Comments on: Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising Announced

By: aceofspades2021

aceofspades2021 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:48:51 +0000

realistically orks are the best race in the game best heroes and best abilities. cause you can get nob squads bets unit in game batter then terminator sm. and warboss willl beat anything in game hand to hand. when patch came out warboss got weaker with the custom shoota cause before there was no ability u needed to use for knockback now u need to use ability and target someone cause if you ran around wi just shoota boyz and warboss wit custom shoota no one would beat u minus vehicles

By: ouchmyeyes

ouchmyeyes — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:19:38 +0000

about time chaos came in, the space marines need a real enemy who can pose a threat , orks a good early on but if your a good space marine commander as i am there really is no proper threat all the game through

By: Hug_dealer

Hug_dealer — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:59:20 +0000

ummm. orks have swarmy low health units. anything aoe decimates them. They are slightly underpowered at high levels of play, and slightly over powered at low levels.
in the high levels of play sluggas are basically useless. More because of the abilities of certain offensive commanders. No ammount of sluggas can beat a lictor, warlock, or apothecary, the farseer,hive tyrant ,warboss, and force commander will put the boot down on multiple squads before they fall.
If you have enough resources to use roks, you are playing hte orks wrong. you should be using them on your earlier abilities. call the horde etc etc.

By: Crispy

Crispy — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:53:00 +0000

I agree.

- Early melee spam is currently a bit too powerful, Orks fit this bill perfectly.
- Nob Squads are one of, if not the best units in the game.
- Roks is probably the best AoE global ability and can easily be a game-changer.
- Mekboy is arguably the best and most versatile Commander in the game (suppression, teleportation, teleportation+suppression, squad healing, AoE damage, turrets, damage and speed buffs, shield, vehicle repair and in situ squad reinforcement).

The Orks have counters to everything and most often they’re cheap. There’s no way Orks are underpowered.

By: Crispy

Crispy — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:42:59 +0000

The Necromunda turn-based MMO is a better one! :)

By: Crispy

Crispy — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:29:05 +0000

I’m a pretty big fan of DoW2. There are a lot of nice ideas in the game and I like the direction it has taken the RTS genre. There are those who reject it as an RTS game because it doesn’t fit the virtually unchanged archetype the genre has followed for over a decade, but I personally accept it with open arms. The major difference is a far greater focus on micro versus macro, with unit deployment and management emphasised over base-building and tech specialisation. I have been playing the game pretty solidly since the beta across ranked, unranked and LAN games and have also a decent knowledge of the mapmaker included since 1.5. Here is my frank opinion:-

The singleplayer of the game for many is the strongest part, but what’s retained me has been the multiplayer. From what I’ve seen in the patch notes, most of the singleplayer updates have come in the form of bug fixes. It’s strongest and its weakest feature is the scarcity of battlegrounds you fight on: weak because it does get repetitive fighting in the same areas, especially towards the end of the campaign, but strong because you do get a sense that you are battling to protect your territory against a constant onslaught from Orks, Eldar and Tyranids.

The story was competant, but it’s no Starcraft or Warcraft III. There’s a nice bit of loral fluff in the Wargear you gather and there is a lot of customisation to be had with the RPG levelling and equipping of your squads. A nice touch is that you can keep playing after you beat the final level adding some replay value for completionists. There is a confirmed forthcoming expansion that allows you to continue your singleplayer campaign against a new foe: the ‘Chaos Space Marines’, although it has not been confirmed if this is free DLC or not (I suspect not, although I wonder how the multiplayer will not be fragmented if it’s not). It’s worth noting that the entire game can be played co-operatively with another player drop-in, drop-out style, which I haven’t tried but have heard only positives for.

But it’s the multiplayer that keeps me coming back. The game is steeped in complex interrelated rules and inconsistencies that can make it very hard for new players to get into, such as damage modifiers for different armour types versus weapon types, and lots of unit abilities and Commander Wargear upgrades to master (and be aware of). For competitive-minded or just plain hardworking players learning the ropes (or should I say ‘rules’) can be a rewarding experience.

In terms of balance between the 4 races, the game has to-and-froed back and forth from patch to patch. Largely due to the mandatory Games for Windows LIVE submission process* for updates (at least that’s where my money is), Relic have had to make sweeping, heavy-handed and often radical balance changes with every major update instead of going with the softly-softly approach afforded by something such as the Steam platform (see TF2 for a rough comparison). This has meant a lot has been fixed but a lot has also been broken in the process. Currently the Space Marines and, to a lesser extent, the Eldar are currently seen at a disadvantage because of the dominance of melee harassment from the cheap basic Ork and Tyranid units in the early game. It’s more than possible that the addition of another race into the mix (Chaos Space Marines) could make this balancing act even less fruitful.

* As I understand it, every time Relic wants to release an update, the code needs to go off to Microsoft to be fully tested by them to be compliant with the GfWL guidelines (read: ‘rules’).

There have been several improvements to the matchmaking system since release, but due to choosing to use Microsoft’s ‘TrueSkill’ algorithm (or perhaps the implementation of said algorithm), to this day the system still manages to put highly experienced players against complete newbies, which is a tortuous experience for all (especially in team 3v3 matches with mixed skill levels from player to player). Seemingly unbeknownst to many, the matchmaking system can be avoided entirely by hosting or browsing for games on the Custom>Public server listing.

Many new maps have been included, and there is now a 2v2 mode that treads the balance between brutally unforgiving head-to-head matches and somewhat chaotic 3v3 matches. The replay system has been vastly improved, as well as several UI updates to increase readability of the game. There is free co-operative multiplayer DLC due out on Oct 14th in the form of ‘The Last Stand’ (a sort of ‘Gears of War ‘Horde’ mode where 3 heroes battle against waves after wave of AI-controlled opponants), which will probably also bring new balance changes.

And that pretty much sums up the state of DoW2 today and for the forthcoming months.

By: Chris Remo

Chris Remo — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:43:39 +0000

Exciting times! I hope this does well for Relic and isn’t buried by StarCraft II, which is quite likely to release in fairly close proximity.

By: Fumarole

Fumarole — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:43:25 +0000

The Inquisition RPG is an excellent idea.

By: Jockie

Jockie — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:36:59 +0000

I’d like to see them mix up a skirmish mode and the action rpg bit of the first campaign, because as good as it was, the campaign did start to get a bit repetitive, will be interesting see where they take it next.

By: essi2

essi2 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:35:50 +0000

Indeed, the SP in DoW2 is excellent. Mostly because it reminds me of the good old days of playing Chaos Gate. The MP is okay.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:43:25 +0000

Personally I’m hoping for skirmish play on a metamap, but I doubt I’m going to get it. The single faction, tiny group with action/RPG elements campaign is what’s kept me away from the original DoW2 thus far.

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:34:04 +0000

“There’s been rumours around,….” = There has been rumours around