But the true joy of the game is the real time combat, and it's better than ever. With your limited selection of small squads you'll face seemingly endless hordes of aliens, with a seemingly endless array of deadly weapons. Relic has taken a cue from MMOs, and gear - weapons, armour, equipment, now drops randomly from baddies, and you'll also get new stuff as a reward for completing each mission. Your squads level up, too, unlocking new abilities and skills depending on how you spend XP. What this leads to is a unique ability to customise your troops for the mission at hand and your grander play style. Want all your units to be close combat oriented? Can do. Prefer the ranged approach, even for your jump-pack assault specialists? Not a problem. And the gear drop-rate makes playing 'just one more game' an addiction of near Diablo-like intensity. Combined with a stronger AI and a better cover mechanic, each game is a superior tactical challenge.
And it all looks so good! Buildings crumble in clouds of dust, foliage withers under intense fire, craters glow in the aftershock of orbital bombardments (and oh boy are these epic), and dead bodies are pleasingly ragdolled all about the landscape. Will we ever get tired of watching our jump pack troops arc into the air on a pillar of fire, only to slam into the enemy and scatter both it the cover it was hiding behind? If we do, we'll know we've become tired of life itself.
Of course, for a lot of people multiplayer is the real reason to get the game, and those fans will be pleased to know that the small unit warfare of the single player campaign is not at all present in their field. Here the gameplay is more like the original, though again the choices of the player have a big impact on shaping their forces. From the get go, for instance, you must choose one of three army commanders, which in turn affect the way your army plays. For Marines, there's the choice of Force Commander, Apothecary (a medic analogue) or the highly technical Techmarine. Each brings unique abilities - the Apothecary, for instance, can heal your troops, while the expertise of the Techmarine makes for better use of vehicles and defensive turrets.
Sadly, given our pre-release access to the game to be able to write this review on time, we've not had a huge chance to play much multiplayer. Then again, we do suck at online RTSes, so perhaps that's for the best!
Dawn of War II is a remarkable game. It's a sequel that surpasses the original in almost every way, providing a deep gaming experience for fans of the Warhammer world and neophytes alike. Annoyingly - and this is one of the few major irritations we have the with game - there's already a large 'day zero' patch that you'll need to download, but we still feel that cannot detract from such a strong game.
Long live the Emperor of Mankind!
Issue: 133 | February, 2012