The Dawn of a New War (Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (PC))

Member Name: HarryKeogh

Product:	Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (PC)
Date:	06/03/09 (276 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brings a fresh look to an already brilliant gaming series.

Disadvantages: Game play can be slow on lower spec PC's

5 years after Relic launched "Warhammer 40k Dawn of War" They have released the long awaited sequel in the form of "Dawn of War II".

Now I know that there have been other games in the "Dawn of War" series since the original but these have all been expansions to the original and so not really a formal sequel as such.

The game is set in the distant future of the 41st millennium, Man has reached out into space and has found that we are not alone as there are several other races of creatures out there who all seem hell bent on ruling the universe and everything in it.

Main plot line
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The game sees yourself as a newly appointed commander of the Blood Ravens Space Marine chapter (An army of genetically modified soldiers charged with the defence of mankind.) and together with a handful of other Space Marine must provide help from several different alien races that are looking to take over three planets.

Characters
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Force Commander aka. You - Leader of your small army very capable of fighting the enemy at range or in hand to hand combat.

Tarkus (Sergeant of the Tactical Squad) - A veteran soldier with centuries of battle experience who provides you with in valuable information and help in your command of your men.

Avitus (Sergeant of the Devastator Squad) - Specializes in the use of large heavy weaponry on the battlefield to provide supporting fire to his comrades. Out of all the characters he seems to hold all enemies with a great deal of hatred and contempt.

Cyrus (Sergeant of the Scout Squad) - Cyrus acts as the sniper and saboteur of the army you command, he has a very clinical outlook on life however his methods are not always viewed as very popular amongst the other characters.

Captain Thule - Those of you that have played "Dark Crusade" the 3rd of the "Dawn of War" expansions will remember Captain Thule as the force commander of the Space Marine In the game. However during the course of this game Captain Thule becomes mortally wounded and has to be placed with a war machine known as a "Dreadnought" which then allows him to return to fighting despite his wounds.

Thaddeus (Sergeant of the Assault Squad) - He is the youngest of the characters within your army and acts very much accordingly, his squad specializes in hand to hand combat and he can be quite brash in his attitude towards his fellow marines and enemies.

Game play
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With the original title and it's expansions there after the main game play revolved around a base building and expansion style of game with the player need to have certain resources and buildings available in order to produce men or vehicles . However with "Dawn of War II" Relic have taken a different approach to the game style by combine elements of the original game with another of Relic leading games "Company of Heroes". There is no more base building as your squads are available from the start of the game and once there all defeated then that's it for the mission. Also unlike the other games in the series the terrain and cover provide a much more active part of the game with additional defensive bonuses given awarded to a squad that is hidden behind a wall.

As you progress through the single player campaign of the game you characters and their squads gain experience and so becoming stronger and unlock new special abilities. In addition to this there are rewards of new weaponry/armour and accessories given to your army for the completion of certain tasks such as completing a mission or defeating a particular enemy. These rewards can be used to upgrade your squads to increase their abilities yet further.

Graphics
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Graphics wise the detail of the game itself is very high however be warned that if your PC is at the lower end of the specs for this game zooming in on the action can slow down the game quite a bit especially when the screen is filled with a large number of characters.

Sound
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The voice acting and sound effects within the game are of a very high standard as I have always found with all of the games with in this gaming series.

Multiplayer
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As well as the single player campaign you have the option of joining in with multiplayer games via Games for Windows Live. Unfortunately I have only played the game in its single player state for the moment so I can't really provide too much information in regards to how this part works.

PC Specs
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Minimum

Operating System: - XP Service Pack 2 / Vista Service Pack 1
CPU: - P4 3.2 GHz Single Core Processor
RAM: - 1 GB for XP / 1.5 GB for Vista
Hard Drive Space: - 5.5GB
Graphics Card: - 128MB Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT / 128MB ATi x1600
Sound Hardware: - DirectX 9.0c compliant card

Recommended

Operating System: - XP Service Pack 2 / Vista Service Pack 1
CPU: - AMD Athlon 64×2 4400+ or any Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: - 2.0 GB for XP / 2.0 GB for Vista
Hard Drive Space: - 5.5GB
Graphics Card: - 256MB Nvidia Geforce 7800 GT / 256MB ATi x1900
Sound Hardware: - DirectX 9.0c compliant card


Overall

All though the game differs from the original somewhat this does not detract from the game one bit.

The games varying levels of difficulty provide a challenge for gamers of all levels from your weekend warrior, to full blown gaming legend.

Summary: If you're a fan buy it, if not buy it anyway.