In the Grim Future of the Darkness there is only War! And war is exactly what we want!
Mechanics - The most dramatic and possibly welcome change to the entire Dawn of War (or DoW) franchise is the obvious removal of Base Building, while this is generally great fans of the originals may find themselves wishing they could amass a larger force to utterly wipe out the enemy. Instead of building a base almost all the missions begin with you 'Hot dropping' into a zone, from there you take Beacon Objectives which act as re-spawners. You squad limit is Finite (4) and so is the maximum number of members to each squad, if a squad member dies you must fall back to a previously taken Beacon and wait a few short seconds to have the fallen squad member replaced. No longer do you throw forces at enemies in hordes until you win with sheer numerical force. Generally this is a very very good system, making you think more tactically about how to over come your enemy rather than just maxing out your unit cap then over running them. At times though you'll find that your units get taken out so quickly or that beacons are so far away that you get more down time than you would like, running back and forth to beacons, simulating the wave effect since unit replacement is free and infinite while the enemies ranks (at least early on in the game) are limited to what they started with. The fact that all your squads level up this time around, well past the old RTS style of to or three meaningless ranks like with Command and Conquer Generals, the levels for squads in DoW2 are more like a serious RPG. Letting you choose where to put points (Health,Ranged, Close combat or Energy) and depending on your play style you can tailor every squad to your liking. To top this off every squad can be upgraded item wise, with new weapons, armor and items. Though the unit count has been brought down, you feel much more in control of the combat being able to tailor your units so specifically. Also many of the levels now have Boss Battles, yes Boss Battles. More relating to the RPG style earlier mentioned, the battles are pretty well done, not too hard or easy (unless of course you've put the work into capturing foundries to increase your Tarantula Turrets, placing 3 or 4 of those in a boss arena makes short work of them) and beating a boss usually grants a nice reward of some special item. Last but not least is the addition of a 'cover' system, which those experienced with Company of Heroes may find extremely familiar. Basically when you go to move your characters they attempt to find cover to protect themselves, this adds greatly to the tactical sense of the game since enemies in heavy cover need to be flanked or stormed in order to defeat as heavily entrenched enemies will take a very long time to kill from just direct firing. A well buildings can now be garrisoned by troops to create fortified defenses, but like normal for every ability there is to get an upper hand there is a counter for it. A single grenade or demo charge instantly take out a squad in a building.
Game play - While the basic concepts that made the first DoW so entertaining still remains, many new ideas have found their way into the series and in my opinion they're welcome to stay. Squad leveling, squad cover tactics and gear upgrades add a entire aspect to game play that has been scratched before by many RTS games over the years but never fully touched, with DoW2 though the idea has been scratched, touched and pounded into place. The cover system that was good in Company of Heroes is just as good in DoW2 though slightly more intuitive as to what the player is trying to portray with his or her mouse clicks. Combat is now not only the center of the game play it's practically all there is, with the entire mechanic of base building removed besides the small side objectives of capturing key points like factories and beacons which requires 99% combat to capture in the first place anyway, there is nothing else. Which works great for this series since combat is what it's always done best anyway. Cover and flanking maneuvers are much more involved which really get you deeper into the game, while this may sound taxing it isn't all that bad with the drastically reduced unit cap compared to the first DoW. Bloody, dark and brutal is the best three words to describe the game play in DoW2.
Graphics - As expected they're crisper, smoother and more detailed. Environments are quite detailed with scattered debris, flora and fauna. Units are also a good deal more detailed and just plain better looking, while the usual horde style units look good it's the unique bosses and units that stand out of course with their own little differences. Fitting in perfectly with their races supposed styling while still managing to look plenty different. Effects look great and while not quite as bloody as the first DoW (in which after a good skirmish the ground would be solid red from the blood of slain enemies) the blood that does show up is of course better looking.
Story - While the story isn't some insightful, philosophical or self analyzing story it is very good at keeping to the feel and power of the actual Warhammer 40,0000 universe set by Games Workshop and it's numerous fiction writers. If your a fan of the actual 40,000 universe you should be in for a treat, plenty of Space Marine quality dialogue to keep you entertained. Also the intricacy of having all these different races intertwined fighting for whatever reasons they have while a greater threat looms above them all is quite interesting to watch unravel.
Overall - While the game is exceptional in almost every aspect, the game does suffer from the same problems of almost all RTS games which is as you get further and further into the game the odds against you are stacked higher and higher. While I'm all for challenge, eventually (especially on higher difficulties) things just become over whelming. Online support is even better than before with not just multi-player competitive but also Co-Op, the Co-Op idea for RTS translates well for DoW2 too. Being able to have a friend give out orders makes certain missions like the Defend missions especially enjoyable. Finally while the game is very good one thing did bother me, the lack of races. When playing the DoW games (especially Dark Crusade) I was shocked, they have every race, even the ridiculous Sisters of Battle in the game but they didn't have the Tyranids. This time though they have the Tyranids but at the cost of basically all other races, the limited selection of races does tend to drag the game down some as while my favorite race is the Space Marines my second favorite is of course the Chaos Space Marines which lack an appearance this time around. I'm sure later add-ons will bring them into play but being that they are such a primary race (go to a Games Workshop on a game night and try not to find someone that isn't playing with Chaos) you would think they would have come into the fray. Either way, lack of races aside the other downfall of this title would be not the reduction in squad count but the downsizing of squad size. When you're biggest squad is only 4 marines you just feel under powered at times, especially when fighting hundreds of Tyranids at once. While you typically do come out of these confrontations unscathed, it just doesn't feel as common sense as sending in a much larger force would. This is nit picking though as it's obvious that squad size was kept down for manageability's sake. When it comes down to it the game has few flaws and the ones that are there are more or less flaws by opinion and not by fact. This is a definite buy for RTS fans but even for any real PC Gamer aching for a good game this should be a instant add to your collection.