Only the awkward question; only the foolish ask twice.
Relic's latest installment to the series is a welcomed addition, but with nothing particularly new or different to show this time around.
Here we are on the fourth Dawn of War titles and third expansion: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm. This time around we're thrown into the heart of the Kaurava system where a Warp Storm has brought all kinds of mess to be purged with righteous fury. Soulstorm introduces us to the first dedicated force of the Inquisition: The Sisters of Battle as well as the Dark Eldar.
The Sisters tend to play somewhere between the Space Marines and the Imperial Guard, only with lots more fire. Never has so much holy promethium been unleashed upon the Dawn of War battlefields. That aside, the nuns with guns also introduce a third resource: Faith. Faith is generated via Faithful units, such as your Cannoness and the Living Saint and your faith cap being decided by how many Holy Icons you've built on your listening points, to a maximum of 100. Faith is used exclusively on unit abilities, allowing the Sisters to unleash their full fury or to call on miracles from the God-Emperor himself. One quirk I noticed about the Sisters is that their morale seemed to break faster than the Imperial Guardsmen did, which had to be alieviated by the Seraphim's (the fast-attack jetpack wearing unit of the Sisters) special ability Angelic Visage, temporarily freezing nearby Sisters' morale.
The Dark Eldar are all about striking fast and striking hard. The Dark Eldar in general are faster than most races, but in some cases more fragile. Their commander unit, the Archon, is one of only a few that in itself can be reinforced with personal bodygaurds, and otherwise left on its own, the Archon is a very fragile unit. The Dark Eldar also introduce two unique features, the first being that they don't need to have a builder unit constantly working on a structure as it is contructed (a la Protoss) and secondly, they also have a unique resource: Souls. I need more SOULS. Sorry, I had to. Anyways, souls allow you to activate some global abilities that you'll find across the center of the UI. These range from a basic Detection ability to the vicious Soulstorm, punishing all units, friend of foe, that gets caught within its maelstrom. The Dark Eldar's relic unit is a heavy assault skimmer, with what can only be described as a doom-laser affixed to it.
Relic decided to take their idea they started with in Dark Crusade and expand on it. This time around you aren't confined to a planet, instead you have a system of four planets to conquer, but things are getting a bit cramped with everyone deciding to be there at the same time. There have been a few other changes to the campaign system as well. For starters, the special abilities are no longer a territory-related bonus, instead you gain the bonuses that were found in Dark Crusade by annihilating another race from the system, with each race being granted a special ability at the onset of the campaign. Secondly, in order to leave your planet, you will have to engage and capture a specific territory through a take-and-hold match, which can greatly vary in difficulty, depending on the size of the force the computer has decided to plant there. Overall though, it's not anything new, just more of the same (which isn't to say that is a bad thing).
There are a few quirks this time around with the Sisters' sound production. One being that some units have lines that are so long, they'll be spewing out multiple, overlapping lines between selecting, ordering and reselecting. The other thing I noticed is that at least one unit (and this is nitpicking) didn't actually have any lines at all to speak of, which I found odd given relic's track record for attention to detail. I haven't noticed all that many quirks with the Dark Eldar on the other hand though. In the end, it isn't anything game-breaking or particularly bad, rather just things you might notice when you're bored.
Visually we've seen it all before three times now, and the engine is starting to show its age. In spite of that though, everything feels just as grim and violent as always, and watching an Ork get cut apart by a Penitent Engine (a walking mech with chainsaws for hands in the Sisters' vehicle repetoire) is just as satifsying as it has been in the past.
One thing I haven't touched on that I will now right before I close is the inclusion of air units- one thing I know many fans have been waiting for. Now, all of these units (one per race, except for the Necron, who instead get a secondary form for their commander- the Defiler and get the Tomb Spyder's attack scarabs as flyers) are basically units that hover above the ground (almost like a vehicle suspended in the air rather than feeling truly aerial). They're all susceptible to the same kind of fire a vehicle is, so the main thing they have going for them is mobility. It was a nice feature, but not something to run out and buy the game soley for.
Overall, Soulstorm is probably a package more for veterans of the series. Newcomers might want to start with an earlier title before picking up Soulstorm. At the same time, it is a good note to close Dawn of War on as we wait for Dawn of War 2 that will hopefully be hot on its heels. And remember: The Emperor knows, the Emperor is watching.
