For the past couple of years now I've been a huge fan of the Warhammer: Dawn Of War games - the most recent addition, Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade, is an absolutely awesome addition to the series, which reproduces the Dawn Of War gameplay but sets it to a Total War style map system. With Warhammer: Mark Of Chaos, the developers have gone one step further and created a game with much more scope for vast battles, where you can have hundreds of units onscreen at any one time. This brings Warhammer into direct competition with the Total War series - could this be the one to knock Total War off its throne?

When you start the game there are two campaigns to choose from; one as the human Empire and its elven allies, and the other as the Chaos orc hordes with their skaven compatriots. These are the only four factions in the entire game, which instantly doesn't go anywhere near the number of different factions available in the tabletop version of Warhammer. Both campaigns take on a very linear format, where you move along a predetermined path engaged in a series of tightly scripted battles. As you breeze through the missions you'll find yourself doing the same things; obliterating enemy encampments, taking on the enemy hero one-to-one or besieging an enemy city. Every now and again this might differ, but for the most part the campaign map gives you the illusion that you are in control, when actually you're moving your army to the only place on the map that you're allow you to go. The campaign map doesn't really add anything, besides being an interim screen before starting the next predetermined level. When you do click on a new level you're presented with some reasonably pretty cut scenes, although the dialogue is pretty lame and the story isn't hugely enticing either. This is a real shame, as the opening movie is jawdroppingly impressive, as it was in Dawn Of War - it's so good these guys could probably make a phenomenal feature length CGI movie if they wanted to.

Once you've picked your mission, or 'the only mission you're actually allowed to do', you do however get plenty of choice regarding the composition of your army. You can recruit different types of units from towns and cities, and equip these troops with better armour, weapons, siege kit and even banners and musicians to help boost their morale in battle. You can also have them blessed at a temple, which grants them with various religious protections and bonuses. When it comes to the battle, you have to decide which of your troops you would like to take in. This involves deciding what kind of battle you would like to undertake - do you fancy taking out the enemy from a distance with bows and spears, or chargng them with heavy infantry, or if you really know what you're doing, combine a mixture of both? Add to this the fact that your troops gain veterancy the more they fight and you can see there's a lot at stake, as you'll want to preserve certain units and make sure they don't perish unnecessarily on the battlefield - cue lots of reloading saved game slots as you try to save your most experienced unit from a fatal end! Following each battle you can spend the loot you earned and also buy more units to recover your losses.

On top of your army units, in Mark Of Chaos you also get the chance to control hero units. Heroes in this game are quality - they can lead your armies, tearing into the opposition and doing battle with the enemy's hero character. Like your other units, heroes gain experience over time and these experience points can be channeled into three sectors. Firstly you can increase a hero's command ability, which means he can use special skills to boost the regiment's fighting ability. For example, he can provide a special magical shield to protect your entire regiment from enemy flame attacks. You can also invest those points into your hero's duelling skills, which makes him far more effective when he's fighting one-to-one with enemy heroes. Or you can put those points into his fighting skills so he's much more powerful in general battle - the choice is entirely yours. You can also equip your heroes with weapons and equipment ransacked from the battlefield, like enchanted swords, magic armour or powerful rings. Your heroes can use special potions and scrolls as well, which give them bonuses to use on the battlefield, such as health revival.

If you're going to get anywhere in Mark Of Chaos then you need to have your thinking hat on; since the game is based on medieval warfare, much of the tactics are pretty much the same, minus the magic of course! So if you've played any of the Total War games then you should have a rough idea of what you're doing. For example, spearmen get their ass kicked by swordsmen but are great against cavalry, archers are lambs to the slaughter in a swordfight but pretty nifty if they can rain arrows down on their enemy from a distance. Mark Of Chaos adds to this even more with a series of really cool units. The Empire has gunpowder units, so you've got riflemen and cannons, whereas the Chaos forces have twisted demons and huge hulking monsters lumbering about the battlefield. There are also a lot of aerial units, such as giant eagles and harpies and much, much more. The Mark Of Chaos mix of medieval and fantasy genres really does make for impressive viewing.

Controlling the events on the battlefield is pretty straightforward; you simply select units and issue movement or attack commands, as per your usual RTS. It can be relatively fiddly if you're in a huge battle with lots of units onscreen at once though; sometimes it's hard to pick out the right unit within the mass and you also have to be very careful with your siege weaponry, as I found myself obliterating lots of my units, as well as the enemy's which kind of defeats the purpose.

Visually, Mark Of Chaos is as good as they come - all of the unit models are beautifully crafted and finely textured and watching a group of your soldiers marching around the battlefield is exciting in itself, let alone when they start fighting! There's also plenty of great lighting and special effects, particularly when magic comes into play. You can even see the heat shimmering off the battlefield following a magical fire strike that's thrown bodies and debris high into the air. All of this is obviously great, but it does mean that even on a high-end PC you will experience some slowdown in frame rate, which can detract from the overall experience at times. The action is set to a great score as well, with classical-style music crashing in the background as you lead your army to hopeful victory. The in-game sound is spot on and the development team has obviously trawled through their back catalogue to provide realistic battle sounds, with swords clashing and arrows swishing through the air, not to mention the explosive spells tearing into the enemy.

The battles in Mark Of Chaos really are great fun, even if the campaign element of the game is too linear and sorely lacking in storyline. It almost feels like the campaign is just there as a background to the fantastic battle engine. Where things really get going is in the multiplayer skirmish mode; you can customise your army, create its very own banner and select which units you think will defeat your opponent. There are so many different units on offer that you never can be sure you've picked the right bunch until it's too late, which makes for compelling multiplayer gaming. Of course there's the standard deathmatch mode available, but far more interesting are the reinforcement and siege battles, which feature capture points on the map that let you gain gold that can be used instantly to bolster your troops on the battlefield. This adds a whole new take on RTS gaming and creates an intense and high-octane online experience.

I really enjoyed Warhammer: Mark Of Chaos. I'm sure there will be plenty of detractors who played the original desktop game and feel that they have been cheated by this PC version, featuring only four playable factions. There will be more still who pick holes in the weak campaign story and this game's inability to match up to the immersive experience of the Total War games. However, I think that's unfair - this is far from a complete success, but it does have the makings of a really great series, should it be the first game of many. It looks great, plays well and really kicks ass on multiplayer mode. While perhaps not quite as fine as the recent Company of Heroes, this is still worth a look, particularly seeing as it's one of a very small number of good games coming out this side of Christmas.

Reviewed by Ross Alexander for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).