Beat your thoughts to the mould of your Will.
For too long have we starved for a game that makes war feel like actual bloody war, where a battlefield essentially can be picked assunder and rendered into a dead, flat and cratered field. A game in which there is no cutting back on the ammo, and where the "strategy" aspect is employed in the sense of countering someone's counter of your counter; not who is the best at rushing his enemy as early as possible and winning cheap victories. Enough ranting, review.
Dawn of War 2 delivers a solid if a bit short campaign that is an absolute blast taking on with a friend utilizing the co-op mode, as well as a well balanced and responsive multiplayer experience. The campaign is played and viewed from the eyes of the Blood Ravens, who find their recruitment worlds under attack by various foes. As the story progress more and more is revealed about the sector, what foes you are facing and eventually the tasks that needs to be done to make everything right. Aside from the actual storyline there are a massive bit of sidequests that usually means you'll have to defend a point of interest or take out a particularly deadly foe, all of these missions lands you extra experience and is generally worth going out of your way to complete. The campaign sadly lets you play only as the Space Marines and does not undertake any other race's view on the situation, but seeing how well made it actually is, you would need at least one or two more games to create campaigns for the other races of equal quality. All in all, the campaign lets you experience all four of the races in the game, the Marines for playing, and the Eldar, Orks and Tyranids for cannonfodder. Regarding cooperative mode, one player will control 2 squads instead of the usual 4, effectively making the game easier by requiring less micro and just having to concentrate on keeping 50% of the avaliable firepower alive. I don't think I need to dwell on this particular function, but I can say that controlling two squads each makes for a great experience that truly gets brilliant as you traverse the system's difficulties together, especially if you use voicechat.
As you play your squads will level up in a classic RPG fashion, each of them capable of climbing 4 different branches that will grant them different abilities and inevitably specialize them in the field of your choice. Through this you will find that you customize your squads according to your playstyle, and I must say it is pretty nice to see how squads behave just like you want them to. On to this you will pick up at least one piece of wargear per mission which you can equip your squads with in between missions. This gear ranges from sniper rifles, upgrades of your current gear and explosives to specialized gear such as beacons for deep-striking, warbanners and terminator armor is avaliable... just think 40k in all its glory. Personally I went into a frenzy and completed every single secondary objective I could reach and thus landed myself a lot of gear, being the loot-hungry bastard I am. Equipping the gear you earn carries a satisfying feeling on its own, but seeing your new stuff in action is just brilliant with new weapons packing a visibly more potent punch and armor obviously doing you good in the sense of your healthbar dropping less rapidly. All in all the campaign is a well made, fun experience with replay value. Personally, this is all I can ask for in an RTS game when it comes to offline content.
With RTS games comes the regular path-finding issues of course, but that is rarely seen, if only once a few games, in Dawn of War 2. This becomes evident especially in multiplayer as the controls proves to be tight and easy with cover being handed really well and the units moving to the correct side of it depending on which direction they're being shot at from. Balance amongst the four races is no issue, but Eldar players tend to whine the most both in terms of the game and on the forums, but despite that the community online is pretty nice. Unlike in the Beta, the matchmaking system actually works nowadays, a relief as you could get teamed up against opponents that greatly outmatched you in both skill and experience back then, something that rarely, if ever, occurs since the release. Relic also shows a rare ability of listening to the players in terms of gameplay and balance, and good ideas posted on the forums may actually be awarded with variations or perhaps even straight adaptions in the patches released. While there are very few maps, the ones avaliable are very well balanced and thought through with great placement of resource points, cover and garrisonable buildings. Considering you face off against human opponents, one experience is never like the next, even if you play the same map for the 20:th time.
On to all this, the game is actually beautiful with rich (and practically fully destructive) environments with an almost ludicrous amount of detail. Explosions are on-spot, along with buildings toppling over due to orbital bombardment, craters forming and whatever beauty Relic can bring you. Sounds are great, albeit with the occasional corny comments during the campaign, but order acknowledgements and all in-game sounds hits home with even the bolter sounds being adequate, something that has never happened in a 40k game up to date.
Wrapped up, Dawn of War 2 is a game that feels and breathes Warhammer 40.000. It is a great addition to the RTS genre with its more tactical approach, and while vastly different from its predecessor it delivers an experience that without any doubt is worthy of the brand Dawn of War.
