In what was a truly fortuitous circumstance, the focus of the latest This Week in Co-Op, Relic’s Action/RTS title Dawn of War II, coincided with the latest GFW Live Co-Op Night. Fellow Co-Optimus staff member Mike “pheriannath” Katsufrakis and I decided to get some practice in before things got kicked off, as it had been a while since either of us had played the game. We also have a history with the Warhammer 40k tabletop game and a particular friend that preferred finding, and using, the cheapest strategy possible in that and every other game we played with him. In this case, he liked to use the Tyranids so Mike and I have just a little built up anger towards the ravening, biological horde. The stage, then, for our co-op adventure was set: the Tyranids are invading, the planet Typhon is crying out for help, and we want to kill as many as possible. Blood Ravens… are… GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
A reference to a DS rhythm game from a couple years ago may not bring to mind the most epic of space battles, but we just couldn’t help ourselves. Once Mike and I had cleared the first few levels and gotten to the main portion of the game, we had our groove set and we were tackling problems all over that little corner of the galaxy. With some new issue popping up every few minutes, you have to start wondering if Blood Ravens get called in to rescue cats stuck in trees or help a washed-up basketball player battle a fire-breathing golem (ok, so the latter is feasible).