Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Multiplayer Hands-On

Few tabletop games have transferred as well to video game form as Games Workshop's Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 series. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (not to be confused with the massively multiplayer game Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning) features factions of orks, space marines, and eldar (super-advanced space elves) doing battle in a futuristic sci-fi universe. Nirvana for sci-fi fanatics, in other words. We recently got our hands on Relic's real-time strategy game and played through the multiplayer mode, which seems sure to appeal to anyone who has ever dreamed of casting magic spells and ordering an orbital satellite strike in the same game.

Dawn of War II will feature two modes of play. The first, Annihilation, charges you with destroying your opponent's bases (and the ability to respawn reinforcements). This caters to old-school RTS players who may prefer to "turtle," which is playing a defensive opening, building up a massive attack force, and then striking. But, says Relic, that's no fun. The second mode spreads traditional base-building across the map since you have to secure two types of resource points: requisition and power. Both resources are used as currency to spend on new unit types and to research stronger levels of units. The main goal is to capture three command points and watch your enemy's points slowly tick down to oblivion.

The influence of Relic's other hit real-time strategy game, Company of Heroes, can be seen immediately when you start playing Dawn of War II. You earn persistent upgrades with each of the four factions as you level up. The upgrades are purely cosmetic so as not to disrupt the game's balance, but it's pretty awesome to roll through the battlefield with gold-plated armor with spikes. You'll easily be able to see more-skilled enemies simply by looking at them. You also can select one of three heroes for each of the four factions. Heroes serve to put a more personal touch in the RTS genre in which you typically command groups of nameless heroes. With a hero, you aim to protect him from harm, but also use him for your largest assaults, since heroes are the game's most powerful characters.

You can choose between offensive, support, and specialized heroes in each faction. The ork warboss and space marine force commander are offensive characters best used to mash in the skulls of their enemies. The apothecary, on the other hand, is most useful for healing allies on the battlefield. In multiplayer, the key to victory is not only using your hero well, but using his abilities to complement other heroes. In one sequence, we saw the force commander use a defensive skill to turn himself into a shield against ranged damage. Troops lined up behind him, and the group marched forward even against suppressive fire. The apothecary continually healed the force commander and foot soldiers.

Another fun strategy was to assign one player to act as a harasser. We used an eldar warp spider, which is a hero that can quickly traverse the map with teleporting abilities. With him as our hero, we could quickly grab power and requisition points on the map. Our opponents reacted by splitting their forces to recapture these key locations--and meanwhile, our allies built a huge attack force of warrior orks and eldar banshees, ready to storm the center of the map.

Fans of scary-looking aliens will be happy to know that the Tyranid faction is a force to be reckoned with. They specialize in swarming their adversaries and can quickly spread across the battlefield if unchecked. Not only do they excel at impaling foes with giant claws and talons, but their heroes offer interesting talents. One of them has a licking ability and can shoot its tongue across a map, snatch an enemy hero, and pull him back and into a swarm of waiting alien warriors. Ouch.

The game will ship with a total of five multiplayer maps, comprising three six-player maps and two two-player maps. There are six player slots, and any unused slots can be assigned to a computer player and set at one of three difficulty levels. While the original Dawn of War was used for a number of community mods, no modding is currently planned for Dawn of War II, though the ability to customize maps may be included postrelease, said Relic.

Warhammer fans and real-time strategy addicts alike have a lot to look forward to when Dawn of War II touches down early next year. Stay tuned to GameSpot for more.