Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War Versus Warhamer: Mark of Chaos

The Warhammer world, created by war gaming heavyweight, Games-Workshop, under the Citadel brand, is one of the deepest sci-fi and fantasy genres ever created. Games-Workshop is primarily known for its table top miniatures game(s), the futuristic Warhammer 40k and the fantasy Warhammer battles systems. For the uninformed, these games are similar to a large board game, with each player using up to several hundred, small figures representing everything from Dragons to Space Marines, and fighting against opposing players using a large rule set. However, two recently released PC games by publisher THQ have brought Warhammer to the homes of many more people.

Dawn of War (DoW) is a traditional RTS with resources management and is set in the sci-fi, futuristic setting of Warhammer 40, 0000. There are two expansion packs out for it, and there is a very well supported online gaming network as well. Warhammer: Mark of Chaos (MoC) is more in the vein of a RTT, or Real Time Tactical game, similar to the tabletop game than Dawn of War, with no (thank you!) resource management. Instead, players just duke it out with armies created before battle. It's set in the fantasy world of Warhammer Fantasy battles, and, while it does feature a decent multiplayer service, there aren't too many players online.

Dawn of War was, and continues to be well supported by its producers. It is very popular online, and it was even announced that it would be added to the World Cyber Games list of games (check on this-this may have changed). There are many bug fixes and patches that have been released for it, and, as previously mentioned, two expansion packs adding more armies and options.

On the other, negative, hand, Warhammer Mark of Chaos has not been as well supported. Only a few patches are out, and the forums appear to be dying out. There was a promised patch that would include friendly fire, and several other needed changes, but this patch was promised to be relapsed along time ago, and still hasn't appeared. It's too bad, because this game had a lot of potential, and is a decent game, yet its support just seems to have disappeared. Perhaps Namco will bring it back, but that remains to be seen.

Graphics wise, Dawn of War is pretty old looking compared to Mark of Chaos. MoC has some lovely graphics, and although they don't have has nice a battle animations as Dawn of War, they really have captured the feel of the miniatures game. Dawn of War feels really intense, and the zoom in function really throws you into a fierce battle. Hopefully, a DoW 2 will introduce sharper graphics, and keep the intense fighting animations.

Gameplay is very solid in Dawn of War, and, despite some balancing issues, the game is pretty solid. Its popularity attests to this, and its myriad of game modes helps with this. On the other hand, MoCs game play seems to be a little bland, and feels like the game was rushed out. Again, MoC had a lot of potential, but it seems that this was ignored, and rushed out the door. Game companies really need to fully finish a game before throwing it out there. Perhaps we'll see a MoC 2, or even just an expansion pack, but that seems doubtful right now.

Both games are pretty solid, but DoW is more popular for good reason. Warhammer is a very fun game, and has a large fan base, and it's good to see Games-Workshop expanding its horizons with these decent PC games. Hopefully, they'll make sure developers and publishers don't rush out any more games, and make them just as solid as Dawn of War, or better.