By Jim Rossignol on February 18th, 2013 at 8:00 am.
The “Dance Macabre” Harlequins mod for Soulstorm has, by all accounts, been a long time in the making. Soulstorm was released in 2008, but I understand the mod was actually begun around the time of Winter Assault, way back in 2005, and has seen its fair share on contributors in that time. Anyway, the open beta for the mod is now go, and one of the fine members of that death jester-loving community community has put out a video to celebrate that, which you can see below.
18/02/2013 at 08:14 Rollin says:
Wow, this is late. Good excuse to re install Soulstorm though. Reminds of the time when Relic made great RTS games and not terrible half-moba messes.
18/02/2013 at 08:24 wengart says:
In other words Dawn of War 2. Meanwhile they made Company of Heroes and are currently making Company of Heroes 2.
18/02/2013 at 08:33 pakoito says:
Because PC is full of tactical level real time games.
18/02/2013 at 09:21 KikiJiki says:
DoW was an RTS, but it was also a 40k license. You don’t build bases in 40k but you do manage squads.
18/02/2013 at 09:29 Syra says:
DoW2 was better than DoW in multiplayer by faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar. Deny at your peril! This semi moba nonsense is spouted by all the chums who couldn’t hack it and stuck to singleplayer, which I actually found wa a refreshing change to the usual boring as fuck ts campaigns (I’m looking at you starcraft2) where you just build up a base and mine resources for half an hour then you go roll all over an enemy’s face….
19/02/2013 at 16:39 Armitage says:
Or maybe some people simply feel that base-building is an essential part of good RTS games !! DoW2 is certainly great, but many people believe, myself included, that the gameplay is more shallow and strategies more limited without a base building mechanic.
18/02/2013 at 12:27 Whelp says:
What the fuck is ‘moba’?
18/02/2013 at 16:18 phuzz says:
It’s a game similar to Defense of the Ancients, I think it stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena or some such. I’m pretty user that calling DoW2 a moba is supposed to be an insult.
Not my sort of thing so all of the above might be wrong.
18/02/2013 at 08:18 P4p3Rc1iP says:
The laughing god smiles upon this
18/02/2013 at 09:31 Syra says:
I was hoping they turned it into a dancing game =(
18/02/2013 at 12:22 noom says:
Laughter for the Laughing God?
18/02/2013 at 15:12 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Smiles for his smile throne.
He cares not from whence the cola flows, as long as it does flow.
18/02/2013 at 22:32 Geen says:
Lord Custard, you have won the prize of one free internet.
18/02/2013 at 08:30 Boozebeard says:
The video footage and the voice acting is pretty good, so why does the text look like it was added with movie maker?
18/02/2013 at 08:31 P4p3Rc1iP says:
And what about the music?
18/02/2013 at 15:12 fuggles says:
The video maker composed the music.
18/02/2013 at 12:40 Servizio says:
The voice over was from Soulstorm, if I remember right. Dunno about the music. And the camera work was basically just closeups of gameplay; The games have some very nice animations.
18/02/2013 at 08:40 Tom De Roeck says:
I preferred Dawn Of War 2 to the first one. The base building in the first one felt so trite anyway. However, if they made base building part of DoW3, but in a proper way, now that would pique my interest, sir!
18/02/2013 at 11:10 TormDK says:
Base Building is not a part of the Warhammer 40K universe. Tell me again why it should become StarCraft 2 with Orkz?
DoW2 was far better than DoW1 from a multiplayer perspective, with much better tactical options.
Unfortunately it’s too early to tell if we will ever get a DoW3.
18/02/2013 at 17:09 Sassenach says:
A base can have character, representing aspects of both strategy and tactics. The problem only arises when it is a clumsy and arbitrary analogue and thus causes cognitive dissonance (Space marines don’t chop wood etc etc). I think presuming that base building explicitly implies Starcraft style disregard for atmosphere in favour of mechanics is a mistake.
