Dawn of War II

I picked up the latest Warhammer RTS because I'm a glutton for punishment. It's a well-documented character flaw that I like playing real-time strategy games, they just don't like me playing them.

A slew of critical reviews perked my interest in this latest installment. Gamespot in particular mentions numerous times that the game's single player campaign plays more like an action RPG than a RTS, right down to looting gear off conquered mobs. I know GS meant that as a criticism, but I took it as a selling point. As much as I enjoy building a base, upgrading units, and then churning them out like gummy bears in a candy factoring, I never strike a good balance between the building aspect of the game and the part where you steer your army towards an opponent and kick some ass. I always mobilize too soon or too late, mostly erring towards the latter. I think it's a patience thing. I have enough to painstakingly build a base, but not enough to coordinate that with strategic and tactical real-time combat.

But DoW II seemed a departure. There's no base building in the campaign, only squads and a main hero unit. And Gamespot is right, the single player aspect plays almost like Diablo, except a bit more tactical. Launching all your squads headlong into battle sometimes (but not always) leads to swift slaughter. So I'm enjoying the game so far and getting my RTS fix to boot. I guess this means I might thing about picking up Starcraft II, rumored to be coming out sometime in June.