Sometimes a group of enemies will simply be guarding a base-another time, they might drive up in a tank, triggering an in-game cutscene. Missions contain both scripted and unscripted events. On the other hand, if your co-op buddy has a group of offensive jet-pack marines, it may be more effective to make a direct assault-smashing into the defenses and rushing up your machinegun to support. Rather than requiring some grand goal of map-wide domination, the emphasis is on the tackling of small-scale tactical situations-and in co-op, on the real-time collaboration between players.įor instance, provided with only a machinegun squad and a hero unit to assault a base, one tactic might be to lure the base's troops back toward your machinegun squad, then flank him with a waiting group of melee units. Each unit commander has a range of special abilities, in addition to the attached squadmates themselves. I was, of course, pleasantly surprised by Relic's radical decision.Įven less of a traditional RTS than the multiplayer portion, it's almost easier to think of Dawn of War II's single-player like a cross between an action-RPG and a real-time tactical game. On paper, only controlling two units seems like a pretty minimal amount of task management, and I was initially skeptical of whether this gameplay would provide enough depth to keep me interested for more than a few minutes. On the ground, players will control up to four squads of Space Marines, or two per player in co-op, all chosen from a larger pool of available commanders.

It's a subtle, but very effective delay, and a great way to kick off every level. For a moment you think, 'Oh great, the game crashed'-and then a drop-pod rockets down from space and slams into the crackling earth, your soldiers marching out to take the field. Missions in Dawn of War II begin with a blank view of planetary terrain. Yeah, I can think of only a handful of strategy titles that managed to provide a truly memorable single-player campaign-a mix of unique gameplay and addictive mechanics that amounts to more than single-player window dressing.įortunately, Dawn of War II seems to be one of those games. Of course, he'd return in the stand-alone expansion. Occasionally you'd be given control over hero pieces that look exactly like pawns, but could fly and shoot fireballs.Īt the end of the game, you would defeat the evil King. Players would then be forced to complete a tutorial mission using only pawns, slowly unlocking new 'tech' stage by stage, rooks to bishops. What if chess had been conceived as an RTS? Each match would begin with a briefing from a pre-rendered military commander, most likely voiced by Keith David. There's nothing worse than taking a perfectly good strategy game and wrapping it up in bad cutscenes and silly scenarios.

Dawn of war 2 co op