i have played all of the games and was so looking forward to this one, the graphics are great and the story is brilliant but its nothing like the other games, no base building is a big mistake and game play is so slow. I have given it 4 weeks of trying to get into this game but have now given up and gone back to the originals. Shame as it was full of so much promise :(

Absolutely brilliant! Superb game that mixes both an exhilirating RPG style campaign storyline, which allows you to play against numerous enemies, but is somewhat repetitive, with the action-packed multiplayer that seems as if you can't get enough of it. It's like a drug (well sort of)! However, some aspects do need variation and improvements that would make the game better. Despite this i still give a well earned 9 out of 10. Good job Relic!… Expand

Ok where do it start!? As a hardcore 40K fan and a massive fan of the previous DOW titles i can say that i am disspointed with this game. Whilst i understand that relic wanted to change and go somewhere new, they have in fact gone backwards... allot. Multiplayers is not worthwhile, we have lost a major aspect of the game. You can no longer build buildings which has removed a massive side of the game, you no longer have to build to gain new equipment and you cant attack/defend these postions which gave the previous titles an edge. Also you cannot build massive armys which removes the whole "War" aspect. Add to this list the fact you only have 4 races to play with. On a more positive side, single player is very addictive and i like the customize the squad feature, its a shame you can use these players in multiplayer. Also the introduction of the tyranids is a godsend.… Expand

Great Campainge, even better in Co-op.
But theVersus multiplayer seems watered down, you have to be an expert player to be able to play, and its takes for ever just to get a few squads on the map. I give it a 9/10 because the campainge can kepp you goin for hours on end, if you can put up with a little repetitiveness.(made up word)

i've got the first DoW games and the expansions, so the change in direction was abit of a shock but once i got used to it, its fucking awesome i love the rpg elements i find it mixs it up abit so its not as boring as i find some other RTS's

The over hyped campaign was lame. The biggest screwup was creating a dump mp. There is nothing inherently wrong with no base building. The flaw is that the MP is treated like its a base building game which totally ruined the game.

THQ have done well at improving the game, IF you are a tactic person that like to use the posibilities of every squad/unit andwhat the environment offer you... The lowered amount of unit makes it even better to use tactics, if you play online without any tactics you will be defeated, I think many people was dissapointed on the game because it was so much easier to play dow than dow 2 because of the easy to use squads and high amount of units that have been changed at dow 2 but in my opinion it was a great improvment. And I will keep playing the game until the next generation warhammer game releases. This is and will be one of the most important title of the Dawn of War(DOW) series.… Expand

While this game is undoubtedly an RTS it plays different than your regular RTS. It is squad based as opposed to base based; that is the construction of bases and such. In DoW2 you are basically given a main base, a hero unit, and a basic infantry squad. What you do after that is up to you. The combat is pretty energizing and never boring. The only problem is how difficult to obtain resources it can be. Sometimes there can be large breaks in the action due to either waiting for resources or for units to build. The other problem is that with so many units you tend to lose track of all your squads and thus you may lose them easily. Other than that though, the game is quite solid.… Expand

Major disappointment. I awaited this title with much anticipation. I have been a Games Workshop enthusiast for 18 years and am a great fan of the first Dawn of War. First, before I go into how much of a waste this game is... I would like to say I really liked the Tyranids. The makers totally screwed this game up. Everything you loved about the first Dawn of War has been removed. Their is no longer a feeling of large battles. The multiplayer aspect of the game is so bland that makes you want to shoot yourself in the head. You cant shake the feeling that this game is under cooked. All your strategic options have vanished and to make things worse the maps are much smaller than the original. Space Marines with 3 man squads made me want to shove this game up the programmers rear end. How can you fail at making a game with the War Hammer 40k title behind it? These people did.… Expand

So many multiplayer options, fantastic campaign mode with so many unlockable items and highly strategic : ) Awesome

I love that game! I think it is like 1000 times better than the old one where you just built a huge amount of units and charged towards the enemy. Each unit got a purpose and you dont embarass yourselves with tons of upgrades, buildings ad workers and all that stuff. I personnaly have a 9000 points chaos army, i saw lots of other units that they coud have included, but then it would have been another crappy game like soulstorm!!!… Expand

The greatest Game of Warhammer 40.000 I ever Played! It's a very well mixture of RPG and Strategy. I play Warhammer since 1999 and could say it was the best Game...most realistik one...I know! It has devenetf dhe Flair of the Warhammer 40.000 Galexy. WELL DONE, RELIK! And, "For the Emperor!"

Dawn of War II feels like Company of Heroes and StarCraft smushed together and it is a wonderful marriage. I haven't had so much fun PC gaming since... Company of Heroes. You rock Relic!

Rated 7 because of the effort in creating the game. But really, how disappointing! Anyone who has experienced the original 40K would almost certainly want that model back, along with the enhanced gfx and sound of this version. I

Just what I needed. More games like this! Warhammer 40,000 is an incredible universe with plenty of game-worthy ground to explore.

CD keys provided from manufacturer don't even work on live. Some kinda voodoo trick to get the game to work. So far, looks nice as a huge screensaver. No product support from relic, steam, microsoft, or THQ. Their suggested fix "buy another game"

I personally love Dawn of War 2. The campaign might lack of gameplay but i think that the multiplayer option is fantastic, instead of having tons of buildings with tons of units that dosn't have any special purpose like in dawn of war 2. Dawn of War 2 might not have as many units as in Dawn of War but they all got a purpose.

Awesome game! Fast paced, brutal action that gets your adrenaline flowing. Combines the best aspects of the Dawn of War series (sync kills, 40k universe) with the critically acclaimed elements of Company of Heroes, bundled in an updated Essence Engine 2.0. Graphics are stunning, amazing audio soundtracks that fit the mood superbly, balance is well done, and game is an overall blast to play. On top of that, free DLC and Relic support/expansions will make the game that much better!… Expand

I nearly bought this game today luckily I noticed just in time that the game is infected with steam crap , oh well at least I saved some money - any single player game that forces you to have an internet connection before you can even play the damn thing can go to hell, I got stung once with HL2, never again.

