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The Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War series has taken players across the stars and back, but with Dawn of War II, Relic and THQ are bringing players a more personal experience. Rather than giving you a random selection of no-name grunts, Dawn of War II places you in charge of a squad of Space Marines that will be your army throughout your campaign. Everything you do in one mission will carry over into the next.
You begin with a small strike force made up of a Commander and three squads or marines. Each squad leader has a different set of talents and will bring something new to your squad. As your squad completes missions, they’ll earn experience and items, so at times it can feel more like an RPG than an RTS. Troops can be equipped with new armor and guns while Commanders can acquire powerful, but rare, equipment. Commanders can also improve their skills across four attributes: Health, Energy, Range and Melee, which play into their individual talent trees. As you get deeper into the game, your ranks will also increase, giving you more troops to control.
While the series’ gameplay has always had more of a focus on squads, the new mechanic will make your choices even more important. As you play through the game, your squad is presented with a number of missions that they can take. The catch is that all missions are on a timer, so even if you decide to stop and engage a group of enemies, the mission clock is still ticking and won’t wait for you. Although you’re rewarded handsomely for successfully completing missions, the design assumes you won’t be able to do everything – after all, you’re just one squad in the middle of a massive battle.
Even if you mange to fail, within the game’s world it is taken as more of a minor setback to the total war effort rather than a quick trip to the “Game Over” screen. If you fail, you don’t lose any of the experience or weapons you managed to collect until that point, instead you just pick yourself up and look for another opportunity to prove yourself.
As of now, it appears that you can only play as Space Marines during the single-player campaign, though several other races will be available in multiplayer, which was one of the original’s strong points. Of course, Relic and THQ are keeping the exact races under wraps for now, which should make for several fun speculative threads before the game’s release next year. |
