 | |||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Review February 24, 2009 Tom YodaBlues Colarusso |
|
 |
|
| |
Summary: With an emphasis on fast-paced action, Relic's latest RTS mixes RPG elements with the traditional strategy emphasis to deliver a pretty compelling package. Check out Tom's take in today's review!
 Dawn of War II Review | Page:: ( 1 / 6 ) |
[image]
| <% print_image("01"); %> | <% print_image("02"); %> | <% print_image("03"); %> |
Relic Entertainment has a long history when it comes to RTS games, stretching all the way back to the venerable classic Homeworld. Since then, Relic has gone on to develop some of the highest rated RTS’ series, from Company of Heroes to the original Dawn of War. Relic has just released their follow-up to Dawn of War, the aptly named Dawn of War II. Doing away with the traditional RTS trappings such as base building and resource management, Relic is using Dawn of War II to herald in a new direction for the RTS genre.
[image]
| <% print_image("04"); %> | <% print_image("05"); %> | <% print_image("06"); %> |
Back story
For those not in the know, Dawn of War II is based off of the table top game series Warhammer: 40,000 by Games Workshop. Set roughly 40,000 years in the dark future of man, Warhammer is a strategy game that lets players pit model armies of humans, of both the genetically enhanced and vanilla kind, against the never ending hordes of aliens, mutants, and heretics. Given its highly strategic nature and the massive amount of background material to work with, Warhammer: 40k is the perfect property to be given the RTS treatment.
In Dawn of War II, you play as one of the God Emperor of Mankind’s chosen warriors, the space marines, genetically enhanced humans charged with clearing the known universe of all adverse forms of life, such as alien creatures or dangerous mutants. You control an unnamed Force Commander for the Blood Raven Space Marine Chapter whose has been tasked with defending your home worlds from an assault by the alien Ork Horde. As the story progresses, certain turns of events eventually reveal that the attack is merely a front for a more insidious enemy waiting to strike into the heart of Terran space.
[image]
| <% print_image("07"); %> | <% print_image("08"); %> | <% print_image("09"); %> |
The story in Dawn of War II does a great job of grabbing the player and getting him to care about the unfolding story. It may not win any Pulitzer’s, but overall, we really enjoyed how the story played out and looked forward to further exposition through the campaign mode. Along your travels, you gain additional squad leaders, each with their own distinctive strengths and weakness’. Avitus is your typical tough and gruff heavy gunner, while Thaddeus plays the part of the impetuous assault marine, who is far too ready to go toe to toe with enemies.
[image]
| <% print_image("10"); %> | <% print_image("11"); %> | <% print_image("12"); %> |
| Gameplay | Page:: ( 2 / 6 ) |
[image]
| <% print_image("13"); %> | <% print_image("14"); %> | <% print_image("15"); %> |
Dawn of War II is a major change from other RTS’ in that instead of generating generic units to fight your battles, you are saddled with your 6 primary squads who gain experience and level up throughout the game. You are limited to taking 4 squads into any given battle, including your Force Commander. Because of this, the player must understand exactly the kind of enemy he is going to face. For instance, if you are encountering massive amounts of infantry, you’ll probably want Avitus’ heavy bolters to cut them in half before they reach you. Knowing what you are facing and what to deploy with becomes a strategic decision in and of itself, especially when you consider the types of gear you have equipped.
[image]
| <% print_image("16"); %> | <% print_image("17"); %> | <% print_image("18"); %> |
Dawn of War II features a similar level system as Dark Crusade, the second expansion pack for the original game. Whereas Dawn of War limited your commander to leveling and gear rewards, the sequel grants all your squads the ability to gain experience and increase 4 attributes: health, ranged damage, melee damage, and energy, the latter of which is required to execute special moves. Leveling each attribute will unlock certain traits or abilities, such as the taunt ability for Tarkus’ tactical squad. This opens up a lot of possibilities for customization of your army, whether you want to focus on ranged or close combat, or perhaps a mix of both. War gear further allows you to customize and maximize your firepower to suit your specific needs. When you combine the level system with the collectable war gear, you end up with a very deep RPG element that works extremely well to hook you into taking as many optional missions as possible to get that next level.
