Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

Rating:
Summary: Based on 10-minute video: simply amazing!
Review: Although this game will not ship until the fall of 2004, I was lucky enough to see an astounding video of game play that was roughly 10 minutes long at the recent Games Workshop Games Day in Maryland. Reviews and previews in PC Gamer magazine earlier this year were very favorable. A brief trailer is also available at the Dawn of War website. Based on everything I've seen so far this game has the potential to be one of the most spectacular futuristic strategy games ever released. Note that I've annotated my review below with parenthetical comments for non-Warhammer 40K players.

If the actual game play is as astounding as the simulated play in the video and trailer, this game should be very pleasing not only to Warhammer 40,000 fans, but to everyone looking for a terrific fantasy/science fiction strategy game. The images of the Chaos Defilers (walking demon possessed machines with claws and huge cannons) tearing a Land Raider (large tank) apart, the Eldar Avatar (fiery space elf demon) wailing on the Defilers with his huge magic sword, Ork Killer Kans sawing their enemies in half, Eldar Falcon grav tanks hovering and pouring energy weapon fire into their enemies; all of it was simply amazing.

The game animation when the Bloodthirster (huge demonic monster with gigantic axe, wings, horns, etc.) appears by possessing one of the Chaos Space Marines made people watching the video at Games Day "ooh and aah" and people cheered and applauded at the sight of the Space Marine Captain leaping upon the shoulders of the Bloodthirster and then pounding it to death with his Thunder Hammer. It was spectacular!

If the game is as good as it looks when released, if it is relatively free of programming bugs, and if the user interface and other important features are fun and easy to use, I'll have to come back and give it 5 stars!