Thursday 3 August 2006
Relic is getting good at this. This is the developer's second stab at producing an expansion pack for its Space Marine-clobbering strategy game Dawn of War, and its ambitions are starting to match its experience. In the words of one of the developer, the goal is to produce "the best expansion for any game, ever".
How? First: by sheer weight of numbers. There are two new races - Necrons and the Tau. The former are built for players who like to slowly suffocate their opponents. They're creepy, skull-faced robots who bring overwhelming numbers to the battlefield.
They're on a monster land-grab: their rate of production is accelerated by the amount of territory under their control. They don't need cash; their units are free other than the time taken to produce them.
Leading the charge is the Necron Lord, able to summon mechanical scarabs that can shred buildings and infantry, turn into the five-storey Reaper form (complete with robotic scythe), and, best of all, resurrect an entire army.
Imagine the look on your opponent's face, when just as he thinks he's won the day, chunks of robo-metal re-arrange themselves into a perfectly healthy, supremely angry army. Oh, and as their HQ is upgraded, it gains turrets, mobility, and the ability to teleport across the map.
