RTS Reminiscing

Let me take you back to a time when the real time strategy game was truly at it's peak, back to a time when it was a full war with buildings taking place, outposts at choke points, when games took over an hour to finish, and back before it was just a single base in your own area, or it had become little more than controlling a squad from above. I'm talking, quite strangely, about 2004. This year was, of course, the year when Dawn of War was released. This game took WCG by storm, at least in my opinion, and, also in my opinion, is when Sci-Fi strategy peaked. I adored this game, even more than Age of Mythology, one of my all time favourite RTS's. So recently I've decided to get it back out, dust it off, and play some of the same amazing gameplay I would see almost daily all those years ago. I've even got a couple of my friends playing the game again, and nothing has been as much fun recently.

So, where did it all go wrong for Dawn of War? The expansion packs were good, but somewhere on the way to the sequel everything went horribly wrong. Sure! the game is good, but it is NOT what dawn of war was about. suddenly I only have 4 squads, and they all have their own back-story and their own specialities. But what happened to sending 100 fanatical troops to their death as a distraction for the bombarding vehicles slightly further back? Or sneaking an entire sniper army into an enemy base and waiting for them to build an army? These were what Dawn of War was all about, to hell with them making it more related to the comics! You have some characters right? The game was about creating the world and making the battles, not about "the epic adventures of Captain Haircut and his gang of misfit squads!" I just wanted updated graphics and units, not a completely different game. I couldn't even build bases any more.

I think all modern RTS makers could learn from this error, but none of them will. But if you do find this article THQ, then please just undo the evil that was unleashed and make Dawn of War 3 a good strategy game. Not that 2 didn't have its place! just make it a spin-off series and make everyone happy. Then maybe a new golden age of RTS games will come forth.