There were many games in 2004 that
caught the media’s attention including the insanely popular World of Warcraft,
the zany Katamari Damacy, or even the beautiful Team Ninja developed
Ninja Gaiden. While all are fine and dandy, none of them did anything for
the beloved real-time strategy genre. What stood out for the RTS genre was
Relic’s introduction of the Warhammer: Dawn of War series that focused on
capturing points on the map with a plethora of units rather than building up
your bases.
Now four years and two expansions
later, we see the third – Soulstorm—released on the PC. What does it
offer? If you’re a fan of the first two expansions, it isn’t nearly as much as
they offered previously, but Soulstorm has some depth to it when you
examine it closely.
For those who look at the content
rather than the gameplay, they’ll be happy to hear that there is quite a bit
here to experience. Two new armies make their debut in the form of ‘Sisters of
Battle’ and ‘Dark Eldar.’ Sisters of Battle are a female-based faction that
wants to purge and convert those who aren’t aligned with them. The Dark Eldar on
the other hand is primarily a group made up of mercenaries and pirates that
thirst for action. Of the two, the Dark Eldar should interest fans with that
take a liking to the Punisher, Han Solo and any other working mercenary out
there that has the “don’t give a darn” attitude.
In terms of how they play, the Dark
Eldar units have quick movement and unique spell powers that reduce resistances
and break the enemy morale. They also can harvest fresh corpses on the
battlefield to gain soul essence, which is then used to use their powers that
add effects to the battlefield. The Sisters of Battle are slower and need faith
resources that then can be used to power commander units that will tear up the
opposition. The Sisters’ best attribute lies with beefing up their infantry
groups. You’ll find that customizing your units with weapons and perks to
ransack buildings is very effective.
Also new to the game are a new
aerial unit for each race. The aerial units aren’t the most interesting unit to
play with since they won’t alter tactics on how to play. They’ll hover and at
times become a nuisance for the opposition to take care of, but outside of a few
select times, they aren’t as useful as they could have been. If anything, the
aerial units are served as a preview for the future installments where Relic and
THQ may take the series.
Now, if you are a fan of the
campaigns of the original and the expansions, then you’ll be pleasantly
entertained with the single-player campaign. The campaign has players fighting
across four planets and three moons which are in turn broken into 31
territories. If you’re wondering about the story, it pits all nine races
stranded within the Kaurava system battling to conquer the system and discover
the reason why they were drawn to the peculiar system.
While the campaign isn’t excellently
told as it could have been – the cut scenes tend to lack personality and
character – the gameplay holds up throughout. Staying close to what the earlier
Warhammer titles delivered, fans of the series will feel right at home
with controlling their units to domination over their opponents. You’ll still
have the ability to use special gear and powered-up units with your heroes when
you enter battles. What’s even more entertaining is that in mid-game, your units
and heroes will provide more insight on their stance on what is going on within
the galaxy. What the campaign does focus on is getting straight to the point to
enter combat as soon as possible.
Lastly, the art design is terrific
and stays true to the Warhammer 40K mythos. With the units and races
being faithful as ever, the animations and characters are excellently detailed.
Unfortunately, compared to today’s standards, the game isn’t as pretty as it
once was considered.
Review Scoring Details for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm |
Gameplay: 8.0
The two new races add something totally different and enticing for fans to
revisit the Dawn of War series. The combat itself is still entertaining
as it always has been.
Graphics: 7.4
The maps are dull in design, but the art design is impeccable.
Sound: 8.0
The murmurs from your units are entertaining, the sound effects are exciting
and the music is what you should have come to expect with the series.
Difficulty: Easy / Medium
Online it’s hard since everyone has their strategies, and playing against
longtime veterans will prove to be difficult to triumph in victory. The
single-player campaign is on the easier side of the spectrum through.
Concept: 7.0
For another expansion to the series, Soulstorm introduces two
interesting races, but it doesn’t do much more outside of that.
Multiplayer: 7.5
The multiplayer is decent, but it had lots of bugs at the time of writing.
THQ has stated that they’ll be fixing the bugs as soon as possible. As for the
actual online play, there is a lot of fun to be had, but it isn’t anything
different than what was offered in previous iterations.
Overall: 7.8
For the fans of the series, this is a definite must-have. If you are new to
the series, it’s recommended that you start from the beginning. In terms of what
it brings to the table, it’s a bunch of the same ole, same ole, but that isn’t
necessarily a bad thing since the series was very good to begin with.
