Gaming and Geekery

If there's any modern-day Real-Time Strategy series I'm fond of, it's the Dawn of War series. The Warhammer series in general has a tremendously deep library of lore, a broad spectrum of characters, races, and all of the other tasty giblets that make it a perfectly robust multiverse to build a game from.

Dawn of War II's predecessors, spanning several expansion packs, take you into the Warhammer 40,000 universe with science fiction concepts leaking from every orifice. The game is presented in the typical model: Build a base, gather resources, train units, expand. Fight. Lather, rinse repeat. Infantry are delivered in squads that can be reinforced, weapons that can be upgraded, and with accompanying specialists and/or hero-class units to make it a micromanager's wet dream come true. They had very distinct races/factions to choose from, some with drastically different play styles that would appeal to several different tastes. All in all, it had a little bit of something for everyone.

Dawn of War II arrives soon, but is currently available as a beta through Steam. As an owner of the final expansion of its predecessor, I was able to access the beta a week early and I dived right into it. My roommate, being an even bigger of a fan than I, also jumped in.

After putting hours into the game, trying out the different skirmish modes, poking at the four basic factions (of which we only get one new one to start), neither of us really know what to think. The game's formula has changed entirely. Gone is the concept of building a base, which essentially leaves you with a single building from which all of your units are trained. Squad reinforcement also seems to be a thing of the past, save for 1-2 weapon upgrades and a single squad leader that can support each group. Finally, the heroic characters are also very specialized, which is kind of cool on the surface but I found myself unsure of exactly what to do with them, at times. And finally, the resource-gathering rate is so mind-rapingly slow that I felt that I was moving too quickly for the game, leaving it a slow, droning pace and making getting back into the fight very time-consuming.

Not to say that the game is without cool additions, mind. The environments are very destructible, vehicles pose even larger threats in this iteration, and the graphical overhaul is very nice. But for all of its flashiness and sharp new look, it still makes me wonder if this is some kind of sick joke. I have heard only good things from publications regarding their single-player campaign, but if this is what can be expected of the multiplayer experience, I think I'll sit this one out.