Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Winter Assault

"An...Interesting Expansion Pack"

Hmmm...how exactly do I sum up my feelings regarding this game. Well, for starters, I can't really say if this is one of 'those' expansion packs; you know, one that makes you realize that once you play through it, you can never go back to the original.

To me, Winter Assault just isn't one of those kinds of expansion packs.

The primary reason for why I feel this way is that Relic made too many changes to the gameplay. It really just seems to revolve around troop spamming. This is even more of an issue when you take into consideration that a handful of unit types are significantly more powerful than the rest. Also, the majority of units become surprisingly useless outside of the tier that they are created in. Now, compared to the original Dawn of War's gameplay, Winter Assault just feels lopsided. And, personally, I don't think Relic even tried to balance the game.

Another thing that gets my ghost is how in the previews, Relic said they were attempting to make the new army, the Imperial Guard, a beginner-friendly, defence-oriented race, and that they would make it easier to climb up the tech-tree.

Although the issue of whether or not Relic met these goals is debatable, I for one, feel that they fell short of meeting these goals.

The Imperial Guard, although a lot of fun to play as, hold their fair share of balance issues. Namely the grenade launcher spam, Commissar spam, and lack of anti-vehicle firepower. Another thing is that the WA morale system just feels off. All the units are either easily broken, really difficult to break, or don't break at all. And regarding the tier issue, well, it still takes substantial time to climb the tech-tree, and Relic put in a fourth tier, which doesn't really help.

Also, the AI is somewhat bonkers. Difficulties that were once beatable in Dawn of War have now become significantly harder.

Despite these problems, Winter Assault has some good points. It's got some great new tunes to add, and a graphics update. That's good, right? It's also entertaining (or frustrating, depends on your point of view) in multiplayer.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. WA has an upgraded single player campaign as well. Now, I thought the original's was quite enjoyable, and WA's is too. Whether or not it's better, however, I can't really say.

In case you weren't following everything I typed, I can basically sum it up like this:
I found WA is entertaining, but ultimately disappointing.

But that's just me though. I can't say how it would apply to you.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/06