Things get a bit more personal in The Last Stand, as you and two other squad mates team up to battle waves of increasingly difficult enemies. Instead of commanding a squad, each player will choose one hero character - the Space Marine Captain, Eldar Farseer or Ork Mekboy - each fully customizable and able to level up from game to game.

Along with the new mode, The Last Stand also introduces two new multiplayer maps, and implements various bug fixes and balance updates to the game.

Check out these screens to see what Relic's RTS version of Gears of War 2's Horde mode looks like.

Sort of.

Fans of Relic's previous two games will be surprised to find that Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II bears little resemblance to either. Where Dawn of War shot for Warhammer's sense of epic warfare and came up short, this game goes in the opposite direction, forgoing scale for intimacy as you find yourself in command of an army of...eleven men.

Which is tiny. Teeny tiny. Definitely not the sort of thing you expect from a real-time strategy game. Which is lucky, then, because Dawn of War II isn't really a real-time strategy game. Least, not one like you've ever seen before.

Loved
Level Up - You'll only end up commanding between 8-11 men in the game, split over four "squads", and those four squads are led by heroes. Don't think of these heroes as RTS pawns. Think of them as RPG party members. They have names, they never really die, and between missions their attributes can be levelled up to make them more formidable. You'll grow very, very attached to them.

Loot Drop - The RPG similarities continue with loot, which is dropped throughout missions. You'll get better weapons and better armour for killing bad guys, which can then be used in later missions. Because the game is built on such a small scale, these items can actually be seen on your men in battle (oh, look, he's carrying his new Heavy Bolter!), which is a real kick.

Homeless - Unlike previous Relic games, Dawn of War II has no buildings. Your men are dropped into a mission, and that's it. No unit building ,no resource gathering, you don't even need to hold command posts. It's just you, your men and the mission at hand, which is really, really liberating.

Choose Your Own Adventure - Giving RTS players a choice between 1-2 missions is nothing new, but giving you a choice between 2-4 missions on each of 3 planets is. Such choice means if you wake up one day and only want to fight Orks (each enemy army plays a very different game), just fly to a planet with an Ork mission and you're set.

Not One Game, But Two - All this RPG talk of loot and levels applies only to the singleplayer campaign. Multiplayer matches are more like those found in Company of Heroes or Dawn of War, with units to be built, strongholds to be upgraded and command points to be held. This effectively means you're almost getting two games for the price of one.

Rock, Paper, Chainsword - Aside from your "avatar" character, a Space Marine Force Commander, you can only take three of the game's five other squads/heroes into battle with you. And each of these squads have wildly varying strengths and weaknesses, meaning you not only have tough strategic decisions to make when deciding who to take on a mission, but flexible tactical options at your disposal once on it.

Hated
Wash, Rinse, Repeat - Most missions involve you having to fight your way across a map to fight a boss (yes, this game even has boss fights). Actually, 95% of missions have you doing this, and while it's a blast, some more variety would have been nice, especially when the few defensive missions in the game prove to be the game's most enjoyable.

If what you've read above makes the game sound like a rich, creamy Diablo/Warcraft III/Company of Heroes soup, well, that's because that's exactly what it is. One minute you'll be using cover and flanking like Company of Heroes, the next you'll be using special powers to bring down a colossal boss character, the next you'll be collecting loot off its corpse and improving your "party" with it.

Which makes this an amazing game to play. It's like Relic have taken some of the most addictive and endearing elements of both real-time strategy and role-playing genres and smashed them together, the resulting game something that's able to appeal to fans of both genres without alienating either.

Warhammer 40000: Dawn Of War II was developed by Relic and published by THQ for the PC. It was released on February 19, and retails for $50. Played single player campaign to completion, played multiple skirmish battles online. Did not play co-op campaign, which game also features.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

To win the more than two-meter tall statue you just have to visit a participating store, photograph yourself with the marine and upload it to the fan photos section of their Facebook page.

