STOP! Warhammer Time! - A Dawn Of War II Review.

Firstly let me just say, I used to be a big fan of Real-Time Strategy games; Command and Conquer was one of my favorite games, and Red Alert really improved on the series. One of the things I enjoyed most was creating a absolutely huge army and taking over the map. At the time, I did not think "Wait a minute, this isn't really strategy is it?" although "Create maaaaaaahoooosive army and take over the map" is a strategy in itself.... Anyway back to my point, things have changed in RTS world. This was first apparent to me when I played Company of Heroes, gone were the "build massive army and absorb map" gameplay types; you now had to constantly think - DEFEND - ATTACK - REGROUP, constantly on the move. Well I loved this for while, but I began to feel anxious in missions, thinking "Can I actually do this?" About a year later, enter Dawn of War II... Which may have roused me from my RTS slumber.

Gone are the days of base building and hording, say hello to smaller much more customisable teams. Want your force commander to take out cover and terrain like a bad mofo with a missile launcher? No problem! Want him to crush skulls with a thunder hammer? Go for it! For this game think "What if an RTS mixed with Diablo?" and you have a pretty good understanding; there be stats to increase and loot to grab, creating a stronger team as you make your way through the game.

If you like Warhammer, you will love the story in DoWII, also as usual the voice acting really shines through, and your armies feel "Alive" as they comment on situations at hand, and the evil that must be crushed. Another great aspect of the game is the cover system, terrain can give you various bonus to cover when you are positioned there, but don't think you're safe if your in heavy cover, sure you won't be taking much damage, but a well placed explosive and that cover is GONE (Although the same applies to any enemies that feel safe, until a demolition charge flies over the wall into their laps lol), you can blow up quite a bit of the world in DoWII - Walls, sandbags, trees, buildings, everything really, as these things also make cover, so if you can use it as cover, it can be destroyed.

Your "Squads" also have special abilities, which can dramatically change how a fight is going. These can range from something simple like the "Rally" command to break suppression on your units while increasing their health regeneration to an almighty orbital strike raining fire from the sky scorching the land (And anything on the land) into dust. Also bringing back the RPG feel, we have end of level bosses, no really! These monstrosities can REALLY do some damage, and you can see how well you are doing by a bar on screen letting you know how much life this boss has. And believe me it helps as these guys have a LOT more health than regular enemies, and also have their own powerful abilities, but you always (More often than not anyway) have time to get out of the way of an ability due to onscreen hints or troops saying "GET OUT OF THE WAY, IT'S GONNA CHARGE", which makes it much more fun than just guessing when things will happen; which would also lead to dying many....MANY times.

Missions take place on various worlds, which also have strategic points you can capture during missions. Taking these points leads to bonus abilities, for instance taking Imperial Shrines gives you an ability that shields your squads for a few seconds from all damage whereas every Automated Foundry captured grants you the ability to call in gun emplacements, to help mow down the enemy. These bonus abilities are planet based, meaning you can use any of the abilities you have unlocked on a planet, for any missions on said planet which can really help out later on. Also these points have to be defended from time to time in a "Defence Mission" which are optional, but if you don't do them, you will lose the strategic point, and any bonuses that come with it. Defence works very well too, showing you where each wave of enemies will make an attack from, so you can try and counter it with a bit of good planning and tactics (Exploding a group of enemies with a well placed explosive charge is a VERY satisfying feeling).

All in all DoWII is an amazing game, with a very deep atmosphere; play it for a while and you will be sucked in, "Just one more mission" will be said again and again, until you look at the clock and realise it is 2AM and your due for work at 8AM... A good reason for this is because you want to try on that new armour, see what this new ability does in a battle or just to get that little bit of EXP to get that level up. DoWII is one of the greatest games I have ever played, it has given me the RTS itch again, something that has been lost for quite a while in me, thanks to this game I feel I can actually do RTS again, especially ones that do not have a pause button (I would have LOVED a pause button!!!).

If your a fan of Warhammer, RTS or even an RPG gamer, you should try this out, it's RTS at a very high level of immersion. Now forgive me as I have to go, Orks are raiding my Communications array, the BLEEDERS!