BeefJack writes: "Dawn of War II takes place in the enormous Warhammer 40k universe, with you taking control of a new commander of a group of Space Marines, who are loyal servants to "The God-Emperor of Mankind" who has reunited the scattered pieces of humanity from across the universe. The space marines you control are the toughest of the tough, these guys eat bolts for breakfast and tear the ground a new one with a pound of their fist. Where some games give you control of a wizard or a superhero here you're given entire squads of units that can only be considered superhuman. As for the game itself, it's engine is based on a new version of the engine that Company of Heroes(COH) used, the "Essence Engine 2.0," so don't be surprised if you notice more than a few similarities."
Positives:
* Very accessible
* Puts the strategy back in RTS
* Great merging of two genres
Negatives:
* Could be considered simplistic
* Easily forgotten characters
* Generic music
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...
Aside from C&C 4, the other C&C's from EA were all good/great. The genre nose dived once Moba's rose in popularity, even Petroglyph Games (ex-Westwood employees) haven't had a hit since Star Wars: Empire at War (2006), all there games got abandoned after launch.
"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.
