Warhammer Dark Omen
Developer - Electronic Arts/Games Workshop
Publisher - Electronic Arts
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card, Mouse
The bit on the box
"Medieval war gaming comes out of
the dark ages. Enter the world of Warhammer and experience real-time strategic
combat in a fully 3D environment. Full 3D terrain which effects troop movement
- zoom and rotate as the battle happens. True 3D line of sight system.
Use terrain to hide, but be careful, so does the enemy. Dynamic campaign
plot that develops based on the player's decisions. Stay and fight or take
the gold and run? You choose. Constantly varied and evolving army to be
maintained and deployed at the player's discretion. Buy units of cavalry,
archers, infantry, cannons and magicians. Magicians weave their magic against
the undead horde. Fireballs, ice showers and many more spells wreak havoc
on the enemy."
Graphics
Dark Omen starts well with a nicely animated CG
intro movie telling of the Dread King's rising (which is somehow caused
by the eclipse of the sun, that bit isn't really explained). There are
other cut scenes throughout the game, all of the same high quality, which
help to enhance an incredibly cliched story line. All the graphics in Dark
Omen have obviously been designed with one thing in mind, from the
menu screens to the troop rosters everything has been made to immerse you
into a medieval feel in an age of war and magic. While the in game graphics
have not been improved a great deal over the original Warhammer game on
PC, they serve their purpose and the battlefields themselves are highly
influential on the outcome of an engagement. Now and then animated heads
will pop up (both during battles and also between them) which are used
to either further the story line or just convey messages from your troops.
Overall, everything has a professionally produced feel about it.
Sounds
Music has been used to great effect in Dark Omen,
using the sort of tunes you'd expect from a fantasy movie. Most scores
have been relegated to the background during battles, but when mixed with
the cries of charging regiments of cavalry and the clinging of metal in
combat, it all comes together to enhance the atmosphere that the graphics
have already gone a long way to create. Between engagements, the voice
acting in the cutscenes is excellent, with all the varying accents you'd
expect to hear from Brigands, Dwarves, and Ogres among others. There is
also ample amount of cliched silly names like Asgas Bloodfist or Luther
Flamestrike, which will make any Role Players feel right at home. The lip
synching isn't as good as it could be, but that's a minor point when you
have this high quality of acting.
Gameplay
Don't be under any illusions whatsoever, this game is
extremely difficult. From the early to middle parts of the game your army
just cannot afford to lose any regiments or will face an almost impossible
task later on. This can be accomplished though, with some work and a bit
of luck here and there, as I managed to finish with the final loss of only
3 regiments overall. The main battle control system I found to be quite
excellent, and even if you do not have a mouse (recommended here, although
mine had the annoying tendency to accidentally skip through cutscenes)
after a bit of practice even the controller can be used to good effect
to direct your troops about. The best element of the gameplay comes when
one of your units (or the enemy) are off screen, they then become represented
by a small shield-like icon, which can be clicked on so troops can be given
orders without having to scroll around the battlefield looking for them.
This goes a long way to make a hard game a little easier, and the programmers
should be commended for thinking of it.
I feel a verdict coming on
Although Dark Omen comes with a good amount of
frustration early on, I must admit to having the time of my life playing
it. It is one of the better strategy wargames on the PlayStation and with
the Warhammer license to back it up, should appeal to both boardgamers
and strategy gamers alike. It is realtime however, not turn based, so this
may have some Vandal Hearts fans running for cover, and it is more
regiment based than Command and Conquer, which deals more with individual
units. Also Warhammer fans may not be able to get used to not using miniatures,
but at least all the elements of war, fantasy, and strategy blend together
magnificently. If you are a die hard arcade gamer though, then this is
not the title for you.
Review by D.R.T.Barrett
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