ShareThisBy JUSTIN HOEGER
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
("Company of Heroes." Grade: 4 stars. Publisher: THQ. System: PC. Price: $49.99. Age Rating: Mature.)
("Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade." Grade: 4 stars. Publisher: THQ System: PC. Price: $29.99. Age Rating: Mature.)
"Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade" further explores an unbelievably bleak future where humanity vies with corrupted fellow humans and a host of alien races for the planets and artifacts of a galaxy locked in warfare for millennia.
By contrast, "Company of Heroes" revisits ground well trod in dozens of video games _ the battlefields of Europe in World War II.
"Dark Crusade" is the second expansion to "Dawn of War," the 2004 title based on the tabletop strategy game "Warhammer 40,000." The previous expansion added a new playable faction, the Imperial Guard, as well as a new single-player campaign and numerous tweaks. "Dark Crusade" includes two new factions and a complete revamp of the single-player mode, and it doesn't require the original game or its expansion to play. A player must have the previous titles to play as the older five races online.
Instead of a story-driven campaign, players now choose one of the seven factions and fight by turns over 25 regions of the planet Kronus. Each faction has a reason for being on Kronus and for fighting to control it.
Each faction has a wide variety of units and a unique fighting style. Among the older races, the Space Marines use heavily armored troops and support vehicles; the Chaos Space Marines augment their forces with demonic assistance; the Eldar are masters of stealth and mobility; the Orks swarm over everything with a sea of green rowdies, and the Imperial Guard combines massed-fire tactics with powerful vehicles and artillery.
The new Necrons are a chilling race of skeletal war droids. They move slowly and have less variety than other races, but they're tough and powerful and can sometimes spontaneously return to life in the thick of battle. A Necron foe is hard to keep down.
The Tau, also new, is a shooter's army for the most part. They must call upon their allies, the Kroot, to have any sort of melee capability, and there's a split in the technology tree for higher-level units _ one can choose the best-ranged units and vehicles or the best close-combat creatures, but not both.
The graphics, sound and music are all good, though the visuals are looking a tad dated after two years of incremental upgrades, especially the landscapes.
The same can't be said for "Company of Heroes," which is one of the best-looking games around. Those with the horsepower will be treated to impressive explosions, realistic physics and other eye candy, but the game still looks good with the settings reduced.
"Company of Heroes" has the same basic game play principles as "Dawn of War" _ not surprising since the same company developed both.
Each combat zone is littered with control points, but where the points in "Dawn of War" earn only more requisition resource when controlled, there are three kinds of resources in "Company of Heroes": manpower, munitions and fuel, each represented by control points in sectors.
Manpower is needed for recruiting troops, building structures and pretty much everything else, and is the most plentiful. Controlling any piece of territory increases the resource rate and the number of units that can be fielded. For munitions and fuel, which are needed to research and to use advanced weaponry and vehicles, specific points must be captured and held, and these resources generally increase more slowly than manpower, forcing thoughtful expenditure.
Captured points are only good if they're connected to one's base by controlled regions. It's a valid tactic to sneak behind enemy lines and take over a sector that'll break the other side's line of supply, depriving them of resources from more than one sector. Abilities such as throwing grenades or calling in artillery strikes require munitions, so squeezing a foe's supplies also limits their combat options.
This leads to gameplay in which supplies and troops must be carefully managed and never wasted. The Allies and Axis have different units and advancement methods, and each side has three Company Commander tracks that emphasize a different facet of combat for the rest of the battle, such as tank or air superiority.
The use of cover is key in "Company of Heroes" _ exposed troops will be cut down quickly. The artificial intelligence makes good use of cover when not explicitly directed, and there's a handy retreat button that sends all selected squads running for the safety of base camp for reinforcements.
Both games had occasional audio glitches on the review machine _ stuttering, skipping and the like. Turning down the audio settings mostly eliminated the problem, but some computers may have trouble with the sound.
