Slightly disappointed by Dawn of War II

[thechaplain]

I recently got around to buying and playing Dawn of War II. When I started the first mission I was exstatic - a few Space Marines facing off against hundreds of Orks and bolters kill things that they hit (and aren't glorified machine guns). Then I picked up the rest of the "army". With this kind of system, they could've done ANYTHING - an Inquisitor and his retinue, a squad of the Deathwatch, Grey Knights, a squad of IG Stormtroopers, a Librarian leading a small squad, a Techpriest and his servitors, the list goes on.

I appreciate the fact that the designers of the game wanted the player to take an interest in their squads and to care about what happened to them. I also appreciate that these days a lot of people could do with a long lesson about care and affection - but I for one am capable of caring about more than 6 squads at once. Would it've killed the designers to just add a bit of colour with something non-Space Marine? My personal choice would be the Inquisitor - lots of scope for wargear and a cool retinue there.

It's a fantastic improvement over Dawn of War - which I really liked. The game is well thought out, it matches up to 40k much better, the action and battle system is fantastic (though I would appreciate my squads not jumping up and running about when not in combat), the gritty desperate feel is perfect and the squads we're given are great - my disappointment lies in the fact that this great game could've been FANTASTIC.

Anyone else find this?

[aidano]

i feel much the same way i just hope the new last stand mode is fun. i also hope the they will have as many expansions as the first one with new units and races.

[Rork]

My opinion is that like the first DoW, the first game (Both the original DoW and DoWII) wasn't actually that impressive. Playable, but just lacking that certain something.

However, it was after the expansions came out that the original went from a good game to a great game (Dark Crusade in particular). I think DoWII is going to be just the same - the expansions are where it will be at.

And if you're expecting anything other than space marines in the first installment, you're somewhat deluded .

[thechaplain]

To be honest, as it was such a story and character driven campaign, I struggle to see how they're going to tag an expansion on to it. I can see further releases with the same engine (if that's what it's called - to be honest games are hardly my area of expertise!) but even then I'm not sure what they could do with it, as the game is so obviously geared towards using Space Marines - the IG wouldn't work with just 6 squads, nor would much else. So my worry is that by tailoring the game so specifically to the SM's, they may well have hamstrung themselves.

And while I'm whinging - where the hell are the librarians of the chapter whose claim to fame is an over-abundance of librarians?!

It's still a good game, but I think it's silly to bring so much in line with 40k - the SM's capabilities, the wargear, the background - but to leave some glaring holes. It didn't need to happen.

[The_Giant_Mantis]

In the games the librarian aspect of the blood ravens was never really focused on.. It's only in the background literature that they picked up this librarian-heavy idea. Also, the Librarian would probably have worked an awful lot like the eldar Warlock, which would have meant that space marines had two 'offense' commander choices. The apothecary and techmarine gave a nice variety of possible playing styles.

Also.. play skirmishes. It's a very different game and you can field considerably larger armies, which might provide a hint of how the single player components of future expansions might work. I like that the campaign game is significantly different from the skirmish/multiplayer mode anyway, it adds replayability.. There's no reason why they'd have to keep the narrative campaign structure (which I actually thought was awesome) in future expansions, they could use the system from skirmish/multiplayer mode which is a lot closer to the original dawn of war style.

Although considering the first expansion is going to introduce chaos, I see no reason not to keep it for that. A narrative campaign with chaos marine protagonists would be awesome.

And yeah.. The whole point of Dawn of War was that the engine was modular with expanding content. The only criticism I can find with DoWII is that you don't get much content with only one campaign and 3 races, but surely you can see how utterly fantastic it's going to get as more expansions are released.

Oh, and if you still doubt.. three words.. Eldar voice acting.

[unholyheretic]

I've had the game for a while and the campaign is the best part of the game for me. The skirmish and online play lacked the variety that the previous games had.

Also, on the note of expansions making the game better. Chaos Rising the first expansion for dawn of war 2 is coming out spring next year.

[chenyboy]

what i find confusing is that in game they give you less people than a combat squad.
i mean you get like what 4 people including the sergant in your tactical squad, 3 in devastor and 3 in assult. i thought combat squads were supposed to be 5 people. i mean the more the merrier.
i have to say though this is a good game, its got a real strategy theme to it. you actually have to plan and strategise rather then just run in with large number and hoping you can kill everything with as little death on your side as possible.

[The_Giant_Mantis]

Originally Posted by chenyboy

i mean you get like what 4 people including the sergant in your tactical squad, 3 in devastor and 3 in assult. i thought combat squads were supposed to be 5 people. i mean the more the merrier.

Marines are actually pretty 'elite' in DoW2 rather than just being basic heavy infantry. That squad of 4 guys costs roughly as much as a massive brood of hormagaunts or a big mob of sluggas (or a medium sized group of guardians). If the squad was bigger, marines would have to play considerably worse and be much easier to kill to balance them out against the other races. In balance terms, I think it's much cooler to have marines entirely composed of tiny, elite squads.. it makes them play noticably differently from the other armies.

All the heavy weapons teams are small.. This means there is an imperative to protect them rather than just assuming they'll survive anything. The upside is that they seem to be enormously more powerful than in dawn of war 1 when they actually get firing, which makes them much more satisfying and tactical to use.

[Draake]

I downloaded the public beta and decided after 5 minutes I was not going to buy it. I loved DoW1, I still play it from time to time. But as the OP said, I am more than capable of controlling one thing at a time and prefer to have an epic battle on a bigger scale - just like the tabletop game. I was devastated that this beautiful new graphics engine didn't allow me to build a base and create an army!

What would be super epic would be a WH40K FPS RPG. Throw in a few races, storyline / abilities etc for each. The potential is there, but it would be incredibly awesome if someone pulled it off. Imagine starting off as a human on a feral world, being recruited into the Adeptus Astartes etc, or starting off as a SM and fleeing into the eye of terror to begin your life as a servant of the dark gods...and I'm not even a game designer. Imagine what they could do with our beloved Warhammer universe.

[Kelter Skelter]

I still play soulstorm hours per week

I play dow2... maybe once a month

There is no way to learn how to play it. there is no tutorial of any kind for the other races, it's too hard to not get your ass handed to you online while you're trying to learn. It's not very beginner friendly and it's also not incredibly intuitive.

The single player started off good but, then it got pretty boring and repetative.