Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

The first hour of Dawn of War II will annoy anyone who came from the original. There is no base to build, no resource curve to optimise, no mass of Guardsmen to throw at a problem. You get four squads, cover, and a suppression system that punishes you for advancing down open ground. Push through it. Once the Space Marine campaign opens up and you start slotting wargear onto Tarkus, Avitus and the rest, the game reveals what it actually is: a tactical RTS with RPG progression, where a single grenade thrown into the right cover pocket decides an engagement. Three campaigns ship in this package, six factions in multiplayer, and Last Stand co-op with eight heroes, which is the best three-player wave defence mode Relic ever wrote. Where it disappoints: the campaign mission structure repeats itself hard past the midpoint, and the strategic map is a thin veneer over mission selection rather than a real layer of decisions. Multiplayer balance skewed toward aggressive early pressure and the population is long past its peak. Newcomers get a decent tutorial and a difficulty curve that respects them, which matters when the whole game runs on positioning rather than build orders. Come for the campaign and Last Stand, treat the ladder as a bonus.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

Be the first to comment on Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II.