Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

I’m going to try an unorthodox approach to reviewing this game; I’m going to start with my conclusion. It’s just a little better than ok. Alright, I’ll push it, it qualifies for being a good game Now to my introduction, and the bit where I put the unnecessary and slightly nostalgic details about its forerunner: Dawn of War 2 is the sequel to the first Dawn of War game and it’s many expansions; however it is in many ways completely unrecognisable from its predecessor. Dawn of War was a panoply of poor balance and unit/map design. Depending on the latest update, one random side would trump all the others (slight addendum, the Imperial Guard never trumped the others). Thanksbetothegodofgaming that for Dawn of War II (henceforth referred to as DOW 2) this is simply not the case. Instead it borrows heavily from Company of Heroes and is all the better for of it.

I’ll start my fairly in depth analysis with graphics and all its relevant areas. It is a graphically gritty game; bullets make you feel sympathetic when they hit; explosions look, well, explosive and there’s enough detail (especially when on high graphics and zoomed in) that you really get a feel for the game. Animations are good, units hide behind cover, and often look like they are cowering, and melees often end with blistering finishing moves which are both gory and dazzling to behold. The Army Painter is good fun, and really does add to the multiplayer element the vast variation means that the units never truly feel dull to look at. So graphically speaking, this game could only come out with a thumbs up.

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Sound, a (debatably) less important area is still up to scratch. The voices for the units add personality (or not if you’re playing as Tyrannids, who make hissing noises and the like), and when playing the Campaign the voice acting adds quite a nice element, effectively telling the story by your squad leaders by either bickering or discussing tactics between them.

Which leads me to the single player campaign of DOW 2. This can be neatly summed up in one word: amazingish. Now I realise that, by creating a new word I’ve probably offended the sensibilities of all the English students out there, but there wasn’t a word in place to deal with the campaign of DOW 2 effectively. It’s thoroughly good fun, well thought out, the ending is good, the RPG element of being able to equip your troops is absolutely fantastic and I sincerely hope it appears in other strategy games more often and yet… I will concede that so far I haven’t made a good case for my creation of a new word (or at least that’s what Microsoft Word is telling me, please do write in if you can prove its legitimacy), but to be blunt the campaign lacks soul.

I suppose at the end of the game, when all is said and done (which I will leave un-said here, to avoid spoiling the storyline) the developers were aiming for you to feel good about yourself and the achievement of completion. But it isn’t there. I’m not too sure if it is the length of the game (which even if you’re a tactical genius can still be verging on the too lengthy side) or the lack of any actual knowledge about the Commander who you are playing as. Who is unfortunately a Mr Generic ‘insert name here’ kind of person who manages to exude being an American without ever saying anything or doing anything remotely American, say buggering up the economies of the free world. So the campaign is strong, but it feels like an illusion all the way through, and it’s hard to feel too involved in what’s going on, which is a real shame because aside from this slight flaw the single player doesn’t really deserve the ‘ish’ I put on the back of amazing. It certainly is a major improvement on the DOW campaigns, but then again, that isn’t saying much, even the single player campaign of Highland Warriors (look it up, but seriously NEVER play it) is better. Oh, and you can play the campaign co-op style. Which is ok I suppose. Makes it even less involving story-wise but can be quite a rewarding experience when on the hardest difficulties.

Which moves the review rather neatly onto the multiplayer. Which is good. Ish. I realise that by this point you’ve probably got me pegged as being indecisive, which aside from this game isn’t true. As afore-mentioned the army painter is pretty nice, but it’s purely cosmetic. The major problem of the multiplayer (aside from the players you come across online, but that’s hardly Relic’s fault, they didn’t raise and then buy computers for the annoying 13 year olds who seem to win, no matter what) is the fragility of your units. In most situations, the first encounter you have with your opponent is the decider for the rest of the game. Sadly, this isn’t even a balance issue, and there is not a lot to be done about it. By emphasising the importance of keeping your squads alive, Relic has left itself no options as far as this situation is concerned. Which is incredibly annoying. Still, if you are cautious and careful enough you can avoid this major drawback. A minor flaw is the elimination game type, where whomsoever attacks the others base first generally loses the game.

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On the plus side, multiplayer has a persistent ranking system, which adds a nice sense of achievement, and I also believe it gives more textures for units, though what with studying and the like I haven’t been able to push in the necessary number of hours to tell you first hand. Instead you’ll just have to take it on trust that I think I read it or heard it somewhere. Plus, multiplayer (like the rest of the game) forces you to think very tactically, and makes you really keep track of your squads, which though at times difficult and stressful often rewards you with both victory and satisfaction. So on the whole, multiplayer is good. Another thumbs up.

Overall, a good buy, but don’t expect a sudden epiphany because of it. If you are ambivalent to strategy games this may just be enough to pique your interest, but I wouldn’t place a bet on it. If you were a follower of the previous games, or a fan of Warhammer 40,000 then it’s definitely a worthwhile purchase. It has quite good multiplayer, and its single player campaign is hard to pin down with a single word. Overall it is a sharp improvement on the last game, and yet it still feels a little un-polished, perhaps even abrasive.