Dawn of War 2

David Hollingworth recently spent some time at Relic Studios in Vancouver, catching up with DoW2 and the dark future of humanity in the Warhammer 40k universe.

Dawn of War was a revelation for both RTS gamers and fans of the Warhammer 40,000 universe alike. For the former, DoW provided a refreshing take on every aspect of the RTS genre, from base-building to resource management and gathering. For the latter, it was finally a 40k game that fans could be proud of, that really articulated the violent darkness of the most popular tabletop wargame on the planet.

The 40k setting was nothing new to PC gamers at this stage, but to say the franchise lacked any real pedigree is a bit of an understatement. From Chaos Gate and Final Liberation up to the tragic FPS Fire Warrior, 40k games simply lacked that vital spark that separated adequate games from even just plain good ones. Dawn of War finally showed what the setting could offer, and now, Relic Studios is four months into building the sequel.

“Dawn of War revolved around three concepts – brutal hand to hand combat, over the top units, and action. With Dawn of War 2, we’re dialling all those up to 11,” says Jonny Ebbert, lead designer on the title. “The original also had all this base-building, but who wants to do that? We’re planning on making the new game much more like the tabletop version, where you can just get into the action right away.”

He’s not kidding, either. Every aspect of the game, from the graphics to the power level of your units, has been ramped up to epic levels. In the gameplay demo we saw, once the action starts it’s pretty much non-stop, and it starts the minute your marines set foot on a planet. No bases to build, no weak starting units to make those initial missions boring.

The game is in early days just yet, and we won’t be seeing it shipping this year, but the basics of the game are already solid. Whereas the first game’s single player campaign was quite linear, with little carry-over of units from battle to battle, DoW2 features a rich and multi-layered campaign. An entire Sector of the Imperium is under threat, and it’s up to your small detachment of Space Marines – the genetic super warriors of the 40k universe – to save it, and perhaps all of humanity.