Review: Dawn of War 2

Dawn of War 2, another sequel this week; however, this time it may have improved on the original.

I've spent a considerable amount of time with the campaign mode these past couple of weeks, and a tiny slice of time with the multiplayer and I must start out by saying they are two completely different beasts. That said, the most important change of the Dawn of War franchise is their decision to reduce the amount of building micromanagement, and instead employ tactical unit strategy as the primary mechanic.

As oddly worded as all that may be, it is true. You no longer are required to spend the first fifteen minutes of any new game frantically building structures so you may produce whatever unit you wish en'mass. You are introduced to this concept by the campaign mode, where you control up to four units to complete missions.

In this new style of RTS, the most important part of gameplay is how well you work with what unit resources you have. That means each squad you control, each solider at your command, can make a difference. In campaign mode, you have to know when to retreat and when to attack. You have to know what your units can handle without you watching them, and what they cannot. You have to command them like any commander responsible for their actions would need to do.

Probably for the first time ever in a RTS, it pays to be responsible for your units during combat. It pays to know when to press the attack, and when to retreat, and yes, retreating does indeed pay quite well. You don't click on some point on the map and tell your cannon fodder food to go annoy people, you pay attention to what is going on because if you don't, you are liable to have your units murdered.

There are two modes to the game, and other than the fact that Dawn of War 2 has changed the importance of paying attention to the accomplishments and progress of your units, there is very little about them that is similar. However, considering how important paying attention to your units is in this game, I'd say there is still a strong connection.

The first mode, Campaign, is a fresh take on a RTS presented storyline. You follow the Blood Ravens once again, this time you are a Force Commander here to help save the recruitment worlds from being destroyed by an alien invasion. While I found the story compelling in its own right, the introduction of character skill development by way of experience points and levels was exceptionally well done.

There are four paths with which you can take any of the six squads down as you go from level 1 to 20. Each path contains a number of special abilities that can be used in combat during the campaign itself. Putting points in any of the four: stamina, ranged, melee, and energy, help the unit by either providing them additional strength/aptitude in that category that ultimately makes them more efficient on the battle field.

Not only can you take these characters any direction you wish to, but DoW2 even gives you the option to equip them as you see fit. Wargear that drops within the missions, or are rewards in of themselves, make your units stronger, fitter, and even stronger than their level would make them. Basically, campaign mode is a RTS and an RPG rolled into one efficient, coherent whole.

However, there are still some failures within this system. Primarily, some abilities you buy early on in the skill trees become useless as you get Terminator armor. As such, it becomes arguable whether or not you actually want to use Terminator at all since many of the epic quality standard armors are similar in stats, abilities, and overall usefulness as the Terminator armor. Really all the Terminator armor offers that cannot be matched in anyway to the normal armor is the complete suppression and knock back resistance. Basically, two negative effects that can be completely avoided with good, competent leadership of your units.

However, other than some choices within the trees being less useful than others as the game progresses, the only other place that campaign mode falls short is the repetitious nature of the missions. Once you know the dozen or so maps you fight on, you do the same kind of job over and over. While you are still leveling your characters this isn't much of an issue, nor is it while you are still getting the best gear you want to have for your squads, but it does feel a bit like grinding mobs in any standard MMO, a certain downside for an RTS. However, I found it to be a rather minimal downside considering the best part of campaign mode: Co-op.

Co-op has you work through Microsoft Games Live, the PC variant of Xbox Live that is actually mostly rolled into one coherent force nowadays. Anyway, it allows you to play through the co-op with a friend, with each of you in control of 2 units. This means you can take much better care of your two units, and micromanage their actions to the fullest extent. Ultimately, this means that your band of units will be able to accomplish far more than they ever would normally be able to do if controlled by yourself.

On top of all that, there isn't much better than playing through story mode of any game co-op. It is simply just more fun to play with a buddy on any and all missions. Now, whoever hosts stores the saved campaign locally, so they are required to host for every game after to continue the missions, but it doesn't change how fun it is on the overall. You can even continue this co-op trend on into multiplayer.

Now, multiplayer is a different beast entirely, with the exception of the fact that units are still more important than building buildings. The best thing about it, hands down, is the continued focus on the unit command and strategy being vital to successful gameplay. It feels like unit strategy instead of just building strategy. Something I find personally refreshing since my previous RTS plan of attack is dig a hole and wait to strike until I can use the super weapon that will own the face of anyone and everyone.

Obviously, that strategy is rather slow for any kind of competitive play. With the new system you don't have much choice but to go out and wage war. There isn't really a way TO dig a hole and wait to attack. You gain by striking and taking what you can take and knowing what battles to pick, and what battles to avoid. It feels like actual strategy of forces instead of strategy of management. This is something I can embrace.

Now I just have to figure out how to break my mindset of of the dig a hole routine. Maybe I should start by throwing out the shovel.