Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 is a game in danger of being crushed under sheer weight of expectation. Were it just the sequel to Dawn of War it would be bad enough; the original might not have been the biggest or necessarily the best strategy game of the last five years, but it attracted a following that latched onto the game and its three expansion packs with an enthusiasm bordering on mania.The result of all this is that you have some people who simply want a bigger, better Dawn of War clothed in the Company of Heroes engine, some who want a Company of Heroes in Space Marine battle armour, and some who merely demand a new solid-gold benchmark for the RTS genre. On all counts, Dawn of War 2 could be described as a failure.

The reasons why don't entirely come down to the scarcity of reinforcements. Dawn of War II actually goes further than Warcraft III did, throwing in a proper experience system, complete with levels, points you can use to boost attributes and 'traits' you can unlock and use, often to provide new or improved abilities on the battlefield. There is no base building or unit production in the single player game, nor any resource management or technology tree to worry about.In this game, every man really seems to count, and you'll find yourself guarding your troops with a caution you'd rarely exercise in, say, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3. Better still, destroying particular enemy units can, in true RPG style, result in loot being dropped, while completing missions will often mean similar rewards. Rather than rebuild Dawn of War or try to reinvent the sci-fi RTS, Relic has taken a similar approach to the one Blizzard took with Warcraft III, stripping the game of many of the elements of a classic RTS, focusing on a smaller number of units, and adding RPG elements to make those units more interesting.