On Feb. 26, the staff from the Gamestation store that hosted the statue receiving the most tags will form a judging panel, and choose the winner. Sorry folks, this one is for UK residents only.

The five participating Gamestation stores and the rest of the rules are listed on the Facebook page.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II Facebook Page [Facebook]

The campaign in Dawn of War II differs from other RTS games by cutting out base-building gameplay, creating a leveling system for units instead of for the non-existent base and making you play the entire story as the Space Marines. The result is a campaign mode that makes you get involved with the story even if you click through the pre-mission monologues and a fresh take on the RTS genre.

DoWII Principal Designer Jonny Ebbert* explains the dramatic change in gameplay as an experiment to revive the RTS genre: "RTS games are struggling. They don't reward players enough. And it sucks to start over" with base-level units "every level."

Relic's goal, Ebbert said, was to make DoWII feel good whether you won or lost a mission. By adding a sense of progression, the developer hopes to make campaign modes more rewarding for players without tying it to multiplayer with unlockable content. This means we've got new stuff like leveling up squads and carrying over equipment you find in one level to the next; and we've lost old stuff like holding resource points or tanking in a base for an entire level.

I started out with a generic Space Marine captain (whom I named Jimmy) and sent him to an area where Orks were somehow effing things up for everybody. Jimmy had a small squad of brawler-class units with him that hung back as their fearless leader charged ahead and cut Orks down with his manly chainsaw gun. Because there was no base to defend, I found myself moving forward naturally, just looking for people to fight and later, people to rescue. By helping out some other Space Marines, I gained three more heroes on my "list" that I could select to control the different squads.

At the end of the level, I got the chance to upgrade and equip each of the squads by selecting their leader and dragging equipment I'd found or abilities I'd gained by leveling over their inventory slots. Once everyone was set up with healing kits and things that go boom, I was ready for some co-op action.

A seasoned Relic employee jumped in with me. Co-op buddies can drop into your campaign at any time, but it looks like it's more worthwhile when you have more than four leaders to choose from. You can only take up to four leaders into each mission and in co-op, each player controls just two. The Relic guy wanted to swap with me, but it looks like you can't trade directly. You have to swap leaders by switching them out with whoever you have in reserve (hence the trading card comparison).

Once we got that figured out, we were ready to roll through a level called Gutrencha. Here again, I was feeling the RPG vibe as our two mini-armies plowed through the map, looking for Orks to attack. We didn't stop to hold points more than one time and there was no resource management to be had (since all the equipment is dropped by enemies or destructible objects instead of built at the base).

Equipment finds and XP are shared between co-op buddies but not between squads. So if Jimmy helped one of the Relic guy's ranged squads take down an Ork squad, the XP was divided between his ranged squad and Jimmy's squad. Because everything in co-op is tied to the host, you keep the levels you gain in co-op even if you're buddy drops out.

The impression I get from the two levels of co-op I played tells me that communication is crucial. There's no intuitive role for a player to have because we no longer have positions for babysitting the base or scouting out resource points. Without talking to your buddy to decide who's packing healing abilities and which way you plan on going in a map, things could fall apart pretty quickly if an enemy force cuts between you. Seems you'll be using DoWII voice chat for more than just trash-talking.

In the end, I stuck with the Relic guy because he knew the map and I had the healing packs. The "retreat" button still works if your leader is in trouble – it sends him back to the last point you took from an enemy force and he'll build up HP there – but because everything felt like a natural push forward, I just kept hitting the healing button so we could keep moving.

*Spoilers*

Thanks mostly to my impatience and partially to my buddy for already knowing the map, we got to Gutrencha fast. I think this was my first ever RTS boss fight that didn't involve blowing up a base. Gutrencha is just an Ork with an insane amount of HP and hammer that sends out a shockwave in one direction, knocking down units and doing a significant amount of damage. The only strategy involved here was positioning units around Gutrencha to fire from all sides and moving them out of the way whenever he aimed his hammer at them.

