The Best RTS I've played since StarCraft: Brood War.
The gameplay in Dawn of War is a new and fresh compared to any RTS I;ve played with innovative squads, weaponizing and cover, stances not so much. Each race has its own tech tree most far different from the others with the exception of the Chaos Space marines and Space marines. Although the tech trees are relatively different the overall play of the game is quite the same, build this, build that and then make this, the only signifacnt difference is with the Eldar race, but im not getting into that right now. It seems that every race has its own version of a certain building making it easy to follow but also bores the game down quite quickly. The game is quite well balanced and each of units have a purpose, massing a bunch of Tier 1 units wont get you the win like it does in most RTS' I've played. DoW also has the unique melee combat feature that allows your units to switch to melee weapons when the enemy gets to close, this one: looks AWESOME and two: can be a strategic move maybe to avoid artillery or something. All in all the gameplay of Dawn of War is well balanced, seems fresh from all the other RTS' and is just plain fun.
The graphics aren't spectacular but still pretty great. The game allows you to zoom right into the face of the squad with 360 degree panning. You can watch from above as a maginficent fire fight goes on or zoom in below to watch your Force Commander deliver a fatality to its enemies. The graphics arent as brilliant as most games to its date but heck its an RTS, graphics arent everything.
The sound of DoH, overall its good, nice sounds for weapons characters the only problem I have is when working your workers!!! These things have THE MOST ANNOYING voices of all time with the exception to the Eldar bonesinger which I dont mind as much. But seriously the Chaos builder is just plain annoying and every time you click on it it speaks in the most annoying tone!
Overall I think DoH is a great game, especially for a Warhammer game (only joking) and its worth a try and a buy.