• Publisher: THQ
  • Release Date: Oct 9, 2006
  • Summary: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is set in Games Workshop's world of Warhammer 40,000 - a dark, futuristic, fantasy universe where armies of technologically advanced warriors, fighting machines and hordes of implacable aliens wage constant war - and is traveled by millions worldwide. As a hybrid expansion, the game offers a complete standalone experience, allowing gamers to play as all seven races, including the all-new, mysterious Tau and the chilling Necron. Fans who own the entire Dawn of War series can look forward to new units across each of the five original races, expansive bonus content and the ability to play as any of the seven races in multiplayer. [THQ] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 34
  2. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. Even though this reviewer has played every title in the Dawn of War catalog, Dark Crusade still manages the trick of pulling me back into its world of epic conflict and frenetic combat... with a vengeance.
  2. There's so much more to do, and it sounds, looks, and plays so well (even better than before), I may never need another RTS. Relic, keep the expansions coming.
  3. It's only masquerading as its own game - really, coming straight to this without having played its predecessors will be frustrating and bewildering, and the inability to play as Space Marines, Orks et al online a real slap in the face.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 45
  2. Negative: 5 out of 45
  1. 10
    I seldom give perfect scores, but Dark Crusade deserves one. It's campaign replayability value is incredible (the dialogues between army commanders shine) and there are good times to be had playing this game online with mates. A standalone expansion with 7 playable, pretty balanced races and it should be cheap as dirt right now. If you don't own it, just get it. I'm serious. All-around, it's the best DoW to date. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. This game IMHO ruined the single player story line of the Dawn of War series, as it introduced multi-race Campaign, so the story entirely depends on what race you chose, whereas the original had a very good story line that was only made for one race therefore the story was better. But I will admit that this game did increase the replay value and made multiplayer allot better. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. Richard
    4
    I bought Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War + Winter Assault almost three years ago, and it was a pretty cool game back then. My friend and I would play it online and have a good time. However with Relic releasing these expansions I thought I'd put my thoughts down here. I bought Dark Crusade last year. My criticisms about this game are agitated by the fact that Relic keeps releasing more and more races into the online mix, (Nine total with the next expansion), and its become just silly. You cannot take this game seriously anymore, and while it's cartoonistic humour and style used to suit it well. It's become to the point where Relic dirtied the bath water with a bunch of filthy pointless races that don't complement the others at all. Every race has become foreign around the next, and it doesn't play smoothly like it used to when there were only four races. When it was the first game, vehicles like the dreadnought were immensely powerful and exciting to watch as they threw around squads and ripped through them. With every 'balance' patch relic has released, their sole idea was to NERF other units down to balance the gameplay instead of bump the other units up. After almost four years of patching in this fashion, Warhammer's battles are now painfully slow, the units take an incredibly long time to die, not helped by the instant reinforcement feature. I find that the excitement and the fast-paced gameplay is no-more because of Relic's constant balance nerfs. Secondly, the end result of having NINE races into the Warhammer mix is that this game is now IMPOSSIBLE to properly balance. And any attempt by Relic's traditional nerfing will simply cause slower and slower-paced fighting. I am positive that this game's future is dead. My four is given to this game mainly because of the way it's been handled over the years. It's just been terribly poor and the original depth to it has been filled in with poor design. The original pace and character of the series is utterly gone with the arrival of these new expansions. It seems like they just churn out their ideas constantly. And some of these ideas are just disturbing, they have three races revolving around Death, one based on Feminists, another two on technology worship, and the last on religious fanaticism. The Orks main theme is stupidity, seriously, the developers spell everything wrong in the Ork descriptions. ??? In conclusion, this game used to be really something, but Relic's deadening patches and un-inspired expansions have proven to be more like a cancer. There is not a chance in hell they can ever straighten out this gameplay as far as I can see, and the game is just no longer fun. It's just silly. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 45 User Reviews

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