Overall Solid Expansion, But Still Leaves the Game Highly Unbalanced
Well, the first major difference you'll notice is when you play the single-player campaign. Instead of having a preset, linear mission-by-mission set up for just two races, you may now choose one of the seven total available races (provided you have Dawn of War and Winter Assault). The campaign puts you on the surface of the planet Kronus, divided into a variety of provinces. Your goal here is to remove the other six races from Kronus by defeating them at their stronghold. You move / attack once per turn, and when you invade an enemy territory (or someone invades yours) you drop down into the familiar RTS battle. This is nothing original; this was first done in a Warhammer 40K game known as 'Final Liberation'. Also, it was done in Lord of the Rings II. Not original, but still adds nice variety to the game. I give the developers a thumbs up on this one. The graphics are still wonderful. The new Grey Knights look incredible, and ALL the units are fluidly animated, whether they are being slain by an axe or firing their weapons madly. The environments for the maps get the job done. However, if you zoom in, you'll see the time and effort put into them. Unfortunately, you won't always be able to admire them as you probably won't have time to do so!
The sound is top-notch. The musical score conveys the occurrence of battle quite nicely, in an orchestral martial theme. The unit acknowledgements and confirmations, as well as cries, battle shouts, and numerous other sounds are wonderful. You'll know when your units are breaking; they'll shout to retreat or beg you for directions.
Well, the graphics and sound are great. So that leaves gameplay, right? The single player campaign is a fresh addition. I like it. However, in my opinion, the races suffer from balance issues. Chaos Marines are extremely powerful, with various abilities such as infiltration, summoning Khorne (who along with one daemon prince was able to wipe out my entire army AND base!), and so on. The super units allotted for each race don't balance out, and it makes you wonder how some races (the Imperial Guard a glaring example) can even hope to stand against the others. Orks for example, are quite hardy, and even get a larger amount of infantry than other races. They focus on melee combat, so it makes some sense. However, the Imperial Guard, who is quite fragile and lacks the tough units of the other races, receives no bonus troop cap. If the Imperial Guard were to receive a larger amount of troops, that'd be great. Also, some of their specialized units, such as Kasrkin, cost 3 squad points, which seems a bit ridiculous, considering how weak they are compared to other races' units of the same tier (For example, Chaos Obliterators, which cost 3 squad points and can withstand severe amounts of punishment and can wipe out whole squads with no problem). The new races are enjoyable, requiring different play styles, but they add more to the feeling of imbalance. The Necron are extremely tough, can revive their dead, and have incredible capabilities, including slowly time, and dishing out enormous amounts of damage. The Tau feel weaker, with focus on ranged combat, but being able to fire from stealth and summoning Kroot creatures that rival the Squiggoth. The Tau commander seems like he's made of paper, despite that oh-so-fancy battlesuit he has.
Overall, Dark Crusade is a good addition to Dawn of War and Winter Assault, adding two new races, and expanding our options. It also provides a fresh way to play in single player, with a new campaign mode. Unfortunately, none of the game balance issues seem to have been addressed, and in fact, have been made worse by adding these two new races. It's kind of a shame.