So you think you know what Relic Entertainment is going to do with the full sequel to their acclaimed sci-fi RTS title Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War (based as always on the Games Workshop war game). Better graphics; more units, more visble units in massive battles, right? Isn't that the way sequels usually do things?

Well, yes. That is the standard for sequels to any game: "More of what you liked before, but better." In the case of Dawn of War II, however, Relic and publisher THQ are actually doing things to the game that on the surface look like they are toning things down. We got a chance to observe an live demo of the highly anticipated title at E3 2008 this week.In our demo the Relic rep stated they wanted to do something different for Dawn of War II in that they wanted the sense of persistence while you play the game. They didn't want a game where you simply built an army for one mission or map then have to go back and start building again for a different map/mission. That idea of keeping your units throughout the single player campaign hasn't been done too much and with Dawn of War II, Relic not only will have this feature but will have others that will make you want to keep your units in working order.

For one thing you won't have as many of them as you did in Dawn of War I. The sequel will concentrate on giving the player just a few squads at a time. Each squad will have a sergeant at the helm which will have special abilities of his own. This variation of the RTS "hero" unit idea is a good one. Instead of some super powerful unit like in other games Dawn of War II's idea of smaller squads will make each "hero" unit more tied into their men.

There's also no base building or unit resources in Dawn of War II which again makes you want to keep your units on the ball rather than just let them charge into battle. Even the game's single player campaign will be different; it will be non-linear which will allow the player to pretty much pick any mission he or she chooses. And one more reason to keep your units safe is the ability to upgrade their abilities, weapons and items as they move through the missions.

The mission we got to see in our E3 demo has our squad of Space Marines going to assassinate a huge Ork boss named Bonecrusher. The demo showcased the game's use of the units to be more tactical and less "charge the hill" than other RTS games have. Because of this, it's good to have your units take cover. If they don't they will get cut down quick.

Fighting Bonecrusher as a boss turned the game into more of an action-RPG than an RTS game (Bonecrusher even has a health bar above so you know you are taking him down). Fighting him is more of a direct approach but again you want to be able to keep your units for as long as possible so players will have to make sure that bosses like Bonecrusher don't take too many of them out. In addition to assassination missions, players will have escort missions as well. As far as playable factions, only three have been revealed (Orks, Space Marines and the Elder). It remains to be seen if any more will be added; if Dawn of War II is successful you can bet that even more factions will be added in expansion packs.

Visually the game is using a modified version of the same DirectX10 based engine that Relic developed for their WWII RTS title Company of Heroes. The game already looks terrific at this point with some highly detailed character models for the units and some impressive effects, especially the blood effects. There's also the same destructible effects that Company of Heroes has As has been revealed previously, Relic and THQ have decided to use Microsoft's Games for Windows Live and make the "Gold" features free to all who play the game. That means things like detailed matchmaking, online voice chat and more can be used without paying any money for those features.

Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War III is still very early in development so don't expect to see the game until sometime in 2009. It should be interesting to see how this smaller scale RTS will be embraced by fans of the original and we hope to have even more info on the game in the months ahead of its release.