Game:

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (2004)

Category:

Review

Duration: 19:55

2,465 views

13

I'm playing Frozen Hearth, a real-time strategy game by Epiphany Games and Immanitas Entertainment. The game includes a twenty-mission campaign that can be played cooperatively; this online component means you can't save your progress mid-mission. You can also play skirmish games against the AI or online as well. The interface falls short in several areas: fog-of-war is not clearly indicated and resource point control is not color-coded on the minimap, it is difficult to select units during combat, there is no master unit list, and there is no attack move order (units ignore nearby enemies when moving). Resources are gathered by capturing nodes; there is no reason to have three separate resources since each node supplies all three resources at varying degrees. Your main building can be upgraded with six sub-structures, and unit ability upgrades can be researched as well. Units include melee, ranged, cavalry, support, and magic types; heroes gain experience over time and can unlock new spells or upgrade existing ones. The AI is passable in skirmish mode, but the heavy scripting during the campaign can make things difficult. Overall, Frozen Hearth heavily borrows mechanics from other real-time strategy games (especially the Dawn of War series) and combines them into a less accessible game.