Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Anniversary Edition (Classic)

When I first purchased this game back in 2009, I didnt know what to make of it - it felt really jarring from what I experienced with DOW1 and its many expansions, which allowed you to build a base, do research and amass a large army to overpower your opponents. They scrubbed the entire base building/technology aspect and made it more tactical squad-based, more similar to XCOM, albeit in real-time. Your squad commanders/elites earn XP and level up, which allow you to spec into various percs and abilities, and you can collect gear from each mission to make your team even more powerful. Each mission varies in challenge, with the missions based around the tyranids being some of the more difficult due to their massive zerg-like numbers. Playing this game with a fresh lense after nearly 20 years was refreshing and allowed me to appreciate the game for what it is and not dislike it for what it isn't. If you like real-time tactical missions with RPG-like elements, you'll enjoy this. If you were expecting DOW1 and something more akin to starcraft/warcraft/AOE, you'll probably be disappointed, as I was in 2009.

Bought this game on sale for 7.99. Pros and Cons: - Combat is exciting and tactical, at first. It feels genuinely good to overcome some trials with limited squads. - But then you unlock the Dreadnaught, and enemy unit variety keeps growing in such a way that many enemies become bullet sponges, demanding you bring him along. - The first campaign (Vanilla DW2) is awesome. But Chaos Rising is just more of the same with spongier enemies. Meanwhile, you don't play a new faction; and many of your squads have the same abilities as before. - This leads to a fairly boring experience. I was really hoping I'd be playing Chaos in Chaos Rising. Instead, I have the same assault squad/tactical marines/decimator squads as before; except weaker, because they took away all the rewards I built up in the first campaign. All in all, I wish this was more of an RTS. I want to build more than one squad of Space Marines. The enemy is fielding 150 troops at once. Meanwhile here I am stuck with 4 Tactical Marines, my hero unit, my psyker/or Dreadnaught, and the other 4 specialists. So in other words, I'm commanding 9 units MAX at all times. I do recommend the first campaign. It's fun for a single playthrough. But despite being a "cover-based shooter," not a lot of cover based shooting goes on. What actually happens is you charge your Dreadnaught in and ground pound. Then charge your Commander in and ground pound. Then charge your assault marines in and ground pound. And on and on until everything has been flattened. Guns/tech take a backseat. Abilities are where it's at. Gimme more shooty stuff. Pls+thx. Also, missions in Chaos Rising are unnecessarily long. The shortest Chaos Rising mission has at least +20 mins on the average base campaign mission. They're overstuffed with enemies for no good reason.

Great entertainment for an older title. Graphics of course look outdated at 2026 but no AAA games in my library anyway from recent years so graphics are adequate for the purpose.

Dawn of War II is a strong squad-based RTS that holds up well and still looks good. I didn't run into any bugs or pathing issues as I did in the first Dawn of War games. There may be no base building, but the RPG-lite elements with gear management and leveling up to unlock combat abilities offer a nice feeling of depth. The narrative and voice acting feel better here than in the previous games and there's a lot of dialog to immerse you into the story and characters.

Ich hab schon 250 Stunden auf einem anderen Account (ohne Online, es gibt leider kaum noch Spieler), nicht wundern. Ich finde das Spiel bombastisch und noch Mal beeindruckender, wenn man auf das Erscheinungsdatum schaut. Die Grafik sieht aus wie bei heutigen 60-Euro-Titeln, das Spielprinzip ist sehr gut durchdacht und man hat immer Abwechslung, durchaus auch durch zufällig generierte Missionen, bei denen man nicht Mal ansatzweise merkt, dass sie nicht vorprogrammiert sind. Auch hier geht die Abwechslung nie verloren. Besonders angetan hat es mir jedoch eine Fähigkeit: das Orbitale Bombardement. Drei gewaltige Laserstrahlen aus dem Orbit mit einem ebenso vernichtenden wie gut aussehenden Effekt. Ich habe dieses Spiel das erste Mal gespielt, wo es schon dreizehn Jahre alt war, und kann nur empfehlen, euch die Anniversary Edition zu holen, wenn sie wieder für 8€ im Angebot ist - habe ich schon mehrfach gesehen. Die Rollenspiel-Elemente sind auch nicht zu verachten. Kleiner Tipp für Chaos Rising: das kanonische Ende ist das, wo Avitus etwas ganz bestimmtes tut und Diomedes überlebt, nicht das bestmögliche! (Kein Captain Haargel😢) For the Emprah!

Phenomenal game, still holds up all these years later. If you are a fan of Warhammer 40K this game is a must play.

My first real introduction to the WH40K universe was DoW, the first game. I know the Blood Ravens get a lot of hate, being called "Blood Harpies", thieves, and hoarders, and "Loyalist-Traitors" (for possible origin from the Thousand Sons), but they are still my favorite Space Marine Chapter with the Carcharondons being a close second (though I know very little about the latter; I just know about them). This game does seem a bit hard though when dealing with bosses, like the Orc war boss. I know they are titanic, insanely tough, etc., etc., but it shouldn't be that insane dealing with a squad getting wiped out every minute. Still, it is rewarding and satisfying to finally kill them. May the Blood Ravens continue to earn glory in the Imperium of Man, and the God-Emperor bestowing his eternal favor on this Chapter.

El mejor de todos los tiempos

Legendary RTS game.

DOW is always fun