18/02/2013 at 18:56 KikiJiki says:
Still, building bases is not what 40k is about. If someone had the rights to Risk and made it a third person action-adventure game it would be just as unfaithful to the source material as DoW 1 was.
19/02/2013 at 09:30 Darkjediben says:
Yeah! Except for the part where sieges and assaults on cities are a constant, and also the part where every race, including the Tyranids, build their own structures and support networks, and oh yeah, the part where in the most recent edition of the tabletop game you can literally build bases by buying various forms of fortifications as parts of your army.
But other than that, base-building has no place in 40K. Great post.
18/02/2013 at 09:26 amateurviking says:
I always wanted to build a Harlequin squad/army when I used to play 40k. But lacked the money/painting ability/modding skill. I was basically lacking.
18/02/2013 at 09:32 Syra says:
They are finally updating eldar this year for tabletop (probably around xmas) … here’s hoping for some good plastic sculpts I have an eldar army from the 90s which is almost entirely metal that I hate so very much. Oh and if they made harlequins more than a rubbish single unit elites choice that would be nice.
18/02/2013 at 09:35 KikiJiki says:
Source? I always find GW rumours need to be taken with a large silo of salt because they don’t even tell the stores what’s new in until they get their copies of White Dwarf the day before whatever is new is released, week early leaks aside.
18/02/2013 at 13:15 Syra says:
Well bell of lost souls has a rumour round up from multiple sources which tend to start overlapping the more likely the become and have been nearly spot on for release dates from 6th ed to chaos to dark angels. Now it seems likely daemons predicted next and tau in summer with eldar rounding out the year. sure pinch some salt but it is corroborated by the new fliers book this week which has fliers for every race except eldar and tau which are being held back for codex releases.
18/02/2013 at 14:04 KikiJiki says:
Nice, fingers crossed then! I wasn’t trying to piss on your bonfire, just I know that GW keep their release schedules very closely guarded.
I’m looking to get a Daemons fantasy army going as my second, so if they’re next that would work out great for me :)
18/02/2013 at 09:44 Skhalt says:
An army of space elves is bound to be rubbish, my good sir. They have no beard and they don’t drink beer. Or so says the Guardsman Handbook.
18/02/2013 at 13:13 Bhazor says:
I understand the Elves use advanced stealth and evasion techniques. Bunch of wusses.
My men know the only true gentleman’s strategy is standing nice and straight and approaching their stongest postion at a nice sedate pace. Preferably daylight so they can see just how imposing you look in your vivid pink armour.
18/02/2013 at 13:18 Syra says:
Squats want their beards back guardsman.
18/02/2013 at 16:19 phuzz says:
Everybody wants the Squats back :(
18/02/2013 at 22:34 Geen says:
We all do, kid, we all do.
Now go fourth and slaughter those pointy-eared xeno hippies!
18/02/2013 at 12:51 Bhazor says:
I always felt Soulstorm was unfairly maligned. Yes it was the same crappy campaign as Dark Crusade, yes the Dark Eldar core mechanic of soul harvesting was broken and yes it definitely showed its age compared to Relic’s newly released Company of Heroes.
But, the Sisters of Battle were pretty awesome. Their reliance of fire based weapons and morale attacks just felt unique in a game that was already crowded. It also definitely refined the campaign of Dark Crusade making the home base attacks more individual and allowing for more paths on the star system map.
Also despite Dark Eldar being borderline broken they did have strippers on their tanks. So that was something.
18/02/2013 at 12:56 caddyB says:
Even though I like the sexy fascist space nuns as much as the next guy;Sisters of Battle were also incredibly overpowered in Soulstorm.
And I have a small army of them. Too bad they aren’t plastic, metal minis are hard to handle.
18/02/2013 at 13:08 Bhazor says:
Against the Imps and Greenskins they were incredibly overpowered where a couple flame tanks can cause a whole Guardsmen army to break. But against faction’s with immunity to fear (Marines, Necrons) they were pretty weak. Which I actually kinda like, I like asymetric games where your strength can be completely wasted in certain match ups like in Advance Wars. I like to imagine each faction has an enemy they almost pity for their repeated massacres and a most feared enemy that sends a chill through them.
