I tend to think it’s a hallmark of a game being a wee bit special if I carry on playing it after I’ve filed a review of it. Because what I think is so terribly important and always 100% right, you see. Such has been the case with Dawn of War II, which has successfully managed to keep me from away from other, more pressing work for the last couple of days. One big reason for this has been wading back in on the Primarch difficulty setting (that’s ‘Ultra-bastard-hard’ in proper English), where my concerns about how relatively tactic-free the Sergeant setting was have been given a gentle shoeing.
It’s a much more challenging game at Primarch, becoming akin to something like Commandos or Men at War. Unfortunately there are some crazy difficuly spikes, especially in boss fights, and I keep on winding up feeling like my Space Marines are feckless incompetents rather than super soldiers. I hope to carve though Primarch in co-op at some point, however – seems like it might be a perfect balance. Inevitably, the Campaign’s map repetition is a little more grating second time around, so I can’t see myself sticking with it for long. I wonder if it’s possible for Relic to shove a little more variety into the campaign maps in an upcoming patch. In theory, it shouldn’t break anything – most of the maps are pre-set playgrounds as opposed to anything clever and scripted.
Also luring me back again and again, this time for skirmish fights, is the new Army Painter. It’s not hugely inflated from DOW1’s in terms of your input options, but the effects seem so much more profound. There seem to be more minute details that are artfully recoloured based on your selections, plus there’s a wider colour pallet – the net result being that you field an army that looks so much more your own, and not simply a butchery of someone else’s template. I’ve been especially enjoying painting Tryanids in the lurid red, yellow and blue hues I did to the models when I was 14 – and frankly they look so much better than the purple and beige bores the singleplayer campaign plumped for.
Best of all, though, are the new metallic paints – silver and gold specifically. Clearly every bugger’s going to go overboard with them, but there’s definitely something about fielding an army clad in such regal splendour. An Eldar Warlock with a flowing golden robe is a magnificent sight, while the liquid metal look of all-over chrome Tyranids surely impress cyber-fetishists more than anything Terminator Salvation will have to offer. While Army Painter of course lacks the I Made This thrills of physically painting your own bespoke army, DOWII’s take on it does seem to realise a decent fraction of that pride. I said this repeatedly about DOW1 and it never came to pass, but it would be lovely if the inevitable expansion packs increased the visual customisation options further still. How about it, Relic?
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You don’t generally destroy yellow cover though. And if you want to use cover, you may want to consider not walking through it with your terminators. ;)
I made a comment (which lead to a rather large argument) about DoW 2 not actually being an RTS last night. It’s a whole new sub-genre, simply because what we have come to know as RTS games have base building and usually not item collection. Anyone agree or were the people telling me to shut up right?
Depends. Can I disagree with both sides? I’m feeling contrary today.
Anyway, I think genres in general are a bit fishy. Who’s to say what a RTS is or is not? DoW2 might be a RTS if you define the genre sufficiently broadly.
But eh, I tend to agree with you, it’s not what I’d consider a “real” RTS. But it’s not something I feel sufficiently strongly about to get into any arguments over. ;)
The Myth games were running under the RTS banner many years ago, and they had veterancy and some pick-uppable items and persistent character status between missions. It’s a broad genre heading – I mean, Operation Flashpoint probably fits in under FPS, same as Serious Sam.
Yeah, RTS can include games like The Sims and WoW if you’re loose enough with definitions.
I’m glad that designers are willing to abandon or significantly modify the Starcraft/Age of Empire model that has defined the genre for a decade. (At least from the mainstream perspective.)
DoWII’s critics remind me of TF2’s: both are upset that the respective sequels got rid of what they think made the original games fun in the first place (nades, conc jumps, base building, etc)
nades and conc jumps *did* make TFC fun! :p
But I can’t blame them for trying something different.
I suppose theres like a ecological niche for games this size and type. Games like Battlezone or Ground Control.
@Rich_P: Both DoW1 and DoW2 were repetitive, which seems to be the main complaint. DoW2 is just a rediculous amount more so.
Surely this adds depth to the game? If an opponant keeps taking advantage of a particular piece of cover you can simply erase it and force them to up their game. You cannot erase it until you have the tech to do so, which is effectively punishment for them sitting back and letting you turtle-tech instead of moving up and pressurising you.
Also I don’t know what you mean about buildings. I don’t think they are destructible. Units inside are vulnerable to certain types of attack, such as explosives and possibly flamers and plasmas. I do agree that units inside a few specific buildings seem to be less effective at shooting enemies than if they were standing outside, but this is not the majority of cases.
I don’t see what the big fuss about this game is. Although I’ll admit to not having played the single-player. It is a good game which only falls down on three counts for me:
#1 is GfW LIVE, or at least the way its ‘TrueSkill’ matchmaking system has been implemented. This simply doesn’t work to pit you against players of equal skill and experience. They should honestly have it work off the in-game ranking system instead because that seems to be a far more reliable benchmarking system.
#2 is that it’s still not certain if Relic know how to balance the game for high-end multiplayer. The maps are well balanced but the factions don’t stack up. Tyranids are OP by virtue of the fact they have almost no squad tech powers to research/micro (most is automatic for some reason) and their units deal equal damage to infantry and tanks. This is quite a fundamental problem that can’t simply be solved by nerfing or buffing a few units, it’s to do with the army being easier to control across the board.
#3 is that 8 maps is too little, and represents an under-developed and under-appreciated multiplayer mode. Relic have said they plan 2 more maps to follow soonafter release, which, depending on the type of maps, might make the MP worth it. I seem to be in the minority of player who prefer variety to repetition when it comes to MP maps.
This is interesting. I bought the game almost entirely off my impressions of the Multiplayer during the beta. I recognized it wasn’t flawless, but I really enjoyed the complete disregard for base building and putting all the focus on the battles themselves. It meant that there was never a time where I’m sitting waiting for something to happen in multiplayer. I’ve been playing through the single player and find it an amusing diabloesque take on RTS’s, but I’m surprised that’s all anyone here, including Alec is playing. Maybe it’s because as the poster above mentioned, the Trueskill matching is a bit wonky?
I love this game,but is it just me or is the mutliplayer matchmaker a bit slow?,and the prob isn’t at my end,i’ve got 7meg broadband.. :(
“Is like X-Blades”
PEOPLE LIKE X-BLADES?