Ok, there's no base building. I never wanted a Warhammer 40K SimCity. There are lots of wargear options and upgrades. That's cool, Ilike big shooty bolters. There is level grinding and loot drops ala Diablo. Well before Diablo the excellent Dungeonmaster (Atari ST, Amiga) had all that with the paper doll inventory screen too. So I don't want to hear claims that this is a 'me too' set of features. What this game is, is a true TACTICAL wargame. If you use real world infantry tactics of fire and movement you will succeed. Try to 'rush' without first establishing a base of fire and flanking and you will get to see the cool new bloody splashing gore effects as your troops get mulched. Use terrain, team tactics, and cunning and you are outfighting the enemt rather than outmanaging or outclicking them as in previous RTS staples. Sound and graphics are of course great and the program scales down very well to less capable systems. Multi-player is perfectly smooth... if only the matchmaking were a bit quicker it would be perfect. And points on my XBOX Live profile for the achievements. Simply outstanding... I'm ready for the expansions already with the other races of the 40K universe. Waaarrrggghhh!!!… Expand

I don't know how many review sits THQ bought off but this game is a dumbed down console game. You also need to have Steam AND Games for Windoes Live installed and both running for the game to play.

DRM gone wild..

Steer clear the game is a bad version of Warcraft 3

DoW2 is also was away the best RTS after Warcraft3! I had as much fun in (beta) the Multiplayer and would rarely evaluate the play in things fun with 93% (balance must be still improved however comes into runs the time). I have around the 200 hours in the Multiplayer spent and had the most ingenious fights which I ever in a RTS did not experience which one film could! Particularly 3vs3 team Matches with capable people in the team have bring an experience with itself it up to now ever did not give. Whether the Singleplayer is or not is good for me relevantly with a RTS counts not the Singleplayer mode but like it in the Multiplayer strikes themselves and according to these criteria should one the play evaluate! I know some people those already 5 years Warcraft3 play and the Singleplayer part still never played. RTS is a category only in the Multiplayer unfolds and scores exactly here DoW2 with RPG system, Heromodus as well as technology!… Expand

First off you have to install and have Steam and GFWL running in the background even to play this game at all single or multiplayer. DRM gone overboard.

The game itself has been simplified from RTS to just plain boring garbage squad based boredom. Loot drops, RPG elements, boss fights and oh my Heros. Dawn of loot drops by races that don't even use that loot. Its silly really, insted of building cool bases you just get unlimited units by moving them close to a "beacon" then they pop out of nowhere..MEh just don't buy it trust me.

The DRM is the worst part of this mess… Expand

I absolutely love this game. I realize some people will be irritated by the complete decimation (there can be no other word) of realtime strategy tropes within this game... But I don't care - I love it. Building bases has never sat right with me; it has always taken away from what I love most in RTS' - combat. Combat is what Dawn of War II is about - using cover, destroying enemy cover, keep the enemy on their toes etc... In other words - its a strategy game that, at last, asks you to rely on your tactical competency, rather than your economic management skills. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I personally adore it.… Expand

The Multiplayer is all about capture and control. You capture points to improve resource points or decrease the army points of the other side. The mulitplayer is not for those who like to sit behind thier wall of defences and wait for them opponet to make the strike and counter. This game is all about Strategy. Relic breakes down what Multiplayer RTS are about and tries to remove the items that slow it down. Now all resourses are gaind through captureing points like in the prevous installments but now Even the energy is gained through capureing. The only diffrence is that the energy nodes can be upgraded to help secure it and build 3 generators to increase production. The cover system is back in this game and better then ever instead of a single spot they ahve rocks, Buildings and other objects to gain cover. And some units have was to get around this cover that you need to watch out for when they show up. The muliplayer gets a 8.5/10. It is fun to out flank and try to get the get units around to cautch them in a cross fire. They did a good job of balencing most of the groups. and the 4 types are fun to play but is till miss my Sisters of battle and my Imperial guard. The Singleplayer is a fun game. Granted i have not beat it yer but i have gone through enough so far to see what it is like. This time the Single player and the Multiplayer are very diffrent in the multiplayer it is all about caputreing to build units but in this game it is like the table top game of 40k called Kill teams where you get a small army to infiltrate a group to do an objective. They also use Experiance system where you lvl up and you get points to spend in slots to buy skills. You also can have Equipment that you can give to your teams. The single player is all about moving to points captureing them so you can fall back to them if you are getting overwhelmed. You only get a limited number of squads (4 for the most part) to complete the objective and if a squad goes down then you can do the Gears of war or Left 4 Dead boot to thier rear end and get the leader up so he can run back to a point to fill out the rest of thier squad. I give the Multiplayer 9.5/10. Story is kinda retold in previous exept it is Tyranids instead of Chaos this time. This Game is for those who like the strategy part of the RTS genre and not the building. I am a turtler and I have had fun with it. Though I do play the table top game so my view might be a little slanted to liking it. Over all Not being a big online multiplayer of the games I do enjoy the scirmish matches withthe computer. I game it a 9/10 because i found it fun to play. This is on game that is going to be overshadowed by the Starcarft 2 shadow but this is a fresh new attempt at the RTS and would be easy to expand this game to consols.… Expand

I really enjoy this game. The single player campaign combines the best aspects of 2 genres I love, RPGs and RTSs. The focus on small numbers of units really lets you use all the abilities of all the units to their fullest. The action is fast and furious with heavy emphasis on tactics. I really enjoy the Warhammer 40k lore, and this game does not disappoint. I hope Relic comes up with downloadable campaigns for the remaining races and adds some of the other races from the Warhammer universe. I have yet to try this multiplayer, but I'm sure it will be a blast.… Expand

