailing on the Defilers with his huge magic sword, Ork Killer Kans sawing their enemies in half, Eldar Falcon grav tanks hovering and pouring energy weapon fire into their enemies; all of it was simply amazing.

The game animation when the Bloodthirster (huge demonic monster with gigantic axe, wings, horns, etc.) appears by possessing one of the Chaos Space Marines made people watching the video at Games Day "ooh and aah" and people cheered and applauded at the sight of the Space Marine Captain leaping upon the shoulders of the Bloodthirster and then pounding it to death with his Thunder Hammer. It was spectacular!

If the game is as good as it looks when released, if it is relatively free of programming bugs, and if the user interface and other important features are fun and easy to use, I'll have to come back and give it 5 stars!

WOW THIS IS AMAZING

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 19
Date: August 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

everything about this game is right on the money. the way the units are built is so amazingly cool, especialy the drop pods. the battles are beautiful, i love how things blow up. THIS IS THE GREATEST RTS GAME EVER. ITS AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER THAN STARCRAFT, which speaks ALOT! since starcraft = perfection

Best RTS since Total Annihilation

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Let's put it this way : Dawn of war made me love RTS again. This is surely the most entertaining and addictive RTS game I've played since Total Annihilation. This game is all about war and mayhem, and believe me, you'll see plenty of those.

The single player campaign is ok. But the game is much more fun in multi-player or in skirmish. If you plan to play online and you're an RTS fan, then you should buy this game!! You won't regret it. Otherwise, download the demo and see for yourself.

Great Graphics, but not much else

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 34
Date: September 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Good graphics and a pretty faithful rendering of the war hammer 40K universe are the only positive things I can say about this game.
The game's interface is simple which is usually good, but it lacks a lot of functionality that is necessary in controlling a larger battlefield with more than one force deployed at once. There are no hot keys for toggling between different unit groups and more importantly there is no way to speed or slow the passage of time. This makes it very difficult in hectic battles to manage the production of units and control multiple armies in the field and very boring at the end of levels when you are just trying to clear enemy units from the field. The only way to play the game is to create an army and then follow it as it moves around the board.
In fact the only reason the game is beatable is that the levels are so easy. With a medium sized cadre of standard space marines and a couple missile-launchers a player can clear even the final level. This negates the need to build most advanced structures as the most powerful unit, or at least the most powerful unit you will ever need, can be built with simply a chapel and an armory. In fact the only reason to build the more advanced units are the ever annoying 'puzzle levels' where you must make the unit with some special ability, like the ability to jump or teleport over a crevice in order to defeat some ridiculously weak enemy. Hence most of the difficulty comes from figuring out how to build a unit that can teleport rather than defeating the enemy, which seems to have no AI at all, but rather just creates roaming adversaries. I never needed to save more than once and could usually play a level straight through beginning to end (including the final level, which is actually one of the easiest).
Also, without going into the mechanics of game play too much, resource gathering is so tedious that it is more time effective to just take the few strategic markers inside your base then go make a sandwich (don't worry there is no danger of an enemy attack) while resource points accrue than to undertake the difficult process of taking and developing markers in the field. Also, there is not much point in gathering too many resource points, as there is a finite number of units you can field at one time and they almost never die.
It's frustrating that in the 10 years since Dune II RTS's actually seem to have regressed.
I know I've slammed this game pretty hard, but there is one more thing I need to mention. The writing, both for during game play and in the cut scenes, is awful (I know I'm being a hypocrite since this review has a pretty good schemer of run-ons and sentence fragments). Even for the WH 40k universe, which is pretty complex, the characters in the cut scenes seem to have no internal momentum, but just come into conflict because... well, the game needs conflict (I still have no idea why the Eldar and Empire fight each other as their greater enemy is Chaos, but, oh well).
All in all, the game is a big disappointment.

More warrg!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Take the best of the StarCraft crew, team them up with Games Workshop and have them make a 40k game? Results: The best RTS this planet has ever seen. The only downside that I can find is that I can only play a Space Marine campaign. Maybe we'll get lucky and get expansions for other races. Besides, with 4 vs 4 multiplayer, you won't get tired of it until then. Overall, this game was well worth the wait and is worth every penny.

Very Good RTS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When I saw this summer that this game would be released close to the release date of Rome:Total War (late september) I thought that I would buy this one first and quickly move on to Rome. Kind of like the appetizer before the main course. But it is December and I am still on the appetizer. This game is beautifully rendered and very fun to play. Some other reviewers were right to say this is what Starcraft 2 would look like if Blizzard ever had the guts to make it.

When you zoom in to the action you marvel at the graphics. Just like everyone else has said already the highlights are the multiplayer and the skirmishes. I think they kind phoned it in for the single player campaign. But if you liked Starcraft you will get a lot of mileage out of this one.

Great game and no XP SP2 problems

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: October 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I just wanted to counter a different review that said the game doesn't work with XP SP2. I've XP SP2 and had no issues at all with installing and running the game. It's likely the install problem was caused by something else the other reviewer had on their computer. And, boy is it an excellent game. This one has been living in my CD drive for a while now. No need to hesitate, any RTS fan should have this in their collection.

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