WH40K: Dawn of War demo is out!

[Gongsun Zan]

Having just played it, I must say I'm very impressed. The gameplay is smooth and inituitive, with barely any trace of slow down despite the large battles. The cobat-oriented gameplay is a plus, with the focus more on battles instead of resource management, it's much funner to play a more tactical game. Squads of units can be customized, and given extra weapons like Flamers and Rocker Launchers to round off their fighting capabilities.

The AI is pretty good too - Marines will hold their ground in combat, waiting for the enemy to close in before whipping out their chainswords and going beserk. Often, I've been ambushed by enemy forces, who lure my men in with small groups, before jetpacking a whole bunch of assualt marines in and shredding my men apart.

The animation is the BEST I've ever seen in a RTS, no doubts about it. Units in melee battle whip out finishing moves, while explosions send them flying across the map, only for them to pick themselves up and resume combat. But that's nothing compared to the larger units in battle, who actually pick up smaller units, impale them, and then swoosh them all over the place to create a fountain of blood. Lovely stuff.

If you're a RTS or WH40K fan, or simply enjoy huge bloody battles, I strongly suggest checking this out. Oh, did I mention that the opening cinematic totally rawks?

Demo

[sirdavinator]

Sounds good to me. I've always liked RTS games, but that 319 MB installer download has put me off, unfortunately.

[Robsturgh]

I played this earlier on, this is lining up to be the best RTS's ive ever played.