Warhammer: Dark Omen

Game review

Dark Omen is the sequel to Shadow of the Hornet Rat, three years older. This is an RTS set in the brutal world of Warhammer. The player becomes the commander of the mercenary company, Morgan Bernhardt. The content of the game is therefore to fulfill the orders of your employers, which usually lead to armed clashes with bands of bandits or with armies of orcs or undead. Against them, the player throws his units, which gradually join him during the campaign. There are several types of units, starting with cavalry, foot soldiers or archers, ending with artillery and wizards. The right combination of these types is, in often very difficult battles, the key to victory. The most important task of the player is then to keep his units in a fighting condition, which may not always be as simple as it seems, due to the frequent lack of funds. Excessive losses in several battles in a row usually have fatal consequences.

As with Shadow of the Horned Rat, the game focuses on players taking on a variety of battles that incorporate a mixture of medieval warfare and fantasy elements, while employing the use of units based within the Warhammer Fantasy setting, ranging from infantry, cavalry, ranged, artillery, wizards, and specialised units. Much of the gameplay from its predecessor remains the same, in that players are required to deploy units before a battle, and must win by killing/routing all enemy units, while losing if all their units are killed/routed from the battlefield.

Compared to its predecessor, Dark Omen features a number of upgrades and improvements to gameplay. The first is the greater incorporation of 3d terrains, which as a direct result, means ranged and artillery units are affected by the "line-of-sight" rule - these units must have a clear visual of a target, before they can engage them. The second is an improved interface system for the player to use with units, including onscreen HUD indicators to help keep track of friendly and enemy units, especially when they're not shown on the player's screen. Unlike Shadow of the Horned Rat, the single-player campaign focuses on a linear path that features choices the player must make - these choices determine what battles the player encounters, what units they can take on into their army, and what items they can pick up - but includes an improved army management system, allowing the player to freely reinforce units that have lost soldiers, improve their armour (if applicable), make note of which units are new and which are temporary, and provide better control over the arrangement of magic items for units.