soulstorm
I’ve been playing Dawn of War – Soulstorm for about a week now… I’m having a lot of fun, but it isn’t without disappointments.
Soulstorm, like Dark Crusade, is a little unlike most expansions in that it is completely stand-alone. You do not need to own any of the other games in order to install it. It also doesn’t really continue any existing storylines. Also like Dark Crusade, Soulstorm gives you Risk-like battle map on which to orchestrate your conquest. As you crush your opponents you gain various upgrades and powers – a bonus to your resources, additional troops, and equipment that makes your hero more powerful.
If this all sounds rather familiar it is because Soulstorm and Dark Crusade are virtually identical. The only substantial differences are the addition of two new factions, and flying units. Sure… The battlefield is bigger, and spans several whole planets – but that is largely cosmetic. It could easily have been set on just a single large planet instead.
So we’ve got two new factions – the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Eldar.
The Sisters of Battle are basically the female version of the Space Marines. There are several important differences between the two, but they play very similarly. The Sisters of Battle have the same kind of versatility and hardiness that the Space Marines do…with a little of the Imperial Guard‘s swarminess thrown in for good measure.
The Dark Eldar are a twisted, evil version of the Eldar. They play about like you’d expect evil Eldar to – fast and not terribly durable in a stand-up fight. But they get all sorts of evil abilities to use on their foes. You can harvest the souls of your fallen enemies and use them to rain destruction on the battlefield.
The only other real difference is the addition of flying units for every faction except the Necrons. Unfortunately these flying units don’t really make much of an impact on the gameplay. Sure, they can bypass all terrain restrictions… You can fly over mountains and canyons to get at your enemy… But they really don’t pose enough of a threat to really make a difference. The emphasis in Soulstorm, as in all the Dawn of War games, is on the infantry.
The gameplay really hasn’t changed any from Dark Crusade. You conquer one territory after another… Build up your army, capture resources, build up a bigger army, and defeat your enemy… Along the way you gain wargear and additional troops… And eventually you run out of enemies and win the game. Like Dark Crusade, the individual battles are set up more like skirmish games. There’s very little advancement of a storyline or anything like that. Attacking an enemy headquarters results in some nice exposition and a fairly challenging set-piece battle…but that’s about the extent of it. Still, Dawn of War offers some of the best RTS gameplay out there and I really can’t complain about getting more of the same.
I mentioned, when I played the demo, that the introductory movie was somewhat sub-par. This is still true. It just doesn’t live up to the standards set by the other games. Thankfully that’s where the sub-par ends. The set-pieces and voice acting are great, and all the new units look terrific.
The end result is another thoroughly enjoyable Dawn of War game. If you didn’t enjoy the first several games you’ve got absolutely no reason to buy this one… But if you did, you’re sure to enjoy it.