Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2 - Tyranids, Battle Strategies, and Smack
DateTime:7/8/2009 5:21:12 PM

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War always intimidated me with the number of factions, units.

My hands-on with Dawn of War 2’s multiplayer made me change my mind. And not because the complexity’s been bitched or because there’s less of what made the first game and its three expansions awesome. Sure, there are fewer factions (the campaign is limited to just the Space Marines), and the base-building has been streamlined so you don’t really do any kind of bulking up via building. But these changes to the multiplayer campaign make DoW’s much-touched fast-and-furious combat faster and keep the furious part furious even when your leader dies and you have to wait for him to respawn.

Our first map was a swamp/forest level with command points scattered out all over the map. The two base clusters were relatively out in the open and we could see them and all the command points on the map (again, not sure if this is a feature or a bug). Our base cluster and their base cluster were no more protected than the command points – so you conceivably could tank in your base, march across the map, and blow up the other guys. But you’d have to have the cooperation of your teammates; not just to defend you while you tank but to go out and fetch more resources so you can level up your base to produce kickass units.Dawn of War 2 will launch with something like six maps. Before you start sputtering in rage that Relic would dare deprive you of 14 other maps you’ll never play – let me just say that the three that were available for the hands-on were pretty damn decent. The layouts were varied, the environments were distinct from one another, and really, how many maps do you need in a game that you just know will have expansions?