The original Dawn of War initiated a change in the RTS genre by simplifying resource collection, thus allowing players to focus on front line combat. In pursuing their vision of a purely combat orientated sci-fi RTS, Relic have become increasingly experimental in their approach; in the main campaign of Dawn of War II, there's no base building, resource collection, or unit recruitment. Dawn of War II is a bold stroke by veteran developers Relic. The question is, does this this radical approach to RTS work? Click here to read more.

I'm not going to tell you right away. There is an art to the building of suspense. In Dawn of War II there are significant differences between the campaign and skirmish/multi-player mode, to the extent that it is necessary to cover each individually. The emphasis in the campaign is on the micro-management of a small number of units through taxing, non-linear combat situations. The campaign plays out from the perspective of the space marines, specifically the Blood Ravens, who are defending their beleaguered home world, Calderis, from orks, eldar, and tyranids. It's evident that Relic have spent considerable time crafting the story. The narrative is well presented, the dialogue is decent, and the plot moves along at a nice pace. One flaw is an over-reliance on foreshadow, which tends to dull the effect of any plot twists. There is an art to the building of suspense. Oh, and the space marines bicker among themselves like a group of young teenagers.

Space Marines: Big men in big suits of armour who get their kicks from carrying big guns.

Most of the typical elements of RTS (base building, resource collection, and recruitment) are absent from the campaign. In their place are features which one would expect from an RPG, such as experience points, unit development, and loot. These RPG elements allow characters to be customised in different ways, but it is unwise to spend points outside a squad's area of expertise; for example, giving melee proficiency to a ranged unit is often of limited benefit. The addition of loot items, which include better weapons and armour, adds flexibility to the relative rigid character development system. Players must achieve their objectives using just four squads of space marines from a pool of six. Possible squad choices include the commander, a single hard-as-nails melee unit, Avitus, who leads a squad of heavy weapon specialists, and Cyrus, a scout leader whose forte is stealthy warfare. Six squads seems like a limited selection at first given the sheer variety of units available in the first game; however this does not take away from the campaign's considerable quality: each unit is distinct, fun to use, and demands a good deal of attention to micro-manage properly.

Equip your Space Marines with bigger suits of armour and guns after each mission.

The numerous missions, which take place between three planets, come in three distinct flavours, kill a boss creature, defend a key structure, and destroy enemy structures. All involve cutting a path through swathes of enemies. The limited number of mission types does detract from Dawn of War II a little, but the excellent execution of combat mitigates this particular flaw to some extent. DOW II could also have done with a couple of extra cut-scenes, as many are re-used in different missions. The balancing for bosses could also have done with more work. Some go down in a few seconds, while others can randomly perform one-hit-kills on a squad. This can be frustrating as one of the factors which determine the amount of experience received per mission is the number of squads which have not been incapacitated in battle.

The first level of the excellent campaign.

Overall, the campaign is developed to a high standard and fun to play, but the icing on the cake is that it can be played co-operatively with a pal. Doing so gives each player control of two squads, allowing for greater overall control. If you are a fan of co-op games I couldn't recommend Dawn of War II enough.

The skirmish/multi-player mode returns fans of the original to more familiar territory. Base building and resource collection are present, albeit in a very slender form - players possess only a single upgradable building and the game's two resources are obtained through capturing flags. At first glance the skirmish/multi-player mode in Dawn of War II appears to be a dumbed down variant of its predecessor, but thankfully this is not the case. Granted, there are fewer units to choose from but the options for customising these units is greater, giving rise to a good deal of tactical diversity. To mix things up three hero units are available to each of the four races, and the addition of a levelling system for the units adds a further layer of strategy.

Kersplode! Sometimes it's hard to see the units through all the explosions.

Two different victory conditions are available for skirmish/multi-player, the first is victory point control which requires players to hold more victory points than their opponents, the second is annihilate, which as the name suggests requires the complete destruction of the enemy. While I haven't played a huge amount of DOW II on-line yet, its potential as an deep and demanding multi-player RTS almost rivals that of Relic's flagship title, Company of Heroes.

A combination of fun game-play, slick presentation, kinetic combat, and wide tactical scope will ensure a devoted following for the next few years (or until Relic release DOW III). The variety offered by the two different game modes really boosts the game's longevity. Relic really risked upsetting the milk cart by adding RPG elements to an established RTS game, but the gamble paid off. Dawn of War II is a very worthwhile game and given that it is available for less than twenty Euro, it is an excellent addition to any RTS fan's collection.