I am putting up a post to gauge people's reactions to the latest Dawn of War expansion, Soulstorm. When I heard it was coming out, I was excited. Dawn of War is one of my favorite RTSs of all time. When I learned they were going to remake the Dark Crusade campaign except with multiple planets, I got even more excited.

But anyway, having played the game a little bit, I was a bit disappointed with the whole thing. I started off playing the Sisters of Battle, one of the new factions, and I found them to be a hybrid of the Space Marines and the Imperial Guard. However, they weren't as good as either of them. I played the Dark Eldar in the demo and I found them to be interesting (and I love the yell the NPC Dark Eldar hero gives when he loses an assault on a territory). But I found that the game had several differences from Dark Crusade that I thought should have been left in (or at least should not be bugged in the game):

1) When you take over a territory it starts off at level 1, despite the fact you built a huge base there when you attacked it and you control 95% of the control points on the map. In Dark Crusade, when you built a base on a territory, you captured control points, and the like, the map stayed that way when someone else attacked the same location. In Soulstorm the map reverts back to an original Command Center-only map and you have your builder unit, your garrison, any "forward base" buildings, and your hero/honor guard (if applies). This vexed me since when I first invaded a territory, I spent a lot of time building up a strong base only too see it disappear when it was being attacked.

2) The "take and hold" victory for waygates was a bit annoying, although I guess a new strategic element of the game needed to be inserted. When a waygate territory gets too high of strength, the battle becomes near impossible to win. Fighting 2 armies while building a base, while capturing (or uncapturing) points is unnervingly difficult, and I'm playing it on Easy. When I buy the turrets in the forward bases, they get put in idiotic locations and the buildings I want are scattered all over the place. It was really the last straw when I started playing.

3) The annihilation victory condition instead of the Destroy HQ victory condition: This was something that made me a bit weary. I'd storm a main base, crush it, and then I'd spend another 10 minutes running around the map to find the one unit-producing structure the computer built in some remote corner of the map. The building wouldn't even be completed, it would just be the frame. Adding that victory added so much time to the game that didn't need to be there. Tearing down the HQ was hard work enough in Dark Crusade on high-level territories.

4) The air units: I'm not much of an air-unit person myself. I hate using them in RTSs and I hate fighting against them (unless it's StarCraft in which it's Carriers and Battlecruisers FTW!). I was expecting some sort of a new unit that was designed for air defense, but no. Almost every unit can shoot at them. And they're not very interesting. They're more like helicopters than actual flying units. I was expecting more of a fly-by action like in C&C: Generals. Also having units (and base defenses) focus on the air units was annoying (although rather effective by the computer).

Maybe my criticism of this new expansion is too harsh. Did anyone else like it a lot more than I did?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JimPlunder,

One more thing to add:

5) Commanders are freaks: In the other Dawn of War games, the commanders were infantry units, although unusually strong infantry units. In Soulstorm they take reduced damage like you won't believe. I set up defenses around a key capture point (e.g. one next to my base or near a relic) and the hero comes up, by themselves, and with 3 turrets firing on them (2 defense turrets and the capture point turret) can destroy one of the turrets, and nearly destroy the second, and that's when the computer finally decides to run the dude away. His life is red, but he still can walk and run around. It's only after you send your forces in that you can at least damage the dude enough that he'll only destroy 1 turret before he either dies or runs off. And all this happens WHILE my builder units are trying to repair the turrets. Commanders were a lot easier to bring down in Dark Crusade. Why the change?????

Worse, I'd say, and I'm disappointed really cus now were in the spring void of (good) gaming releases.

To be honest, nothing much has changed between Dark Crusade and Soulstorm, really. The single player is alittle worse in some areas. As for the new races, the Sisters of Battle act more like an ingame reskin of the space marines. As for the dark eldar, well, I don't really see them as workable. But then again, I've not really tried.

The Dark Eldar is a pretty interesting race. Their infantry kind of sucks, but their vehicles are nice. The Dais of Destruction is very comparable to the massive Imperial Guard tank (I forgot the name of it).

And I agree, the flow of the single player is just like Dark Crusade, except it's about 5 times longer. I conquer a planet or two and I feel like I've done more work on that than I've done on a whole DC campaign. The main thing I didn't like is the fact that they take away your built bases when you conquer a planet. I hated getting somewhere and taking forever to set up good defensive positions and strategically working in forward bases just to see it gone the time someone invades the territory. That just broke my will to play the game.

It's just not fair when you start a map and the computer has 2 bases, 2 leaders, and 2 sets of armies flying at you the second you start, no matter how much you try to build your base up before then. Bring back DC's base-saves please!