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Dawn of War 2 Beta Review

I have been pretty interested by Dawn of War 2 for awhile, since it uses the Company of Heroes engine, and I was delighted when my friend Krakatoa over at Treasure I-LAN got me into the Dawn of War 2 Beta. If you are still looking to get in early (it goes open to the public the 28th of January) check out this post for more info. What I have here is a short Dawn of War 2 beta review; units, some tips, etc. All four Dawn of War II factions are playable: Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, and Tyranids. There are five maps to play on, and two different modes. You can play one-on-one to three-on-three depending on the map, and can set up solo skirmishes with the computer taking the roles of opponents as well as teammates.

From a general standpoint, Dawn of War 2 isn't a direct clone of either the first Dawn of War game OR Company of heroes; It does a great job of taking elements from both games and mixing them together. My main gripe with the first Dawn of War was the massive army sizes and the "select all and attack" that people would end up doing ( I call it blobbing). That really meant that it wasn't much for micro and as long as you had superior numbers, you would win. Now, if you do that and rush headfirst into a heavy bolter squad, well, you are going to be regretting it. Your units will be supressed and unable to move if they rush into open terrain at that HB squad. At least Dawn of War 2 brought in the ability to retreat ( Hint: It is X on the keyboard, it took me a few games to figure it out). Retreating units take much less damage and head back to your base where you can reinforce.

With the changes in resourcing ( and NO base building) keeping at least one guy in your squad alive to reinforce at base is IMPORTANT. The smaller squad sizes and high req costs of units (for SM, it is 500 for the tactical SM squad) means that these units are spendy and it is MUCH cheaper to reinforce them as opposed to throwing them away. That and your units gain levels as they take out more enemy units, so keep them alive! Speaking of no base building, everything comes straight out of your HQ and you get the higher tier units by upgrades to your HQ. This does mean there isn't that much for units to actually build, but there are a massive variety of upgrades to choose from for your units. There is a choice of three commanders for each race in Dawn of War 2. Each commander has different abilities and are marked as offensive, defensive, neutral.

I really liked the gameplay and graphics of Dawn of War 2, but the voice acting isn't up to par to the original Dawn of War. Some people may find the gameplay radically different if you have never played Company of Heroes, so don't fret; I have Dawn of War 2 tips, tricks and stratgey for you! Most of the Company of Heroes tips and tricks I wrote about apply to Dawn of War 2.
Some specific Dawn of War 2 tips for you today are :

• Maintain a variety of troop types, don't go all out with single units. You want a balanced variety of attacks, up close melee hitters and ranged guys together. Try not to clump your dudes up though as you're vulnerable to grenades and other AoE weapons.
• Occupy buildings to keep your guys alive but watch out for grenades.
• If you're capping in Dawn of War 2 and you're attacked, unless you are a split second away from finishing the cap, stop capping, get into cover and fight. You take extra damage when capping and the advantage you gain from having the point capped is wasted if you lose a guy needlessly.
• If you target a unit and they retreat, your units will follow the retreating unit all the way into their base, so make sure you keep an eye on the major battles and watch the minimap for stray blue dots. This one got me a few times and it is annoying.

Overall, I would give the Dawn of War 2 beta an 8.5 out of 10. It really makes me want to purchase the full game when it comes out in February. Don't take my word for it though, when the beta opens up to everybody on January 28th, grab it and give it a try for yourself!
If you need any tips or pointers, or just want to play, leave a comment here OR add me on GFWL: MrMooseinator.

Update: If you are having issues with getting your Dawn of War 2 beta key to work, (usually because steam didn't insert it right). Open up regedit and go to HK_Current_User/Software/THQ/Dawn of 2 Beta/ to view the cd key.

if you are having problems with Games for Windows Live not accepting your username/password, just click the "sign in with another account" and enter your info. You should be able to log in then.