A wider variety of playing options are available in multiplayer, since there's access to all four factions. Although there's still no base building, players can research different technologies and summon new units at the base. Things haven't changed all that much from the initial multiplayer beta. Players select from three different heroes. Each has a specialty such as offense, support/stealth, or defensive. Heroes impact what kinds of powers will be at the player's disposal and more or less defines the player's role during the match. There are only seven multiplayer maps, each designed for either 2 player head-to-head matches or up to six players in team-based skirmishes. Game modes are limited to either Annihilation or Victory Point Control, where players must take and hold strategic points until the enemy's point ticker reduces to zero. Resources are shared between teammates, which can mean that they'll trickle in despite holding the majority of the control points. Games move at such a swift pace that it's unlikely that players will have a chance to build more than a handful of squads, but generally speaking, the first person to have a Dreadnaught on the field can really ruin someone's day.

Although the game features the Steam logo on the startup screen, its role is strictly for copy protection. All multiplayer and achievement aspects are handled by Games for Windows Live. GFW Live works acceptably for multiplayer matching, although it can be slow at times. It's disappointing that we can't invite friends to join our game through Steam. We also thought was annoying that players need to be online and logged into GFW Live in order to play the single player campaign. However, this is balanced by how we enjoyed the co-op campaign feature, which gives two commanders control over two squads each. Although the players will need to stay in constant communication with each other (preferably via voice) to ensure they don't accidentally blow each other up, it can be quite a relief to have multitasking responsibilities cut in half. One oversight is that there's no way to set up a public campaign for players to join, nor is there any way to search for campaigns welcoming co-commanders. Players can only invite others from their GFW Live friends list to join in.

Players who enjoy all the aspects of a traditional RTS game, like base building, tech research and manufacturing big armies may not find Dawn of War 2 as appealing as its predecessors. This is a game that's designed for short matches and constant action. Although players move around between three different planets, there's no feeling of progression like there was with the Dark Crusade expansion. Part of it is because we're back to four core factions. Another comes from the fact that we have access to any territory that's in distress. Lastly, no faction is ever permanently put down. Clear out all the threats on a world and four more will pop again a turn or two later. However, we can better appreciate what Dawn of War 2 has to offer when we don't think about the games that came before it. The bottom line is, although there were a few things that got on our nerves, we enjoyed the experience. This isn't the game for die-hard RTS traditionalists, but it offers a lot to people who are looking for fast combat-focused gameplay.

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