| Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Relic Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | THQ |
| Designer(s) | Jonny Ebbert |
| Composer(s) | Doyle W. Donehoo[1] |
| Engine | Essence Engine 2.0 |
| Version | 2.3.1 |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Tactical role-playing game, Real-time tactics (Campaign, The Last Stand), Real-time strategy (Skirmish) |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Cooperative, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) |
ESRB : M
|
| Media/distribution | DVD, Download |
| System requirements | |
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is a real-time strategy/tactical role-playing video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ for Microsoft Windows based on the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. It is the sequel to the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War video game series. Dawn of War II was released in North America on February 19, 2009[2] and in Europe on February 20, 2009.[3]
Contents |
Playable armies at the initial release of the game include the Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, and Tyranids.[4]
The gameplay of Dawn of War II is markedly different from that of Dawn of War and its expansions. Jonny Ebbert, the game's lead designer, describes the feel of the game by saying that it "takes everything that was great about the original and combines it with the best that Company of Heroes had to offer."[5] There is a heavier focus on cover, which gives more substantial defensive bonuses. Accordingly, there is also new emphasis on methods of dealing with units in cover. Some weapons, such as grenades and other explosives, can destroy cover, while others, such as flamers, ignore cover bonuses completely. Other differences between Dawn of War II and its predecessors include improved unit AI (squads under fire seek cover, for example), more realistically sized vehicles, and an improved physics engine.[5]
As a Games for Windows - Live game, the game uses the Achievements system from Xbox LIVE, and is the first widely released, PC-exclusive game to use it.[6] Because of this, a player must be able to connect to the Windows Live servers in order to access the game's multiplayer features. The game also requires authentication via Steam.
Dawn of War II features a non-linear interplanetary campaign,[7] playable as the Space Marines.[8] The campaign can be played either as single-player or cooperatively with another player through an online connection.[2]
The game's campaign departs from those of its predecessors in several key features. One of the most notable departures is that there are no base-building elements, unlike in previous Dawn of War titles. Instead, the player chooses the units to be used prior to beginning a mission, cannot build new units once the mission begins, and has only limited reinforcement options.
A major part of the campaign lies in choosing which battles and even planets to fight in, and there are consequences regarding which missions are chosen. There may be multiple distress calls to answer, for example, each available for only a limited duration. Once a mission is chosen, the player may still have to choose between various objectives, having to decide between saving civilians or obtaining a powerful piece of wargear, for example.
Once a war zone and mission is selected, the player chooses only four squads to take part in the coming battle. Each squad is unique in its combat specialty, personality, and even the voice acting of its squad leader or sergeant. There is a strong narrative focus on the sergeants of these squads who can increase in experience and skills as the campaign progresses, and cannot ultimately be killed. Rather than dying in a mission, squad leaders are "knocked out" and can be revived either by a friendly unit in close proximity or upon completing the mission.
The campaign includes many elements traditionally associated with RPG-style games. Squad leaders and commander units can be equipped with the wargear which is gathered from battlefields and slain enemies and by accomplishing objectives during missions. Throughout the campaign, as a Space Marine kills enemies and achieves objectives, he gains experience, "levels up", learns new abilities, and gains bonuses.[9][10][11]
Force Commander: The player named Force Commander leads the strike force throughout the game. The youngest Force Commander in the history of the Blood Raven's, he earned a reputation for his ability to command in situations that would have broken other leaders. The Force Commander is never heard speaking outside of battle, where he can be heard shouting.
Tarkus: A Veteran of countless battles, Tarkus leads a squad of Tactical Marines, who specialize in drawing enemy fire with his "Taunt" ability, while reducing ranged damage and ignoring suppression with his "Tactical Advance" ability. Starting out as a ranged squad Tarkus and his squad can learn to equip flamers, chainswords, and powerweapons, along with heavy-flamers, and stormbolters(when wearing Terminator armor). Other then the Force Commander, Tarkus is the only member of the strike force to be able to equip Terminator armor from the start of the game(Avitus and Thaddeus having to unlock by investing enough points in the right skills).
Avitus: Avitus leads a Devastator squad, whose heavy bolters can suppress and slow enemies caught in their fire, using his "Focus Fire" ability to increase his attack damage and investing skill points in the "Ranged" Tree to further increase its effectiveness. A heavy weapon specialist, Avitus can equip rocket launchers and plasma cannons. Avitus can gain the ability to wear Terminator armor by investing enough points in the "Fortitude" tree.
Thaddeus: Thaddeus leads a squad of Assault Marines who specialize in close range combat. Using their jump packs they can fly into enemies and tear them apart in melee combat. Thaddeus can learn to use ranged weapons by investing skill points in his "Ranged" tree. Thaddeus can learn to wear Terminator armor by investing points in the melee skill tree.