Gutrencha didn't bother me – but the next boss, Skykilla, did. He was essentially the same boss, defeated by the same tactics – only I was moving my guys out of the way of his jet pack exhaust radius. Here's hoping the whole game isn't like this, or it's going to be the most boring RPG ever.

*End Spoilers*

All in all, I'm not unhappy with what Relic has done with the campaign mode, especially since co-op is so painless. But I wonder if the more "hardcore" RTS gamers are going to feel robbed of strategy by forgoing the base building and the hold-this-point-for-this-much-time gameplay. I guess they can still get their kicks in the multiplayer modes – and maybe the later levels in campaign mode introduce trickier situations to strategize around.

Relic plans a post-launch demo of campaign mode. The multiplayer open beta is going on now and the full game comes out on Steam and on shelves February 19, 2009.

Check out the new screens. Official word from Relic is that co-op campaign screens are different from campaign screens because "co-op squads have slightly different colored armor." Just FYI.

*Yes, I apologized to him for misspelling his name last time. His response: "It's my fault for having an obscure name."

The vid shows of the melee brawling style of the faction, plus some of the spiffy robotic units and vehicles the Orks are so fond of building. My personal favorite is the rocket-launcher squad — but I have to call bullshit on this vid for making it look like a lone rocket-launcher squad can take down what looks like an Eldar avatar.

The only thing that could take one of those things out is another avatar. Preferably one flanked by rocket launcher squads.

And you get Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II multiplayer beta access! And.. ahem, sorry. Got a little carried away with the news that the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II multiplayer beta is now open to everyone, not just those who own a copy of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War - Soulstorm.

That's it. Go get it off Steam. Have fun. See ya.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Multiplayer Beta [Steam]

The beta will be available exclusively to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm owners on Jan. 21, followed by a worldwide public release on Jan. 28. The beta will feature all four playable races, five multiplayer maps, and Microsoft's Games for Windows - LIVE TrueSkill Matchmaking.

That's right, Games for Windows Live is back. Kinda odd that this beta will use Live matchmaking but be made available through Steam, isn't it?

Dawn of War II is scheduled for a Feb. 23 release on PC through worldwide retail and online outlets.

THQ and Relic Entertainment Set to Wage War of Epic Scale in Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II

Sequel to Multi-Million Unit Selling Real Time Strategy Series Features Vicious Frontline Combat, Extensive Co-Op Campaign and Cinematic Visuals

AGOURA HILLS, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) today announced that Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II, the highly anticipated sequel from one of the industry's premiere Real-Time Strategy (RTS) developers, Relic Entertainment, is scheduled to bring the 41st Millennium's savage warfare to life like never before in spring 2009. Powered by an enhanced version of Relic's proprietary Essence Engine 2.0™, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will take players to the brutal frontlines of war where they'll experience intense action and visceral combat through a non-linear single player experience and a fully co-operative multiplayer campaign. Set in Games Workshop's (LSE: GAW) highly popular Warhammer 40,000 science fiction universe, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is being developed exclusively for Windows PC.

In addition, THQ is pleased to announce that gamers purchasing copies of the recently released Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® - Soulstorm™ will be able to participate in an invitation-only multiplayer beta program for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II set to take place at a future date.

"The original Dawn of War and its subsequent standalone expansions have established the series as one of the industry's leading RTS franchises," said Brad Carraway, vice president, global brand management, THQ. "Dawn of War II will re-define RTS gaming to gamers worldwide, delivering brutal frontline action and tactics, and allowing players to get straight to the action with unprecedented fast-paced RTS gameplay and a full co-op campaign, all in stunning cinematic detail."

"We started with everything fans loved about the original Dawn of War and then added more than they ever could have hoped for in the sequel into Dawn of War II," said Tarrnie Williams, general manager, Relic Entertainment. "Leveraging our critically acclaimed Essence Engine 2.0, gamers will develop and lead an elite strike force through Games Workshop's war-torn universe, engage in devastating combat among the ruins of fully destructible battlefields, and be immersed in an ever-changing single-player and co-op multiplayer campaign."