The Dark Crusade brings new life into Dawn of War
Dow was released on September 2004 and a few years on THQ decided to release this. After a rather good first exspaion called Winter Assault this one is even better. Adding two new army's and maps and just making everything better. But Considering the age of the game can it still keep up with others like Age of empires 3 and CNC3?
Ok so gameplay gameplay has changed a bit. The first big change is the addition of The Tau and necron army's. Both have there strength and weakness. While most army's are either fairly good with range and such. The Tau have some of the most powerful range units in the game and can be a very dangerous foe if u go range to range. But heres there biggest weakness what they have in range they lack in amour and melee Infact if not in range And if being attacked by melee your units will be down with in seconds. Still if u have a unit of kroot and some fire warriors u shouldn't have much problems laying waste to anything in your way. One final weakness which Tau has is the fact they have no turrets which can be a problem is trying to defend your base of a location on the map.
The next army is the powerful Necron's. Although they have an overall powerful army they lack one thing which is need to bring there army up, Time!. The Necon's will take the longest to build a strong army but the rewards form waiting are great from the destroyer units to the all mighty Monolith people quake in fear at the Necrons, or call u noob because u can own with them. -_-
But just because they new Races don't think your old favs like the Eldar and Orks are getting left out. Each race gets one new unit some more useful then others like the Daemon Prince and Grey Knights while others arejust ok. There's Also a new campaign to. Going away from telling a story they gone for a now try take over every place you can see. and take out the otherArmy's before they take you out. This Kind of gameplay has been do in other game as well like Lord of the ring and Rome total war, But is still done very well here.
The final part of DC is its online play. While there's been no big change in online Because of the Tau and Necon race there has been a bit of balancing issues. While some of these have been sorted there still some work that does need to be done. Also if u don't own DOW or Winter Assault then you will not be able to play as any other race apart from Tau or Necon Which to me would be a problem but i have all games so its not :D.
The graphics are starting to look a little dated it has to be said but It does still look great and can hold on most systems pretty well. Even thought the graphics are starting to look a little old there still some really good looking effects taking place with in the battle. And the fact u can move the camera to anyposition is great for taking them close up screenshots or vids.
The sound in this game is just great, even thought there no voice acting because there is no story. They still some great sound effects like the screams of units being shot or just riped toshreds.
So is there a lot to keep u happy here but if you want the full value then i would get all the games. The great new is you can get the DOW Anthology pretty cheap and if u want the best that dow has to offer then you need this.
So i highly recommend this game but this one major problem i have with it. Now most people who have routers have some problems joining games. Now to sort this problem out you need to open ports on your router which can be a problem because it allows hijackers to enter your computer few this ports so i can be a risk to play this gameonline so one that one bad note i answer the question i said at the start can this keep up with other games and the fact is it can and infact is better still then a lot of the newer game coming out.
