Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault Review

8.6

Format PC

Developer Relic

Publisher THQ

Genre Sim / Strategy

It's argued by many that Dawn Of War was the fi nest RTS of 2004. We'd prefer to bestow that honour on Rome, but DOW was (and is) a cracking
game nonetheless; full of visceral excitement, frenetic action and steeped in all the iconic imagery that the 40K universe has been hoarding for the last 20 years.

With Winter Assault, developer Relic has followed the add-on formula to the letter. One new unit for each of the four established races, two six-mission campaigns (same story played out by the two sides), and one new race, the Imperial Guard.

But to reduce Winter Assault to a feature list is to do it a great disservice, because while the campaigns do add more of the same, albeit across a snow-covered landscape, by their very appearance the Imperial Guard almost change the strategic make-up the game.

You see, the Guard are merely weak-willed conscripts; the poor lowly scum of the Earth (and a million other worlds), whose nature is to wall in, defend, build up and break out. DOW's established races instead prefer to dive into combat from the get-go, and so multiplayer games are now way more interesting and can last - gasp - as long as half an hour.

But what does all this mean? In a nutshell, if you're a Dawn Of War fan, Winter Assault is absolutely essential.

PC Zone Staff