The original Dawn of War was such a huge revolution to me in terms of just how RTS’s could work. Introducing elements of cover and a more unique method of getting resources, it allowed many a person to get into the Warhammer 40K universe, and enjoy just how crazy it was. That being said, it took a long time to get a sequel, but when Dawn of War II rolled around, the wait proved to be worth it.
For starters, Dawn of War II differs mainly due to its complete and utter lack of base building or resource management. The game is strictly focused on unit management, and this is more evident in the single player campaign than anything else. Here, the game has more of an RPG element, which involves you leveling up your characters, finding randomly dropped items and much more. It’s much less of a standard RTS in this regard, but the strategy element is still something that’s deeply rooted within the game, forcing you to think how to best maximize what little you have. Also helps that many of the additions and improvements present in Relic’s other RTS, the excellent Company of Heroes, are present here.
The single player campaign has also seen some major changes. Instead of being a series of missions (like in the original game) or a Risk-style game (present in the Dark Crusade expansion), the campaign has opened up and become far less linear. Here, you choose you all the missions you undertake, travelling between three planets in order to accomplish them. These could be as complex as completing one of the many story missions, or just a simple defense missions against wave after wave of enemy.
The only thing that does really quite suck is the limited number of races. It goes back to the original four, with the Chaos marines replaced by fan favourite Tyranids; with the Imperial Guard, T’au, Necrons, Chaos and more left open for possible expansions. It’s unfortunate, but when you figure just how different the game is compared to the original DOW, it would take some time to rebalance the races to work with the new engine.
Besides that, Dawn of War 2 is great. The lack of resource management and base building is a refreshing change, and the focus on infantry management and near RPG-like level of gameplay is excellent. A must buy for anyone wanting to play a different RTS.
