Review: Dawn of War 2
The first thing you must realize about the Dawn of War 2 campaign is that it has little to do with your average RTS. There is no resource management or building up a horde of units. Instead Dawn of War 2 reaches back to its table top roots. In the start of each mission you choose up to four squads of men to come with you to the battle. These are the only units you will have your entire mission. The only exception is that once you secure a strategic point your squads will replenish. As the game progresses you will find additional war gear that may be given to your squad leaders, allowing customization similar to that of the table top game.
The cover system also resembles that of the table top game, with all of the cover within the game being fit into three categories. When moving towards cover a series of dots will appear where your squad can take advantage of the cover. Yellow dots indicate flimsy cover or craters while green dots appear next to sturdy cover such as rocks. For the best cover you can move your squad into a building. A quick grenade by the enemy, however, and your squad is in big trouble.
DoW2’s story flows fairly well and takes advantage of the deep Warhammer 40k universe. Orks are once again being manipulated into attacking a world where a Space Marine chapter has a vested interest. Instead of the forces of Chaos it is the crafty Eldar behind the Ork attacks. When confronted, the Eldar begin their usual mutterings about more sinister forces at work and exclaiming that the humans have doomed us all. After a bit more Eldar and Ork killing, a pack of the bug-like Tyranids ambushes you and everything quickly goes down the tubes.
The campaign is more or less run by the player. As the story unfolds you are given various missions on several planets within the system. Each mission has a certain number of days that it must be completed in. Each mission takes up a day, but if you are especially successful on a mission you earn an extra deployment for that day. Success is gauged by three factors: How many enemies you kill, how many squads you lose and how much time you took to complete the mission. These three factors also determine how much experience your squad leaders get, so they are important to take into consideration while playing.
Should you not complete a mission before it expires, the Tyranids infestation on that planet will grow. Needless to say, this is a very bad thing. It is therefore important to quickly and efficiently complete missions for those extra launches. Getting the loot, experience, and strategic locations that are a part of each location are additional incentive.
Choosing which units to bring with you on any given mission greatly affects what tactics you might use. Scouts infiltrate, unseen by the enemy, but are weaker in combat then other units. Devastators lay down incredibly deadly suppressing fire, but have a limited firing radius and take time to set up. Assault marines can jump into combat quickly and are great assault troops, but can quickly get overwhelmed if they don’t get enough fire support. Even the mighty dreadnaught has its downside, being unable to regenerate health on its own. Finding the right balance among your units is essential if you are going to be successful.
One interesting feature is that you can have a friend join you and play the campaign co-op style. There is no match making, so you will have to know your friend’s Windows Live ID. Another downside is that your partner doesn’t get to keep the rewards they earn when they go back to their own campaign. Other then that, command duties get split between you and your partner, allowing a little more flexibility to experiment with various tactics.
One cool feature that has always set Dawn of War games apart from other RTS games is it’s built in army painter. Rather then having a random color added to your uniform during multiplayer, you are given the ability design your own color scheme for your troops. Each army has four different colors that can be tweaked as well as its symbol and, in the case of the Space Marines, the overall pattern that appears on the uniform.
The multiplayer aspect of the game is really where the strategy truly comes into play. Victory is achieved by successfully balancing unit building, holding requisition/power points, and actively pursuing the objective. The objective is either to annihilate the enemy or to hold various strategic points. Either way, you will have your hands full. Rather then wasting time constructing buildings and managing resources, DoW2 forces you to explore the map in order to gather resources, which inevitably thrusts you into combat very quickly.
The only downside to the multiplayer is the options are somewhat limited. There are only two game types and seven maps to be played either 1vs1 or 3vs3. Even so, multiplayer is very fun and exciting. Prolonged games feature some of the biggest, meanest monsters of the Warhammer 40k universe battling it out on an epic scale.
Overall the game is well made and contains hours of fun. The campaign is far from a traditional RTS, but is still good in its own uniqueness. The multiplayer is fast paced and full of carnage. No matter which you prefer, Dawn of War 2 will offer you hours of fun.
Score: 8.0
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