NEWS FOR TODAY

  • Dawn of War: Why I deeply distaste it

    ... and still have a blast playing it.

    written by Alex Woitalla, 25.12.08

    imageInitial Danger... this post is highly biased by the author. The first 40k game, that came across my rig was the much acclaimed Chaos Gate. Being somewhat slow in game play, yet quite immersive and fitted with ok graphics at its time, I played the campaign mode a lot, always having much fun doing so. As I heard about Dawn of War for the fist time, I thought, well, a RTS 40k game? How will this be possible? Will there be huge like epic scale battlefields? Or will the game be more intimate, petting your Space Marines like I did in Chaos Gate?

    I was a big time sceptic, as RTS won't pay justice to the 40k world at all. My scepticism was confirmed, when I fired up the DOW-demo for the first time. I howled out, praying to the Great Russ himself. What abomination of a game has befouled my hard drive... I was shocked.

    The graphics were fantastic, colourful and even cute from time to time… wait… cute? Did I just think this? Must read the Gaunt stories again… there is no word like “cute” in the 41st millennium. Oooooh… look the Gretchin. Ok… cute.

    Base building isn’t really what I expect, when I, the commander of a mighty Space Marine Battle Group, am fielded to gain control over that rotten planet. I am commanding Thunderhawks, Drop Pods, Tactical Squads, Assault Marines, and yes… even Dreadnoughts. And that puny game wants me to build a Power Generator? I am puzzled. Lets virus bomb that place and we’ll be home to attend the Late Evening Eucharist. Oh… not included to the list of features. Darn.

    Tactics are more than simple in DOW. Build, build build… micro-manage all your stuff… keep the enemy occupied and upgrade your units. Don’t forget to include the Skull Drone, yay… it detects hidden troops. Sigh… after 20 minutes you are ready to crush your opponent.

    Bolter fire is always treated like being something like a sub-machine gun. Why is that? After the DOW-games hit the shelves, every publisher pretended that a bolter was something like a puny M-16 or something. Guys… a bolter is a portable highly versatile grenade launcher, so heavy to wield, that you need some exo-armour just to shoot with it! It doesn’t fire bullets… Bullets are for Orks and Hive Gangers. It sends out high explosive shells, capable to let your body explode… and all that the Space Marines get is a “DRRRRRR DRRRR DRRRRR” from their M-16 bolters. No “Rack Pop Swoosh Boom”, no exploding hails of shells. I´m diverting, but the worst “Bolter” I saw was in that Space Marine presentation where the guy had been using the bolter as A TORCH!! To highlight a dark passage… DRRR DRRR DRRR.

    I built a Dreadnought. It was heavy, it was proud and red. A long perished battle brother´s soul was bound to the machine spirit to bring glory to the Emperor and the Blood Ravens (a chapter, that didn’t even exist). And it was ripped apart very soon by a small detachment of Storm Boyz. Again I howled out. The soul of the warrior was lost, all his experience, the history of the chapter, his wisdom and his sheer fire power. Will the Chapter survive this severe blow? Will the following generations of Blood Ravens be able to catch up with the loss? Ach… darn… I´ll build another one. And two more, to that they can provide some nice cross fire. Wait… I just lost a D’nought and with a blink on an eye I am able to field four more? What the fook? Who of Games Workshop did approve this nonsense? Where is QA? Where is the Inquisition?

    I uninstalled the demo as fast a possible, cowerd back into my bed and cried the whole night. Well, not really, but I was disappointed. Another wasted 40k franchise.

    But fortunately I gave it another shot, when the game went gold. I realized, this game is a RTS… nothing more, nothing less. It has its glitches, it may be even far off the franchise, but after some time I really really started to like it. With “Winter Assault” the Imperial Guard was introduced and I liked being the evil bastard that sends out grunts, just to watch them being mowed down. (note to myself… must write something about the perfect 40k computer game) I liked the campaign, I even liked the base building… well… not. But it was ok and I have a lot of memorable moments, when my customized Space Wolves made their last stand against hordes of Orks, pushing forth metre by metre just to conquer the map after two hours of barraging the incoming enemy. I had the Thousand Sons at my gate, just being able to field another squad of Tactical Marines, pure newbies from The Fang, and still I won the map after three hours of in-game flow.

    I hate Dawn of War. But it’s great to play it.

    17 comments, so far. - Permalink

Comments

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