Dawn of a New War.

Dawn of War, Relic Entertainment's top selling Warhammer 40k RTS game. It has so far had 3 expansions, and each one has added more races, making it the first RTS with 12 (?) totally different playable races. The original Dawn of War game won Game of the Year, Dawn of War: Winter Assault won RTS game of the year.

It is an amazing series, and now.... it shall go on.



Dawn of War II was announced a while back, however it wasn't until late last year that any details came out about it, and it wasn't until recently that we received an actual video. If your thinking "how come they're calling it Dawn of War II, and not just another expansion" it is because this changes the game... forever.

Dawn of War II's campaign (at least) is taking a step in the opposite direction. It is still an RTS, but it capitalizes much more on the "S". As seen in the video you have squad leaders. However from all information so far, this game is like if an RTS and an RPG had a baby.

Long gone are the days of heaping nameless, faceless marines into a god-forsaken battle on some god-forsaken rock. Now each of your squad commanders have names, faces, stories. Gone are the bases, from all recent news there are no more bases, just your squads, and the items they receive for completing missions (this is single player at least).

The changes run deeper than that though... much deeper. From our trusty friend wikipedia:

• There will be no base-building during the single player campaign.
• The player will not be able to build new units during the missions themselves, and will only have limited reinforcement options during missions
• Consequences regarding mission choices. For example there may be multiple distress calls to answer, each available for a limited duration. During a mission you may have to choose between saving civilians or obtaining War Gear.
• Control of only five or six squads. However, each squad will be highly unique in their combat specialty and even voice acting.
• Redesigned War Gear - War Gear can be obtained by accomplishing objectives during missions and is randomly dropped sometimes by enemies. After identification it can be equipped on squads, and stored in an RPG style inventory.
• Better cover bonuses, and a new emphasis on methods of dealing with units in cover (e.g. destroying cover with grenades or ignoring cover bonuses with flamers).
• Improved squad AI - for example, squads under fire will seek out cover.
  
  • Jet troopers on a crumbling bridge will jump off the bridge, without you telling them to.
    
• More realistically sized vehicles (i.e. larger than before).
• Squads will acquire experience and become stronger as the game is played, from a new recruit to a hardened veteran.
• Jetpack units take off and land more realistically (i.e. not such a linear path).
• Commanders will level up and learn new abilities as well as gain different bonuses.

I don't know if I am going to like this game. It seems like its going to be like the game Commandos. However! It will have the traditional multiplayer. Some of the more Warhammer-hardened players out there might have noticed these fella's in the video:
For those not familiar with warhammer (or just what the hell those purple things are) its the Tyranids. Think...... Aliens (as in, the movies). They have been confirmed to be a multiplayer playable class as well! AWESOME. That brings the unit tally [uncomfirmed if they will all reappear in DoW II] up to.... a lot: Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks, Eldar, Chaos, Tau, Necrons, Dark Eldar, the Sisters of Battle, and now the Tyranids. Sweet.