Dawn of War: Soulstorm

Rating Mature Genre strategy Publisher THQ External Links Official Dawn of War Website

-Cough- Yay for Dark Eldar! Ok, now that I’ve got that out of my system, time for the review of the new Dawn of War game – Soulstorm. For those of you who’ve played any of the Dawn of War games so far, you won’t be disappointed. With the latest expansion two new armies have entered, the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Eldar, two armies that I feel have been neglected by the general Warhammer 40K public.

For those who have yet to try the series, Dawn of War is an RTS based around squads, much like the tabletop game. When you build units, you’ll start with a few of the same type and you can add onto the unit to make large groups of fighters of varying abilities. Some are good and close combat, others at range. You can also build giant war machines of death that tear through the battlefield relentlessly. Resources are gathered by capturing strategic points on the map, so unlike other RTSs, there is no little mook picking away at trees, rock, or what have you. When you capture a point, it gives you resources to build units. You can place listening posts on these spots to fortify your hold there, and this post can be upgraded to become deadly in its own right. Essentially the game is a combination of “capture the flag” and/or wipe out your enemy.

The two new armies have added a little tweak to the game. The Sisters of Battle have an additional resource, Faith, which is gained through holy relics that they build. These Faith points can be used to perform miracles that enhance various units’ abilities in combat. The Dark Eldar can harvest the souls of their fallen foes, using these souls to power their own abilities. In the expansion a few more units for the different factions have been added as well to round things out.

Game play for Soulstorm uses a campaign system that follows along the lines of the tabletop version. You are given a starting point and are set loose to take other pieces of the system of Kaurava. You can fortify your positions with resources you earn for taking and holding territories. Occasionally the other armies will move into your zones and fight you as you expand. Without fortifying your positions, it can lead to a nasty one-sided fight in your opponents favor.

Soulstorm takes the already great Dawn of War series one step further, leaving only one more army to wait to play, the Tyrannid, which I am sure will be added to the next installment of the series. This game already builds upon the existing titles in the series, so there is little to complain about other than the complete lack of story for this particular installment. I guess it is the price one pays for a standalone expansion that includes all the current races released for Dawn of War up to this point. If you’ve enjoyed the other ones so far, go out and give Soultstorm a try.