Rarely is a game so much fun yet so frustating, so full of potential yet so limited. Read this review, For The Emperor!
Survival is the name of the game, for behold, it is fast and furious and you must be quick in the head lest you be shot out into the air, stomped under a falling drop-pod, chopped into meat-bread by melee or squeezed blood-dry by the claws of Dreadnoughts. You must master your squads, their equipment and their abilities. You must forsake you food, and meditate on tactics, for Lo! Dawn of War 2 is not about strategy, but about tactics! But be warned, you must do this in haste, and be sure to move your squads, build new squads, upgrade existing squads and build generators, all, I say to you, AT THE SAME TIME!
Did you have a bit of difficulty getting throught that paragraph? Well, that's exactly how the game feels like. It's thrilling, dramatic, exciting, a lot of fun, but oh boy it does make you work to stay alive.
Honestly, the graphics and presentation of the game is Super-Wow! At the highest setting, you can see the nitty gritty dust of Calderis on your soldiers or take a trip down the lush green amazon-like jungles of Typho-whateveris. Explosions flatten buildings, which could either burst and splatter you with debris (in which case you'll witness massive amounts of black cloud rise up) or they could collapse gracefully (in which case you'll see dust and dirt swill around the area). And buildings aren't the only things affected. Grass, vegetation, roads, even the bland sands of the desert move around in response to heavy weaponry such as the Dreadnought's assault barrage, making the special effects of this game the best I've ever seen. If you have any idea or interest in graphics or animation, you must get the game just to see these effects. They're awesome!
Accompanying the wonderful visuals is the cinematic sound and music quality of the game. The Dreadnought's assault barrage doesn't just look like a heavy hitting barrage, it sounds like one! Heavy bolters, plasma discharges, grenades, all sound fittingly appropriate, loud and menacing. They also have a psychological effect on your gameplay. In time, you'll learn to fear the Eldar Rangers' plasma fire, hate the Tyranids' thundering (really, thundering!!) roar and laugh at the Ork curses, all of which are of a very high cinematic quality. As for the music, suffice it to say that it is very good, ranging from orchestral to military-flute in very appropriate tracks.
Now, I wasn't kidding about working to stay alive. Multiplayer skirmishes are all about speed, and even if you play single player against the computer, you need to hurry about capturing requisition and power points while keeping your troops alive. The number of troops permitted isn't very large so you can't field a large army. You need to choose carefully which troops to train, especially since the wrong choice could mean that you're ill-equipped to deal with your opponent.
My primary complaint with the game is exactly that it is so damn fast. It doesn't let you sit there and enjoy the beautiful breath-taking visuals, you have to be pointing and clicking all the time! Nor does it give you enough time to explore all the options that you have at your disposal. In this regard, it is very unlike any other RTS - oh, wait, I've already stated that it isn't an RTS. Yet, the amount of options you have, the different types of units, the different types of equipment each squad can have, all speak to a strategy gamer and lure him in.