Graphics and Audio

Graphically, Dawn of War II is a beautiful game for the most part. Animations are fluid and eye catching, whether your soldiers are jumping into melee or unloading their weapons at range. Like the original, Dawn of War II melee is a bloody swirl of carnage and death, with body parts and limbs sent flying as the action progresses. Hero units commit fatality-like animations, such as when a Dreadnought picks an enemy up in his massive claw and breaks his back or when your Commander knocks someone to the ground and finishes him off with one shot from his bolt pistol.

Lighting effects in Dawn of War II are also worth mentioning, as the constant flash of bolter fire work wonders to show off the modified Essence Engine 2.0. Textures look great for the most part, although once you get up close, you start to see scaling issues from zooming in. Character models are detailed and impressive, especially the Tyranids. Relic decided to keep the Tyranids out of the original Dawn of War because they felt the engine could not do them justice and, after having seen them up close, we are inclined to agree with that sentiment. After seeing them in Dawn of War II, we cannot imagine how they would’ve looked running under the original Dawn of War engine, but they are now easily worth the wait. From the massive Carnifex to the limber Lictor, Tyranid character models are extensively detailed and should send chills of excitement down the spines of their fans.




Another great feature of the Dawn of War II engine is the destructible environments. Just about any object can be obliterated given the proper amount of applied pressure in the form of a charging Dreadnought. Assault Marines jumping on to enemies not only sends them flying, but their cover as well and Terminators pretty much make their own doors. This makes you consider your tactical maneuvers, when you realize that the cover you are currently crouching in can be blown away.

If you played the previous Dawn of War, then the audio will sound pretty familiar as a lot of the sound and voice effects for the characters makes a return. The Eldar and Space Marines still speak as if their voice is going through a vocoder and explosions rock the battlefield with conviction. Unfortunately, we were unable to get Dawn of War II to natively support 5.1 surround and instead had to rely on Dolby Pro Logic II, which up mixes the audio to surround. RTS’s aren’t as dependant on positional audio as shooters however, so we hardly noticed the problem.