Alright, so I got a chance to play around with the Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II Multiplayer Beta this past weekend, and I figured I would do a quick review of what I've seen so far. 

If you've played the first Dawn of War or any of its expansions, you will be very familiar with base building. I know I spent a decent amount of my time designing efficient yet effective base designs, as well as defensive patterns that could hold of the most massive of attacks. If you've played the DoWII beta, you know how annoying it is that suddenly, none of that matters. That's right, no more base building. Now you just start out with a single building that can be upgraded to support better units. any base building comes along with capturing power nodes. And all you get to build there are power generators. My guess is that the designers were going for a more tactical game with this change of game play.

The Commander unit is a little more important than it used to be, as well as more powerful. When you start a game (a multiplayer game, anyways), you get to choose from 3 commanders of any of the 4 races available: Space Marines, Eldar, Orks, and Tyranids. I know, I was surprised too. All this time, Relic refused to add Tyranids to the game, and now they're one of the first playable races.

Generally, there are 3 different types of commander: Offensive, Defensive, and Support. For instance, the Space marines have the Force Commander (offense), the Apothecary(support healer), and Tech Marine (defense). I admit I haven't had a lot of time to play, so I played with the Force Commander most.

Before I go any further, I just want to comment on how pretty this game is. The graphics are nicely detailed, and the particle effects are very well done. They did a good job of making the game look great while keeping it light weight enough that you don't get bogged down in the graphics. 

The game play is a little tricky at first, but you adapt quickly enough. It would seem that individual squads are a little more important now, and a single squad can tip the balance of a skirmish if you play it right. 

As for the Commander units, they are much more fun to play with that before. Used to be that the commander was just another powerful unit to throw at the enemy. Now he seems actually important. They are pretty versatile, as well. You can upgrade or change their wargear loadout to change the way they fight or effect the abilities they have. The wrong wargear in the wrong situation can ruin the game, so there is a whole new level of strategy involved in the use of your commander. 

As I understand it, the single player campaign will be a little different, so I'm excited to see what that brings us. So far, DOWII is shaping up to be more than simply a sequel of a successful franchise. I'm not entirely sure I'm on board yet. I'll give it a little time before I make my final judgments, though.

/Remus