Dawn of War II players will know the satisfaction of working together as opposed to against one another when The Last Stand free DLC drops, delivering a co-op survival mode that sounds like a RTS version of Gears of War 2‘s Horde.
Co-op has been the multiplayer flavor of the month for, well, a lot longer than a month in gaming. From Left 4 Dead to Gears of War 2, players seem eager to work with each other as much as they do blowing up each other’s faces. Now Relic and Dawn of War II are getting in on the co-operative action with the “Last Stand” free DLC mode for Dawn of War II, which adds a three-player co-op survival mode.
The Last Stand is in essence a survival mode not unlike Gears of War 2‘s Horde: you team up with your pals in an arena and battle successive waves of enemies. Players can choose between three races only: Orks, Space Marines and the Eldar. The objective of the mode (aside from “don’t die”) is to reap experience by stringing together kills with multipliers, which are earned by maintaing control points or accomplishing other specific goal, thus boosting your XP yield and unlocking more neat items to use in the mode.
That RPG-ish progression seems to be at the heart of The Last Stand’s appeal. As GameSpy relates, you can start with a heavy machine gun and then eventually have enough selection to switch your loadout to swords and flamethrowers. The item equipment mechanic also adds some strategic folds to the teamwork – coordinating what weapons each team member uses to complement his/her allies can make a big difference.
So it doesn’t just sound like the “kill all the guys for as long as you can” type of experience you’d be expecting from a run-of-the-mill Survival mode. Certainly for Dawn of War II it’ll be a new and hopefully worthwhile experience, and aside from that, isn’t it nice to work together against a common enemy for once? Orks and Humans and Eldar – we can all get along.
