Analog Gamers Gaming From a Slightly Different Perspective

I’ve spent the last few days getting into Relic Entertainment’s latest entry into the Warhammer 40k series, Dawn of War II. First off, I should admit to being enthralled with the original Dawn of War. I played through all of the expansions, and added countless hours of multiplayer both online and in a LAN setting. So, it should come as no surprise that I was very excited to get my hands on the latest iteration.

Right out of the box, I should offer a word of warning to those of you who played through the first Dawn of War. Dawn of War II is not the game you remember. Gone are the days of constructing your base, building elaborate defenses, and cranking out massive armies. Dawn of War II plays more like another Relic title, Company of Heroes.

Players start with a headquarters building, from which they can construct all the available units (although some require the standard upgrade of the structure to higher levels). This building serves as your base throughout your struggles. There is a single defense turret emplaced nearby.

The first thing players will see is their Commander. Before the game begins, the player can choose to pay as an offensive, defensive, or special type of Commander. For example, Space Marines have an Apothecary that acts as a healer, and Orks have a stealth commando unit. The commander has a number of abilities that not only increase his potency on the battlefield, but allow him to inspire and influence others. The type of Commander a player chooses will greatly determine their play style, as each Commander is suited for different roles on the battlefield

Instead of gathering resources or constructing generators, players will venture out into the map to capture requisition and power nodes. Capturing these nodes increases the rate at which you gain these two resources. In the multiplayer mode, when playing for victory points, capturing the victory points will cause your opponent’s point total to count down. The team that reaches zero first loses. It’s a fairly straightforward process, and one that even newcomers to the strategy genre can quickly grasp.

The change in resource management is accompanied by a population cap of 100. At first this sounds like a lot, but just as in the original DoW, many units make up a fair sized chunk of population, with large units accounting for anywhere from 10-20 population. This works out to mean that you are working with smaller groups of units than you have in other similar strategy games.

As in the original DoW, you can upgrade units with squad leaders, new weapons, and new abilities. These upgrades are invaluable, and often make the difference between winning and losing a battle. One major difference is that these upgrades are not contingent on the construction of certain buildings, but instead unlock as your upgrade your headquarters.

So, how do all these changes affect the game? In practice, the game plays much differently that its predecessor. After an initial rush to secure nearby resource nodes, the game plays out in what amount to a series of skirmishes, the largest of which are still smaller than many of the massive engagements we waged in the original DoW. In spite of the smaller scale, these battles are not only engaging, they are downright fun. Relic has incorporated the cover system we’re used to from previous games in the series, and as before it is a major component of battlefield strategy. A weaker unit in cover can often drive away a stronger unit that is attacking it.

You won’t find many battlefield wide powers in this game, but the few that are there are quite handy. As you kill enemy units, you fill a bar that allows you to activate certain abilities. These include things like bombardments or troop drops, but they are generally used sparingly, since the smaller scale means that gaining enough points to use them with abandon rarely happens.

All in all, Dawn of War II is a game that has easily overcome my skepticism of its smaller scale. The multiplayer is a blast, and since a game can normally be finished in an hour or so, the drawn out epic standoffs of previous RTS titles rarely occur. The campaign, while it doesn’t do much to prepare you for the multiplayer early on, is quite engaging and enjoyable. Relic has delivered another top notch title, securing its place as one of my favorite strategy developers of all time.

If you’re a Company of Heroes fan, or a devotee of the Warhammer strategy games, this is definitely a title you should be trying out.