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FASHIONABLY LATE REVIEW
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

It is the distant future. Several worlds in the Aurelia sub-sector have come under attack from the Orks. These brazen incursions are worrisome; the filthy Greenskins have chosen their battles in the home territory of one of the most ferocious chapters known in the Imperium of Man: The Blood Ravens. However, all is not what it seems, as simple attacks seem to herald the coming of something far more sinister.

In real life, I’m what you would call an optimistic realist. I realize that the future is probably not quite as dark and dingy as a lot of sci-fi depicts. However, for some strange reason, the Warhammer 40,000 universe appeals to me. This dingy, mega-industrial view of mankind seems fitting somehow, even though we are living in the “green years” now.

The Space Marines are not the nicest guys. Bred for war, these genetically enhanced super-soldiers wear heavy armour and wield massive weapons in their fight to keep chaos at bay. And yet, there is something about their loyalty to their emperor and their brotherly bond with each other that seems to shine a light of hope in this dark version of the future.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IIdrops you right into the fray as a Force Commander, the elite of the elite. Your job is to clean house. A veritable army of one, the Force Commander is a force to be reckoned with. However, given what you’ll be facing, you will require support. You will eventually be able to have up to five additional squads at your disposal, each with a squad leader (one of the squads is just one guy, but I’m not going to spoil the surprise and tell you any more about it). However, for any particular mission, you will only be able to deploy four of them.

The game plays like the other DOW titles, with a Risk-type map interface spread across various planets. Your squads are deployed according to missions that appear in particular territories. Some missions will have you achieving a goal to forward the plot, while others may you defending special buildings. The missions range from easy to just plain insane (I found that a small number of side missions were actually harder than the final mission itself).

DOWII’s single player campaign is compelling because it is an RTS/RPG hybrid that doesn’t follow the typical RTS resource gathering MO. When you are deployed, you have no “worker” units as in previous iterations of the series. You don’t construct vehicles, nor do you construct buildings. Instead you soldier through the levels securing relay beacons that enable your space-bound fleet to teleport you replacement members for your squads. The squad leaders don’t ever really die, either. They just fall into unconsciousness and can be revived by another conscious squad leader. This makes it sound easy, but don’t get your hopes up. Employing strategy is the only way to get your whole team through the game alive. Grouping them together only serves to have them all taken out at once, rendering all of your squad leaders unconscious and shattering your hopes for recovery.

In some missions you will get drop pods with deployments, like mines or sentry cannons to hold locations or supplement your firepower. Some of the items available for your squad leaders will also be able to call down heavy artillery strikes or reinforcements in the form of sentry guns and soldiers.

The great thing about the drop pods is that they effectively demonstrate the physics engine of the game. Not only is there an excellent cover system in the game (it’s a beautiful thing to be able to hide behind a thick stone wall lobbing grenades at your clueless enemies), you can use some of these reinforcement drop pods to crush your enemies. Nothing beats being cornered by a group of ravenous Tyranids, only to have them squashed and scattered by a heavy drop pod full of reinforcements. Simply awesome.

Continuing in the tradition of DOW, the story is exceptionally written. The voice acting is also very well done, which creates a level of investment in the game that one might not otherwise have. Frankly, some of the best moments are during battles when the team leaders talk to each other. Chaos is ensuing all around and yet the space marines can talk about mortality and their place in the empire. I felt like cheering a few times. The banter continues in the mission debriefings and at other times, drawing the player further into the story. Kudos to Relic for putting together this cast of actors.

The multiplayer mode is very similar to the beta, so I won’t really go on about it. Suffice it to say, though, that you will be playing this game for a very long time. Each race has its own unique advantages and disadvantages (I wonder, sometimes, how balanced this game really is, though - which suits me fine. Real life is not balanced, is it?)

Graphically, the game is a dream. The soundscape is equally awesome, especially if you have a good speaker set-up. Both work with the physics engine to make the game area seem much more realistic, and it’s a treat for the senses.

I attained my copy of DOWII through Steam, and it plays just fine. The only exception came in the form of some hiccups that came with a Microsoft Games for Windows update (which was then fixed with a recent patch). If you haven’t figured out that I’m recommending this game, do yourself a favour and close your eyes. I’ve homed a drop pod to your location.

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