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Well, more of a mini-review 
Since every review site out there will have given you the gory game play details (and hype) on the game, I’ll try to limit the discussion here to whether the game is a worthwhile purchase.
Question: Should you buy the game?
Answer: Yes, with caveats.
First thing to establish is that the single player (sp) experience is completely different to playing multiplayer (mp) online. This is not just because of the interactions and style of play, but the fact that the sp game is actually a real time tactical RPG…… yep, a RTTRPG!
The best way to explain this ‘classification’ is to borrow from someone I saw on relic forums: ‘the game is a bit like XCOM with real time battles’.
Relic really does a good job with the campaign. You have limited squads, you kit them up and handle their progression in 4 attributes as they earn experience. The screens below give you an idea on what is involved. Nothing new if you’ve played RPGs before, but well implemented nonetheless.
 
The difficulty is challenging enough (I play at the second hardest), and you should be able to find the right balance between fun and challenge. My one gripe is the lack of a save function mid-mission, which does make it hard if you have to duck off and deal with a waking horror (child). However this very feature does force you to ‘not-cheat’, and given the relatively short mission times – usually just under half an hour if you are a cautious commander like me – it isn’t too great a problem.
The mission selection screens are well done, and really drag you into the feel of being on this ship in orbit, about to go kick some alien behind.
 
I’m really quite enjoying the experience, and it does remind me of the sort of buzz I got playing xcom many many MANY years ago
The graphics are good and gory (as you can see from the screens), the game runs on my 2 year old machine at high settings, and the cover system (borrowed from COH) is excellent. Army painting is fun, although I find the bloom from metallic surfaces is a little over the top sometimes, as it can obscure other parts of your paint job. I found the limited colour options a little annoying, compared to DOW1, but the interface is good enough.
 
 
MP is much more standard fare, being about map control and unit preservation. It is good fun, but I strongly recommend finding 3vs3 games with friends if you can. 1vs1 is a different game, and you’ll commonly not make it to higher tech tiers, and thus miss out on playing with the cooler units. Larger games, whether comp stomps or vs matches, better capture an epic 40k battlefield experience. I also think larger games provide more interesting strategic options, but this is highly dependent on your team mates abilities. Thus playing with a clan or friends is a good way to go if you can do it.
The matchmaking service is acceptable, and probably will deal better with the expected player numbers than that used in Company of Heroes, and certainly better than DOW1. It still sucks to play from Australia, as latency is a bit of a problem when fighting someone overseas, and can make it hard to find casual custom games with decent pings.
Oh, just remember that the GFWL service has ‘always-on’ mics, rather than push to talk…… which can be annoying or embarrassing depending on whose Mrs or mum or pet dog comes screaming into the background.
All in all, a worthy purchase and relic are patching regularly. I expect some form of DLC to drop over the next month or two as well, as the game just begs for more maps and campaign content. I got my copy on steam and haven’t had any problems. There have been issues with Vista 32bit, but they should have been patched out already. The Official Site is pretty good for digging out info on the game (strategies etc), mainly if you can be bothered wading through the moaning of morons. Relic forums are also a worthy visit.
Summary : SP is great, RPG and RTT mixed together. MP is solid, 1vs1 and 3vs3 play very differently.
Hopefully I have assisted in your purchasing decision. Happy 40k-ing
Discussion is welcome
-Scoobs
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