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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

Relic has always been "the RTS developer" - they started out with Homeworld back in 1999 and since then they are mostly known for Company of Heroes, the first Dawn of War and their numerous expansion packs. It is no surprise that Relic continues to refine the RTS gameplay with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and this time the whole concept of real time strategy gets twisted with new, RPG-style additions - Command & Conquer clone it ain't.

Dawn of War II is set in the Warhammer 40k universe of the far future and the campaign pits you as Space Marines against the armies of Orks, Eldar and Tyranids. The story is told very well with short video clips and in-engine cut scenes and the campaign is partially non-linear and moves between a handful of different planets, providing a variety of environments for battles.

Unfortunately the story itself is... complicated. It tries very hard to explain why you end up fighting all these different enemies in one campaign. Initially you are mopping up Orks which seem to be attacking vital targets in a way that points towards a larger plan - but Orks are too stupid for that, so there must be someone manipulating them. Enter the Eldar, who are apparently planning to abuse Orks as cannon fodder against an imminent Tyranid invasion. Except that Orks can't possibly win against Tyranids, so it must be just a delaying tactic for... something.

It's all quite convoluted and as you usually get to choose your next battle, the plausibility of the storyline is stretched even further when you jump to do side jobs while the fate of the universe hangs in the balance somewhere else. Thankfully the action itself is not really hampered by the storyline drama and in a way a convoluted and implausible epic storyline is what should be expected from a game set in the WH40k universe.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: Gameplay, CampaignPage 3: Gameplay, MultiplayerPage 4: Visuals and PerformancePage 5: Summary, Scores

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