Skirmish Play
Once you’ve completed the campaign mode, you’ve got Skirmish and Multiplayer to keep you occupied. What would have been nice though is to have been able to play the Single Player campaign AGAINST the Marines. During the campaign you come up against Orks, Eldar and Chaos Marines, so being able to play them and get a feeling for how they work as units would have been nice and added a whole new side to the game. The maps are already there, as are the missions, a text briefing would have been enough to see us on our way and would’ve given the game a lot more longevity.Anyway, back to the Skirmish mode. This is a major proportion of the game and is where you’ll spend a lot of time if you’re not a big online gamer. There’s aplenty of maps to keep you occupied, some of them quite small and frantic and others allowing for much wider seeping manoeuvres. If the map allows, you can have more than one side fighting on each map, with the ability to form alliances to destroy a mutual opponent. Everything about the skirmish mode is customisable, from which sides play to how they look to what their skill level is like. Throw in a map editor too and there’s plenty here to keep you going.
Sadly though, Relic have seen to only include four races, as I mentioned earlier, which, though not limiting the game in any appreciable way, might not sit well with some die-hard fans. As a game for the masses and a way to introduce those masses to the Warhammer universe, those four are enough and leave you eagerly wanting an expansion pack.
Now, the campaign mode only lets you play as Space Marines, so it’s here in skirmish play that you get to try out everyone else (apart from one mission in the campaign where you team up with the Eldar). This opens up a whole new side to the game as now you have more than enough new units and buildings to play around with. I very strongly suggest that you start your skirmishes with everything set to easy, just so you can learn all the different units, how to access them and what their weaknesses are.
There’s precious little documentation to show you how to get the most powerful units so you’ll find yourself relying on the excellent context sensitive help pop-ups. As I said earlier, buildings are upgradeable and to get some buildings you have to upgrade others first. Although the Chaos Marines are very similar to the Space Marines, the Eldar and Orks are different races altogether, so their research and building trees are quite alien to start off with. Of course, all the races have units that are the equivalent of units in other races. You’ll find turrets for everyone are all pretty much the same, except for Orks whose turrets give them a reproduction rate boost. Which brings in a nice little quirk in the gameplay. Each race has an ability, either with their units or their buildings, that gives them an edge over everyone else. The Orks, for example can produce building units very quickly and at no expense. These units can fight as well as build and repair, so you can use them to swarm over a weak defence. Eldar are superb marksmen and excel at ranged combat and so the list goes on. If you even just lightly scratch the surface you find a massive depth of gameplay and variety, even though it might appear a touch on the shallow side at first glance.