Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade

This newest stand alone expansion for Dawn of War is the Shizz! With two new races to play as (The Necrons and Tau) bringing the total up to seven completely different races, many new multi-player maps, and a hugely expansive single player campaign, Dawn Of War Dark Crusade is one of the best Real time Strategy games I have ever played.

The two new races are both brilliant new additions to the game. The Necrons are immensely powerful and extremely hard to defeat, and the Tau with their high technology and powerful plasma weapons to contend with. Plus new units for each race. And a Hard cap limit for the powerful units to stop unfair competition in multi-player games (though only one of each type of Terminator may be built :( ) makes the game even more strategic.

The graphics are largely the same as the previous ones. Which is to say stunning. The explosions look bloody fabulous and the gore has gone up a bit too.

Sound wise its still brilliant. Explosions can shake your floor on a high enough volume and the sounds of war are just brilliant.

Overall, DoW DC is a brilliant game, and for only $60AUS great value too.

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.