Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Dawn Of War II

By Jim Rossignol on April 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 am.


It’s official:

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, the highly anticipated sequel from one of the industry’s premiere Real-Time Strategy developers, Relic Entertainment, is set to bring the 41st Millennium’s savage warfare to life like never before in spring 2009. Powered by an enhanced version of Relic’s proprietary Essence Engine 2.0, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will take players to the brutal frontlines of war where they’ll experience intense action and visceral combat through a non-linear single player experience and a fully co-operative multiplayer campaign.

Soulstorm owners will get access to the multiplayer beta, whenever that might be. More info coming up later in the week, apparently.

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34 Comments »

  1. Kharne the Betrayer says:

    BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! KILL, MAIM, BURN!

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  2. Seniath says:

    DoWant.

    Har har, that sounded funnier in my head.

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  3. kalain says:

    YaY!! Bout time. Now which should I buy, DoW2 or SC2? oh, we’re so spoilt for choice!

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  4. Mark-P says:

    Yes please! :D I’m more excited about this than Starcraft 2. Relic are the kings of RTS in my humble opinion, and I can’t wait to see a new DoW game and engine post-CoH. I hope they can crank up the atmosphere and ambience a notch from the original.

    Has there been other news or vague-crazy-rumours on another CoH expansion or, dare I hope to dream, Homeworld 3 since the rights changed hands? I’m replaying Homeworld 1 right now and it still has all the magic.

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  5. I think THQ would be mad not to do Homeworld 3 now that they have the rights, and the studios, to do it. We’ll see, I guess.

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  6. phuzz says:

    Dreadnauts just look cool. Always.

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  7. As long as it is better and more captivating than Soulstorm I shall be happy. The new engine should make a big difference :D

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  8. Riotpoll says:

    Looks like I’ll have to buy Soulstorm.

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  9. Seniath says:

    I just hope “non-linear single player experience” doesn’t mean “another poorly implemented meta-game map”.

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  10. Joonas says:

    This is going to rock my world. Company of Heroes is the only RTS ever which has held my attention all the way.

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  11. “fully destructible environments”

    Yes!

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  12. matt says:

    I do hope they turn more towards CoH’s type of gameplay and resource management, that would be interesting methinks.
    And, well, i would also hope for Genestealers once again, they did not make it in Soulstorm, maybe they’ll eventually show up in DoW 2, who knows…
    But reading the tidbits of infos over at relicnews gets me excited. Me wants !!
    And i also hope they have a nice CG intro scene done by Blur, just like they had in the original DoW :)

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  13. I’m with Seniath, as long as there isn’t the same atrocious meta-campaign as seen in Soulstorm then they should be on for a winner. Especially if they adopt a CoH approach to the actual gaming part :P

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  14. PleasingFungus says:

    Hooray!

    Agreement with phuzz and Seniath.

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  15. Geoff says:

    @Mark-P
    Well, clearly this game will be NCTSC2, but I suppose you could always buy both. I’m sure I will.

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  16. Dude says:

    Relic are king of RTS. This new made my week, now I want some screenshots!

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  17. Sp4rkR4t says:

    This better have the ‘nids in it.

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  18. Ghiest says:

    Now if it only turns out not-so-horribly-inbalanced I might play it.

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  19. Fumarole says:

    I feel the Warp overtaking me, it is a good pain.

    Here’s to hoping Relic can unseat Blizzard come next Spring.

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  20. Seniath says:

    Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of a meta-game (I also love the idea of meta, but that’s another story), I just think it could’ve been implemented betterer.

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  21. Okami says:

    “This game is nothing compared to Starcraft 2! Nothing!”

    I’m actually wondering why, 20 comments in, nobody else felt like quoting this particular sentence….

    EDIT: Might as well contribute a bit, not just throw silly jokes around.

    I sure hope that this time they’ll manage to capture more of the feel of WH40K. Make it a bit grittier and darker. Grim and dark to be more precise. Because it’s the future. And there’s only war.

    (Quoting GW catch phrases never gets old. NEVER!)

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  22. surprise says:

    But how will this game come up against starcraft 2?!?!?

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  23. Noc says:

    Hmm.

    Is the use of the Dreadnought graphic meant to be read as a metaphor?

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  24. Geoff says:

    @Okami – I did, above, but using the compressed “NCTSC2″ that was recommended in some previous posting.

    I was surprised no one had beaten me to it, especially after kalain and Mark-P left the door wide open for it.

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  25. Yessssssss…Dawn of War is one of my favourites. Plus it had a really great opening cinematic.

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  26. grumpy says:

    You can keep your SC2. If I was so desperate for 1996 RTS gameplay, I’d have played more than 2 missions of C&C3.
    For 2008 RTS’es, no one beats Relic.

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  27. Dude says:

    @grumpy :QFT, you are nothing compared to Dawn of War 2!

    The gloves are off lets see who can perform, this is going to be interesting :)

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  28. Okami says:

    @Geoff: Darn! Beat me to it…

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  29. Joonas says:

    Acutally, I’d buy it if it was just a 40K makeover to Company Of Heroes, complete with the cursing, mud and screaming. There’s just nothing wrong with that game.

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  30. ROFLLMAO says:

    THE game balance = crap
    Graphics= flashy
    Every online game becomes a Rush to final tech tier then mass

    Style over substance seems to be the king here.

    300-400 active players online right now for DC?
    Come on Starcraft has more ppl than that

    Good for a gift, if u know nothing about macro and micro

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  31. LQB says:

    @ROFLLMAO

    0/10

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  32. Yeah, I hope that Dawn of war II will be as great as the first one. But screenshots are fantastics, congratulations to relic.

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