A Masterpiece RTS/RPG hybrid. Terrific and engaging campaign mode with rewarding unlocks. Despite a seemingly simple interface and only controlling a handful of units, as opposed to the massive armies of those is Company of Heroes (or to a rediculous contrast: Supreme Commander) there is a suprising level of depth to the online multiplayer ranked and play matches, building up hero units or supporting them with many more suporting units, or simply rushing certain points and keeping a safe distance, it's the collection of small decisions that make the difference in DoW2, not committing to one "game-winning" tactic that the experts can counter with a simple upgrade. An unparalleled replay feature helps you learn from those difficult matches, but rest assured the player match community is newbie friendly.
A small drawback in that the initial loading time when connecting players from a lobby to a game. Also the game requires both a Steam and Windows Live account, inconvenient for some. This review being posthumous after the last vanilla DoW2 update in new and excellent "The Last Stand" game mode, the standards have been raised and the score demoted half a star. Assume "Chaos Rising" is 4.5 stars as it improves on the minor irks in DoW2, yet it still requires GFWL and Steam.
