Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Reviewed on: Windows PC

Available for: PC

Publisher: THQ

Developer: Relic

Rating: 16+ (PEGI)

Like a romance between donut lovers, real time strategy games are frequently bloated affairs.

Hordes of mindless soldiers run around busily ignoring your specific instructions, leaving you with a decimated army, a tedious replay and a headache.

DoW II ditches all this and pulls the focus in tight.

Each mission you pick a handful of squads of Space Marines and keep tight reign on them as you battle your way through hordes of Orks, Eldar or Tyranids.

It’s a tactical choice – do you pick the heavy machine gun squad, the scouts with cloaking ability or the rocket pack shock troops. Each earns points for the way they fight which translate into new abilities and there are stacks of new weapons to be picked up as well, making it a blend of RTS and RPG.

It looks nice enough but despite the new style and the genre mix, it feels a touch formulaic. Quickly you realise each mission boils down to either race through the map or defend the objective. Ho hum… There’s nothing wrong here, but despite a concerted attempt at originality it just feels like lots of bits of different games you’ve already played poured into a mixer and served back to you.

SCORE: 6 / 10