# Dawn of War 2 Review



## Judas Masias (Jun 5, 2008)

This is from Warseer.com :goodpost:

Dawn of War II - Preview
spikedog 21/12/2008 - 20:31 
We were lucky enough to get an invite to a THQ community event to try out the new Dawn of War II so we sent spikedog to find out what we can expect.

I was recently lucky enough to attend a THQ community event showing off the upcoming Warhammer 40,000 video game, Dawn of War II at Gamerbase in the Trocadero. It was in this semi-futuristic gamer’s paradise that THQ were showing off the Space Marine single player campaign of the new installment in the Dawn of War franchise.

The campaign starts on Calderis, one of the recruitment worlds for the Blood Ravens Space Marine chapter. It starts with a cinematic of a Devastator Marine holding off a horde of Orks from atop a barricade. As the movie zooms, in the pre-rendered sequence changes to in-game graphics showing off the wonderful engine.

Just like the previous game this one spares no expense in the visuals department. The animations are superb, showing super detailed combats and fights between the various characters. There are semi-destructive environments, so when bolter fire rips through vegetation the plants shred and fall to the ground. Similarly, when a grenade or other heavy attack strikes cover or a building occupied by troops it explodes, no longer giving any protection.

Unfortunately the venue area I was playing in had very loud music playing in the background so I was unable to experience the full force of the obviously wonderful sound effects. However it was clear to me that great time had been spent making all the weapons and effects sound exactly like you have always imagined in your head when playing the tabletop game, much like with the previous titles.

There are also boss battles at various points where the user is asked to defeat a particularly difficult enemy. The first one I encountered was Skykilla, an Ork Stromboy Nob. The battle is a very tactical one where the user has to use cover and protect each of their squads if they are to have any hope of victory. The bosses are easily capable of destroying a squad single-handed if left alone.

After completing a mission you are treated to the squad customisation screen. Here you can select each of your squads and if you gained enough experience in battle to level up then you can distribute points to one of four categories.

Stamina, increasing the health of your squad and the rate at which they regenerate health in battle. 
Ranged, increasing the damage and accuracy of ranged weaponry. 
Strength, increasing damage dealt in close combat. 
Will, increasing the amount of special points a squad has and the rate they regenerate. 

Along each of these paths there are abilities or bonuses that can be unlocked by putting a certain amount of points in that category. These are things such as Furious Charge, increasing damage in combat or Suppressing Fire with a ranged squad. They also enable squads to use weapons that were previously unavailable to them.

As the player progresses through the campaign they gain new squads. When you have enough you may pick and choose which squads you want to use on a given mission. This means the player must try to pick the correct squads for what they expect to encounter in a mission.

Now I only had a chance to play for a couple of hours but I was able to come to what I consider the best part of this game, the Tyranids.
If you are trying to imagine how they act and play in game then think of the Zerg in Starcraft and you wouldn't be far wrong. (You can probably call that “Coming full circle”) Like an endless swarm they flow across the map running straight towards the weakest enemy. I only had a chance to encounter the smaller of the Tyranid creatures, the Gaunts, Rippers and Warriors but each acted in a suitable way to what I imaged they would. If you take out the synapse providing Warriors the smaller Gaunts become weaker and less organized.

The Tyranids are particularly dangerous in close combat and from what I found it was much better to engage them from a distance. The Rippers in particular were very annoying when up close and could take out entire squads if you are not careful.

When the campaign gets to certain points the user is able to choose the next mission from a number of different ones. Some are story centric ones that will progress the main narrative where as other ones have different effects such as halting the progress of an impending invasion. The user will need to choose each mission carefully to balance the story and bonus ones.

So in summary, the game is an excellent addition to the Dawn of War franchise and it is bringing a lot of new things for players to experience, the main one being the Tyranids and the greater focus on smaller, more tactical squads.. Having played the first one, and now had a taste of the sequel, I would certainly be interested in picking Dawn of War II up.

Pros:
Great Animation 
Beautiful Scenery 
Lock on points for cover 
Destructible environments make for great cinematic battles 
Lots of chapters and hive fleets etc pre-set colours to select in the painter 
Marines now have half and quarter paint options 

Cons:
Can't eject one unit at a time from a building, all or nothing and for a squad based game it seems like a strange choice 
What is with the fuzzy video when talking to people, is there only low res video in the future?


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## LJT_123 (Dec 26, 2007)

Sounds good, may buy this when its released. 

Dude same sig pic??


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## chrisman 007 (Jan 3, 2008)

Hang on, how come Warseer got sent to play DOW II before every single person in the world and Heresy didn't?


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Probably because Warseer been around a lot longer and, no disrespect to Heresy, is probably the most well known Warhammer site.


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## Digg40k (Sep 7, 2008)

Sounds awesome, definitely getting it.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Warseer didn't specifically, a member from Warseer got the invite - more likely someone who runs a game journalism site.

Relic themselves invited people to visit - there was a draw for senior beta testers to visit their Regional HQ's on the Relic Forums some time ago. I was entered, after the Work I've put into the DoW:40K C2C Mod (way too many abbreviations there, tbh), but didn't get picked.

However, the information has been around for at least a month now. Nothing new, and he seems to have done the least possible... It's not as though you get a Mod you can download at any time and test fully in depth, and do the first thing possible and tech to the Relic Unit and go sicko on your opponents, it's test, test, test... Find out what needs improving.

Shame... Shame... They had such potential, and wasted it.

He seems to have forgotten the point of Beta Testing. It's a Beta phase of the game. Hence, the name BETA. Numpty.

It's all here.


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## Ascendant (Dec 11, 2008)

Hmmm.I have to say, I'm skeptical. I really enjoy RTS games, and was quite pleased with the first DoW. I have to say, given the choice between a game similar to 40k tabletop or a game that is just good, I would pick the quality one. 
Still though, DoWII looks interesting.


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