Dawn of War 2 II review for PC

It doesn't quite have the wealth of tactical options as the similar Company of Heroes.

In fact, in some cases it feels a bit console-ey, with big blue arrows pointing at objectives as if you're a bit thick.

I always thought playing strategy games on the pc would presuppose a modicum of intelligence on your part...

Anyway, it is largely perfectly decent and features the much-anticipated Tyranids and a long single player experience.

I just can't get over the feeling of...disappointment.

I thought the previous Dawn of War games were generally improved by the add on packs. What was, in the first incarnation a fairly run-of-the-mill real time strategy game had definitily improved by the Dark Crusade expansion. (I thought Soulstorm was a big step back for one simple reason - I hated the fact that hard won bases disappeared each time you played on the map. I thought that added a certain degree of realism to Dark Crusade, and also led to having to fight much longer frustrating battles every time someone invaded your territory in Soulstorm).

But in Dawn of War 2 there seems to be one tactical template to follow, and this is something of a problem. Charging in tends to lead to big casualties, so the strategy amounts to...sending your leader up the board, (it's always up on these maps, it seems) and trying to get the enemies to follow back into the range of your squads' heavy guns.

Of course there are other ways to do it, but this seems to be the most effective and least likely to end in disaster. But it does get a bit dull, to be honest.

Perhaps future add-on packs will improve things, because I'm sure there's a top notch game in there somewhere.

Users do need to have Steam and sign up to Games for Windows - which seems to be a massive problem for some people, and also requires an internet connection.

You only have to look somewhere like Amazon to see the huge number of gamers who have a pathological hatred for steam and have given the game the lowest possible score as a result.

Me, I don't really care too much, although for my gaming it doesn't really hold many advantages above the automatic updates. I can't generally be bothered to play online, partly because games on the web are crippled by the numbers of morons, but mainly because for any given game I haven't got the time to spend eight hours a day practicing to become impossibly good.

As for 'games for windows' - it is a major pain to have to log in before being allowed to play the SINGLE player - I really can't see the point of it.

Anyway, on reflection, the score is a slightly disappointed:

71 per cent.