When I learned about this game I was truly exicted about the prospect of it & the dirction was just like chaos gate from SSI another 40k game all tho that was turn based. After playing it, it falls way short on game play & intrest. Atleast it looks shiny ..lol if thats all a real game takes to sell they may do well but it dosent, shiny is all glamor but no game, DOWII fits that bill muti player needs a bit O' balance but that mite be the only part of this game to look at, as muti player dosent take much to fix & make for a huge selling pt sry to say I dont care for its muti player, Ill head to the hobbly store pull out my guard army & slug it out for 1-2hr over an 4-8 table with friends. This just dosent cut it, disruption is back in too many forms & supprersion is just another form of it that just adds more disruption, o yea 5-6 squades & all of them cant do any thing but run from disruption & suppresion. I gave it a 5 as it looks to be a really good muti player where 1on1 or 2on2 will be fair but as single player is 1/2 the game it gets a 5.… Expand

Its a good game but you whether you want to or not you have to install and update the online component before it will even let you play the single player campaign. The graphics and story line are good, not a whole to lot base building, you build up your squads and go bust heads that's about it, a must for any 40K fan.

too many of the great things from the original DOW have been removed that made this series a good name. It is no longer a RTS but a tactics game like full spectrum warrior. Original games fans will hate this.

This game may look like dawn of war or a rts game. The reviewers may also made it seem so. But who are you kidding? This a joke of a game.

What I Liked: 1.) Visually Stunning 2.) Emphasis more towards a Company of Heroes style game play 3.) At times alot of fun My complains 1.) Unbalanced (not for the newer rts player) 2.) no base building (cant i at least build a barracks please!) 3.) Control and interface set up(not the easiers) 4.) this isn't relative to the game but ( no beta tutorial? someone might want that).

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II is a quite enjoyable experience. The singleplayer campaign is a unique experience combining elements from RTS and RPG games to give a more tactical experience. The cover system from Company of Heroes is implemented flawlessly. The multiplayer does suffer from some issues stemming from the use of the GFWL API for the multiplayer. The synchronization in multiplayer is heavily affected by the settings each player has which results in lag when players have their settings too high. However this is not a major issue assuming people turn down their settings when the game recommends it. Another issue is the lack of multiplayer maps. While the singleplayer campaign is complete and polished the multiplayer map selection is in need of some TLC. There are only 1v1 and 3v3 maps to choose from. No 2v2 or free for all maps have currently been released. No SDK has been released yet but there are rumors of one on the way and some DLC is supposed to be released later in the year. Hopefully this DLC release won't be a repeat of Fallout 3's Operation Anchorage. Failed Downloads, Non-existent product pages, presenting minors with error pages regardless of parental settings Installation path problems, etc.… Expand

More like Dawn of War light than version 2. Only one style of play (attack). Seems focussed on short on-line multiplayer battles. The single player campaign isn't an RTS, more a half-hearted RPG. Without base building, and a poor selection of skirmish game options, this isn't the sequel I was hoping for. And why do I need to log into live to play offline? Why?

Definately not what most people were expecting but definately a brave and mostly successful attempt to rejuvinate the genre. More streamlined, better balanced and arguably at timesmore fun (especially in Single Player which is a big improvement on Dark Crusade/Soulstorm/Winter assault). Very pretty and with well-added RPG elements. The lack of maps does hurt somewhat however, but with these being promised in patches will definately add somewhat to a good initial release. Altho I'm quite befuddled as to comments about it needing a powerhouse PC as my 3yr old laptop running an AMDTurion 64 (non dual core) with a Radeon x700 mobility runs it just fine on medium settings.… Expand

A great sequel to one of my favorite RTS games ever. The new turn they took with no building is great, it puts the player right into the action and makes one be more strategic. It's true most of the campaign missions are a little repetitive I still greatly enjoy it, especially with the co-op feature. And the new multiplayer point system is awesome. One thing I would hope more for is more multiplayer matches, which I'm sure they're working on as I write this. Other than that there are only a few tweeks I think could be made, nothing that they can't fix by the first expansion. Otherwise great game Relic, and can't wait to see more races in the next expansion.… Expand

Was massively disappointed by this game. I had such high hopes for the sequel to one of my favourite games every. Simply put it's boring, the gameplay is slow, repetitive and small scale. The battles need to be scaled up to at least 4 times the size, there are major balance issues and building needs to be re-introduced. We wanted a sequel to a massive RTS classic, and we got a cheap Company of Heroes knock-off. Not happy!… Expand

Great game, never been one to really enjoy any kind of RTS but so far I find it very refreshing not having to worry about buildings. The Graphics are good and Relic has shown that they care about their product by releasing updates for bugs already. I am also looking forward to see expansions that will further the story, and races.

Great game, never been one to really enjoy any kind of RTS but so far I find it very refreshing not having to worry about buildings. The Graphics are good and Relic has shown that they care about their product by releasing updates for bugs already. I am also looking forward to see expansions that will further the story, and races.

Even though I am a hard-core warhammer 40k fan, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this to any warhammer 40k lovers. It does not quite measure up to the last Dawn of War game. I do appreciate how they tried to make their game different from other RTS's by removing basebuilding to focus more on fighting but i still hate it. in short: dont get it.

There is a lot more depth to this game than most realize on the first few attempts. The campaign is pretty cool but multiplayer is where it's at . I hope this came continues to be supported for years to come. It has all the makings of a major success.

