Reviewed by: Koorah
Developer: Relic
Publisher: THQ

Recently I gave Company Of Heroes a damn high score and rightly so, it was probably the most accomplished RTS game I had ever played. Yet despite still standing by that opinion I haven’t played it since completing my review. The reason being, I fell under the spell of my old friend, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War in anticipation of the latest addition to its little family, and since its release I haven’t played anything else.

Dark Crusade is the second expansion to the greatest sci-fi RTS since Starcraft. The most significant change from previous titles is found in the single player game. The linear scripted campaign of previous outings has been ditched in favour of a turn-based Risk/Total War style metamap, allowing you to pick a faction and conquer the world of Kronus your way.

Relic has incentivised the conquest of Kronus with tangible rewards for conquering provinces. Firstly, each province yields some bonus to your army - either unlocking a new elite unit for your Generals persistent honour guard which, once trained, is immediately available at the start of each battle, or by providing some strategic advantage - the ability to move twice per turn for example.

In addition, each province held contributes Global Requisition points each turn. These points are spent in training your honour guard and putting troops in defensive barracks in the provinces you’ve taken. Moving barracked troops between provinces also costs, so taking provinces that yield high levels of global req becomes a priority.

Your armies general can also earn War Gear that enhances him and his troops in battle. Each factions General has different War Gear and you can choose which items you take after each War Gear point is earned, allowing you to customise your General and his abilities to compliment your play style.

However it’s the new factions that are undoubtedly the stars of the show, and from the huge canon of races populating Warhammer 40K war-torn universe, Relic have chosen two of the tabletop communities favourites

Fighting for “The Greater Good” come the tech dependant Tau Empire. Finally being done justice since their last appearance in the execrable Fire Warrior, most of the Tau units are ‘Glass Rifles’ i.e. very weak in melee but capable of laying down truly horrifying levels of face melting long range firepower. They field versatile stealth units, crack infantry, powerful Battlesuits, advanced vehicles and can compliment their ranks with two allied races. The Kroot - primitive, cannibalistic melee specialists, and the Vespid - fast insectoid skirmishers, both of which fill gaps in the Tau forces nicely.

With a choice of mutually exclusive research paths to take that specialise their higher tier units, the Tau have a wide range of tactical options to play with, and with the right mix of combined arms are an highly formidable foe.

Where the Tau are tactically flexible, the second new faction couldn’t be more single-minded.

Once a race of mortals seeking eternal life, the Necrons are Warrior Slaves, their undead souls encased in living robotic frames, sent forth to harvest the souls of the living to quench the eternal hunger of their immortal Star-God masters, MWOARR HAR HAR HAR HAAAARRRRR!!!

The Necrons are best described as the undead variant of Cyberdyne System Model 101. They are relentless, remorseless killing machines and will NEVER EVER STOP UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD! While slow moving the Necrons are extremely tough, require only one type of resource that they can generate themselves and their initial troops are free. They also boast the Necron Lord, one of the most versatile and scaleable hero units in the game. As well as being downright hard in his own right, he can be upgraded to call down a solar flare that renders all your hardware useless and has power to resurrect the Necron Warriors - that you just expended half your forces killing - under your very feet. Oh, and he can turn himself into a gigantic, utterly invulnerable Grim Reaper capable of tearing apart anything you throw at him. Your only tactical options are to run screaming like a bunch of little girls or bravely stand your ground and die with a 50-foot scythe protruding from your butt. That’s it. Once they have gained momentum the Necrons, like the Tau, are damn near unstoppable.

However, not content with serving us a new SP campaign and two new Factions to play with, Dark Crusade continues to spread the love. It’s a stand-alone game (although players without the original game or Winter Assault will only be able to play as either Necrons or Tau in MP), and throws in the usual gifts of more cool new units for all existing factions and additional MP maps.

Dark Crusade seems to be a pretty great package, yes?

Well…yeah. Generous certainly. Unfortunately Dark Crusade doesn’t quite grasp all it reaches for and some of this can be blamed on its slightly confused mission statement.

Being stand-alone, Relic seems to be trying to attract new players. Yet if so why not make the SP campaign a smidge easier? While tactically dim, the AI’s God-like multitasking skills must be compensated for by knowing how to counter its ‘paper’ units with your ‘scissor’ units, but with seven factions to choose from all of which are wonderfully diverse in tactics and play style that’s a lot of learning to do – possibly too overwhelming for new players to persevere with.

Secondly, the SP campaign effectively boils down to a string of skirmish maps. Where previously your units would be slowly unlocked over the course of the campaign, here they are all available from mission one and this sort of feels like sitting down to dinner eating and eating your favourite dessert first. There’s little more to look forward to. Many vets I’ve spoken to got bored with the SP campaign and just went straight to Skirmish mode and MP.

So it would seem that by trying to appease both vets and virgins alike, Dark Crusade falls short of satisfying either.

Then there’s the balance issue. I don’t envy Relic the task of balancing 7 factions, especially when each is so very different from the other, but the new guys - especially the Necrons – feel way too overpowered. There are also some AI targeting bugs and some awful path finding for certain units that really need looking at.

Don’t for a moment though think that Dark Crusade isn’t a great game. I judge DC harshly because I’m a huge Relic fan - Dawn of War especially – and Dark Crusade is a more than worthy addition to its stable.

Yes the Necrons are monstrously imba, but by golly they’re fun to play, the Tau perhaps more so because of their versatility. When you score a victory over either you feel like you’ve earned it, which is no bad thing. The Campaign Stronghold missions are all set-piece battles and are a lot of fun but when the SP begins to bore you there is always Skirmish Mode and MP to fall back on. Once you have moved on you probably won’t go back again, for its here you’ll find the true beauty of Relics game.

The battles are always frantic, bonkers events and with two well-matched players the advantage constantly swings from one side to the other in a visceral contest of attack and counter attack. Even when you get your arse kicked, there is an addictive quality that keeps you going back for more. Where CoH was authentic, DoW:DC is just plain fun.

Dark Crusade still looks great despite the engine being 3 years old now, and when you watch replays of your games I dare you not to grin when the action is thickest. Blood spurts, troops fly, explosions erupt and everywhere can be found the tongue in cheek taunts of each faction.

My favourite?

Orks on Seeing Eldar for the first time…

“Ha Puny Eldar! Send ‘alf da boyz ‘ome”

Classic.