Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm | |
---|---|
Developer(s) |
Iron Lore Entertainment Relic Entertainment (Patches) |
Publisher(s) |
THQ (former) Sega (current) |
Designer(s) | Ian Frazier |
Composer(s) | Inon Zur |
Engine | Impossible Creatures Engine (heavily modified) |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm is the third expansion to the real-time strategy video game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, developed by Iron Lore Entertainment. Like its predecessors, Soulstorm is based on Games Workshop's tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000, and introduces a multitude of new features to the Dawn of War series. It can be used in a stand-alone and so does not need the original Dawn of War disc to run, but players must have the prior games installed and valid cd-keys in order to play as anything but the two new races online.
Gameplay features real-time strategy interaction. Game operation is similar to previous Warhammer titles, except for the new aerial units that do not follow these rules, and new campaign gameplay features.
Each race is given a new aerial unit which does not obey the normal rule of engagement in the Dawn of War series. These units are mostly specialists in engaging and destroying enemy vehicles and/or infantry.
The Kaurava conflict began after a sudden appearance of a Warp Storm near Kaurava IV. The nine factions were drawn to investigate the system with their own fleets and conflicting intentions. However, the Warp Storm wreaked havoc on their navigation interfaces, stranding them on the four planets and three moons of the system. The nine factions are then forced to battle between planets to ultimately conquer the planetary system and discover the reason for the warp storm.
The reason for the Warp Storm, as explained after the conquest of Chaos Forces, began with an ignorant Imperial Guardsman with latent psyker genes who was whispered to by the Chaos Gods, telling him to prepare a ritual. His actions unknowingly summoned the Alpha Legion to the Kaurava System, thus starting the conflict.
As with its predecessor Dark Crusade, Soulstorm features a "meta-campaign" featuring 31 territories spread over four planets and three moons.
One difference however, is that unlike Dark Crusade, there are no persistent bases. Once the player conquers a province, the base structures the player has built up will not be present in future conflicts. This can be remedied by reinforcing provinces with buildings and units in between battles, or by establishing a forward base using the Sisters of Battle army ability. Each Stronghold has a unique ability, each race starts with that ability.