Cyrus: Scout Sargent Cyrus leads a squad of scouts who specialize in stealth, and infiltration, using his "Infiltrate" ability to turn invisible and scout ahead. Cyrus and his scouts have the lowest health of all available squads but can "infiltrate" turning invisible. Cyrus can increase the duration and effectiveness of infiltrate by investing his skill points in the "Will" tree, drastically reducing its cost, and allowing him to use his items without losing his invisibility. Cyrus can use Bolters, shotguns, and flamethrows, and is able to unlock a special ability for each of them, making him the most versatile member of the strike force. Cryus and his scouts are the only squad that is unable to equip Terminator armor.
Davian Thule: After being critically injured by a Tyranid warrior in the Blood Ravens first encounter with the aliens, Davian Thule is placed in stasis, and becomes a dreadnought after the Strike Force secures a sample of the Tyranids's biotoxin, and joins them. Thule can specialize as either a ranged or melee assault walker by investing in the right skill tree, and can become a Venerable dreadnought, by investing in the will tree, allowing him to passively boost his allies during combat. Although powerful Thule is vulnerable to anti-vehicle weapons and explosives, and cannot heal unless another squad uses the "Repair Rites" item, or he is nearby a "field asset", which heals and reinforces nearby squads. Thule can overcome this weakness by learning the "Ancient Defender" ability, which allows him to heal to full, when investing skill points in the fortitude tree.
The game opens with the player and Sergeant athel deep-striking onto the planet Calderis to aid Captain Davian Thule and his initiates. As they drive away the Orks they are confronted by Mek Badzappa and his wartrukk. Although the Mek escapes, the Marines collapse the mine through which they are coming and take a victory. After this they strike from the cruiser Armageddon into a hamlet where Scout Sergeant Cyrus is waiting for them. They manage to fight their way to the defender of the hamlet, Sergeant Avitus, rescue him and save the hamlet from Orks.
After this they receive word that Orks have attacked two more key locations and assume someone is leading them. The first attack is led by a Stormboyz Nob named Skykilla and the second by Warboss Gutrencha. After this the Marines obtain information from Skykilla and Gutrencha and find that both have visited Felhammer Mine recently. They also learn that Mek Badzappa is there as well. However Cyrus remains onboard the Armageddon to provide technical support. When they enter the mine they see a Warp Spider Exarch and his retinue vanish, and the marines are rescued from Ork gunners by Sergeant Thaddeus. They also find Badzappa and his platoon under attack by an Eldar Warlock and a company of Guardians. Although they kill the Warlock, the Mek escapes once again. As the Warlock dies he speaks of a greater foe threatening them all, but the heroes remain unconcerned.
They travel to planet Typhon to stop Eldar activity. A Warp Spider Exarch is stirring up the Orks into revolt and must be eliminated. He mentions nothing of the so-called "greater foe" but Thule asks them to return to Calderis as Mek Badzappa is launching an attack against the capital, and citizens are reporting plants mutating and small purple creatures killing livestock. The Space Marines arrive and finally kill the Mek, but they are soon attacked by the Tyranids. Thule is mortally wounded by a Tyranid Warrior and Techmarine Martellus leads them back to safety after they destroy the Tyranid attack force.
The Space Marines return to Typhon, leaving Apothecary Gordian in charge of Thule. They kill the Eldar ranger Nemerian, who has been stirring up trouble, and return to Calderis to kill the Tyranid Warrior that mortally wounded Captain Thule.
After this they are voxed by Captain Gabriel Angelos(the protagonist of the first game) who tells them that he is bringing his company to aid them in their battle to stop the Tyranids, and gives them the three primary objectives of the game. To gain victory they must: gather a pure sample of Tyranid bio-toxin, so that poison can be created(and an antidote to possibly save Captain Thule's life); secure a long lost Astronomic Array on Typhon, which can find a weakness in the hive fleet; and gain control of the Angel Forge on the planet of Meridian to create the powerful weapons the heroes need. These can be completed in any order desired. Securing the Astronomic array will grant the player orbital bombardment and deep-strike, defending Angel Forge will allow Sergeant Tarkus to use Terminator Armour, and gathering the bio-toxin will provide a Dreadnought, which is the revived Captain Davian Thule. Meridian is the target of constant Eldar attacks and it is slowly revealed that Idranel of Ulthwe has been planning to lure the entire Tyranid fleet to Meridian and then destroy it, thus stopping the Tyranid threat and protecting their craftworld but destroying a vital forge world for the Blood Ravens.
Upon completion of all three objectives, the Tyranid poison is ready for delivery. However, Captain Angelos's ship the Litany of Fury (which has been traveling to the player's aid for some time) is psionically assaulted by the Hive Mind and is in grave danger of becoming lost in the Warp. This effectively takes your reinforcements out of the picture - but the Hive Mind is weakened from the exertion and goes to planet Typhon to feed. The player's strike team deploys on the planet and administers the poison to the Hive Mind through its feeder tendrils. In the space battle above, the Armageddon is destroyed and Gordian killed.
