Warhammer 40000: Dawn Of War II

After watching the trailer, I thought it would be the next one after soulstorm, with the added tyranid race. Thats how the trailer makes it appear. I WAS WRONG! Turns out that you have to play through a campaign as the space marines (which I don't like anyway) and take out the other races. I got 4 missions in to it and returned it. It is boring, and the first couple of missions require you to rescue allies, and complete boss battles. Also, it turns out that you need a good graphics card, otherwise play becomes stuttered. If it had continued in the same style as games such as dark crusade and soulstorm, I would be raving about it. Unfortunately, its terrible. Would not recommend to anyone.

i just got chaos rising and even though it said on the packaging that you dont need the original dow2 to play it. basically you do if you want to play with eldar, space marines, orks and tyranids. so im glad that play have reduced this game because now i can play with all the races online. This is very much a high-end online game so be careful when buying, check to make sure your computor is way above minimum specification.
:)

I can't comment on the game as it will not run on my 5 yr old graphics card that costed +200 pounds back then. Installing the game requires complete download of the game again eventhough you already have the CD ! This may take some time depending on your speed.

Since I got hold of this game I have been hooked!

Btw make sure if you are running on xp makes sure you have sp3 installed. I had problems in the past on sp2 on this game a certain dual core processor driver was implemented in sp3 that solved a huge lag issue when used to put my dual core to 100% and lag the game. Recommend download the 360mb sp3 from Microsoft site instead of nasty auto updates that has mucked up plenty of PCs I know.

Game play is awesome! Level your troops get new weapons. Level up your troops through combat and end of mission reward. Unlock new missions once you conquered a map supremely.
Game play real addictive because its a strategy game that actually evolves the more you play! Missed it at 4.99 really wish I could get it at that price now being the new version is out in march.....

i bought this game for 12.99 when it was that price i have been so glued to this game i haven't realy had time to reveiw it but, now i have a chance i'm gonna say it is a brilliant game and you can customise units to have more ranged power melee health or combat dissaplin after each level up which if you sell unused equipment happens really fast. the defence missions really keep you checking before the next mission, which i found to be a little anoying because me and my co-op freind kept doing only defence and it got very repetative and the online is a bit dodgey maybe because i dont get it but all of that is petty compared to how great the campain is 4 stars because of those faults and can't wait for the expansion.

At the current advertised price of 4.99 you cannot go wrong with this. Graphically it is very lovely indeed, sound / speech etc all excellent. If you are into 40K you really cant go wrong with this. It is however very very different to DOW1 and all its expansions - there is no - repeat... NO - base building at all. You are given a set number of squads to start with and earn other new squads as you go. The game is very much about micro-managing your squads and their wargear to each mission, so if you like having a lot of different items to customise your characters, you`ll love this. The single player campaign is of a reasonable length - you dont have to complete all the side missions if you dont want to, but you will get extra goodies for doing so... and of course the games main commodity : experience points which can be used to give your squads new abilities and powers. The beauty of the game is this : the tiny tailoring of your squads to make them operate on the field exactly how you want them to. You will get quite attached to one or more of your squads... well I did anyway! I quite liked the fact that it wasnt all about base building and making a massive base surrounded by turrets - dont get me wrong, I like DOW1 a lot but this provided a refreshing change to the genre, it felt like my troops were always on the move and not confined to their base. Terrain plays a VERY important part in this game - get stuck in the open and your guys will get ripped to bits. Take cover at every opportunity, as you would in Company Of Heroes.

Only a couple of neg points for this : it's tied in with GFW Live which isnt the greatest way to run online games, and when your troops "die" on the field you can pretty much heal them straight away.... maybe im being evil but if they die they should stay dead, or at least only be allowed to be revived once or twice by a "medic" character (not that there is one, but they could add one?). There are also too many points on all the maps where you can pick up special weapons such as grenades and Cyclone ammo which make the game a lot easier. You can also pick up the stim kits to revive your characters pretty much all over the maps as discussed above.

