Usually, Game of the Year nominations and awards are given out to titles released in the last half of the year, mainly because that's when publishers put out the biggest videogames and because gamers have rather short attention spans.
Thankfully, there were not that many real time strategy titles outed in 2009 and Dawn of War II was the one which, in my humble opinion, managed to deliver some tough tactical choices, innovation and a real competitive multiplayer environment.
Dawn of War II merits a lot of applause for the fact that it has changed its gameplay fundamentally from the first Warhammer 40,000 series. The number of units you give on any battlefield is limited and the squads themselves have very different tactical roles, creating a need for a clear strategy for each battle, doubled by good use of the various abilities and relics that the units have.
The battles can go very wrong, very fast and the later battles can be punishing, making for a nice change of pace from the “build a huge army, win” RTS. And the game has the whole leveling up element seamlessly integrated, with attributes determining abilities and with very different playing experiences depending on the way you configure your troops.
The story of the single player campaign was engaging, with the missions the Space Marines could undertake having a sense of urgency and of purpose. The design of some levels could get repetitive and the boss battles might have used some variation but, overall, the experience was well put together and polished.
The multiplayer is another beast altogether with the matches quick and furious and with the four accessible armies pretty well balanced, especially now after a lot of patching. Beware that, at the moment, most of the players are pretty skilled.
Dawn of War II is getting an expansion,
Chaos Rising, which is focused on the exploits of the Chaos-influenced Marines, set to arrive in 2010. But before it's out, real time strategy gamers should already be well acquainted with the original release and with the way it is set to change the genre.
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