Video Game Development at the University of Michigan

Dawn of War was released in 2004 with little fanfare, which is a pity because it is my favorite, and perhaps the best, real-time strategy game to date. For those unfamiliar with Warhammer 40,000, it originated as a tabletop war-game by Games Workshop. The game takes place in the 41st Millennium, where war is constant and the outlook is always grim.

The game costs $20 for a standard-sized box, containing 3 CDs in a jewel case and an illustrated manual. The manual is a nice touch with the current trend in games shipping with little more than paper CD sleeves and a laminated sheet showing which keys to press.

Installation took about twice as long as it should have thanks to a series of four patches that had to be installed in sequence. Other than that the setup was painless; all of the typical graphical and sound options are available to tweak to your liking.

The Campaign

You're in control a Chapter of the Imperial Space Marines - a fanatical and militaristic faction of humankind who war against the ever-present Ork invasion hordes. This time the battle is on a planet called Tartarus, where the currently-stationed Imperial Guardsmen are losing ground fast. The Orks are green, they are everywhere, and they don't know how to spell. They excel in combat, and it being their favorite activity, they are always at war. In the campaign you first repel the Orks, and soon encounter the mysterious Eldar, who are there on Tartarus to investigate the evil plots of the Chaos Space Marines. The forces of Chaos are a twisted and heretical version of the Imperial Space Marines; they fight alongside demons, and wield powerful sorcery.

The campaign runs rather short at thirteen missions, and though you fight against all of the other armies, you only can play as the Space Marines. The missions are varied: Exterminate the Orks, find out what the Eldar are guarding, stop the Chaos before it's too late, and so on. The missions take place in a couple of locales including jungles and snowy wastelands.

In addition to the campaign, there are skirmish and online modes. A skirmish is simply a fight versus computer opponents ranging from an incredibly wimpy "easy" AI to a mechanically efficient "impossible". The online multiplayer has a player matching feature which attempts to put players of similar skill levels together in a game, but in practice few people use it. To date there are three available Community Map Packs, which augment the available multiplayer and skirmish maps with the best of the fan-created scenarios. There are also several modifications available that add new units, armies, and AI strategies.

Gameplay

Like any real-time-strategy game you have to collect resources, though in Dawn of War the resources aren't collected from a gold mine or from resources lying around the map. Instead you get them by controlling positions and building power plants. The main resource is requisition, which represents general supplies being sent from the main army. You increase the amount of requisition you get by capturing and holding strategic points on the map.

The second resource is power, which you get from buildings called plasma generators. Energy is used to buy most upgrades and all of the vehicles in the game. There are also special locations on the map where you can build fusion generators, which give a much larger increase in power.

The resource system in Dawn of War is an improvement over many other RTS games, because it ends up putting much of the emphasis on the combat itself. The strategic points forgo the need for hiring dozens of wimpy peon units by streamlining resource production into an automated process. The strategy then revolves around how to manage combat: Where to strike, what units to buy, when to capture a strategic point and when to retreat. It is indeed refreshing no to worry about babysitting the peasants while you march to war.

Instead of controlling individual men as in a standard RTS, Dawn of War has squads which are controlled as a single unit. Squads can be upgraded by reinforcing their numbers, upgrading their weapons, or performing research at an armory or similar structure. In addition to hit points, troops in Dawn of War also have a morale rating. Each weapon in the game deals morale damage in addition to normal damage, and when a squad's morale breaks they suffer severe penalties in combat. You can customize squads with weapons such as flamers and sniper rifles to make them deal more morale damage.

You must continually change your strategy in order to defeat a skilled opponent. If you spend all your resources building mobs of infantry, your opponent might defend themselves with plasma rifles, which have a great advantage against heavy infantry units. If you then build lots of plasma rifle troops, your opponent might counterattack with vehicles, which have armor too strong for plasma to be very effective. Then you can bring in assault marines or missile launchers, but each of these can be defeated by more specialized troops. It is an interesting game of anticipating and foiling your opponent's moves, outmaneuvering their troops, and controlling strategic locations that make your units more effective.

The interface which is used to control everything in Dawn of War is something that is easy to overlook, but this is testament to its good design. It comes with a functional mini-map, well-placed and easy to read buttons, plenty of hotkeys, command queuing capabilities, and camera controls, amongst other things customary to a modern RTS game. Overall it is a very responsive system, meaning struggling with the interface is a thing of the past.

Presentation

Graphics, music, and sound are all excellent. The highly detailed and colorful units have dozens of combat animations, from the skull-crushing blows of the Imperial Dreadnaughts, to the relentlessly inhuman heavy-weapons onslaught of Chaos Obliterators. Units also range in size from the tiny Ork Gretchins to the hulking Avatar of Khaine that the Eldar can summon. Every unit has an assortment of audio cues, which are well done besides the almost irritating screeching of the Chaos Heretic and Cultist. When you put together the graphics, animations, and voices, every unit has plenty of personality, staking out a unique attitude for each of the four armies.

The 3D camera, while not usually practical to use when commanding your forces, can be used to rotate your viewpoint to better see the battlefield. It is also fun for watching battles up close during replays, where you can enjoy the special effects much easier. In general the graphics are clean and up-to-date with current games, and everything runs smoothly.

Put together as a whole, Dawn of War is a beautiful game. The excitement of combat is distilled and refined from the basics of the real-time strategy genre, and it is presented with a crisp and visceral graphical system. There is very little to detract from the experience. It is easy to get into, and offers many hours of unique battles in a world rich with detail and personality.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Highlights

• No resource gathering units to micro-manage
• More focus on strategy than fast clicking
• Lots of upgrades to offer different options
• Close combat with dreadnaughts is hilarious to watch
• Inexpensive
• There is an active modding and mapping community

Downfalls

• The Chaos Heretic has a really annoying voice
• ...and so does the Cultist. Maybe you'll get used to it.
• Very short campaign
• No DVD version

I'd recommend Dawn of War to anyone who likes real-time-strategy games, or war games in general, as well as fans of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

For More Information

The publisher's official web site: http://www.dawnofwargame.com/index.php
The developer's official web site: http://www.relic.com/product/dawnofwar/index.php
Patches, mods and map packs: http://dawnofwar.filefront.com/