Dawn of War 2 Multiplay Beta

The Dawn of War 2 beta is out, and I'm here to tell you that it's quite a treat.

Gell and I have been playing it a bit today, and we've come to the conclusion that it's fun, and probably worth having when it's released in full, if only for the multiplayer.

Those of you familiar with Company of Heroes will find DoW2 somewhat familiar.  Dawn of War 2 uses the same engine (or, an upgraded version thereof), so certain things that were missing in the first Dawn of War found their way into the sequel.

Firstly, cover is slightly more than an abstraction based upon the type of ground a squad is standing in (ie: river, open ground, crater).  Now most objects of the appropriate size can be used as cover.  Also, the much needed garrisonable buildings are to be found.

Scale is something that makes an appearance in DoW2 as well, with tanks being the size of tanks, and the Ork Wartrukk really looks as though it can fit 6 boyz in there.

Last, but definately not least, is that base building has been totally stripped.  You start with a HQ and two or three defensive emplacements.  That's all you'll ever get, too.  Unit construction (for all units) is done at the HQ, as well as a rudimentry tech tree (levels 1, 2, and 3).  Unit upgrades are chosen much like in Dawn of War or Company of Heroes, by selecting the unit and choosing an upgrade.

The ONLY thing that resembles base building is the upgrading of power nodes, but this is a one-click affair, and each click adds power plants surrounding the node.  You don't choose where the power plant goes, it just appears, and you start getting more power.

This lack of focus on construction allows you to focus on your units, your resources, and your tactics, which is a nice change.  Most strategy games burden you with strategy, while tactics games have no strategy at all.  Dawn of War 2 is mostly tactics, with just enough strategic choice and chance for blunder to make the game easy to learn, hard to master, and fun every time (so far).

It'll be interesting to see if it has any longevity, but I suspect it will

TL;DR Dawn of War 2 Multiplay Beta is good.