Dawn of War 2 Co-op Preview: Campaigning with the Space Marines

There's nothing worse than taking a perfectly good strategy game and wrapping it up in bad cutscenes and silly scenarios.

What if chess had been conceived as an RTS? Each match would begin with a briefing from a pre-rendered military commander, most likely voiced by Keith David. Players would then be forced to complete a tutorial mission using only pawns, slowly unlocking new "tech" stage by stage, rooks to bishops. Occasionally you'd be given control over hero pieces that look exactly like pawns, but could fly and shoot fireballs.

At the end of the game, you would defeat the evil King. Of course, he'd return in the stand-alone expansion.

Yeah, I can think of only a handful of strategy titles that managed to provide a truly memorable single-player campaign--a mix of unique gameplay and addictive mechanics that amounts to more than single-player window dressing.

Fortunately, Dawn of War II seems to be one of those games.

Dropping Into Co-op

Missions in Dawn of War II begin with a blank view of planetary terrain. For a moment you think, "Oh great, the game crashed"--and then a drop-pod rockets down from space and slams into the crackling earth, your soldiers marching out to take the field. It's a subtle, but very effective delay, and a great way to kick off every level.

On the ground, players will control up to four squads of Space Marines, or two per player in co-op, all chosen from a larger pool of available commanders. On paper, only controlling two units seems like a pretty minimal amount of task management, and I was initially skeptical of whether this gameplay would provide enough depth to keep me interested for more than a few minutes. I was, of course, pleasantly surprised by Relic's radical decision.

Even less of a traditional RTS than the multiplayer portion, it's almost easier to think of Dawn of War II's single-player like a cross between an action-RPG and a real-time tactical game. Each unit commander has a range of special abilities, in addition to the attached squadmates themselves. Rather than requiring some grand goal of map-wide domination, the emphasis is on the tackling of small-scale tactical situations--and in co-op, on the real-time collaboration between players.

For instance, provided with only a machinegun squad and a hero unit to assault a base, one tactic might be to lure the base's troops back toward your machinegun squad, then flank him with a waiting group of melee units. On the other hand, if your co-op buddy has a group of offensive jet-pack marines, it may be more effective to make a direct assault--smashing into the defenses and rushing up your machinegun to support.

Missions contain both scripted and unscripted events. Sometimes a group of enemies will simply be guarding a base--another time, they might drive up in a tank, triggering an in-game cutscene. Either way, there's always some kind of puzzle that needs solving--preferably with a lot of firepower, or a big grenade. I didn't see anything revolutionary when it comes to RTS mission design--at least nothing that Relic hasn't already pioneered in past titles. Instead, the gameplay and pacing is what really stands out.

The sheer number of abilities and tactics in play justify Relic's small-scale approach to RTS design. Assault troops, stealth squads, machinegun crews and giant heroes with hammers--all can be directly managed and shifted around, used in a charge or left as bait. It feels like a strange cross between Diablo and StarCraft, and it feels good.

The pacing of the levels is also rather satisfying. Players will capture satellite stations as they progress through each level. These stations act as checkpoints, allowing your troops to replenish their numbers and heal up. As your forces are repelled, falling back to these points often becomes essential.

These checkpoints ensure that, unless your play style is entirely suicidal, you'll be able to salvage your troops and put together another plan of attack. Combined with the unit cap, this leads to a lot of flowing, non-stop tactical gameplay, rather than abrupt failures or all-too-easy victories. It's all about assessing the task at hand, coming up with the best way to attack it given your units, and managing abilities and tactics in the heat of battle.

Genre Splicing and Dicing

Speaking of Diablo, the real hook in Dawn of War II's Space Marines campaign is its action-RPG flavor. Players will have control over a maximum of four squads during gameplay, with each squad being captained by a particular pre-defined character. These are all tough guys with different specialties--some are stealthy scouts, others bruisers with big guns. All can be leveled up with stat points and special abilities, equipped with weapons and armor, and outfitted with items.

The outfitting phase is made easy by a very attractive, user-friendly presentation. Statistic points--earned by leveling up in battle, or by accumulating residual experience out of battle--directly unlock new abilities. Weapons and armor--found on the battlefield or earned from completing missions--are slotted onto characters in World of Warcraft fashion. Co-op players will have the ability to choose their unit types, load out their squads and level up their commanders simultaneously.

These RPG elements do more for the campaign than I first expected. In my playthrough of several missions, I was more than eager to earn rewards and random weapon pick-ups for my captains. You grow attached to these commanders in the same way you would a character in any other well-executed action-RPG. You want to beat that next level; you want to outfit your dude with that two-handed skullcrusher.

After finalizing a loadout, the game then allows you to choose from a variety of missions to play, each with its own item reward. A select number of these are required for the main storyline, but the rest are branching and optional. A few will be time-limited missions, offering rewards that won't be seen again.

And then you're back in combat.

It's The Action, Stupid

Probably the best part about Dawn of War II's singleplayer experience is the lack of thumb-twiddling. There is no moment where you find yourself waiting for extra resources, or listening to a long monologue. Whether you're deciding on stat boosts or flanking an enemy unit, the game is always keeping you active and engaged.

And as simple as the gameplay may seem in a screenshot, figuring out how to crack a specific tactical scenario with another teammate is no easy task. On only the third level of difficulty, my co-op buddy, a Relic associate producer, was having to resort to some pretty unorthodox strategies to push us along. Pincer movements, heroic charges, artillery blasts--all have to be coordinated on the fly to avoid total decimation.

It may not feel much like a standard RTS, but whatever it is, it's a lot of fun.

Dawn of War II hits the PC on February 19.