Dawn of War - Winter Assault Review
Winter Assault is definitely a game I would recommend for RTS fans like myself. It has all of what you would expect from a good expansion; New characters; new multiplayer modes, etc. But it definitely scores lower than the original (as is usually the case) for a couple of reasons. First, the story is not as compelling. Yeah, I know the first DoW got criticized by some for it's story, but I actually enjoyed the storyline and the voice acting was pretty good and it was epic in scope. In contrast, Winter Assault's story is just lacks the compelling nature of the original, it's just not as interesting. In addition, the voice acting is at times way too cartoony. I expect some exaggerated voice acting for the Orc's, they are after all the comic relief faction of the game, but the over the top character and voice acting for Chaos was just a step too far. It contributed greatly to making the game feel more like a cartoon rather than an epic RTS.
The online package is really nice though and adds alot to the game as a whole. With the new races and new features and maps, it really does improve on the original. Each race feels distinctly different for the most part. There is a bit of crossover, but each race does feel different and makes for playing it differently than the others. All in all a great video game, and a cheap game for me since it's one of the ones that I bought during the Direct 2 Drive $5.00 sale's special.
All in all a good game but don't expect the epic story line of the original Dawn of War release. I gave it an 8.0 on my Gamespot review.