An expansion for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Deep under the central desert of Kronus, a vast honeycomb of skull-lined tunnels and funeral chambers house the awakening Necron menace. Eons ago, these were the boulevards and squares of a great necropolis built to house the bones of the races who had fallen to the Necrons, and ultimately were where the Necrons themselves retire to spend eternity. Over millions of years, sand and rock had covered it all until ill-fated excavations awoke the deathless. Play any of seven races, striving for control over Kronus. Take other races' strongholds by winning challenging battles on various maps individually associated with the respective strongholds. New Races Take command of two new playable races: Tau and Necron to unleash massive carnage across the frontlines of battle. Expanded multiplayer Dominate opponents online across 12 new multiplayer maps - with up to 8 players battling it out for supremacy. Deep single player campaign Conquer the planet of Kronus any way you choose - leading any one of seven races on an epic crusade through an all-new, non-linear single player campaign where you can experience unique storylines from each race's perspective. Customization Customize your hero's weapons, items and abilities as he grows in power and influence. Personalize your army with a variety of insignias, squad colors, banners and names.
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the original game but with necrons. nothing else must be said.
One of my absolute nostalgic favs. Played the Guard on hard (ha), and might be the first time I ever did a full campaign as IG.
Hard difficulty was hair pullingly frustrating, but in a way also made me think way more on the game and what I needed to immediately do instead of just turtling and death balling. Strongholds do NOT fuck around and instantly wiped me out as soon as I loaded the map the first few attempts against some factions. Even the higher strength normal maps had me restart multiple times to get a good start going, and sometimes making me realize rushing with a small force was better than sitting back waiting to amass a larger one. Even made me micro more than I'm used to when doing single player in an RTS, making my sentinels dance around because their building/vehicle kill potential was too good to be wasted and it would be a game over if they died.
The Risk campaign style makes for a fun gameplay loop, with some borderline cheating rewards as extra spice to keep painting the map fun. But honestly, it does get monotonous to essentially be playing skirmish mode with zero sense of tech progression. Being able to get your relic-level weapon on map 1 made me realize that I enjoy the sense of "Oh, this is the last level, so they're giving me all the really strong shit now" in RTS campaigns. But you already had two Dawn of Wars do that for you, so whatever, yknow? But I gotta admit, I enjoy a heavier narrative focus, and I realizing the single player was just a generic vs. AI with an intro and epilogue did make it lose a bit of magic for me. If I wasn't playing on hard and it kept my interest through the varying difficulty of the maps, this would have been my millionth "Okay I did one stronghold, I'm good" run.
Now, I gotta say though: fuck Necrons and their ability to just shut down any source of damage, and fuck the pathfinding. Oh my god playing a horde army like IG is miserable with how many tight corridors are in EVERY GODDAMN MAP. I had conga lines across the entire map unless I carefully microed each squad. Good lord it's somehow worse than Brood War dragoons. You made the Chaos stronghold have instakill AOE pulses with pathfinding like THIS? You fucking monsters. You knew what you were doing. The inquisition is on the way.
Hard difficulty was hair pullingly frustrating, but in a way also made me think way more on the game and what I needed to immediately do instead of just turtling and death balling. Strongholds do NOT fuck around and instantly wiped me out as soon as I loaded the map the first few attempts against some factions. Even the higher strength normal maps had me restart multiple times to get a good start going, and sometimes making me realize rushing with a small force was better than sitting back waiting to amass a larger one. Even made me micro more than I'm used to when doing single player in an RTS, making my sentinels dance around because their building/vehicle kill potential was too good to be wasted and it would be a game over if they died.
The Risk campaign style makes for a fun gameplay loop, with some borderline cheating rewards as extra spice to keep painting the map fun. But honestly, it does get monotonous to essentially be playing skirmish mode with zero sense of tech progression. Being able to get your relic-level weapon on map 1 made me realize that I enjoy the sense of "Oh, this is the last level, so they're giving me all the really strong shit now" in RTS campaigns. But you already had two Dawn of Wars do that for you, so whatever, yknow? But I gotta admit, I enjoy a heavier narrative focus, and I realizing the single player was just a generic vs. AI with an intro and epilogue did make it lose a bit of magic for me. If I wasn't playing on hard and it kept my interest through the varying difficulty of the maps, this would have been my millionth "Okay I did one stronghold, I'm good" run.
Now, I gotta say though: fuck Necrons and their ability to just shut down any source of damage, and fuck the pathfinding. Oh my god playing a horde army like IG is miserable with how many tight corridors are in EVERY GODDAMN MAP. I had conga lines across the entire map unless I carefully microed each squad. Good lord it's somehow worse than Brood War dragoons. You made the Chaos stronghold have instakill AOE pulses with pathfinding like THIS? You fucking monsters. You knew what you were doing. The inquisition is on the way.
i wasted at least two years worth my life from age 7 to 18 playing this on my dad original cd copy (confirmed zoomer)
I didn't have much fun with the main game in this series either, but the linearly chaptered gameplay, for all its unbalance, at least gives you a purpose, even if it's a bad one, to keep going and you can finish it. But In Dark Crusade, it's just a matter of capturing every point on the map to win, and it's not a fun or narrative campaign. It's just a few pages of text and very short, generic cutscenes. It was made for online gameplay in time for those who like the races in 40K. If your goal is the story, there's no reason to continue after a few hours of single player play and not only is there no story, but the gameplay is unbalanced and difficult because of the terrible AI. Compared to the main game of the series and the previous DLC, there have always been suggestions from some players to play Dark Crusade first, but despite all the problems of the other games, at least they have a campaign. This one continues to have problems and limitations with unit controls and doesn't offer a campaign. With such a problematic gameplay, I don't understand why this 40K game is included in the lists of the best RTS games of all time. Those who make such lists probably either don't really play the games or are nostalgia-obsessed fans.
