Kill The Emperor!! Warhammer 40,000 Dawn Of War 2 Review.
We have here one of the latest Real Time Strategy games to hit the PC this year Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II this game completely takes over the first one by miles.
Developed by leading company Relic Entertainment and published by THQ they bring you one of the most toughest and outrageous wars in the Galaxy using the space marines most elite force to protect the galaxy from the dreaded Orks and to kill the fearsome Tyranids.
In campaign mode you can either play it solo or co-operative, once you started you get to play as a group of elite space marines in command is you the force commander in the first missions of the campaign you are in command of Tarkus and his tactical marine squad to help Captain Davian Thule to help eliminate the massive waves of Orks and to save the planet Calderis, while playing through the campaign other squads will join the battle and also when you are fighting in each mission you’ll notice that your units will level up from killing the enemy. One of the new features to this game is Drops or Wargear which will be from either completing a level, killing certain units or re-capturing defensive points each drop ranges from different items such as improved armour, weapons and even special items with these drops you can customise each of the squad teams by adding to them better armour, improved bolters or different guns like flamers or rocket launchers and you can even improve their attributes such as improving their range of fire or health, after improving a certain amount of attributes it will unlock special tributes for that squad to make them even stronger and unique, with this level of customization it adds a different feel to a normal RTS game.
The graphics in this game are just simply awe-inspiring for a RTS, it has great detail to scenery and units and with each unit having their own unique animation, scenery has great effects to it which makes it look stunning and with the weapons blazing and rockets flying all over the place seeing debris exploding, buildings collapsing and enemies flying off in different directions it makes your jaw drop. Now pick that jaw back up and keep reading, with the new cover system this brings advantages and disadvantages to the game, good for hiding for a while and bad if stay there to long as each building, wall or any other cover spot can easily be blown away from rockets or satchel charges changing how each battle is played and making the battles different every time.
Dawn of War II is one of a few PC games that brings the achievement system from the Xbox 360 bringing a total of 49 achievements (1000 points) for single player and multiplayer games to unlock.
Once finished or just want a break from the single player campaign why not try out the multiplayer in either a custom match and play against either the AI or just invite friends to play over LAN or the Games for Windows LIVE. But if you are up for more of a challenge and want to show you are the best in the 41st millennium world just click find a game option and it will automatically find a game to fight other players in ranked matches. Once a match has been found you get to choose out of four races to play as which is as you know Space Marines, Orks, Eldars and the Tyranids once you have selected your desired race then choose out of three different hero’s to command your army with each hero brings their own unique advantages to the game which helps in either offensive or defensive tactics.
There is only two ways of winning the game which is Victory Point Control and Annihilate, Victory Point Control is where the team captures certain points in the map and the ones with the most captured control points and by draining down the opposing team’s victory counter will win the game. With Annihilate it is how it sounds build up your army go over and kick your enemies arses wipe them off the map and win the game.
So all in all this has to be one of the best RTS games to date with out-standing graphics, sounds and an addictive campaign with a really good multiplayer.
This game is out now to own so go buy it from your local video game store or on the net.
Review By: Dean Pritchard
