Others say...

"Amazing Amazing and yes Amazing"
This game lived up to its previous Dawn of war games. with 2 new races, new units, new maps, and a nice campaign with about 20 different possible endings this game keeps me entertained all the time. to people who have trouble with the game its really not that hard, most tier one units can hold their own till you tech up, even in later games basic infantry like Guardsman in numbers can still rock. space marines can be equipped with heavy bolters (machine guns) or rocket launchers. making them very combat ready. the game is not your standard RTS. however those who look for a good one, for 20.00 you cant go wrong, you build a base capture points for resources and attack your enemy. the best part of this game is the war crys and when a unit kills another in hand to hand combat they perform a finishing move like a beserker will grab an enemy who is swaying and stab him continuously untill he headbuts the guy who than falls over in a pool of blood. BUY THE Game. YOU DONT EVEN NEED THE PREVIOUS VERSIONS, AND THE GAME PLAYS WITHOUT THE DISC.

"A game that's hard to fault!"
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War is hugely popular, and for good reason. Strong art development, streamlined and no-nonsense resource management with a uniquely tactical twist, well-balanced races with enough individualities in playing style, and a highly efficient, visually impressive game engine gave this game the boost it needed right out of the gate. Dark Crusade adds a lot more to the game, and is to be commended for its stand-alone style, meaning that you can fully experience the campaign and skirmish mode without owning or installing the original Dawn of War.

One thing which makes DoW such a rich experience is the depth of background to the Warhammer 40K universe. These races weren't just designed, conceptually or artistically, from scratch for the purposes of the game. They're the product of many years of dedicated efforts by fans of the tabletop game, and the heavy attention focused on the miniature art translates very well to game graphic art. Also, the game sounds very good, with each race given appropriate voices and script. While much of it is dramatic, it's not over-the-top, due mostly to good vocal talent. And there's a very convincing ring of sincerity to a Space Marine's loathing utterance of the word "heretic" when confronted with a Chaos Marine (long-ago split from the loyal Space Marines to follow the black arts). The game's rendition of the Warhammer 40K universe is just top-notch.

Gameplay is another strong point in this series. With only two resources, players may focus a lot more on combat - in fact, they have to, as one of the resources, requisition, is gained by controlling important points on the map. This requires that one fight to gain and maintain enough resource to function, and very little of the battling that goes on is unimportant. The effect of this is very powerful on gameplay as a whole.

Another very popular game, Company of Heroes, is built upon a version of the same game engine, and this tells you how good this rather-aged engine really is. Given the moderate system requirements called for, this game produces beautiful graphics, and functions very well even at minimum specs. Company of Heroes also uses the same resource and tactics system, and I would venture to say that these two aspects, game engine and gameplay style, are the cornerstone of CoH's success. It's sure not the tired WWII setting that sells that game.

All in all, DoW does a terrific job of catapulting the player into a grim, bloody Warhammer 40K atmosphere, and providing adrenaline-infused, tactical gameplay. One of the few strategy games to be rated M, the gore level is very high, but it goes well with the style portrayed. If you've not yet experienced Dawn of War, this is a great place to begin. If you have DoW, this game will provide you some great new content - as well as (ding! Take note) support for widescreen monitors, important to those of us who enjoy our widescreen aspect ratios, and dislike vertical black bars.

"Fun for hours on end"
You'll spend hours playing this game, it's that addicting. It's like a combination Age of Empires and Risk, only better. The graphics and effects are phenomenal. Highly recommended.

"great RTS"
I haven't had anywhere near as much fun with any other RTS since Starcraft came out with Broodwars. Although I'm not going to lie and say that this will be just as good, but it's one of the best since to include Warcraft 3 in my opinion.

"One of the best expansions for any game"
This expansion took Dawn of War from an already successful game to one of the best. If you haven't heard of Warhammer before, you are missing out. The story behind Warhammer is intense and exciting. This game takes that incredible ficional world and translates it into an extremely fun to play environment. The single-player campaign is a huge upgrade from the 2 previous games. Instead of a linear story driven experience, you are behind the wheel. You get to choose your battles in a "Risk" (the boardgame) type of style. Your goal is to wipe the other 6 races off of the map completely.

Please note that you can play this game without either of the previous games. The only problem is that you wont have access to the other 5 races in multiplayer. I highly recommend anyone who enjoys Dark Crusade to get the DoW: Gold Edition. There is a lot of fun to be had.