Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and released by THQ on September 20, 2004. Afterwards, there have been four expansions: Winter Assault in 2005, Dark Crusade in 2006, Soulstorm in 2007 and Eternity Crisis in 2008.

Dawn of War is based on the popular tabletop miniature wargameWarhammer 40,000, developed by Games Workshop and originally published in 1987.

As a series Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide as of January 2013.[4]

Gameplay
Dawn of War is a small-scale RTS game where the player commands infantry squads and ground vehicles to defeat his opponent(s). Combat units are produced from production buildings using two resources: Requisition and Power. The Requisition resource is gathered by controlling "Strategic Points" on the combat map; these points must be "captured" by an infantry squad and can be taken back by the opponent. The Power resource is gathered by building generator structures, which require Requisition to be built.

The combat units engage in both ranged and close combat to defeat enemy units. Many units have specific roles; e.g., a lightly armed infantry squad may be effective against other infantry but useless if trying to shoot at an armored transport vehicle, while a missile launcher would damage the transport vehicle badly yet remain ineffective against infantry squads. Units may have special abilities such as concealment, throwing grenades or teleporting short distances.

The game is usually won by either destroying the opponent's base or controlling a majority of the strategic assets on the map. Single-player campaign missions may also involve destroying a specific character.

Factions
Dawn of War features four fully playable factions from the Warhammer 40,000 universe: the Space Marines,Orks, Eldar and the Chaos Space Marines. The player can also control a very limited selection of  Tyranids, Imperial Guard, Earth Force, Deamon Hunter, Chaos Deamon, With Hunter, Steel Legion, Dance Macabre, Loyalist and Traitor in certain Shop.

Modes
The game has a linear story mode that spans a total of 50 missions, and a multiplayer mode that allows individual or teamed matches for up to eight players. In the story mode, the player must control the Space Marines, Orks, Eldar and Chaos Space Marines faction, while other unlockable allows choosing Necrons, Tau Empire, Dark Eldar and Sister of Battle as well.

Combat
Infantry units are not given orders as individuals; they move and attack as squads. Most fully reinforced squads consist of about eight individuals, although when they are first requisitioned, they usually have less. They can usually be equipped with special weapons and a specific leader, depending on the squad type. Squads can produce and replace their own units and weaponry anywhere in the field, but the player must wait a short period of time before new individuals, weapons, and leaders appear in the squad. Additionally, all races have commander units, which are general leaders or other units that can be attached to most squads, but are produced separately.

Infantry units can fight in both ranged and hand-to-hand combat, and many units will have weapons for both types of combat, and if attacked in close combat will have to respond accordingly. Hand-to-hand combat is played out as a series of synchronized attack animations between combatants. When one combatant defeats the other, a finishing moveknown as "Sync Kill" plays out as the victorious fighter finishes his opponent off in a dramatic and violent manner. More powerful units, such as Heroes, Walkers, and monstrous Super Units, may have personalized Sync Kills against each other.

Vehicles are highly resistant to most standard infantry weaponry, so they must be targeted with specific heavy weapons (e.g. anti-tank rockets) to be destroyed. Vehicles can also be upgraded with multiple weapon systems, usually forcing a choice between either anti-infantry or anti-vehicle armaments. Walkers are a type of vehicle often armed with powerful heavy melee weapons, causing devastating damage in close combat.

In addition to a typical hitpoint system, infantry units also have morale. When in combat, squads take morale damage as well as health damage. However, morale applies to a squad as a whole. In addition to health, the morale of a squad heavily influences its combat ability. When morale drops to zero, the squad "breaks", which significantly reduces the squad's ranged accuracy, damage dealt in mêlée, and defensive capability. The squad's movement speed, however, is slightly increased to allow it to retreat. That said, the unit must still be ordered away from the combat for it to escape. The squad's morale will regenerate on its own while the squad is not in combat, and the squad will "regroup" and regain combat effectiveness once it reaches a certain threshold.

Just as with hitpoints, different types of units have different amounts of morale. Commanders have the most morale, and basic infantry usually have the least. Attaching (when possible) a commander unit to basic squads significantly increases their morale. Some weapon types, such as flamethrowers, sniper rifles and artillery bombardment, are especially effective at demoralizing the enemy. Favorable terrain such as craters, ruins or thick jungle give units a defensive cover bonus against both hitpoint and morale damage, while water and swamps will decrease their defensive ability.

Units
The number of units a player may field at one time is determined by population and vehicle 'squad caps'; these limit the number of infantry troops and vehicles a player may have on the battlefield. Squad caps may be increased using methods differing between races. Most units have a melee attack and a ranged attack. Units are often specialized to be better using one attack type. Certain units are "hard capped", meaning a player may only have a certain amount of them, such as Skull probes and Apothecaries (both of the Space marine faction) being limited to 4, and commanders and ultimate units being limited to 1. All units also have stances; these affect how the units respond to enemies. There are three types of units: commanders, infantry, and vehicles.