Dawn of War 2, the next installment of Warhammer 40k games puts you in the feet of an elite squad of space marines. You will battle Eldar, Orks and the overrunning hordes of Tyranids. When you start off you have your commander on which you name and a tactical squad. Through the course you will have a Devastator squad, Scout, Jump Trooper, and Dreadnaught. Dawn of War 2 brings back some old time heroes that have been slienced. Davin Thule and the Grey haired Gabrial Angelos.The game lets you choose to travel between 3 planets and choose missions that award you wargear at the end. You can earn wargear ingame as well. Your Elite team by killing enemies,capturing key structures, speed of completing the level and having all squads at full will award your team with more XP. When leveling up you can choose to upgrade Heath with special benefits like having chapter veterens, melee damage, range damage, and energy which provide special attacks. You can give your team armor i.e terminator armor, weapns, and accesories as in orbital bombardments. When playing against bosses they become impossible to fight with one swift blow. I repeatidly teleport my terminators and do hity and run attacks on bosses. You even get to make your soliders retreat like in company of heroes. (Click retreat and your soliders get a defense bonus, and are faster.) Campagin is massive and can be played for over 100 hours. It has so many side missions i say leave the special assignments for last. It has an instense storyline but cheesy cutscenes. But you probably wont mind. Multiplayer: Contains Victory Point Control where you caputre 3 victory points and knock down the enemies points to win. And Annilate. Multiplayer can become boring from people with a high ping, or your allies arnt tactical enough and get you killed, or they just drop out and have a crap computer take over. Co-op: You can play with a friend in a Co-op campagin. I havent done it yet since i have no friends with DoW2. Graphics: 9.5 Gameplay:9.6 Sounds: 9.1 Difficulty: Can get aggrivating Time Spent: 40 to 100hours Bottom Line- "Outstanding" Overall Rating: 9.4/10… Expand

Splendid game,as with all warhammer games,a much more personal effort than DOW I,looking forward to coming expansions,an 'authentic' space hulk game would be nice,with lots of history,perhaps based on hive fleet behemoth so we can experience the extinction of scythes of the emperor and the lamenters chapters after the horus heresey,or indeed the last stans of the crimson fists! whatever is to be released i hope cant wait!… Expand

Game seems fun, but chokes and dies on XP64. Other games (Supreme Commander, World in Conflict, etc) run just fine at my monitor native res and in Supreme Commander's case, across multiple monitors... but fire up DoW2 and both cores are instantly pegged at 100%, stuttering during the opening cinematic, and an all-out lock within 20 minutes of playing. What I played of it was fun, don't get me wrong... I'd just tlike to play more of it. I did notice that if I logged out of GfWL, that processor usage dropped to where I'd expect... of course, you can't play logged out. As soon as I logged back into GfWL, bam, 100%, both cores. Very irritating.… Expand

This game is just great! It ruined my live! I don't want to work, i don't want to meet friends, I just want to play it again and again! :) And it is two games in one. Campaign have a strong RPG-elements and good story. Multiplayer is fast and brutal, with lots of tactics. So I vote 10, because its best RTS i've played ever!

Dawn of War II is one of those games where you admire it for a few days/weeks of playing and then it just becomes soggy. Sure Relic brought the graphics bar up in this game, but they forgot one important aspect of the game: multiplyer. The campaign was fun and the story is great (I wont spoil it for those who want to finish it) and the wargear makes it further interesting, deciding which squads and what gear to take in each mission. I was thoughroughly dissapointed when they didn't release Co-op to LAN- I really would like to play with my friends in the same building. Multiplayer was a bit of a dissapointment, making the only buildings HQs gens, and turrets, took away the some of aspect of building your army. Having different unit building structues in the right spots meant faster deployment and more stratagy. Sometimes there are so many effects on the field you cant even tll which units are yours and most people love to play this game on a DOS because 8/10 times someone is lagging the game. There are still some big balance issues: some units were overpowered, such as the tyranid carnifex, which could take 8 rockets before going down and are immune to anti vehicle abilities. I gave this a 7 out of 10 - great concept, but they still need to improve on the MP - usually campaigns aren't the spotlight of an RTS, its the Multiplayer.… Expand

I got the beta, and because of that horrible windows live connection thing, I'm not going to buy the game. I couldn't get my tag to work, so I couldn't play multiplayer, and a friend of mine said that you can't save your single player unless you're signed in. I downloaded it on Steam and if I was going to buy it, I'd have bought it on steam. USE FRICKEN STEAM. Leave microsoft and their buggy windows junk out of it. Please game developers, i know it's hard, but refuse the money from microsoft and don't use their crappy service. You're just going to lose more of us.… Expand

After loving the first dawn of war I, with many other DOW fanatics, anticipated the release of the second version. With high hopes that it would be the same game that we all knew and loved except better graphics and better single-player campaign. I also waited for the release of the tyranids, that blood-sucking planet eating race that we all love. I bought the game first day it came out. I first started by going through the long process of creating an offline account on windows live, and then tried to enter single player. Up pops up a warning that i need an online account for achievements. This is my first major downside. It reminds you every time you enter single player, as if you were too ignorant to remember the first time. I finally entered single player, and loved it. It appeared to be all i had hoped for. Key word...appeared. Went through the intro campaign battling through orks in an epic high def battle experience. Did not mind at all that you only got to be space marines. Got through, only to find out that these would be your ONLY characters except for some later units coming in. Second major downside... No creation of supporting units. What you get is what you stick with. Another downside is that you could not use them all in one deployment. This started to get annoying with the arrival of a fifth unit, when there were only four deployment slots available. I bared with it and went on through the long and almost never-ending battles. Finally got through to the last battle and was surprised to see that i could use all my units. Though it was a miracle i finally got to use them all, the whole story went down with a splat. No bang, not even a worthy opponent. The game is over...no problem. Time to navigate through the extremely small menu to to the multi-player skirmish mode. ...well, i can't build buildings. Isn't that what RTS games are for? Well, hopefully the DOW community will come out with some add-ons to recoup for the many lost fans of the DOW series.… Expand

Storyline is on par with others but way to short,(completed in less then 10hours. no option to play other races stuck with marines.Big - As basicly cut out on playing the campain again. Multiplayer as gottenrid of the fun aspects of the game for me no base or building stuff no planning. Fun with another race added but why get rid of those allready presented! another big- Woulndt call it realtime strategy anymore as its basicly a race to nodes and to lvl 3 base..then Zerg. where is the fun that has been in the other games. sure there are some fun scrims on the wayto it but nothing even close to enough. from what i can understand they wanted a fast game that doesnt take long.… Expand

Great game, a little bit of a rough start to the launch, however not looked back. Game runs flawless, and looks gorgeous on my system. been playing it non-stop and enjoy the single player campaign. Once i have finished that, i will move on to multi-player.

