Warhammer Dawn of War 2 Review

Relic is back once again with another addition to the Warhammer franchise, Dawn of War 2, the follow up to the hugely successful real time strategy game of 2006. The game is based around the Warhammer 40,000 table top strategy game made by Games Workshop in 1987. Players can wage epic wars across the galaxy to prove their dominance over the universe.

Overview

The game features 4 races from the tabletop franchise, heralding from the previous game comes the iconic Space Marines, the barbaric Orcs and the deadly warriors of the Dark elder. The Space Marines are the human forces, mighty warriors whose influence once spread across the galaxy. In total contrast is the Orc horde, a ruthless band of humanoid creatures that stop at nothing to achieve their aims. Then there are the deadly trained warriors of the Eldar whose forces have a mastery of physical weapons and psychic abilities.

However new to the series is the threat that has pushed the Space Marines back to their home planet and threatens to destroy everything in the galaxy. This new threat is a race of insect like aliens called the Tyranids who sole objective is to feed on the entire universe.

Although there is a new race to the series, I am slightly disappointed that there are only 4 races in the game. However the previous Dawn of War game eventually reached 7 races after 2 expansion packs, which leads me to believe the same will be done for this game.

Graphics

The first thing I notice with Dawn of war 2 are the graphics. Usually real time strategy games do not have the same high end graphics that most games receive however this RTS is different. All units have highly detailed individual soldiers making realistic battles look better than ever. The environment is well detailed with real care taken to produce each war torn battlefield creating a strong atmosphere in each skirmish. The graphics of this game are truly something for developers to be proud of.

Gameplay

One of the main features of this game is its pick up and play factor. You do not need any prior knowledge in order to play this game; it is much simpler than other real time strategies making it accessible to everyone.

Throughout the campaign you are given 5 squads to control and do not have to create an army, at the beginning of each mission your selected squads are launched into the battlefield by a space marine drop pod. This is strange for an RTS and takes away the element of creating a large army to overwhelm your foes; however this adaptation makes the game a refreshing twist from the generic RTS. This shifts the game to more of a focus on how you use your troops and not just make a large army.

Another important adaption this game is the importance of using cover. Cover allows your troops to attack the enemy from the safety of any debris on the battlefield. This makes for a more tactical game and takes it back to its roots of the tabletop game.

However the cover system can often be quite difficult to use and my troops end up in a different position to the one that I intended. For example there were many times I wished to line my troops up behind a wall but instead I had 3 behind the wall and one in front, rendering the cover useless.

On the other hand I was delighted to see that the cover was destructible, something I completely did not expect for this genre of games. This again helps to keep battles fast paced and moving, stay behind cover too long and you lose it, leaving your troops in the open.

This game also brings another large change to the RTS genre. Each of your squads gain experience as they go through battle, although this is often seen in other games, not to the scale of Dawn of War 2. The 5 squads stay with you throughout the whole campaign which makes the game become similar to an RPG (Role Playing Game). As you play the game each squad levels up which allows you to spend points to increase certain skills which lead to different attributes and abilities being unlocked.

Each mission also rewards you with a new piece of armour, weaponry or accessory. These can be equipped to different squads also brining different abilities. Some collectables are basic such as increased armour or weapon damage whilst other accessories can add unique abilities such as the ability to call in airstrikes or lay mines down to trick your enemies into detonating them. This adds some replay ability to the game to see how it would have played out had you used a different weapon or tactic.

Campaign

However I certainly would not want to replay this game. Although multiplayer provides fast, intense battles the campaign is very disappointing. Throughout the campaign you can only play as the Space Marines and missions leave a lot to be desired.

The campaign starts out promising with different objectives needing to be completed in order to move onto the next one which creates a mission story. However once you progress further into the game the uniqueness of the earlier missions wears off. The levels become simply to get to the other side of the map and defeat the boss.

The bosses at least, have some variation to them with each possessing their own looks and abilities. However having to now only attack one unit is rather tedious and simply involves setting all of your troops to attack him whilst moving out of the way of his larger attacks. There is no strategy or unique way to defeat any boss, it’s simply just right click on him then sit back and watch the battle ensue.

There is some slight variation when the campaign switches to a defend the base type mission. These just break up the dreary campaign however this type of mission is also repeated several times.

There is also an option to do the campaign cooperatively meaning a friend can join you in the battles. This does make the campaign slightly more interesting but does not salvage the campaign from its weary repetition.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer also follows the single player of not needing to build several building in order to gain large armies. Your base has one building which creates all of the necessary units for the game and time doesn’t need to be spent on harvesting a vast amount of resources. Instead the player needs to take control of certain points and keep hold of them. This all makes for faster more intense battles instead of waiting for each team to build up their army.

The multiplayer allows you to play as any of the four races available and is quite entertaining unlike the single player. Each player starts with a hero unit who cannot be completely removed from the game as you can revive him when he becomes unconscious. Being able to use all 4 races works great in multiplayer and would have made campaign more exciting. Each race needs to be mastered as they all play differently meaning at least the multiplayer does have a lot of replay ability.

However multiplayer does play like the traditional real time strategy game and does not feature the in depth RPG elements of the single player. This helps to make this game enjoyable by fans of the genre as well as new people just learning how to play.

Summary

While the single player campaign is very repetitive and dull, some new features have been added to the game giving it a refreshing feel from the standard RTS game. The game is also easy to pick up and play enticing new players into the game while the intense battles will have RTS veterans excited about this game as well. Multiplayer is a lot more entertaining than its single player alternative and leaves me coming back for more.

8/10

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