Dawn of War is unique in many ways compared to the normal Age of Empire's 2 style of game. In fact, the differences are numerous. This is truelly a game out of the ordinary-- and for the better.

Dawn of War has an innovative resource gathering system. You capture "strategic points" on the map (like Star Wars Battlefront 2) and they generate "requisition points". These points are supposed to represent your personal attack's value to the overall campaign of the planet. You also gather power via power generators, which are built anywhere. Since you gather more requisition resource by getting more strategic points (and for that matter critical locations and relics) players are forced into a more aggressive style of playing. This constantly forces players to have minor skirmishes. However, if you are too aggressive, you can get crushed as your forces are spread too thin...

Race wise, it has 4 completely different races, which are genuinely interesting and unique. They all have different troops and tech trees; in fact, you almost need to re-learn all your strategies as you learn to cope with these forces. (The Orks are especially different, with a whole extra resource and the ruleset of unlocking higher level troops by having more troops already on the field)

On balance, the game's fantastic. I've played all the races, and I've been able to win with all of them on skirmish mode. (Though I have a difficulty with the Orks, that's because I just suck with races that focus on close-combat *I HATE ZERG*)

The sounds are some of the best ever. They are terrifying and magnificent at the same time. I love how the Space Marines (who in the Warhammer 40K universe follow the God Emperor to death) fight with a sort of fervor not found in the other races. Chaos is terrifying with their blood curdling cries, and the Orks are funny with their crude tech and language.

The sounds of war in general (explosions, gun effects, etc) are cool as well. When I zoom in on a large fight, it feels as if I'm taking part in it as well, with the sounds of chain swords slashing, bolters shooting and rockets zooming.

The Graphics are the best EVER. It is filled with beautiful particle effects, the models are unparallel for and RTS and the animations are a work of art. The animations in particular are amazing. For instance, in close combat, troopers dodge and weave, clash swords and axes, and have terrific death animations. Ranged combat is improved as well, though not to the same degree. For example, in Star Wars Empire at War, ranged troops have the same animation: shoot/aim, recoil, shoot/aim, recoil, etc. In Dawn of War, troops are always switching their aim between enemy grunts, reloading, taking cover, throwing grenades, etc. These animations really help make the feel of a total-scale war.

If there is 1 problem with the game engine, it's the fact that you can shoot enemies through buildings.....

It should be noted that with the plethora of MODS out there, you can really get a bang for your buck. There's pretty much a MOD for each of the W40K races out there (like the Steal Legion, Tyranids, Daemon Hunters, and Tau)

And to top it all off, this games looks great without eating up system requirements. I run it on mid-high settings with an old PC( with maybe 3 computer players) with: A Pentium 4 2.4 ghz, 512 RAM, and a nVidia Geforce FX 5200. So almost any computer can run this game well, though for a true visual experiance, I would suggest something around the nVidia 6 or 7 series...

I easily recommend this to anybody who loves RTS, W40K, and everything in-between....
Dawn of War is unique in many ways compared to the normal Age of Empire's 2 style of game. In fact, the differences are numerous. This is truelly a game out of the ordinary-- and for the better. Dawn of War has an innovative resource gathering system. You capture "strategic points" on the map (like Star Wars Battlefront 2) and they generate "requisition points". These points are supposed to represent your personal attack's value to the overall campaign of the planet. You also gather power via power generators, which are built anywhere. Since you gather more requisition resource by getting more strategic points (and for that matter critical locations and relics) players are forced into a more aggressive style of playing. This constantly forces players to have minor skirmishes. However, if you are too aggressive, you can get crushed as your forces are spread too thin... Race wise, it has 4 completely different races, which are genuinely interesting and unique. They all have different troops and tech trees; in fact, you almost need to re-learn all your strategies as you learn to cope with these forces. (The Orks are especially different, with a whole extra resource and the ruleset of unlocking higher level troops by having more troops already on the field)

On balance, the game's fantastic. I've played all the races, and I've been able to win with all of them on skirmish mode. (Though I have a difficulty with the Orks, that's because I just suck with races that focus on close-combat *I HATE ZERG*)

The sounds are some of the best ever. They are terrifying and magnificent at the same time. I love how the Space Marines (who in the Warhammer 40K universe follow the God Emperor to death) fight with a sort of fervor not found in the other races. Chaos is terrifying with their blood curdling cries, and the Orks are funny with their crude tech and language. The sounds of war in general (explosions, gun effects, etc) are cool as well. When I zoom in on a large fight, it feels as if I'm taking part in it as well, with the sounds of chain swords slashing, bolters shooting and rockets zooming. The Graphics are the best EVER. It is filled with beautiful particle effects, the models are unparallel for and RTS and the animations are a work of art. The animations in particular are amazing. For instance, in close combat, troopers dodge and weave, clash swords and axes, and have terrific death animations. Ranged combat is improved as well, though not to the same degree. For example, in Star Wars Empire at War, ranged troops have the same animation: shoot/aim, recoil, shoot/aim, recoil, etc. In Dawn of War, troops are always switching their aim between enemy grunts, reloading, taking cover, throwing grenades, etc. These animations really help make the feel of a total-scale war. If there is 1 problem with the game engine, it's the fact that you can shoot enemies through buildings.... . It should be noted that with the plethora of MODS out there, you can really get a bang for your buck. There's pretty much a MOD for each of the W40K races out there (like the Steal Legion, Tyranids, Daemon Hunters, and Tau)

And to top it all off, this games looks great without eating up system requirements. I run it on mid-high settings with an old PC( with maybe 3 computer players) with: A Pentium 4 2. 4 ghz, 512 RAM, and a nVidia Geforce FX 5200. So almost any computer can run this game well, though for a true visual experiance, I would suggest something around the nVidia 6 or 7 series... I easily recommend this to anybody who loves RTS, W40K, and everything in-between....