Edge writes: "Realtime strategy games don't have boss fights, right? This one does. Each one of Dawn Of War 2's singleplayer missions culminates in a pacy pile-on against some lone uber-character laden with devastating special attacks.
As you shuffle your four small squads of Space Marines around the screen to avoid them, intermittently unleashing powers of your own, you're using reflexes and tactics unfamiliar to this genre. You're playing Diablo – but a Diablo set in Games Workshop's maximalist sci-fi world, with a lone warrior replaced with a small army of power-suited future-fascists."
VGChatz's Taneli Palola: "There's no question that during these years the overall popularity of the genre took a significant hit, as most games within it specialized even further by adding new elements from other types of games into their gameplay loops and consequently became increasingly niche as the years wore on.
However, this doesn't in any way mean that the period was devoid of great games. Quite the contrary, in fact. Arguably some of the greatest RTS titles ever made came out around this time, and much of this was because many developers were increasingly familiar and comfortable with adding new twists and gameplay elements to the familiar formula. As such, even when the genre's popularity dwindled, many studios were still creating excellent and groundbreaking titles almost every year, just for a smaller audience than in years past."
those were fun years red alert star craft command and conquer well when westwood studio made good games before EA brought them like bioware...
"This week when I was scrolling through my Steam library for a game to play I was stumped, until I found a mod which brought fresh air to an old classic. The game was the legendary Dawn of War series by Relic. The Dawn of War expansions; Winter Assault, Dark Crusade and Soulstorm along with other stand-alone titles like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, give the universe the justice it rightly deserved."
Sega wants to give you even more free games.