This review contains spoilers
Another excellent expansion of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.T
he Dawn of War series kept amazing me back in the day, and Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade did not disappoint. Yet again, it got a completely new way of playing with some fresh ideas, new races and, in this case, more freedom to play and a break from the linear path from the previous installments. This one is also standalone and does not require the original Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War game.
In Dark Crusade, your objective is simple: Conquer the planet Kronus and take full control of its resources. You are not the only one that wants this and all available factions in the game have set up a base of operations from where they will expand their influence over the planet. You need to conquer all the territories and strongholds of the enemy and claim your place as ruler of Kronus.
Although the core game play on the battlefield is the same as the other games, now you can choose which territory you want to attack in every order you like. You can make one attack/conquest per turn and sometimes need to defend your claimed territories against a counterattack from the enemy.
You can fight every scenario yourself or use auto resolve to calculate the outcome of the battle. This could come in handy when defending against a desperate little territory that you just do not have the time for.
Each faction has a unique ending when conquering all of Kronus. Every other faction, which is off course kicked off the planet, all have a different reaction and cut scene.
Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade includes the Imperial Guard from Winter Assault and adds two more playable races. Those are the Necrons, which the Eldar failed to stop in Dawn of War: Winter Assault, and my personal favorite: The Tau Empire.
The new approach of “just conquering a planet” and doing this in every order you like, is yet again, a fresh new idea. It gives you a break from the linear story missions from the previous games and laid the foundation to the last expansion of Dawn of War, and the absolute best one, in my opinion: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm.
In terms of graphics and sound, nothing changed from the earlier games. This is fine however, the focus was mainly on the new factions, units and way of playing. I do like the detail in the world map tough.
The action, tension and adrenaline rush I got from the previous games is back in full in this game and, it is even more present with the added objective of conquering, defending and managing your territories.
Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade is an excellent game and although I like Soul Storm more, purely because it has two more factions, it will always be one of my favorite Dawn of War games, along with Winter Assault.
Definitely recommend this gem.
he Dawn of War series kept amazing me back in the day, and Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade did not disappoint. Yet again, it got a completely new way of playing with some fresh ideas, new races and, in this case, more freedom to play and a break from the linear path from the previous installments. This one is also standalone and does not require the original Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War game.
In Dark Crusade, your objective is simple: Conquer the planet Kronus and take full control of its resources. You are not the only one that wants this and all available factions in the game have set up a base of operations from where they will expand their influence over the planet. You need to conquer all the territories and strongholds of the enemy and claim your place as ruler of Kronus.
Although the core game play on the battlefield is the same as the other games, now you can choose which territory you want to attack in every order you like. You can make one attack/conquest per turn and sometimes need to defend your claimed territories against a counterattack from the enemy.
You can fight every scenario yourself or use auto resolve to calculate the outcome of the battle. This could come in handy when defending against a desperate little territory that you just do not have the time for.
Each faction has a unique ending when conquering all of Kronus. Every other faction, which is off course kicked off the planet, all have a different reaction and cut scene.
Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade includes the Imperial Guard from Winter Assault and adds two more playable races. Those are the Necrons, which the Eldar failed to stop in Dawn of War: Winter Assault, and my personal favorite: The Tau Empire.
The new approach of “just conquering a planet” and doing this in every order you like, is yet again, a fresh new idea. It gives you a break from the linear story missions from the previous games and laid the foundation to the last expansion of Dawn of War, and the absolute best one, in my opinion: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm.
In terms of graphics and sound, nothing changed from the earlier games. This is fine however, the focus was mainly on the new factions, units and way of playing. I do like the detail in the world map tough.
The action, tension and adrenaline rush I got from the previous games is back in full in this game and, it is even more present with the added objective of conquering, defending and managing your territories.
Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade is an excellent game and although I like Soul Storm more, purely because it has two more factions, it will always be one of my favorite Dawn of War games, along with Winter Assault.
Definitely recommend this gem.
Not too sure what to say about this one. with this one they have changed the game entirely since Winter Assult and instead you are on a map. You have to take over territories, each giving a boon of somekind and the game is over when you have driven all other races off the planet.
With this change there are quite a few interesting things to note.
1. Your general is upgradable. By accomplishing certain things you can upgrade your general in various ways which gives him/her boons. For example, one upgrade made it so Taldeer can spot infiltration enemies and another gave her the ability to regenerate faster and those of troops around her.
2. Certain missions are far more than simply (destroy enemy HQ) and involve more difficult tasks like collecting a number of units or destroying certain objectives. All this makes it feel like they actually put thought into it.
3. Invading the Homebase. The homebase battles are absolutely EPIC! Definantly buy this if you have the others.
With this change there are quite a few interesting things to note.
1. Your general is upgradable. By accomplishing certain things you can upgrade your general in various ways which gives him/her boons. For example, one upgrade made it so Taldeer can spot infiltration enemies and another gave her the ability to regenerate faster and those of troops around her.
2. Certain missions are far more than simply (destroy enemy HQ) and involve more difficult tasks like collecting a number of units or destroying certain objectives. All this makes it feel like they actually put thought into it.
3. Invading the Homebase. The homebase battles are absolutely EPIC! Definantly buy this if you have the others.