Here we are on the fourth Dawn of War titles and third expansion: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm. This time around we're thrown into the heart of the Kaurava system where a Warp Storm has brought all kinds of mess to be purged with righteous fury. Soulstorm introduces us to the first dedicated force of the Inquisition: The Sisters of Battle as well as the Dark Eldar.
The Sisters tend to play somewhere between the Space Marines and the Imperial Guard, only with lots more fire. Never has so much holy promethium been unleashed upon the Dawn of War battlefields. That aside, the nuns with guns also introduce a third resource: Faith. Faith is generated via Faithful units, such as your Cannoness and the Living Saint and your faith cap being decided by how many Holy Icons you've built on your listening points, to a maximum of 100. Faith is used exclusively on unit abilities, allowing the Sisters to unleash their full fury or to call on miracles from the God-Emperor himself. One quirk I noticed about the Sisters is that their morale seemed to break faster than the Imperial Guardsmen did, which had to be alieviated by the Seraphim's (the fast-attack jetpack wearing unit of the Sisters) special ability Angelic Visage, temporarily freezing nearby Sisters' morale.
The Dark Eldar are all about striking fast and striking hard. The Dark Eldar in general are faster than most races, but in some cases more fragile. Their commander unit, the Archon, is one of only a few that in itself can be reinforced with personal bodygaurds, and otherwise left on its own, the Archon is a very fragile unit. The Dark Eldar also introduce two unique features, the first being that they don't need to have a builder unit constantly working on a structure as it is contructed (a la Protoss) and secondly, they also have a unique resource: Souls. I need more SOULS. Sorry, I had to. Anyways, souls allow you to activate some global abilities that you'll find across the center of the UI. These range from a basic Detection ability to the vicious Soulstorm, punishing all units, friend of foe, that gets caught within its maelstrom. The Dark Eldar's relic unit is a heavy assault skimmer, with what can only be described as a doom-laser affixed to it.
Relic decided to take their idea they started with in Dark Crusade and expand on it. This time around you aren't confined to a planet, instead you have a system of four planets to conquer, but things are getting a bit cramped with everyone deciding to be there at the same time. There have been a few other changes to the campaign system as well. For starters, the special abilities are no longer a territory-related bonus, instead you gain the bonuses that were found in Dark Crusade by annihilating another race from the system, with each race being granted a special ability at the onset of the campaign. Secondly, in order to leave your planet, you will have to engage and capture a specific territory through a take-and-hold match, which can greatly vary in difficulty, depending on the size of the force the computer has decided to plant there. Overall though, it's not anything new, just more of the same (which isn't to say that is a bad thing).
There are a few quirks this time around with the Sisters' sound production. One being that some units have lines that are so long, they'll be spewing out multiple, overlapping lines between selecting, ordering and reselecting. The other thing I noticed is that at least one unit (and this is nitpicking) didn't actually have any lines at all to speak of, which I found odd given relic's track record for attention to detail. I haven't noticed all that many quirks with the Dark Eldar on the other hand though. In the end, it isn't anything game-breaking or particularly bad, rather just things you might notice when you're bored.
Visually we've seen it all before three times now, and the engine is starting to show its age. In spite of that though, everything feels just as grim and violent as always, and watching an Ork get cut apart by a Penitent Engine (a walking mech with chainsaws for hands in the Sisters' vehicle repetoire) is just as satifsying as it has been in the past.
One thing I haven't touched on that I will now right before I close is the inclusion of air units- one thing I know many fans have been waiting for. Now, all of these units (one per race, except for the Necron, who instead get a secondary form for their commander- the Defiler and get the Tomb Spyder's attack scarabs as flyers) are basically units that hover above the ground (almost like a vehicle suspended in the air rather than feeling truly aerial). They're all susceptible to the same kind of fire a vehicle is, so the main thing they have going for them is mobility. It was a nice feature, but not something to run out and buy the game soley for.
Overall, Soulstorm is probably a package more for veterans of the series. Newcomers might want to start with an earlier title before picking up Soulstorm. At the same time, it is a good note to close Dawn of War on as we wait for Dawn of War 2 that will hopefully be hot on its heels. And remember: The Emperor knows, the Emperor is watching.
