Dawn of War 2 (PC) Review
Ah, the Blood Ravens… they’ve been gone a long long time. It almost seemed like Relic had forgotten about the chapter they revealed to us when Dawn of War launched in 2004. It’s time to change that. The Blood Ravens stand once more!
In Dawn of War 2, you are a Commander in the Blood Ravens who has been sent to assist and take command of the efforts to push back an Ork war-band that is running rampant around your home sub-quadrant. Starting with trying to figure out who is enraging these orks on a mass scale, the story quickly becomes far more complicated, introducing players hinted at during the opening video.
This game is NOT a standard RTS, and this becomes appearant very early on. You will never build a structure, and you will never be given the option to amass a huge army to do your Imperial bidding. Instead, you will have 5 squads (and yourself) to equip as you feel best for the mission at hand.
You will then pick up to 3 squads to join you in the action below for what has been described (quite accurately) as a Diablo-esque RTS: You are controlling a small team of 4 squads. Each squad contains a leader who will level up with time on the ground and can perform special moves, sometimes leading the squad into the attack. If your leader dies, you can send another squad to to revive him and continue the fight… the others in the squad are not so lucky.
Not that you will lose them for keeps, however. If you can get a squad with missing members to a structure you have taken, you can bring a new recruit down to take his place, refilling your ranks for the next attempt at whatever killed the last one… be it beacons JUST for this, or more special structures that will also give you more advantages in later battles for taking them now. (For example, some buildings have a direct relation to how many times you can use certain special abilities in combat.)
You will have to select each mission before you play, which due to the day-based mechanic, will play a large roll in how the game will progress. Everyday you are given a single deployment (although you can earn additional deployments for playing very well), and when you are done your “turn” the day will progress, along with events around the sub-quadrant and how long you have left until optional missions will disappear.
Your missions themselves will generally fall into 3 catagories:
- Defending a structure you have previously took during another mission.
- Attacking a special enemy and everyone else in the way.
- Securing specific structures from the enemy.
Of course story missions do not stay so simple, often blending these objectives inways you will not see until you are in the think of it, keeping you on your toes.
Graphically, I can’t say anything bad about this game. RTS games are not known for highly detailed sprites or background. Instead, it’s more common to use the power of the machine to show more on the field, letting the fights be as impressive in scale as possible. Not so in this game. The battlefields are absolutley gorgeous, from the lushious jungles, to the run-down hive worlds, to the alien infested lands of both. Further more, the land does change according to what is going on, so be ready to be amazed. The sprites themselves look great from any distance too, revealing some really high detail work.
However, this does come at a price. It was never bad enough to hurt gameplay, but when the action got it’s most intense, there was some stuttering, and this was especially true for tyrandis, who almost never show up outside of a literal swarm.
This game also has a lot to boast in the audio department… the voice acting is absolutely amazing, and delivers the personalities of each of your 6 leader characters perfectly, not to mention the random chatter of the enemies: absolutely full of character. The sound effects are not bad either, as swords swinging, explosions, and all the colorful weapons of the Warhammer 40K universe deliver what sounds about right for each.
Music, however, is one place the game does not seem to offer much variety on. There is a theme song to your mission/squad select/equip screens. I didn’t really notice any music that stood out in the game itself, but this could well have been either drowned out by the gunfire or so ambient I honestly didn’t notice it. Either way, Im not so sure it was a bad choice… it’s really easy to get into the battle before you this way.
Overall, this game is something completely new for the RTS genre, something new and something really really good. Most genres of games seem to become more complacent as of late, and seeing how especially true this is for RTS titles, it’s more then a breath of fresh air to see something like this fly so well. If you are a fan of RTS games, PC gaming, or Diablo-style games, pick this one up. It will be a fun change of pace. If all of the above are your thing, why haven’t you bought it yet? You are doing yourself a disservice to not have it now.
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