Comments on: Unlikely Comrades: Dawn of War II – The Last Stand

By: cowthief skank

cowthief skank — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:20:48 +0000

The obligatory nothing compared to Starcraft 2 comment?

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:18:23 +0000

I’m not complainin’, just a little surprised that a game which was marketed as very single-player focused is receiving nothing by multiplayer love so far. Am I to assume that single-player expansion is to come, for a small nominal fee?

By: Xocrates

Xocrates — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:54:04 +0000

@Argh: The problem with your argument is that you forget DoW is a license and therefore is limited with it.

The fact that DoW 2 is both more similar to tabletop and significantly different from DoW1 is the strongest argument you can make for it, not the reverse.

If by a “true sequel to dawn of war that people expected” you mean DoW with better graphics and possibly a slightly different build order (since they can’t even go around creating new units that are not on TT), I think they would just be missing a big opportunity. I rather have DoW2 than the DoW 1.5 you seem to want.

By: Argh

Argh — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:05:03 +0000

They shoulda did something like Call of Duty did and branch of if they wanted to experiment and casual users can have fun with that. Then make a true sequel to dawn of war that people expected.

By: amishmonster

amishmonster — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:35:51 +0000

Looks a bit like DoWtA.

By: Archonsod

Archonsod — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:59:45 +0000

Funnily enough, I never had a game of CoH where you could spot the winner 15 minutes in. With DoW II you could probably replace the other players with scripts and not notice. At least the new mode might actually give a reason to play in multiplayer again. Until they do an actual shakeup of the skirmish mode though it’s more fun playing against the AI. At least you get to see a different unit now and again.

By: Inanimotioon

Inanimotioon — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:51:04 +0000

This game type was one of my favorite in Warcraft 3.
I was never very good at the whole RTS online fight thing with the ranked games…but I became a master of hero arenas…those are the shit.

By: Crispy

Crispy — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:37:01 +0000

£10 is a bargain.

The reasons people don’t like DoW2 (all valid, but they don’t stop me really enjoying it) are:

- 3v3 Team ganking (basically a group of 3 friends using mics can team up and be forced on a pick-’n'-mix team of randoms)
- Visual upgrades only unlockable by ranking up in Ranked matches (via the broken matchmaking system that doesn’t accurately pair up skillsets; it’s worth noting there is a mod out that allows you all the visual upgrades)
- The game is too different to conventional RTSes (not enough base-building, less sense of macro)
- The game balance is (was) broken (right now the balance is the best it’s ever been, there’s only a few minor things people aren’t happy with which can be fixed with very small changes)

What I don’t agree with is that the game is too hard. You can get your arse spanked in any RTS as a newbie if you join the party late. The main problem is the matchmaking. If it worked it’d be a lot better, but for now it’s just better for newbies to go on the Custom>Public games where they can pick their fights.

As for the CoH comparison, what’s good about knowing you’ve lost 15 mins into the game and having to wait out the next 30 mins for the loss? Comebacks were rare in CoH, but in DoW2 they’re very doable as long as you don’t lose your entire army.

By: Archonsod

Archonsod — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:45:20 +0000

Meh, it still doesn’t feel like 40K, and plays far too much like CoH with all the good bits taken out.

By: LQB

LQB — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:26:10 +0000

@Warskull
That’s a bit of an exaggeration, yes it had bugs like the popcap bug but you make it seem like the game bombed a day care. Since then DoW2 has improved by leaps and bounds, 1.5 to be frank was a massive step in the right direction and as of now the only real concern are debatable balance issues.

By: Warskull

Warskull — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:42:04 +0000

If you don’t already own the game, I strongly recommend waiting until after this update comes out to consider purchasing it. Relic has a long history of horrible game-breaking bugs and when they introduce one it takes them months to fix it. Make sure the mode works and isn’t crippled by bugs before you lay your money down.

It nice to see them try and make-up for the train wreck of a release though.

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:06:52 +0000

Dow’s whoosh bam boomtasticness hardly seems to suit harsh survivalism. Hmm…