Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
By J.D. Richardson
It’s not often that games developers take a successful formula, make a hugely popular game out of it, and then take that formula and throw it out of the window for the sequel. But that’s exactly what Relic have done with Dawn of War II, and I have nothing but respect for them for doing so.
Dawn of War II is a real time strategy game based on the ‘Warhammer 40,000′ tabletop game by Games Workshop and the sequel to the 2004 game Dawn of War. First things first, those of you who loved the mass carnage of the multiplayer and skirmish modes in the first Dawn of War shouldn’t be worried by my opening statement, as the online component remains very similar. What has changed quite dramatically, though, is the single-player campaign and its game mechanics.
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little tired of the same old process of playing most RTS games. Build a big base, churn out hundreds of soldiers and tanks, select them all then right click on the enemy base. Rinse, repeat, boring. Dawn of War II does things very differently in its single-player campaign, and to the credit of its developers, it pulls it off with glorious style.
There is no base building, no churning out endless ranks of cannon fodder, no resources to collect; just pure, bloody fighting, and you know what that has brought back to the table? Tactics. Lovely, delightful, satisfying tactics.
You play through the single-player campaign as the Blood Raven chapter of the space marines, as in the first game. Sent to a planet called Calderis to investigate Orc disturbances, things quickly escalate into a full scale emergency when the Tyranids rear their ugly heads and start trying to take over the whole space sector, and the only thing standing between them and the complete destruction of these worlds is your handful of space marines. It’s an interesting story that plays out with a real sense of urgency. You fight back and forth between planets, attacking and defending, and keeping the Tyranid infestation on each planet in check before it becomes overwhelming. The Eldar also pop up and throw a few spanners in the works just to keep you on your toes at regular intervals. At any one time you could have up to three of four missions on your plate, some needing more urgent attention than others but leaving it up to you to decide which order to do them in.
The meat and potatoes of any RTS is the combat, and Dawn of War II has made a lovely beef and veg stew here. Instead of building bases and defences and all that jazz, you land on the planet with four squads of Space marines that you have chosen pre-mission… and that’s it. Seriously, that’s all you have to accomplish whatever you have to do, but then again space marines are hard bastards, aren’t they, so you don’t need as many. Strategic points can be captured on every mission map but these just give bonuses to planetary defense and the like. There are also points to capture on each map that replace fallen marines with reinforcements. When things kick off they really kick off. Bolter rounds fly all over the place, grenades explode sending Orcs flying, Dreadnoughts smash through walls, whole buildings come tumbling down, swarms of Tyranids leap on space marines, tearing at them with teeth and claws. It’s fantastic, visceral entertainment.
Another new addition to the series is some RPG elements, such as the ability to ‘level up’ your squads, putting skill points in various schools of discipline such as ranged weapon ability or toughness. The more skill points you put in each discipline, the more special abilities you unlock. There are also hundreds of different items, armour types and weapons to collect and equip your space marines with, giving the game even more scope for strategy and customisation. These aspects of the game are really fun to use and a nice little distraction in between missions, and I hope more developers take on this kind of thing for more RTS games.
Some hardcore fans of the multiplayer from the first game may be starting to worry that the multiplayer in Dawn of War II will not live up to its predecessor. It does, and in my opinion it does it even better. Again, there is no base building here, just a pre-placed structure that churns out your units – provided you have enough resources and power, both of which are obtained through capturing strategic points. This one building you have is responsible for the requisition of all that race’s units, making multiplayer more streamlined and fast-paced. Some people will love it, but people who prefer a slower game might not get on as well. The game doesn’t seem to have shipped with a huge variety of maps, but I’m sure this will be improved upon in the weeks to come. What I do love about the online aspect is the army painter. Being a ‘Warhammer 40k’ fan and occasionally dipping into the tabletop game and the hobby that goes with it, I find this to be very cool. You can choose from pretty much all the Citadel paints available at the moment, and there’s even two of the metallic paints in there for fancy paint jobs. You want metallic gold Tyranids? You can have ‘em!
A couple of grumbles now, but quite minor ones really. The camera controls are a bit odd and took me while to get used to, and the scrolling seems a bit sluggish, but that could be down to my hardware so you might have more joy with it. Also, a lot of the maps in the single-player campaign are re-used quite often, which can become slightly tiresome but is no biggie really as the gameplay is so much fun. Just one more thing: where’s the Chaos? I would have preferred them to the poncey, lady-boy Eldar any day!
Relic is to be commended for their willingness to try something new with their take on the franchise. It would have been all too easy to just turn out an identical sequel with better graphics and watch the money roll in. For me, Dawn of War II has re-invigorated my love of real-time strategy. My love being a wilting rose that a gardener notices behind a shrub and waters with a glorious spray of intergalactic carnage.
All together now…
FOR THE IMPERIUM OF MAN!
9/10
