Dawn of War: Soulstorm DEMO.
This game is any S & M addict's dream: Aliens who delight in torturing and mutilating, as well as female super soldiers clad in power armor. Suffice to say, the demo did not deliver as much as I would have expected it to.
Let me first start off with my gripes: The Dark Eldar are seriously WEAK. I mean, the basic warrior weaponry does shit to a normal Space Marine. Concentrated fire from a fully re-inforced group of Dark Eldar Warriors and it's is still nigh-impossible to bring down a group of just 4 Space Marines. What the fuck's up with that? I'll have to wait till I can build the Wych-Cult Arena and get me some Wyches before the battlefield is really evened. Even THEY take a long time to bring down a squad of Space Marines, let alone Space Marine Terminators. I hope this issue is worked out by the time the full game is released.
My second gripe: The abilities do squat against the Dark Eldar's enemies. I mean, seriously, the main gist of these abilities are that they mostly just weaken the enemies' morale as well as make it easier for them to be killed. Because the premise of the race is torture, the abilities pretty much just 'cook' the enemy instead of straight out killing them. And that pretty much bites for me. I mean, the Eldar are much more fun to play with, and that's pretty rare, coming from me.
Now for the good points. Finally, a jump unit that is relatively effective against vehicles and buildings. The Dark Eldar Scourges are awesome in the game. Equip them with Dark Lances and watch them wreak havoc on vehicles. The damage is only substantial at best, so don't expect too much.
Last thing to note: Dark Eldar do NOT do well against Space Marines in the demo. You'll probably be struggling just to make a dent in their forces. I'm not much of a micro-manager; maybe that's why I'm not much of a Dark Eldar fan. Which is why the demo left me pretty much frustrated instead of satisfied. I've yet to see how the Sisters of Battle fare though. I leave that up to you guys to decide.
Overall rating: 2.5 / 5
