Warhammer Dawn of War II - PC

Over the years I have tried the major RTS's that have come down the line, and not once has one held my attention for longer than a few hours. This game is the only one that not only held my attention from the demo, but I eagerly bought it and have been playing ever since. Yes, it is different than most because there is no base building, no teching up your army every battle, and no keeping track of 5 different battles spread across the map. I guess that's why I like it.It's just up to 4 squads under your command, so it's all about the strategy of using these squads and then leveling them up for new abilities, getting war loot to beef them up, and devising your overall strategies. If you are a typical RTS fan, you may be disappointed (as you can see from a lot of the reviews here) because of these differences. But if you like the idea of an RTS but never found any that were fun because juggling building, teching up, and multiple battles all at once sounds more like work than fun, then this might be the game for you too.Pros:- small amount of units under your control, making it all about strategy and not about who builds more/faster- excellent graphics, sounds and voice, and really compelling atmosphere (I wasn't even a warhammer fan before this game)- fun squad persistence and powerups- great mulitplayerCons:- no base building (if you are into that sort of thing)- yes it requires Steam and Windows Live (DON'T buy a used copy for this reason, if someone played it, then it is tied to their Steam Account)- The campaign is only the Blood Ravens, no other races can be played in the single player. (the campaign was tons of fun though)

When I first played Dawn Of War 1, I was very impressed. that game is what got me hooked to the Warhammer 40K universe and made me want to know more. so when I learned it had a sequel game, I of course wanted to get it and see what improvements have been made... well... lets just say it met SOME of my expectations.The things I loved was that the graphics were much more detailed now for when you zoom in to get a better look at the characters. I also loved the improved sound effects, and how most of the environment was destructible. you could order your troops to go inside buildings and take up sniping positions, or call down a Orbital Strike and level a whole neighborhood and wipe out dozens of enemy troops in the process. I was loving it because it made it feel more realistic with how the weapons you use can do as much damage to the surrounding area as much as to your enemy.What I didn't really like was that not the gameplay seems to be a step down. in the first game you had a gigantic map and you could have up to 8 players at once. when you played with bots, you could choose where they started out. have them on the opposite side of the map as you, or have them as your neighbor, forcing you to build up your military strength as fast as possible since your enemy's base is only 20ft away from yours. you could chose how many factions you had fighting all at once. when fighting the Forces Of Chaos, the Orks/Elder would suddenly storm in and attack both you and Chaos as the same time. leading to a huge blood bath. but in Dawn Of War 2, you can have 6 players at once but only 2 sides instead of 4. meaning when you choose a 3rd species, they can only be on your side or the enemy's, they cant be a 3rd or 4th faction that'll both help you can fight against you at the same time. but then again, it depends on which mode your playing. the maps are a lot smaller now, and you cant deploy as many troops onto the battlefield as you used to. you can only have a little over a dozen troops now instead of almost a hundred per player. this is what I meant by saying the gameplay is a little bit of a step down. I loved the gigantic battles and having legions of my troops swarming over the battlefield like a flood. it felt like you've created an unstoppable army that could conquer any enemy.I'm not saying this is a terrible game, but not as fun as the first one. but then again, this is just the first game and it's possible the DLCs offer a little more.

