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Only a dedicated and insane few are ever going to tackle the single-player with each of the seven factions. There are no surprises, simply long, grinding repetition and ever-escalating difficulty. Disappointingly, it's not quite as good in extended practice - with every one of your chosen faction's unit types already sampled in the campaign's earlier stages and the storyline cut-scenes not being hugely gripping, the impetus to strive onwards begins to atrophy. This is A Very Good Idea, for the reasons outlined in said preview. As described in our preview a couple of weeks back it throws out the linear string of missions offered in the previous two DoW instalments in favour of a strategy map whose territories you conquer in an order of your pleasing, each offering different resource rewards. Noble intentions are also evident in the revamped single-player campaign. Creepy and anal, in a way, but also effective. Is it fair to presume that any imbalances that do appear from weeks of online battles will be addressed by later patches? We're not talking about bugs here, so I think it is - look how many patches down the line Warcraft III or DoW itself is, all as a result of careful monitoring of how people play, forever tweaking here or retuning there to ensure the playing field remains ever-level. Whether ultimately such mechanics prove totally fair or not (either to the Necron or their foes), they do genuinely introduce new strategies to a game that could otherwise have been considered set in its ways. They also don't have any vehicles or troop transports to speak of, but by way of return, some of the infantry can teleport over huge distances of the map. That said, there are signs of meticulous balancing - the Necron will build incredibly slowly unless they've captured large numbers of strategic points, so clearly are carefully designed to be that much more vulnerable in the game's earlier stages. The Tau can choose between beasts or mech suits for their best units. Being demolished in seconds by a city-sized floating pyramid firing Death Star lasers at everything you own, while a hundred-foot high Grim Reaper (scythe and all) picks off any stragglers, is certainly a spectacular way to die, but is it fair? It essentially forces the Necron's opponents into rush tactics, hoping to wipe them out before they hit the top of the tech tree. For instance, the Necron especially are incredibly deadly, and all-but unstoppable once they reach the peak of their powers. They're both very different to what's gone before, especially compared to the rather subdued nature of the Imperial Guard introduced in the last expansion, Winter Assault. Without having undertaken a few dozen online bouts with them though, it's tricky to know for sure whether the new factions are entirely balanced with the older ones. The flaws certainly don't matter if you play DoW predominantly online - the Necron (voodoo death robot-things) and Tau (stealth, heavy armour and bestial aliens) will slide proudly into the existing roster of playable races, and are so much ultra-violent fun that you'll have a hard time wanting to play as anything else ever again. It's a significantly flawed expansion pack, true, but the two new factions it brings to the table are so spectacularly over-the-top that the weaknesses seem far more marginal than they are. Most games are lessened come the second expansion pack, but DoW is as strong as ever. Which means, for now, that the 40K RTS Dawn of War is as good as we get. Why, why, why is the first Games Workshop MMORPG the upcoming Warhammer Online, which, however good it may turn out to be, enters into such an overcrowded online fantasy market when there's a near-vacant sci-fi one GW could just stroll right in and, thanks to that incredibly rich Warhammer 40,000 universe, take without contest? Sigh. If I met one in the street, I'd probably punch him. But no, instead we get another couple of dozen cheerless grind marathons filled with elves and wizards. Imagine, just imagine playing as a Space Marine and falling prey to the corruption of Chaos, then choosing the fascinatingly monstrous ways in which your body mutates and gains dark new abilities. The sights you'd see, the things you'd kill and be killed by - aliens, mechs, demons and men in a startling array of flavours, all itching for a taste of your Heavy Bolter. Just imagine all that presented as a living online world to carve your way through. This is, after all, the franchise that cheerfully pilfers every single great idea sci-fi has ever had, sticks it all in a giant fiction-blender and then adds several pints of bubbling blood. Dear Santa, for Christmas please bring me a Warhammer 40,000 MMO.
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