Commanders are hero units, and each commander can only be fielded one at a time. If they perish, they may be rebuilt. A sub-class is the semi-commander unit, which has many abilities like the commander unit but several may be fielded at once. Infantry are foot soldiers, and may either be regular or heavy, with heavy infantry being much tougher than normal infantry. Vehicles serve as heavy weapon platforms and/or transports, and include tanks, artillery, troop carriers and walkers.

Infantry come in squads that are commanded as a single entity. They may be reinforced with additional members, equipped with special weapons, or be attached to hero units. Some squads have special abilities, such as grenades, teleportation, and stealth, unlocked with research or leader units. Unit longevity is determined by their health and morale points, which govern a squad's fighting effectiveness. Both are reduced by weaponry; morale recharges independently or due to unit abilities, while health is increased by natural regeneration, healer units, or repair.

Each of the four races has access to a unique special unit whilst in control of a ‘relic’, they are superior to normal units. To obtain one of the special units the player must complete all pre-requisites (research, own specific buildings) and be in the final tier of research. These special units also require substantially more resources and time to create.

Buildings
Aside from their initial headquarters, races may build research and resource centers, unit-producing facilities, and defensive fortifications. Research buildings may research special upgrades that increase the abilities of that race's units, while resource buildings produce resources. Unit facilities produce infantry and vehicles. In order to access their next tier, a race must build certain buildings to unlock new technologies and buildings.

Plot
The game is set in the Warhammer Universe, a dystopian vision of the far future. Humanity has forged a galaxy-spanning empire, The Imperium. The Imperium is in a state of constant war with the Orks, Eldar, and the human servants of Chaos, desperately fighting to preserve the human race from extinction. The story mode is set on the planet Tartarus.

Factions
The game features 4 playable factions, while 14 factions available in shop to be 18 playable factions. Each Commander has 20 wargears items they may acquire during all game modes.

Playable

 * Space Marines
 * Orks
 * Eldar
 * Chaos Space Marines

Unlockable

 * Tyranids
 * Imperial Guard
 * Earth Force
 * Deamon Hunter
 * Chaos Deamon
 * Witch Hunter
 * Steel Legion
 * Dance Macabre
 * Loyalist
 * Traitor
 * Necrons
 * Tau Empire
 * Dark Eldar
 * Sister of Battle

Release
The base game has three expansions, all available in DVD format and on Steam. Each expansion adds substantial additional new content to the game, such as new factions, maps and units. For the latter standalone expansions, users are unable to play any factions in multiplayer other than those added by the expansion itself.

In chronological order of release, these expansions are: Cumulatively, the expansions add all new factions to the game's pre-existing selection of four, making for a total of nine factions to choose from, along with adding dozens of new maps, tweaks, etc.
 * Winter Assault
 * Dark Crusade
 * Soulstorm
 * Eternity Crisis

The Game of the Year edition was released on September 21, 2005 in the USA and on September 23 in Europe, containing 4 exclusive maps. Later, the Game of the Year edition and Winter Assault were bundled in the Gold Edition in the USA, released in March 2006. In November 2006, Dawn of War and its first two expansions were released together a sThe Platinum Collection in the USA or as the Dawn of War Anthology in the PAL regions. More recently, in March 2008, all three expansions along with Dawn of War have been released as The Complete Collection. The Game of the Year version was the final title to be added to the Humble THQ Bundle, and could only be unlocked by paying more than the average price.

Reception
Upon release, the critical response to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War was on the whole positive. It was congratulated most frequently for its varied and balanced factions and units, its polished presentation, in particular the high quality of unit animations, and the user interface.

One of the first reviews was by IGN, who awarded the game 8.8/10, in particular praising the large level of graphical and animation detail.[13] They also cited the skirmish and multiplayer as one of the game's strongest points.[11] GameSpot came to similar conclusions, in particular praising the game's presentation and audio.[9]

Conversely, an area of the game that drew criticism was the single player campaign, which many reviewers found to be too short and unchallenging.[14][15] Another area of weakness identified was a lack of originality in the gameplay. However, these weaknesses were considered to be minor, IGN summarising "Nothing about the gameplay will really surprise anyone (though the addition of reinforceable squads is pretty neat) but it doesn't particularly matter...Relic kicked ass creating a great piece of entertainment."[11] The French website Jeux PC awarded the game 16 out of 20, in particular praising the simplicity of the user interface and the intensity of the battles.[16] German reviewer Daniel Matschijewsky awarded the game 83 out of 100, praising the user interface and the sound, but identifying the campaign and the AI as weaker areas.[17]

Special Editions

 * Game of the Year (Dawn of War & four exclusive maps): September 21, 2005
 * Gold Edition (Dawn of War & Winter Assault): March 31, 2006
 * Platinum Edition (Dawn of War, Winter Assault & Dark Crusade): November 2006
 * Dawn of War: Anthology (Dawn of War, Winter Assault, Dark Crusade & Soustorm): 2007
 * Dawn of War: The Complete Collection (Dawn of War, Winter Assault, Dark Crusade, Soulstorm & Eternity Crisis): March 2008