Good, but not great. As others have noted, Steam and GFW are a pain (GFW never worked for me), but the real problem is that the whole experience is very predictable. In DOW 40K you have individual upgrades for your Space Marine squads, while here the squaddies are just semi-pointless addons to your heroes that die faster. No player vehicles, no laser cannons, 'terminators' without the feel of them actually being *Terminators*. I like the hero skill and weapon upgrade system, even though it can make for a gear grind: Dreadnought autocannon, anyone? Good, just shallow: limited tactical & strategic planning and you'll never get that "ZOMG it's a Squigoth!" feeling. I suppose that's a consequence of the constantly falling 'mass market' player IQ.… Expand

First of this is impossibly long(argh just put pasted in a org document, just around 2.5 pages), so if you're not interested in my personal erm..*cough*rantings*cough* just skip to the end(about halfway through that is) and you'll find a score based evaluation. Otherwise if you want the full story I suggest you get a cup of coffee and adjust the lighting. Wow...I waited sooo long for this! After having played all the previous games in the series to the point where I actucally broke a cd and had to go buy a new copy words couldn't express how much I wanted this game: New graphics, updated gameplay, and the Icing, they FINALLY included the tyranids. Baring the untold various types of IG armies, the tyranids were the only thing missing from the games. So off to pre-order as soon as it was announced I ended up standing in line at a midnight sale, not giving much thought that I had to go to work in the morning. bought the games, rushed home ready to play....aaand thats where I lost all my excitement. First of all I had to install STEAM(which I hate for entirely different reasons but lets not get into that here)...which it wouldn't allow me as I didn't have an internet connection(had switched ISP so had almost two weeks with no net) so i went of to bed after hours of trying, royally pissed of. I Finally secured a internet connection two days later(loaned a friends pc at school to registrate) Installed the game, ready to put of a ring of turrets around my Webway and then storm my Enigmatic Eldar off to war. but alas they removed the building concept! and from that point it only got worse. The singleplayer campaign is just tank'n'spank all the way, repetetive as a clockwork machine. and wth are with the boss fights? most of all they seem to serve as a nuisciensce when you think you've completed a level. Next came all the individuel skills and the restrictions of these. Now these are things that work GREAT in the original board game of 40k, it's turnbased and you have more than enough time to go through about 25 special abilities during a ranged or hand to hand combat phase. this, however simply does not work in a RTS game. If you play the game at the speed you're supposed to, there are far too many submenues you have to troll through, jumping from squad to squad anything between 3 and 15 times per second or so. James G said this to be a "true TACTICAL wargame" and he's half right. All the basics are there for this to be a tactical game, but none of them are properly incorporated. Being a former soldier with structure to structure experience I can say that there is no need for any real world tactics to win this game. the only tactical "trick" in this game is to position your devastatorsquad correctly and you've more or less flat out won. Hell, I let my 7yo nephew play and he just made his marines walk from one end of the field to the other, stopping everytime he had to fight, not neccesarily taking cover as he did(this on normal mode btw) The only challenge I got for myself was simply not to use any heavy weapons during the single player campaign. as for the multiplayer... Fastpaced as it may be, I have yet to meet a person who have been able to manage all his squads at the same time(leveling, changing to the correct wargear for the correct type of enemy etc.) in the short amount of time a multiplayer match usually takes. You have so many squads and so many enemy sqauds in such a confined place that half the time your squads will be dead before you have the time to properly use their abilities. Again, the abilites is an aspect that works great in the boardgame(read: turnbased) as you have the time and overlook it takes, but utterly fails in the rts version as there is just too much going on at the same time. This(i believe) is the main reason why I have yet to see anything other than rush tactics in multiplayer. I wholeheartedly belive that trying to use all the different abilities at once is too much for alot fo the people out there and som in order to compensate they just amass the maximum amount of squads and overwhelm the enemy with strenght in numbers. I'm all for making a computerised version of, well pretty much all the GW line of games, but some aspects simply cannot be converted from turnbased to rts. SCORE. Graphics: 9/10 Overall the graphics is great, if you have the comp for it. Bear in mind that even the low settings required a fairly new machine. So stunnign graphics if you jave the comp for it, and crap for the rest of you. To be honest, the game is hardly worth playing in the low setting. Albiet a minus I won't let it drag down the score as it has to be based on a system that actually has the specs to run it. Sounds: 9/10 pretty much the same as graphics. Plot: 6/10 It's compelling it urges you and yet something seems to be missing, at least for a warhammer lore nerd as myself. it also annoys me that they walk you through all the little things in the game. I KNOW what a bolter is, I KNOW how a howling banshee's warcry and powersword work and what they are. I mean, c'mon is it really too much to ask the newbs that have never heard of warhammer before, to read up a little? As an experienced gamer I find it triffling and at times almost insulting that they are trying to teach me everything as if I knew nothing. But to be fair, I can see how this would work well for Relic, as they that way have a chance of picking up new gamers. The dialogue is fair and the voice acting is pulled of with succes for the most cases. Though at times it can be hard to follow some of the dececions of the various characters as they guide you through the campaign. There are too many … Expand

Big disappointment. Despite the fact this game was released nearly 2 years after Relic's Company of Heroes, DoW II introduces no new RTS concepts & lacks many of the features that made CoH arguably the best RTS ever made. The single player campaign was redundant & boss the 30 minute boss fights made DoW II feel like a World of Warcraft RTS raid. Would not recommend buying in this economy. Much better games out there.… Expand

Its good graphics, but I can play many other games to get good graphics, and good graphics dont always make it a good game. The single player campaign on DOW2 is very good, I enjoyed playing it with my friend. That is basically the only reason it gets a 5. The mutliplayer aspect, which was DOW's main feature after WA, seen as the campaigns turned shockingly bad, has been completely ruined in DOW2. There arent enough units to be playing around with, the battles are either too short or too long. And most games turn into spamming the biggest and strongest unit over and over. As an RTS single player its good, but as its essentailly marketed as a multiplayer its bad. 5 out of 10.… Expand

The campaign is clearly the highlight of the game. The idea of wargear and customizing squads are great. Story line is good and overall W40K atmosphere is spot on. Really looking forward to expansions covering new campaigns with Orks etc. and perhaps a few more new races. Mulitplayer for me is a letdown. It is all about rushing here rushing there, lack of different types of gameplay, capture and hold only, what happened about to annihilation, defense and attack gametypes for ranked games? All in all it is a great single player game though, and if you like Space Marines, you won't be disappointed.… Expand

A month from release date and the game is riddled with bugs and cheating online. What could have been a great game is tarnished by it's lack of quick support from the developer who did not leave the game in beta long enough to fix bugs known for quite awhile.

