Review: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

I must admit that I'm not entirely an expert on the Warhammer universe but to fully enjoy what is a very strong game here from Relic I don't think that's necessary. My freshness to the franchise worked for me as a gamer, enabling me to jump in and enjoy my time without nit-picking about inconsistencies in a universe I had poured over since I was eleven.

The game starts with you taking control of a beefed up Commander on a planet crawling with Orcs and lets you familiarise yourself with the control scheme which-unless you like using shortcut keys-is the mouse. Simple, intuitive and not in the least bit limiting, the control method allows you to spend more time thinking about the battle at hand than worrying about what buttons to press to bring up options.

The first thing you notice about the game is that for an RTS the game is really quite pretty and colourful. Almost cartoon-like but not in a negative, just enough to let the developer get away with lots of blood and gore, however small it is on screen. There are some great graphical touches throughout, like one of your Marines knocking an Orc to the ground and jumping on its innards causing an explosion of claret only to get skewered a moment later and swung about like a rag doll. As gruesome as that sounds it looks quite comical at times-after all this isn’t real life we are talking about here.

Meet the Enemy

Most of the environments in DoWII are destructible, meaning what seemed like a safe place to hide behind or in could at any time end up more like a pile of stone chips and therefore not much use as a protective barrier between your squad and the vicious looking beast lumbering towards you with lunch on its mind.

There are different enemies to battle during the course of the game:

*Orcs, who are plentiful and dumb, use what looks like steam punk technology-decrepit but effective-and are opportunistic, pillaging with wild abandon.
*The Eldar who seem very much like the Lord Farquhars of the game, haughty, powerful and unscrupulous. They have very highly developed technology and are dangerous zealots.
*Tyranids are an alien swarm with a large variety of breeds, from the basic cannon fodder to killing machines powerful enough to cause a terminator to turn tail and run.

Later battles force you to think hard about your tactics and choosing your placement areas for your squads makes all the difference.

Gear of War

You have plenty of equipment at your disposal during your campaigns, most of which is picked up from fallen enemies. Special items are generally given as rewards for missions completed and can range from numerous types of weapons to armour or Commander accessories that can turn the tide of many a skirmish.

Your squads also level up as you progress, allowing you to fit them out in their all-new technology of war as well as choosing where to spend upgrade points. You have four areas to choose from when you spend your points and how you choose depends greatly on what your squad is used for. You have health, weapons, strength and energy. This can help create a squad of great melee fighters, heavy gunners or a swift assault force amongst other choices. It really is up to you how you create your force and play the game.

Testoster-pwned

Tactics, as I have mentioned, can make or break you in every encounter and using your squads’ abilities to suppress an enemy unit whilst flanking them or teleporting in behind their lines makes for a fantastic visual feast with plenty of satisfying wins on the field of combat. Of course there will be times when things go horribly wrong and you need to retreat to the nearest rally point, allowing you to have new troops beamed down from your orbiting ship in case any of your number have been killed.

Any leader taken out of action before they can flee must first be rescued, enabling them to escape and have their squad brought back up to strength. This can lead to snap decisions being made mid battle that seem to go against the grain but work so well you will feel like a war hero when the fight goes your way in the end.

The plot of DoWII is, from a Warhammer 40,000 newcomer’s point of view, a lot of strange testosterone filled pulp science fiction. Given the content of the game this isn’t a bad thing and suits the style very well, but believable it is not.

The voiceovers are well performed with a suitably deep, throaty delivery and the music is very uplifting during a fight, changing in both volume and tempo with the tide of battle. Overall the sound was adequately varied but with so much going on at times it could get a little hectic and messy. Perhaps that’s just war though.

Recommended

For the purposes of the review on both Windows Vista64 and Windows XP. There is little difference in the high/ultra graphics settings so those of you that have XP shouldn’t feel left out. If anything the game runs better on XP and didn’t crash or bug out at all.

I really enjoyed playing Dawn of War II and If you're considering taking the plunge into realtime strategy this is a good place to start.. It is very accessible and Relic has obviously worked hard to release a very polished product that’s immense fun and has a multiplayer side that is entertaining to play and varies enough from the main game to give great value. You can even invite a friend to join a co-op mission, if you have any on your Games for Windows Live account.

Bring on the achievements, alien scum.