If you ever played Gears of War 2‘s Horde mode, and wondered what it’d be like if you took that mode’s base concept and applied it to a real-time strategy game as opposed to a third-person shooter, well, you briefly had a Vulcan mind meld moment with a designer over at Relic. Today, THQ announced a free DLC pack scheduled for October, titled “The Last Stand,” for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 where, in THQ’s words, players will, “team up with two other squad-mates in an attempt to hold out as long as possible against wave after wave of relentless attackers.” Sound a bit familiar?
I recently checked out The Last Stand for myself with two Relic employees, designer Chris Becker and producer Otto Ottosson. The concept is simple: players choose to be either a Space Marine Captain (who is essentially a renamed Apothecary), an Ork Mekboy, or an Eldar Farseer, and try to survive 20 waves of bad guys. The waves start out pretty simple — just throwing a few squads of Ork Shoota Boyz or maybe a Tyranid Hormagaunt Brood at first. But, as the players progress, the waves get more difficult due to either sheer numbers or types of enemies thrown in. Once you get into wave six or higher, you start seeing things like a screen full of Eldar Warp Spiders and Banshees, or Ork Stormboyz supported by multiple Stikkbommaz. Additionally, every fourth wave also throws in enemy Commanders at you — just getting to wave four results in a rude surprise of Imperial Guardsman accompanied by an enemy Space Marine Apothecary. The version I played didn’t have the full 20 waves, but I can already warn you about wave 16: you’re going to encounter enemy A.I. versions of your team. So think of the hurt you’ve been laying down being delivered right back at you.