[image]
| <% print_image("19"); %> | <% print_image("20"); %> | <% print_image("21"); %> |
Campaign mode is played out over 3 planets, as you vie for control between the Orks, Eldar, and fearsome Tyranids whose only real goal is to consume everything in the universe. After completing the introductory levels, you can then choose any order to complete the missions available to you at that time. The only real limit you have is the number of times you can attack in one day, normally defaulted to a deployment. Upon completing a mission, you are rated on a scale of 1-5 in 3 different areas: speed, percentage of enemies killed, and number of your squads still conscious. Depending on your score, you can earn additional deployments during that day, which helps you beat optional assignments that are only valid for a brief amount of time. The player has a lot of control in how they play the game, which gives a welcome open-endedness and allows you to choose your next target. Since each mission awards you a specific piece of war gear, this gives you the choice to go after what you deem valuable.
[image]
| <% print_image("22"); %> | <% print_image("23"); %> | <% print_image("24"); %> |
| Multiplayer | Page:: ( 3 / 6 ) |
[image]
| <% print_image("25"); %> | <% print_image("26"); %> | <% print_image("27"); %> |
Dawn of War only features two multiplayer modes, Victory Point and Annihilation. In Victory Point games, the player must control specific control points to slowly take their enemies counter down to zero. Annihilation is more traditional, as you are tasked with simply destroying the opposing players units and base. Unfortunately, Relic only shipped Dawn of War II with 7 multiplayer maps, which isn’t much especially when you consider that 3 of these limit the number of players to two, while the other 4 are based around 6. Map design seems to be based more on the single player game than on what makes for a good multiplayer map, although they are still pretty good. We would’ve liked to see some more variety in the terrain types however, as right now you are limited to jungle, desert, and, industrial.
[image]
| <% print_image("28"); %> | <% print_image("29"); %> | <% print_image("30"); %> |
The other feature of multiplayer is the co-op functionality built into the campaign mode. Before starting or resuming a campaign, you can invite a friend to join you through Games for Windows Live. Your compatriot will control 2 squads while you remain in control of your Force Commander and 1 additional squad of your choosing. This leads us to another complaint in that you are unable to give your friend control of your Commander, forcing you to use him regardless of whether you want to or not. It would be nice to just control the ranged units such as your heavy weapons and tactical squad, without having to give hosting duties over to another person. Of course, that person would require your save game file for you to play it that way anyway, so it hardly matters who is hosting. Overall though, co-op makes playing the game more engrossing, as slaughtering Orks en masse is always more fun when you have your best buddy at your side.
[image]
| <% print_image("31"); %> | <% print_image("32"); %> | <% print_image("33"); %> |
One final note on multiplayer; yes, Dawn of War II uses Games for Windows Live 2.0 extensively. Relic even has the required amount of Live achievements you can earn for playing the game. Live 2.0 for the most part is integrated perfectly into Dawn of War II and seems to have worked out the bugs the previous version was known for. Voice chat worked great and was wonderfully clear during our game sessions. The only real issue we ran into is the habit of Live to disagree with network configurations that may be somewhat uncommon. For instance, I use a Linksys WRT54GL running DD-WRT in bridging mode to connect to my router, and every once awhile attempts to invite a friend would invoke a NAT translation error. It seemed to fix itself however, as repeated attempts to join would eventually end in success. Still, I haven’t seen any NAT issues when attempting to directly connect with other games, as uPNP opened the necessary ports as we requested it. All in all though, we are pretty pleased with how Live works now and it has come a long way from the mess it was when it was first released.
[image]
| <% print_image("34"); %> | <% print_image("35"); %> | <% print_image("36"); %> |
| Graphics and Audio | Page:: ( 4 / 6 ) |
[image]
| <% print_image("37"); %> | <% print_image("38"); %> | <% print_image("39"); %> |
Graphically, Dawn of War II is a beautiful game for the most part. Animations are fluid and eye catching, whether your soldiers are jumping into melee or unloading their weapons at range. Like the original, Dawn of War II melee is a bloody swirl of carnage and death, with body parts and limbs sent flying as the action progresses. Hero units commit fatality-like animations, such as when a Dreadnought picks an enemy up in his massive claw and breaks his back or when your Commander knocks someone to the ground and finishes him off with one shot from his bolt pistol.