As the poison takes effect, all appears lost as the strike team has no means of retreat and massive waves of Tyranids are preparing to attack. Suddenly, Captain Gabriel Angelos and an entire company of Blood Ravens land on the battlefield and protect your force from the oncoming Tyranids. Angelos himself joins your command and is completely controllable; with his help your team kills the Hive Tyrant Alpha and the day is won. As the hive fleet is defeated Gabriel reflects on how the Emperor created the Space Marines to battle the untold horrors of the galaxy, who would fight to the death to defend mankind, and how you and your strike force are those warriors.
Dawn of War II includes a skirmish game as well, playable either as single-player or multiplayer, and uses the Games for Windows - Live online gaming service for multiplayer games and matchmaking.[12]
Prior to a match, a player chooses a faction and one of the chosen faction's three commanders. The various commanders are used to complement different strategies. For example, a player who chooses the Space Marine army can choose among the offense-oriented Force Commander, the support-oriented Apothecary, and the defense-oriented Techmarine.
Unlike most contemporary real-time strategy games, including Dawn of War, most of the unit and research production in Dawn of War II is done from an army's headquarters building, and unit upgrades are performed on the field of battle itself. The focus in the game is on frontline combat and unit-based tactics rather than the more traditional base-building style popularized in titles like Command & Conquer and the Age of Empires series.[5]
There are only two game modes in the skirmish game thus far. There is the standard Victory Point Control mode where the key to winning is controlling the critical victory points on the map until your opponent's victory points run down to zero, and in unranked custom matches there is also the annihilation mode where players attempt to completely destroy their opponents' units and structures. In both modes, players fight to control requisition and power nodes which supply factions with required resources. In online ranked play, players compete in 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 matches. Annihilation games are not supported for ranked play.
On October 14, 2009 Relic released a new game mode (as part of their 1.8.0 patch) for Dawn of War II, called The Last Stand. Players take control of either a Space Marine Captain, an Eldar Farseer or an Ork Mekboy, and co-operate with two other players in order to take on waves of AI controlled units. With the release of Chaos Rising, the Tyranid Hive Tyrant and Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer were also made playable. As the players play, they gain experience points which unlocks 'wargear' for their character. This was further improved with the release of Retribution which added an Imperial Guard Captain to the fray. A new DLC emerged giving players a chance to use the Shas'O Tau commander unit.
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On January 19, 2009, Relic announced that Dawn of War II had gone gold.[15] A beta was started afterwards with an announcement that the beta focused mainly on optimizing multiplayer balance which was to be optimized in a day zero patch.[16]
Dawn of War II was released to the public for beta testing on January 21, 2009, and it was scheduled to run until the game's release date of February 19, 2009.[17] Only purchasers of the Soulstorm expansion pack to Dawn of War were allowed to take part in the first phase of the beta.[18] On January 27, the beta became available to the general public.[17]
The beta was downloadable via Valve's Steam online distribution service.[18]
Dawn of War II uses an updated version of the Essence Engine, Essence Engine 2.0. Essence Engine 1.0 was used to power Relic's World War II real-time strategy game Company of Heroes and its two expansion packs Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts and Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor.
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | A-[19] |
| Eurogamer | 8/10[20] |
| G4 | 4/5[21] |
| GamePro | [22] |
| GameSpot | 8.5/10[23] |
| GameSpy | [24] |
Dawn of War II has received a mostly positive reception, scoring an average of 85% on Metacritic.com. Most reviewers have praised it for its fast-paced tactical gameplay and impressive graphics, while criticizing its small number of multiplayer maps, and lack of variety in single-player campaign missions.
Gamespy praised its removal of base building[24] and its “seemingly unlikely hybrid”[24] of RTS and RPG genres. However it did criticise the single player campaign that having the missions occurring on the same maps “make[s] the missions feel pretty same-y by the end of the campaign.”[24] Criticism was also aimed at the use of the Tyranids in the game as “actually fighting them [...] feels a bit underwhelming.”[24] but praised the multiplayer and the introduction of logistics, calling it a “stroke of genius.”[24]
1up.com also praised the “ingenious addition” of levelled wargear,[19] the tactical choices that squad selection allowed[19] and the replayability that this allowed,[19] but also criticised the continual use of the same maps in single player.[19]
The first expansion entitled Chaos Rising was announced on September 18, 2009 in a gaming magazine podcast.[25]
Prior to the announcement on PC Gamer, several moderators for various fan sites were sent Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Terminator Lord Miniatures. The boxes the miniatures came in had the Blood Raven chapter logo with the number MMX on them. The expansion was released on the 12th of March.
The second stand alone expansion was announced, on August 17, 2010, scheduled for release on the 4th of March 2011. During this period of time it will be shown first to the press at Gamescom. Retribution will, in addition, be leaving Games for Windows Live, announced on 15 September. Retribution will instead use Valve's Steamworks platform for DRM, achievements, social features and matchmaking. It will also feature a new race; the Imperial Guard.
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