18/02/2013 at 19:28 malkav11 says:
The Dark Crusade campaign was awesome. The Soulstorm campaign tried to replicate it in a more balanced form and wasn’t nearly as fun, alas.
19/02/2013 at 13:08 laddyman says:
Sure, but vanilla Soulstorm was the game with the blatantly broken and rushed flyer units and the one that lets you play for gadzillions of hours just defending the same territories because the automatch wasn’t very good. (Much as I love the Dark Eldar, something’s gotta give.)
18/02/2013 at 15:09 fuggles says:
Soulstorm was sloppy, rushed and halfbaked. That said, mechanically it is better than dark crusade. If you do want to return to soulstotm then completed races are black templars, tyranids, steel legions and the inquisition. You can see them all on the dawn of war is not dead video on YouTube, or if you prefer titans then ultimate apocalypse is the mod for you!
18/02/2013 at 18:03 Oasx says:
I liked Dark Crusade a lot better simply because the Tau and Necrons are some of my favorite races in the game, while i on the other hand had no desire to play Dark Eldar or Sisters of War.
18/02/2013 at 18:43 kud13 says:
The one thing that made me stop playing Soulstorm was the fact that unlike Dark Crusade, they stuff you built on conquered territories didn’t remain there. Making each defensive skirmish a prolonged affair.
18/02/2013 at 15:28 lofaszjoska says:
I was fairly certain this would be an Oblivion-level fetish mod. Pleasantly disappointed.
Also slightly ashamed of myself for associating female clowns with porn right away.
18/02/2013 at 16:29 David Bliff says:
Hell, if a mod for Soulstorm gets a mention on RPS, how about publicizing the fantastic Elite Mod for Retribution? Development is ongoing and constantly responding to the metagame, and it’s the only thing keeping DoW2′s competitive mutliplayer alive, really.
18/02/2013 at 18:56 Kevin says:
Harlequins are quite possibly the coolest thing in the 40K universe. Chainswords, bolters, and Terminators got nothing on the Harlequin’s Kiss (by Kieron’s admission, the most fethed up weapon in all of 40K), the Shrieker Cannon, and the Solitaires.
If Sega manages to pick up the 40K license and Relic gets to make a new Dawn of War, I pray to Cegorach they put the Harlequins in it, though this mod might make me re-install Soulstorm.
18/02/2013 at 19:30 malkav11 says:
I am sad that this mod is only for skirmish and multiplayer (which is to say, multiplayer or multiplayer against bots, neither of which appeal to me). If it added the Harlequins to the campaign mode (way more practical than in most RTS campaigns), then we’d be talking.
18/02/2013 at 23:47 Iskariot says:
Yes, but DoW1 at least has an excellent, versatile and agressive AI. Skirmish in DoW1 is great fun.
DoW2 ‘s AI is one of the worst stationary and passive and shameful abominations I have ever seen in an RTS.
18/02/2013 at 23:42 Iskariot says:
I own all DoW 1 and 2 games. DoW 2 was much prettier, and perhaps for some more fun in online gaming, but for SP gamers like me DoW 2 was an awful boring game with an incredibly stupid passive and predictable stationary AI.
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Also the base building in DoW 1 really added to the game. A base is your home and it ads interesting targets to the warzone which you will have to defend or attack. DoW 2 felt rather empty to me in comparison. And for those who did not want basebuilding there was a mod. But personally I think a base really enriches an RTS game.
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Also I hated the fact that in DoW 2 the squads got smaller, the armies in general got smaller, there were less factions, less armor, smaller maps, fewer maps, and virtually no modding and no support for the modding community.
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For all these reasons I perceived DoW 2 as an abomination. I put perhaps 16 hours into the DOW2 games compared to at least 500, 600 or more hours into the DoW 1 games. I still play Soulstorm. It never bores me. I have shitloads of incredibly well made mods and maps and this new Harlequin faction mod has already proven to be of high quality. I am very much looking forward to it.