Lighting effects in Dawn of War II are also worth mentioning, as the constant flash of bolter fire work wonders to show off the modified Essence Engine 2.0. Textures look great for the most part, although once you get up close, you start to see scaling issues from zooming in. Character models are detailed and impressive, especially the Tyranids. Relic decided to keep the Tyranids out of the original Dawn of War because they felt the engine could not do them justice and, after having seen them up close, we are inclined to agree with that sentiment. After seeing them in Dawn of War II, we cannot imagine how they would’ve looked running under the original Dawn of War engine, but they are now easily worth the wait. From the massive Carnifex to the limber Lictor, Tyranid character models are extensively detailed and should send chills of excitement down the spines of their fans.
[image]
| <% print_image("40"); %> | <% print_image("41"); %> | <% print_image("42"); %> |
Another great feature of the Dawn of War II engine is the destructible environments. Just about any object can be obliterated given the proper amount of applied pressure in the form of a charging Dreadnought. Assault Marines jumping on to enemies not only sends them flying, but their cover as well and Terminators pretty much make their own doors. This makes you consider your tactical maneuvers, when you realize that the cover you are currently crouching in can be blown away.
If you played the previous Dawn of War, then the audio will sound pretty familiar as a lot of the sound and voice effects for the characters makes a return. The Eldar and Space Marines still speak as if their voice is going through a vocoder and explosions rock the battlefield with conviction. Unfortunately, we were unable to get Dawn of War II to natively support 5.1 surround and instead had to rely on Dolby Pro Logic II, which up mixes the audio to surround. RTS’s aren’t as dependant on positional audio as shooters however, so we hardly noticed the problem.
[image]
| <% print_image("43"); %> | <% print_image("44"); %> | <% print_image("45"); %> |
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 5 / 6 ) |
Pros
RTS/RPG: Dawn of War II takes elements of RPG’s and combines them with a RTS to enhance your overall game experience. Upgrading stats grants you abilities and benefits that easily come in handy during later levels. This makes it actually quite difficult to decide how you want to play your character, whether you are focusing on close or ranged combat. Leveling up your characters and equipping the newest war gear is more fun than Christmas morning, unless of course your holidays were filled with blood soaked battles and needless violence. While it may feel that’s how the holidays are for some of us, just keep reminding yourself it could be worse….somehow.
Open Ended Campaign: Once you’ve completed the tutorial levels, you are essentially unleashed on the 3 main planets and allowed to determine how your game will turn out. Optional missions that expire after a set period add a real sense of tension as you determine what the most important target is at that particular moment. Or, you can ignore the side-quests and just finish the game as quick as possible. The choice really is up to you and how you want to play.
Co-op: Co-op campaign RTS is not something we ever really thought we would have to say, but here it is and it works really well. Playing with a friend is always a great way to share a gaming experience and Dawn of War II’s co-op mode works effectively to that end.
Graphics: Dawn of War II looks great in action and the new finishing moves performed by commanding units are a welcome addition. Lighting effects look fantastic and textures are sharp at the default view height. The destructible environments not only look great, but they perform a necessary function as well, allowing you to literally blow a cover bonus away from your enemy.
Cons
Limited Multiplayer: The original Dawn of War shipped with quite a few maps, each with options for multiple players and set in differing terrains. Dawn of War II limits itself to 7 maps and 3 generic backdrops, with only the city-based maps standing out amongst the crowd. We’re hoping Relic releases some additional maps or an SDK to allow users to create some new environments, or else we can see multiplayer battles getting a bit stale.
No Key Binding: The title says it all, you can’t change any key bindings. While the default layout is ok, we can easily see this being an issue for control freaks…like me.
| Verdict | Page:: ( 6 / 6 ) |