Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War was a big hit. Relicâs next game, Company of Heroes, was even better. So the companyâs next game, Dawn of War II, will continue the trend, yes?
Sort of.
Fans of Relicâs previous two games will be surprised to find that Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II bears little resemblance to either. Where Dawn of War shot for Warhammerâs sense of epic warfare and came up short, this game goes in the opposite direction, forgoing scale for intimacy as you find yourself in command of an army ofâŠeleven men.
Which is tiny. Teeny tiny. Definitely not the sort of thing you expect from a real-time strategy game. Which is lucky, then, because Dawn of War II isnât really a real-time strategy game. Least, not one like youâve ever seen before.
Loved
Level Up â Youâll only end up commanding between 8-11 men in the game, split over four âsquadsâ, and those four squads are led by heroes. Donât think of these heroes as RTS pawns. Think of them as RPG party members. They have names, they never really die, and between missions their attributes can be levelled up to make them more formidable. Youâll grow very, very attached to them.
Loot Drop â The RPG similarities continue with loot, which is dropped throughout missions. Youâll get better weapons and better armour for killing bad guys, which can then be used in later missions. Because the game is built on such a small scale, these items can actually be seen on your men in battle (oh, look, heâs carrying his new Heavy Bolter!), which is a real kick.
Homeless â Unlike previous Relic games, Dawn of War II has no buildings. Your men are dropped into a mission, and thatâs it. No unit building ,no resource gathering, you donât even need to hold command posts. Itâs just you, your men and the mission at hand, which is really, really liberating.
Choose Your Own Adventure â Giving RTS players a choice between 1-2 missions is nothing new, but giving you a choice between 2-4 missions on each of 3 planets is. Such choice means if you wake up one day and only want to fight Orks (each enemy army plays a very different game), just fly to a planet with an Ork mission and youâre set.
Not One Game, But Two â All this RPG talk of loot and levels applies only to the singleplayer campaign. Multiplayer matches are more like those found in Company of Heroes or Dawn of War, with units to be built, strongholds to be upgraded and command points to be held. This effectively means youâre almost getting two games for the price of one.
Rock, Paper, Chainsword â Aside from your âavatarâ character, a Space Marine Force Commander, you can only take three of the gameâs five other squads/heroes into battle with you. And each of these squads have wildly varying strengths and weaknesses, meaning you not only have tough strategic decisions to make when deciding who to take on a mission, but flexible tactical options at your disposal once on it.
Hated
Wash, Rinse, Repeat â Most missions involve you having to fight your way across a map to fight a boss (yes, this game even has boss fights). Actually, 95% of missions have you doing this, and while itâs a blast, some more variety would have been nice, especially when the few defensive missions in the game prove to be the gameâs most enjoyable.
If what youâve read above makes the game sound like a rich, creamy Diablo/Warcraft III/Company of Heroes soup, well, thatâs because thatâs exactly what it is. One minute youâll be using cover and flanking like Company of Heroes, the next youâll be using special powers to bring down a colossal boss character, the next youâll be collecting loot off its corpse and improving your âpartyâ with it.
Which makes this an amazing game to play. Itâs like Relic have taken some of the most addictive and endearing elements of both real-time strategy and role-playing genres and smashed them together, the resulting game something thatâs able to appeal to fans of both genres without alienating either.
Warhammer 40000: Dawn Of War II was developed by Relic and published by THQ for the PC. It was released on February 19, and retails for $50. Played single player campaign to completion, played multiple skirmish battles online. Did not play co-op campaign, which game also features.
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