I'm not a gigantic computer game player, but I have played, and enjoyed the other Dawn of War Games (with the exceptions of Winter Assault and Soulstorm; Winter Assault I was warned away from, and Soulstorm was just dull when it wasn't filled with bugs). DOWII is very much a different kind of game, which you must be aware of going into it. Not bad, I hasten to say, just different.The first DOW game and its following expansions were straight-up RTS style with base-building and the intent to usually be to build up a large enough army to go out and stomp over your opponent's army and defenses. DOWII on the other hand mixes things up, in a way that I found incredibly enjoyable. Eliminating the base-building element, (Which I add that I DO enjoy, however:) it switches it out for a more in-depth micro-managing approach somewhat akin to RPG's. In general skirmish play, or multiplayer combat, you are given a single unit-building structure. Like in DOW your you must go out and capture resource points. However, you are allowed a much smaller force of units, and each of these units can usually be upgraded in different ways, or use an arsenal of abilities and weapons to different advantages and tactics. Most prevalent of all, I feel, is the focus on the terrain itself, where buildings can provide shelter, heavy cover can make you nigh-invincible to enemy attacks, or high walls can actually obscure you from an enemy's sight. To combat an entrenched enemy you must look to weapons that deal with cover, or seek out your units that can actually smash through and destroy the terrain.I'm not a big fan of multiplayer, but I can tell, just from the skirmishes against the computer, that it would be loads of fun, making you more attached to and careful with your units, rather than feeling like you can just send waves upon waves of them against the other player, like in the original DOW. I do however have two points to quibble with about skirmish battles: First, DOWII offers you only four species. After playing the original DOW you might feel spoiled by being able to play as the Space Marines, Eldar, Necrons, Tau, Imperial Guard, Chaos, Sisters of Battle, Dark Eldar and Orks (9 races), while DOWII offers only Space Marines, Eldar, Orks, and the long-awaited Tyranids. This is a small quibble however, as most of the other races in DOW were released expansion by expansion, and my hope is that Relic will, in following expansions, bulster the number of races playable. My second point of contention is the maps: There just aren't enough of them. The maps are all amazing to look at, well done and have their different feels. However, I think there just might not be enough of them to choose from, and you'll find yourself fighting in the same maps again and again.The second half of my review deals with the Campaign, where you play as the Blood Angel Space Marines.The campaign starts very strong, carries on well, starts to muddle about in the middle, and then ends perhaps a little anticlimactically, though this problem might be solved on higher difficulty levels.Through the campaign, you are given control of different squads of Blood Angels: The Blood Angel Commander Unit, A Heavy Weapons Unit, A Scout Squad, A general Space Marine Squad, An Assault Squad and, later on, a Dreadnought. Each of the units have different advantages and abilities, and during most of the campaigns you're only permitted to use four of them. Many times you'll find yourself agonizing over which ones you want to take, which will ultimately be decided by what enemy you're going to be going up against each mission and what your strategy for dealing with that particular mission will be.As the game goes on, your units will gain experience and increase in levels, allowing you to equip them with armour, various weapons (Also each with their own separate strategic applications) and various other items, such as genades, holy seals to boost their stats, or machine gun turrets that can be constructed in-game.The story is enjoyable, and keeps you interested as you go up against Orks, Eldar and Tyranids in a battle that will keep you hopping between one of three planets. Most of your missions will end in a battle against a 'boss', who you will have to pull out every trick to take down. (Particularly memorable to me are battles against the Eldar Farseer and a souped-up Rokkit Boy). On 'easy' difficulty, these boss fights might seem a tad dull, but on the higher difficulties you're going to be glad for every resource and weapon you can muster.Where the campaign lags I feel is in the middle, near-ish to the end, where you might have to wade through a glut of endless defend missions, which don't advance the plot of the game in any way, but are really there to allow you to level up your units for the final missions and get more items. The defend missions are fine in small amounts, but when you find yourself doing them over and over, they WILL become a little tiresome.Overall, I found the campaign to be highly enjoyable once, but with not a terrible amount of re-play; jumping up a difficulty forces you to be much more cautious and adopt new strategies, but you see patterns arising in the item drops and the way you proceed through each mission. It's hard to beat the replay value of Dark Crusade, a fantastic campaign I felt and the pinnacle of the DOW games, and DOWII fails to beat it. However, It might be too much to expect it to, so I recommend it all the same, as I definitely had a ton of fun with it at least once.My overall review of the whole game: Stupendous Graphics, Lots of Fun, but if you're not into the multiplayer scene, it will need some shelf time after it's initial play before you get back around to wanting to run through it all again.

Fantastic game! One of the few innovative gems in the RTS genre. With Dawn of War and CoH, THQ and Relic have really made a dent in the traditional RTS style of gameplay, and have blended it perfectly with Action RPG elements. Moreover, I got this game at an obscenely low price, so I've no reasons to complain!

The game was actually purchased for my son. According to him the game is awesome!! The graphics are great and he totally enjoys playing it! He would recommend this game!

Bought it. Cant use it because the product code has already been used by the prior owner.

very good buy

Was surprised to get both the expansion set too.. Thanks