[i][b][h3]In the grim dark future there is only war.[/h3][/b][/i]
Dark Crusade is a peculiar specimen, for it seemingly is made around the Skirmish mode. It's a sizeable expansion that includes whole 7 races for the player to choose from: Space Marines, Orks, Chaos, Imperial Guard and Aeldari, which were already present in previous expansion, and newly added Necrons and Tau. All of them are relatively similar in how they operate (similar base structure, properties of buildings and tasks that units are best fit for) but have individual strenghts and weaknessess, which dictate required playstyles: for example, Aeldari have stealth-related abilities and fast vehicles, meaning that they are best used for fast attacks, Tau - strong ranged units, leading to their domination in fights from long distances, Necrons - economy that utilizes energy instead of requisition, enabling them to produce units at faster rate and in bigger quantities, if the generators can be kept intact (and strategic points, for they are used to accelerate the production rates!).
Similar foundations make every race understandable and easy to pick up, while unique features greately diversify gameplay and bring lots of enjoyment to trying out each and one of them, as well as facing them in combat from perspectives of different races. Naturally, all that leads to the skirmish mode being extremely fun and engaging, albeit a bit disbalanced.
Campaign mode, on the other hand, seems to be more of an afterthought, a filler that exists simply to point out that game, indeed, does have singleplayer missions and pushes the plot of the series further.
[b][h3]Singleplayer woes.[/h3][/b]
Dark Crusade, like WInter Assault, allows completion of campaign from the view point of different races. Moreso, it allows to play through it from the start until the end as any of the included races, not simply to alternate between them from mission to mission. The downside is lack of traditional campaign: experience revoles around capturing the surface of the planet Kronus by sending your army to different regions of it and completing around couple dozen Skirmish battles against AI. At the same time AI too will send its forces and battle player and itself, for all 7 races are present on the surface simultaneously. While it might sound exciting, playing dozens of Skirmish battles without any plot or unique features (and replaying some of them when player is attacked) isn't all that interesting due to how repetitive it gets after 10-20 hours.
The worst offender is AI itself, which is both dumbed down and given advantages in unfair ways in the campaign: it has units with lesser amount of health even on normal difficulty, struggles to control the map, absolutely useless against rush tactics and extremely deadly if left to build up, for it always knows where the player is and will rather rush player's main base than fight for control over the location. Moreover, AI oftenly starts with pre-built base, additional units and sometimes even has an ally, making rush the only viable tactic if you don't want to get outnumbered 2 to 1 and, eventually, burried under the unending waves of enemies.
The aforementioned, coupled with requirement for victory being the destruction of HQ building and nothing else, leads to every battle going exactly the same way: you produce several units and send all of them towards the enemy's base, destroying it in less than five minutes, and if you don't - things end up very badly for you. This tactic is further reinforced by both player's and AI's ability to get "Honour Guard" squads, which appear on the battlefied and give even more units that can - and will - be used for rushing opponent's base. Player gets Honour Guard by conquering territories and training them with requisition (which is automatically received each time Player gets to make a turn and comes from conquered territories), and AI just spawns it out of thin air.
And like if that wasn't enough, there are several territories, capturing of which gives bonuses to the conqueror, like ability to pre-build base for requisition points, reduce the cost of Honour Guard units, make two attacks in one turn, and etc. These territories mostly come with unique winning conditions and some narration at the beginning, but aren't much different from usual battles. The one thing that player can get that AI can't are upgrades to the Commander, which also make rushing tactics even more appealing, for Commander is always present and is very powerful. In the end, it all comes to who will rush who first.
[b][h3]The Heart of Darkness.[/h3][/b]
There are several missions that have actual story in them, and they are located in Stronghold territories. Each race has its own Stronghold, a place where they start and that they must protect if they don't want to be eliminated from the game, and each Stronghold mission is a scenario with unique objectives, dialogues and AI behaviours, as well as large maps.
Strongholds are siege missions: in them player has to set up beachhead while defending from waves of enemies, then counter-attack and (optionally) destroy several key structures to weaken the defenders, and finally - to march through their land and reach the main base, heavily fortified and awaiting the assault. Each mission plays pretty similarly but has its own unique feature to spice things up, as well as couple short dialogues between enemy and player's Commanders and cutscenes, as well as pre and after battle narration. These missions actually feel like proper campaign battles and are the most interesting part of the singleplayer game: big, lengthy, tough and with actual plot, and they are the main target of the player, for the faster they are reached - the sooner will enemies be completely eliminated from the world map, making it easier to defend own territories and reach other opponents.
But of course, Stronghold's uniqueness quickly wears off if you desire to replay the campaign several times, from the perspective of different races, because a bit of narration and couple short dialogues between commanders aren't nearly enough to make them feel fresh during consecutive playthroughs, especially for experienced player that knows where what's located and has already figured out which approaches are the best for besieging the Strongholds. On the other hand, it still is much more interesting than Winter Assault's approach that requires you to replay very much same linear levels several times just to see different races' endings.
Extreme repetitiveness, weakened AI, tiny plot - these all are downsides that make Campaign a mediocre experience. It could be easily made much better if each territory could have several races' armies fighting each other, just like regular Skirmish mode can, making conquests more chaotic and battles - diverse and not as one sided, but unfortunately only 2 sides can be present in Skirmish battlefields of campaign.
[b][h3]Fin.[/h3][/b]
In conclusion, it is apparent that Dark Crusade is a good expansion that can provide lots of fun in Skirmish battles, as well as familiarize player with its different races and teach how to properly play them through its Skirmish-based campaign mode, for even though it's tedious, it presents a great opportunity to learn the ropes of the game (one of which is emphasis on fast thinking and rapid attacks, constant pressure) in controlled, pre-set environment. It's a fun expansion that will give you many hours of satisfaction and tense battles even if you aren't interested in trying each and every of the available races. And if you've explored everything that it can offer - there are many great mods and maps available for downloading on the Internet to further enhance your experience.
