Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War

The Good
I found this game more enjoyable than Panzer General 2 (which it is built upon), but I'm a big fan of all warhammer 40,000 games so that makes me kind of biased I guess. Rites of War captures the Warhammer 40k universe in a nice way ; the graphics, music and the story together make this game addicting and fun to play. It actually reminds me a little of Fantasy General, which perhaps isn't so strange after all...

The artwork is excellent, as in all Warhammer games. The main menu must be one of the most beautiful ever made.

The music is good, but can become repetitive after a while.

The in-game encyclopedia is both useful and fun to read. All units in the game are described with a short story and some pictures, as well as with stats and abilities.

The Bad
The interface is somewhat weird. Some texts only shows partly and there's a lot of scrolling in tiny windows.

The story is weak, close to non existent. There's a guy called "The Farseer" who briefs you before each scenario and hands out objectives, but what he has to say is totally uninteresting. He shows you a map with a bunch of arrows that has no tactical value what so ever. The campaign is just a bunch of scenarios strung together, but the scenarios themselves are still fun to play.

I don't understand why they simplified the game from Panzer General 2. For example, you can't buy reinforcements during a scenario. And the deployment before each scenario is pretty pointless, as you can only change places of your units, not set them up in formations etc.

Some of the units movement sounds are borrowed from PG2, which seems kind of cheap.

The Bottom Line
When it comes to Warhammer 40k games, both Final Liberation and Chaos Gate are better. But Warhammer fans or just people who like turn based strategy might still enjoy it.