All in all this though, these are pretty minor issues but they are why I wont give this 5 stars. 4.99 is a blinding deal for this game - do it... what a great stocking filler for a strategy game fan!

PS - and yes, you do get "that" armour that all Space Marine players love to equip later on!

I only payed 5pound for this game as it was reduced! better than 25pound
Its great, i aint played it yet but it came alot later than expected due to christmas rush. (2 - 3 days longer)

still, great price from play.com yet again!

This is a great RTS, so much so i rated above world in conflict or any other RTS. I'm not a warhammer fan and no warhammer knowledge is needed to play. The single player is quite RPG like, the multiplayer is where this game excells hugely. No base building, an you capture points for resources.
each unit is upgradable, from a choice of upgrades making the units vary. Especially with heroes. this gives it a flexible feel, unlike other RTS where units of the same type are identical.
For a fiver, this is UNMISSABLE.

I recently obtained both DoW and DoW 2, but since this is a review to DoW 2 I'll stick to that.

I really loved the single player campaign, I suppose mostly since I'm an action/rpg type of fan, hence the leveling up of your squads and gearing up combined with a (for me) interesting scenario make it a best buy just for that. Using only a limited number of squads during the campaign makes it more tactical than strategical and gives a nice flow to the gameplay.

As far as the skirmishes are concerned, the game doesn't require you to build up a base, but instead build units and throw yourself in the middle of the battlefield right away, keeping your focus on the combat/tactical side of the game, instead of the resource/base management other RTS games offer. This very much gives an action feeling to the game. Makes sense for hardcore RTS fans to dislike the lack of base building/management options. So in a way I'd say it's either how future RTS games will be, focusing on the battling side becoming more of action-RTS', or getting a more casual feeling to them with the lack of base management.

The presence of steam, although a bit confusing at first for the newcomer as myself, gives a nice flow of news as you use it and easy game management/updating.

A big spike, however, being the usage of Games for Windows LIVE, which is why I'm only rating 3/5 since my country isn't supported and therefore I cannot enjoy the full potential of DoW 2 via the net... Hopefully support for all countries will be added soon, since a strategy without it's multiplayer futures is half a game...

I recently bought a new PC strong enough to run DoW 2 at full spec - this game delivers on all levels. The campaign has been redesigned and has become more focused on the player; you create a fledgeling Space Marine Force Commander, newly promoted and tasked with defending the Emperor's people from the marauding aliens of the 41st Millenium.

You are in command of your Force Commander (you) and 3 unique Space Marine squads at any one time, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and abilities. The Devastator squad, for example, are heavy weapons specialists and can be equipped with anit-armour equipment to make short work of any large targets, while the Assault squad come equipped with jump-packs and chainswords allowing them to leap over terrain and get into close combat as fast as possible to rend and tear your enemies into pieces. Should your squads suffer casualties or losses at any time, you can fall back to a relay beacon, which is player captured (similar to a resource point in DoW) and queues up reinforcements to replenish your units.

The main aspect that sets DoW 2 apart from it's predecessors is the Wargear and upgrade system. During your campaign, you'll find different pieces of equipment of varying rarity; green is uncommon, and blue is an item of considerable power that you'll want to equip right away to strengthen your team of marines. The levelling system is where the upgrade mechanic comes into play. As your squads level up, they'll gain 2 points per level which can be inputted to 1 of 4 combat trees, each defining the key strengths and weaknesses of the unit, or maybe rounding their abilities off so the squad becomes more versatile.

The multiplayer in DoW 2 is very enjoyable. I'm not really a PC veteran so to speak, but I've always enjoyed RTS games. DoW 2 has a fairly balanced matchmaking system which utilises TrueSkill to determine what caliber of ability your opponent will display.

I highly recommend Dawn of War 2 to any fans of the first game - it's a great sequel with room for expansions and further campaign extensions.