Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Hands-on
DateTime:7/8/2009 5:21:12 PM

One of the interesting questions in the real-time strategy genre is what is an RTS game? To some, RTS games must feature resource gathering and base building, in addition to the entire commanding units on the battlefield thing. To others, all a strategy game has to do is play out in real-time for it to be called an RTS game. Well, Relic looks to really shake things up with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, the sequel to the highly successful Dawn of War. That's because the single-player campaign in Dawn of War II goes in a completely different direction than its predecessor. Gone is resource gathering and base building of the first game (at least in single-player). In its place is a system where you nurture a small group of elite Space Marines through a desperate war for survival.

Well, the deal is the nature of the campaign. Rather than a linear set of missions, Relic has built a branching campaign with plenty of player choice. Not only that, but there's a persistence and depth to the campaign that doesn't appear in many RTS games. Toss in some light role-playing elements as you have the ability to level up squad leaders to improve their abilities, as well as outfit them with weapons and equipment that you recover from the battlefield, and you've got the recipe for a single-player campaign that has a good amount of replayability.