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| Reviewer | Platform | Publisher | Developer | Players |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Bailey | PC/Mac | THQ | Relic Entertainment | 1-6 (LAN, Online via Games of Windows - Live) |
| Requirements | Buy from Amazon.co.uk | |||
| 3.2GHz Single Core or any Dual Core processor, 1GB RAM (XP), 1.5GB RAM (Vista), 5.5GB HDD space, 128MB Video Card (DirectX 9.0c), Windows XP or Vista | Click here to buy Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. | |||
It has been nearly 5 years since the original Dawn of War arrived on shelves, a game that surprised many in being able to offer a compelling RTS experience while being tied to a licensed franchise, in the form of Games Workshop's popular tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000. However, it did come from RTS veterans Relic Entertainment, creators of the Homeworld series and now the Company of Heroes titles, so maybe we shouldn't be surprised. The company has delivered on many occasions, including in 3 expansion packs for the original. But now it's time for a proper follow-up in Dawn of War II.
The first thing you notice when playing DoW2 is that it is considerably different from the previous game and its expansions. Gone is the focus on resource-gathering and base-building. Gone is the ability to build large armies and rush at enemies. Gone is the ability to ignore strategy completely. What DoW2 is not considerably different from is Company of Heroes, Relic's more recent RTS series that has a much heavier focus on squads and using cover, and that's exactly what you need to do in DoW2. Instead of starting each mission with a base, or even acquiring one mid-mission, you select which squads you want to take with you, each of which is customised to your needs - very much like an RPG. Each squad can gain levels to obtain new abilities, and will also collect weapons and armour during the missions that can be applied to any of your squads when you next deploy. This is a significant change for RTS players, and in particular fans of the original games. When playing you only have your squads to select, and each of those have special abilities in a very RPG manner, though limited by quantity or time, rather than some mana or magic meter. Such a significant shift does prevent this from being a simple by-the-numbers sequel, but may also alienate those core players.
The key, then, lies in the missions themselves. While still story-driven, there's a much more open-ended structure in DoW2 than before. Missions are split across different worlds that you travel to, and each will contain a range of missions to take part in. Some are compulsory, and must be completed in order to advance the story, but there's also some optional side missions that will allow you to obtain more wargear. The missions you choose to take, and even the planets you visit for them will determine how the game progresses, so make your choices wisely. The missions themselves often have choices over which objectives to go after, and at first can be rather enjoyable, offering a good challenge with the requirement to think through your actions. However, you'll soon find that many are rather formulaic, with a structure of fighting from one end of the map to the other, gaining control points along the way, and then fighting a powerful boss at the other end. These come up far too often in the game, becoming rather repetitive, and extremely frustrating if you fail as you can't save mid-mission.
This leaves us with a problem. The gameplay has changed significantly over the original and an excellent campaign mode to justify this to fans is missing. The RPG-style missions can still be enjoyable, but they are not consistently so, and it's hard to play too much in one go without feeling like you've done it all before. So have Relic dropped the ball, then? Well, no, because the gameplay fundamentals are all working well, and DoW2 is actually a very good game, but the story mode just doesn't display it. The evidence for its abilities lies in the Multiplayer mode. Here you do have a base, but there's still no base-building to be done. Instead it acts as the point of unit creation, and a starting point for your adventures across a map. Units are upgraded on the battlefield, and there's still a greater emphasis on combat and tactics. Before a match you get to select both a race (e.g. Space Marines) and a faction. The faction you choose will change the type of approach you'll need to take, whether it's aggressive or defensive. There are two types of matches available; the standard option of needing to destroy your opponents' units and structures, as well as Control Points Victory where you'll need to take control of key points on the map until your opponents' victory points run down to zero. This is similar to the main conquest mode of multiplayer shooter series Battlefield, and can provide interesting back-and-forth play across maps as you battle to take hold of more points than your enemies.
Like its predecessor, multiplayer is the highlight of the game, and you'll find an active community keeping the servers busy. When played online the multiplayer component a full ranking system in place to allow the game to attempt to pair you up with people of equal skill. Microsoft's TrueSkill system, used on the Xbox 360 in games like Halo 3, is in place here as our full leaderboards to compare your victories against other humans with your friends. Games can be played in 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 combinations depending on the map selected, with as many human or computer-controlled players filling the slots if you like. In fact, the multiplayer essentially doubles for the skirmish mode in the game, and you can team up with other human players either over a local LAN or over the internet to take on the AI. It proves to be an interesting opponent, available with four difficulty settings, and should certainly provide a challenge to even hardened RTS players.
One particularly curious design decision for DoW2 was Relic's use of online services to support their title. Despite being published by THQ, the game makes use of Valve's Steam online distribution system for retail copies as well as online digital sales. This means when you install the game you need to do so through Steam, which means you need a Steam account and your game is tied to it. This has upsides and downsides, the most notable for each is the ability to play the game without a disc on any machine you can login to your Steam account through, versus being unable to sell on the game as it cannot be untied to your account. It's this downside which is likely a reason for THQ adopting Steam, as well as countering the current negative image of DRM on games. However, to make things somewhat convoluted, and possibly due to Microsoft influence, the game doesn't make use of Steamworks achievements or multiplayer infrastructure, instead letting the Games for Windows - Live service cover these, requiring more software to be installed, and if you haven't done so before (for Fallout 3 among other titles, or you own an Xbox 360), another account to be set up if you want to each achievements and play online. It's nice to be integrated with your existing services, but it would have been better if they could have picked one or another. However, despite the hoops you have to go through, at least the end result is worthwhile.
| Overall | Markedly different from the original Dawn of War, for better or for worse. Drits from the RTS formula to deliver something different, but fans of the series may feel disconnected fromt he gameplay on offer, despite how enjoyable it can be. Campaign can get repetitive, but multiplayer continues to be the series' highlight. | 8/10 |
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