After some time playing this game, the issues are so glaring i can't really give it any more effort. glaring glaring bugs, bad pathing, problematic maps, Lack of maps, steam AND gfwl combined, cheating/exploiting ruining the ladder. yah the grafix are pretty and stuff, but there are so many problems, wait at least 6 months if you plan to buy it. it should be in the bargain bin, and hopefully reric will have fixed some of the 10000000 bugs by then. but as with most of relics history, their probably already working on the expansion, bugfixes be dammed.… Expand

It's not bad... but it's certainly not great either. Lots of people praise Relic's innovation here, but the game presents little that is new and just comes across as a rehash of Company of Heroes with a (small) roster of Warhammer 40k units, albeit with some poorly conceived RPG elements sprinkled on top. It feels like the elements "borrowed" from other games were chosen by someone who had no real understanding of what made those games good in the first place.… Expand

oh my god this game is worthy of the title Dawn of War. though the story line lacks just a little, it far surpasses the story line of Starcraft, Total Annihilation, and TA Kingdoms, as well as most other RTS games however. The game play in the levels are so fast paced even a full blown Button Masher class player would have a hard time keeping up. I would hate to say its a hard game, you mainly need to know when to push forward and when to fall back. The graphics are by far the best I have ever seen in an RTS class game, and Im counting C&C here. the only drawback I see if the lack of races that DoW1 had, Tau and Necron they wer my fave races but I guess seeing as how the Zerg have escaped Starcraft and Infested DoW the Necrons had to go back to sleep. lol I general hope this game will end up like DoW1 though, more races more units more camps (hopefully in the Expansion pack/s we will have more then one race) like DoW1 had.… Expand

Single player was boring. I mean really boring. It felt like playing Dungeon Siege in a Warhammer universe. I will miss the strategy series that was Warhammer 40k. Up until now I have bought every Relic title made because I always know they'll be great games. That won't be happening anymore. Also the idea that I need a windows live account and a connection to the internet to play a single player game is ridiculous. I can ALMOST understand it for multiplayer, but even then it's much more annoying, bug ridden, and clunky then the way it was in DOW 1. Why not keep a system that worked great for single and multiplayer? If I purchase a game I want to be guaranteed it will work with or without some third party service hosted in another country.… Expand

Campaign was the first thing I tried, and I loved it... untill I learned that you can only play as the Space Marines. Then after struggling through the limited menu, I finally found something that looked like a skirmish mode... I almost cried when I couldn't locate my builder unit. No Tau, no Imperial guard? $50 down the drain.

I do not like the lack of in game saves. Other then that this is one of the best RTS games I have ever played. The graphics are off the charts good, superb voice acting and good storyline. I didnt get up from the front of my computer for days! My wife was so pissed! LOL

An excellent campaign (finally more developers realize that co-op is the future) and intense multiplayer make this game a real gem in the RTS genre. Taken for what it is (and not what one wants it to be i.e. DoW1), this game succeeds on every level. For an RTS to get me to play online takes a lot and DoW2 accomplishes just that. Highly recommended.

Wow, when the first DOW started, there wasn't any Tau, Imperial Gaurd, or anything like that. THQ and Relic made an approach, and any real fan would know this, to make it feel like a completely new game. They did good, very good. There is going to be add ons for the game, and people should understand that this is a change to Dawn of War. But when I first played it I was very disappointed.. as I kept playing, I realized, it was just like Company of Heroes, except it was Warhammer 40k instead, and it was fun and unique. No Other RTS game offers what this game offers, so don't be.… Expand

A strange thing happened to me a little while ago. Due to the stress and frustration I was dealing with at work and life in general, I developed this odd craving to play a game where I could control a race of giant, vicious mutant insects devouring everything in my path. Since Starcraft II isn

This game is full piece of shit.No building , campaign on can be done as Space Marines , also campaign is bull**** , because you will need to play a lot of maps again , again , again , again , again , again...And this game costs 50 buck , huhh , this should be free like Battlefield Heroes

Another game I would have bought. But as I dont agree with all this DRM-crap, I won't. And what is the sense of all the DRM an copy protection? There are allready pirated copies. And: installing the legal bought version needs a steam-account, a windows-live-account and you have to be online. cracked version does not need that. -> disadvantages for customers... THQ -> FAILED! I won�39;t use thm either, but it shows, that all this drm-crap is only to prevent the people from selling the game again.… Expand

Cannot get this to run after 3 days. Between Steam, Games for Windows Live, THQ, Relic all trying to go through some arcane system to get this to start up, it simply won't work on my computer which exceeds all the minimum specifications. Technical support for the game if it doesn't run is less that zero consisting of misinformation and pointing to the other parties. Be aware this is a way to just lose $50.… Expand

i hate this stupid game, the first DoW is my favourite RTS ever (after Starcraft): this sequel is horrible, slow, with 5 types of unit...the graphic isn't so cool, too...give me the real sequel!!

