Spring Break
'Dawn of War 2' provides hours of strategic fun
John Bailey
Issue date: 2/25/09 Section: Focus
"Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2" is fun. Is it the real-time strategy game you want to play? That depends - do you play a lot of real-time strategy games? Do you like building 40 Death Carrierlisks and clicking "attack target?" Do you like arranging all your little turrets into an impenetrable defense grid that spells out "BUTT?"
If you like doing these things, you will probably not be interested in "Dawn of War 2." But if you like fun, instead - form one line, please, and no pushing.
"Dawn of War 2" takes place among the nightmare cities and planet-sized craters of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe. If you're not familiar with the towering library on the subject, know merely this: everyone in this game is evil as hell, and you can therefore feel good about killing them. The single-player campaign focuses on the Blood Ravens chapter of the Space Marines, the "Emperor's Finest," a force of super-human soldiers each able to outrun a cheetah, spit acid and bench a school bus. Unfortunately, in earlier Warhammer 40,000 games, Space Marines were suckers; they had maybe twice as much health as a regular schmuck, yet still died like fools if you got a few Orks in their face. And due to the meat-grinder nature of most real-time strategy games, you tended to go through about a million of them in the process of capturing a futuristic strip joint or whatever.
The campaign in "Dawn of War 2" fixes that perplexing problem: your Space Marines are tanks, and you only get a few of them. As a fresh-faced Force Commander, you order at most four squads of supermen through jungles, deserts and oily urban landscapes - all rendered beautifully, although they'll tax an older rig. Better yet, your men hang around after each mission, and they get bigger, they get better and they get more loot. Yes, loot can be acquired during missions, along with experience; Relic seems intent on delivering a title that's as much role-playing game as it is RTS. With a compelling - if somewhat simplistic - turn-based strategic component involving planetary targets with persistent benefits, sporadic alien invasions and a few tough choices for Mr. Commander-guy, Relic has created a powerful framework for an enthralling single-player experience. Especially notable are the "bonus deployments" - you're essentially rewarded for the amount of panache with which you complete each mission, giving veterans an extra incentive to flex their skills.
If you like doing these things, you will probably not be interested in "Dawn of War 2." But if you like fun, instead - form one line, please, and no pushing.
"Dawn of War 2" takes place among the nightmare cities and planet-sized craters of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe. If you're not familiar with the towering library on the subject, know merely this: everyone in this game is evil as hell, and you can therefore feel good about killing them. The single-player campaign focuses on the Blood Ravens chapter of the Space Marines, the "Emperor's Finest," a force of super-human soldiers each able to outrun a cheetah, spit acid and bench a school bus. Unfortunately, in earlier Warhammer 40,000 games, Space Marines were suckers; they had maybe twice as much health as a regular schmuck, yet still died like fools if you got a few Orks in their face. And due to the meat-grinder nature of most real-time strategy games, you tended to go through about a million of them in the process of capturing a futuristic strip joint or whatever.
The campaign in "Dawn of War 2" fixes that perplexing problem: your Space Marines are tanks, and you only get a few of them. As a fresh-faced Force Commander, you order at most four squads of supermen through jungles, deserts and oily urban landscapes - all rendered beautifully, although they'll tax an older rig. Better yet, your men hang around after each mission, and they get bigger, they get better and they get more loot. Yes, loot can be acquired during missions, along with experience; Relic seems intent on delivering a title that's as much role-playing game as it is RTS. With a compelling - if somewhat simplistic - turn-based strategic component involving planetary targets with persistent benefits, sporadic alien invasions and a few tough choices for Mr. Commander-guy, Relic has created a powerful framework for an enthralling single-player experience. Especially notable are the "bonus deployments" - you're essentially rewarded for the amount of panache with which you complete each mission, giving veterans an extra incentive to flex their skills.
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