Being a huge fan of DOW1, I was a bit dissapointed with the completely different gameplay that DOW2 had, but now I much prefer it to the first. Its much more fast-paced, you cant just create one army and march them as a group or you'll lose- you have to divide them up and fight in multiple places at the same time. The balancing of the races is also much better in my opinion. The campaign can be a bit glitchy but I really enjoyed it, especially co-op mode.… Expand

I must say that I've been looking forward to this title for some time. I fell in love with the 40k universe 8 years ago whhen I picked up playing the tabletop game, and with relic 10 years ago after playing Homeworld. Since then, I've made it a point of honor to own every single title they have released since. With the release of Company Of Heroes, the Essence engine has become my all-time-favorite. This game does Run on the essence engine, however, the lack of base building and strategic maps as those are found in CoH turned me off. While I am happy that the campaign is available as a story, I do miss the more Total-waresque campaign as those found in Soulstorm and Dark Crusade. Also, the non-inclusion of some of the races (i.e. Chaos, Dark Eldar, Necrons, Imperial Guard, etc) peeved me a little. All in all, its a solid game with pretty good multiplayer, however, I would wait until it comes down to 40 bucks before shelling out to it.… Expand

Dawn Of War II, from at least 24 hours of gameplay if put into it, it is at least an ambitious an inovative game, the particular feautres which make this game so unique is 1. The leveling up system 2.Turn-based real time stragedy 3 Eliminating the use of building countless units like in DOW 1. with all these different feautres this game can be sometimes mistaken for other genre like ';RPG*, but the original overhead view still dominates this game making the overall play of it still RTS in nature. If you come into this game with an open-mind and ready to give it a chance, this game may even surprise you due to the new gameplay and the 'ultra' graphics setting which make this game extreamly realistic in its own way.… Expand

This is better than DOW, Relic have improved the gameplay, I don't know what all the fuss about it been repetitive, that's the game in a nutshell... it's all about battles and lots of it.. Graphics is great and you really need a powefull rig to fully appreciate it all in it's glory. The pace of the game is so much faster and very close to the gametop version. The option to sneak about is still there, but it is so much better to just start shooting, but set your units up so they support each other ;).. This is a must buy game if you love RTS games.… Expand

The minor feeling of repetition with the missions didn't take away of the challenge and fun of them as the story continues on. Multiplayer is well done although not many maps to choose from at the moment. After hearing it was more like the tabletop game, I expected a lot more multiplayer game modes too. Still overall a great game (Probably more of a game for fans of the 40K series in my opinion though as I hear a lot of whineing from hardcore Blizzard fans), can't wait to have my Tau back though. … Expand

I can understand why a lot of people are disappointed with this game; if you are looking for an expanded version of Dawn of War 1, look elsewhere. Once you separate yourself from the idea that this is a "sequel", there's a lot to love in this game.
I personally don't mind the steam + windows live, since I already use steam and windows live is likely to expand in the future. If this is a problem for you, you may want to give the game a second thought. Also, you CAN use an offline windows live account to play the single-player campaign, but your achievements won't be saved (probably not a big deal if you aren't playing online).
Second, I would recommend trying the single-player demo before committing to a purchase, especially due to the mixed feelings about this game. I enjoyed the demo so I made the purchase and I'm quite pleased with the decision.
If you've never played an RTS before, this could be a good first step. The gameplay is streamlined and provides a good stepping stone to learning how to micro-manage units. Or, if you find traditional RTS games to be shallow, you may enjoy the integrated RPG elements, especially the persistence with being able to continue using heroes rather than being forced to a clean slate each mission.
Overall I gave the game a 9 for it's balanced gameplay, quality graphics, and good representation of the tabletop game. It's an enjoyable experience that I'd recommend to others.… Expand

I agree with Jim P. If it played I might even be able to score it. Contact about a non playing game with THQ has been fruitless. Yes I have the latest drivers, and yes it would have been nice if I could have read the fine print about Steam on the back of the box but I had forgotten my magnifying glass (not joking). What a Huge Waste.

This Game Is Terrible. Only good thing is addition of Tyranids (which doesn't even matter in the long run because the game play has been shot point blank in the head) and Improved Graphics. I was hoping to buy this game and have it be somewhat similar to DoW1, yet i was greatly disappointed. The only similar thing is the fact that its in the Warhammer Universe. Took me to long to get everything up and ready, I got bored with the lame campaign in less than 2 missions, and multiplayer was a letdown having few maps, boring battles, and not being everything hoped it would be. Please save yourself $50 and don't buy this game, but by now you've probably already bought it so i feel sorry for you.… Expand

Would be a decent game, except its horribly unbalanced, crashes all the time, and if one person in a game has a 486 everyone gets to lag along with them (great design). You also have to be connected to both steam and ms live to play, so if either is down you can't. No patches for a month after release, relic clearly doesn't give a shit about this game. I would highly suggest not going near it.… Expand

This is going to be a classic. Hate that ill have to wait for expansions again though. Would have like to have seen different campaigns. Overall visualy stunning and rock solid gameplay. Another great add to the 40K series.

Why it gets a 9 because, though it could use improvement in alot of areas, they do not shine how simply awesome the game itself is. Honestly, color me optimistic, but Relic is the best video game developer since Dynamix.

Really disappointed with the new take on multiplayer (taking points and not building bases), and why such a small ammount of maps?! Seriously, I think you may have ruined this game franchise by doing this! I do think the rest of the game is alot better than dow1, so hoping that the expansion packs will make it even better (this was the case with dow1). many thanks to thq and relic but sort multiplayer out with expansion packs PLEASE! jOcKaDoOm.… Expand

This would be a good game, if it weren't so riddled with bugs. From time to time you lose control of your units, my camera sometimes pans endlessly for no reason, teammates sometimes are switched to the opposite team at the games start, occassional you will play as Space Marines when you picked a different race, and the game crashes often enough to be a problem. When it works its very fun, challenging, and fairly balanced between the races. However I will not be playing this much at all until I find these issues resolved.… Expand

at the age i currently am having lived before the www and http i find this game so far the utmost peak of rts with all in cluded both faults and the <3 and the game lore also supports this type of a game aswell this game itself so 10/10 from me

This is my first time playing Warhammer 40K, and the first impression is pretty good. You start with an introduction of the game, and there is valuable information throughout the campaign. The game needs improvement in campaign length, its simply too short for me The missions also get too much the same, and the game gets boring quite fast.

Fantastic new direction from a genre filled with cookie cutter games. less emphasis on building means more emphasis on fighting. The only thing it seems to be lacking is alien campaigns.

I love 40k, I loved DoW. In a way we should be glad that they took a different approach on this game rather then just putting a "2" behind this the first part and not changing anything else. However, the single player turns out to be quite dull, to easy and the non-linear campaign style makes it feel like playing random skirmish missions rather then a storyline. The multiplayer is a tad better, but the "trueskill" system that is used is weak and it feels to much like a Company of Heroes copy with less options and less controll.… Expand

I have always enjoyed the dawn of war series and this is the best yet.i have also played the modeling game and enjoyed that as well giving me a new respect for the amount of work put into the game because the game is based off the models and as i am a modeler i must say that all those who rate this game low must not have the respect for it and do not read the books play its other games or even attempt to play the modeling game.as a rule of thumb please for all those who rate this game low i must encourage you with the utmost respect to try out the models or read a few of the books as they will give you a completely different perspective.… Expand

Nice graphics and GUI but the game is too shallow for my liking. Never been a big fan of the standard RTS game so thought this one I might enjoy more because it claimed to be different from all the rest. Sure, the difference is that it is even less shallow than other RTS games because all there is to the game is simple sheep herding and finding cover. Boring!

for me this is not better part of Dawn of War. 3 soldiers in group?! - it's like our idiots in fights. now battles don't make sense, it was better to see a huge army crashed by one Avatar maybe - it was Awesome!!! so ... I more like old Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War - it's BEST

I downloaded this game off a torrent site and I completely loved every minute of it. The mix of RPG and RTS is so addicting--all I could think about for 2 weeks was leveling my characters and getting them the best items (especially the coveted terminator armor which, unfortunately, they only got to use for about 2 days). I can only speak for the campaign since I don't have a CD key to play online, but I'm almost tempted to purchase one to play online. I only played the normal difficulty thus far and it was challenging enough but I'm considering replaying on the hardest difficulty now that I have a better understanding of the strategy needed for this type of RTS (small # of units, no base, exploiting cover, etc.). If you played Warcraft and Starcraft, this is a breath of fresh air. Not all people will like this, mostly hardcore base building fanatics, but it's definitely worth playing for free. On top of the great gameplay, there is stunning graphic and battle effects and honestly, some of the best mini-movies I've seen in games in awhile. 9/10 from this satisfied gamer. Give it a try--you might find yourself up until 'dawn' playing this game more than once.… Expand

wow i waisted my money. The game requires you to sign up for too many things for starters. As well, one of those programs you have to have running keeps a popup with your cd key right over top of unit and unit information. If your looking for what you saw in the original dawn of wars, quick fun, lots of choices in races for campains, and the such, do not buy this game. As well, you have to be logged in while playing it. no more offline campaining. The campain part of this game really is disapointing, and im very pissed by it.… Expand

Relic has really improved this game since they made the first dawn of war. They have added a much more tactical based game, which brings the players right into the action. The multi player has some really nice features, such as the cover which were also seen in the first dawn of war, and the newly added thing, with no base building. This really brings players much more into the action and make them enjoy the game more. The single player campaign is impressive. It is probably the closest an RTS game has ever been to make you feel like you are there! The graphics has been greatly improved since dawn of war 1, and the sounds is really good, but the game is not only great. After some time it does get boring, i dropped it after a month myself, but i guess some people like it better. The game is probably more for warhammer fans, and people which really like the tactical aspects of a game, but for the more general RTS players, it might get boring after a while, and they want to get back to the more usual RTS style of gameplay.… Expand

Well, compared to DoW I, of course graphics, sounds and physics are better. But it isn't Dawn of War anymore. This is something between RTS and B-class hack'n'slash. Less units, less maps, smaller maps, no place for battles. Campaign is just a bunch of missions like "get through all bad-guys on the map and then kill their boss" or "defend some point" just few were a bit non linear, but even these were predictable.… Expand

Hugely disappointing. Firstly, I resent having to be online to install and activate a game I intend to play offline. Secondly, Windows Live is a total copout on the part of Relic. Thirdly, this game is based on Company Of Heroes. You can call it 'inspired by' that game but I say it's nothing more than a derivative copy of that (better) game's mechanics. Fourthly, Where Are The Troops??? Where are the other five types of Eldar Aspect warrior and why so many damn limits on squad size? I want hordes of Orks. Not just a posse. Hordes! If Relic are expecting us to queue up meekly and pay for new troop types with each expansion (as happened with DoW) they can guess again. Fifthly, where's my control? I want total control over placement of defensive guns, support structures, resource structures, everything. Instead I'm playing battles against an annoying mapmaker. Lastly, this is NOT Warhammer 40K. Like Dawn of War, it's just a bog standard wargame using Games Workshop's (un)original IP. Why do so many reviewers fail to see that while they're drooling over the pretty graphics and 'splosions.… Expand

Good Graphics, useless game play. Seemed like a last minute effort to copy the CoH squad system, which failed miserably. Particularly annoying since the first was so good.

Very good game! The campaign grants many action, but the after some time, the story gone away! And the final Mission isn't very special... The multiplyerpart is good, you can play every 4 races! No base-building only action, thats what i want. And with the last update, there is a new Gamemode "The Last Stand", I played it many hours and I continue to play it many hours =)! It's a big fun, but some items are unusefull and dump!… Expand

While the game seems awsome in its look and delivers in content, it has so many bugs and crashes that its not really worth buying because you cant really play it without constant crash interruptions.

Really disappointing, the missions are boring, the character management part isn't exciting either. the mission goals are always the same, you will kill the same and same troops over again, with the same tactic till you reach a kind of miniboss, which has some special abilities, like AOE dmg or a charge. I rated this game with 7, because it's a mediorce game, with an uncreative story, but the first hours are fun.… Expand

This is a good game, but the story ends too quick in my opinion.