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Well, I’m about 1 an hour into the Dawn of War 2 campaign and here’s my quick first impressions. (As if anyone cares)

This game may be remembered for its single player campaign more than the multiplayer. It really feels like RPG meets RTS. Your force commander, which you name, can be upgraded as you progress. Weapons, armor, wargear, But it’s not just inventory.

Your character levels, and as he levels, you earn points to spend in one of 4 traits: Health, Balistic Skill, Weapon Skill, or “Power” (power=mana, recharge abilities, etc.) You can make your force commander a hth combat machine, or a great shot, or a powerful leader of men. As you put points in each area not only does he improve in that area, but about every 5 full points gives you a new ability related to the skill you increased.

But what REALLY makes the game feel like an RPG is that it’s not just your Force commander that levels up. EVERY sergeant in EVERY squad that joins your force can be customized in similar ways. You get to know your veteran Sgts by name, you can control if your Scout Sgt (and therefore your scouts) are better at infiltrating or sniping. Add enough ballistic skill to your dev squad sgt and now the whole squad’s range increases. Or try something a little off the wall and crank your dev squad sgt’s health and hth ability so he can hold his own if he gets charged. Upgrade and/or change their armor and weapons too. Very similar to 40k. Your Vt sgts have a lot of customizable options.

I’ve not played the game enough to have an opinion on if missions get repetitive, etc. But I see why the campaign is Space Marine only. You are going to get to know your army and the men that help you lead them. You are going to level them to fit your play style. And you feel the loss if/when they go down in combat. In most RTS’s the infantry feel like mindless resources you just throw at the enemy, if they die… you make more. But in DoW2, you get to know your men, and you can’t just crank out more. You grow attached to your squads and their leaders, and it makes the whole experience that much more immersive.

The ‘micro managing’ of combat that some folks complained about in the multiplayer beta actually adds to the campaign experience and makes it feel even more like an RPG. You can tell each squad when and where to throw a grenades. However grenades some other abilities are resource limited. You need to restock. Squads run out of grenades, melta bombs, demo charges, etc. This further ads to the RPG feel of managing your characters, inventory, and abilities.

I think Relic has really done something new and innovative here. If you love the background of 40k, this game is a must play just for the campaign. The game truly captures the feeling of space marine fluff in the 40k universe. There are few of you… there are many of them … You have all fought together long, and for every one of your battle brothers that the enemy may kill, you will make the foe pay 100 fold.


P.S. Set the difficulty level up to at least the 2nd highest. It forces you to be very tactical.

P.P.S. Look, it's on my gamer card! Click to see the achievements:

I am hoping to get started today but I got a message that they probably sent me the wrong game version instead of the special edition I ordered. 10 to 1 I'll be a week behind on the others by the time I finally get what I paid for.

As someone who really only plays the single-player campaign's in RTS's (I just don't like playing on-line, plus I'm crap) this is fantatsic news. Now if only I can finish the campaigns in Soulstorm and Dark Crusade, I'll be all over this like Blood on Khorne.

soulstorm campaign hard?) imgo its too easy to finish... (just rushing towards enemy stronghold, helps alot)

i can't play it yet dammit i got my shiny disk here

That sounds really great, but I will need a new computer to take that one on. However, you have really lighted my interest on this one.

*yoinks*

That's a great little review, let us know how the game develops please.

It's too bad the multiplayer aspect is a bit of a let down.

Thanks for the thoughts on the campaign though... I may still pick this game up just for the single player aspect.

That sounds really similar...

What game was like that...

Oh right...

Warcraft 3.

Asmodeus wrote:That sounds really similar...

What game was like that...

Oh right...

Warcraft 3.

No, Warcraft 3 was not like this at all. I did not enjoy that game.

Asmodeus wrote:That sounds really similar...

What game was like that...

Oh right...

Warcraft 3.

Obvious troll is obvious.

Wasn't meant to be trollish. Just adding my two cents, which I'm perfectly entitled too.

Asmodeus wrote:Wasn't meant to be trollish. Just adding my two cents, which I'm perfectly entitled too.

Having never played the game, or seen a video or something, you're entitled to look up what your paying your two cents too before laying them down. The game is so different form warcraft 3 it doesn't even bare comparison.

So far I'm loving the DoW2 campaign. I played the multiplayer demo for a few weeks and have become pretty good at it. There are a couple bugs still but overall the gameplay is great, the only downside is games for windows live which I don't think will be as much of a problem in the full game. The single player campaign is really fun, cover/positioning/tactics etc. is very important and if you have it on anything harder than normal you will get torn up if you try to just attack move through levels.

warcraft 3 blows hardcore that game was way to easy and soooooooooooooo repetitive.

One thread. Just ONE thread without people sniping. That's all I ask.

I agree with Russ' description of the game. You do need to be careful about what you're doing; for funsies, I tried charging and equivalent-sized group of orks in cover. I got slaughtered. I did also set it to the second-highest difficulty out of the gate, as these games can be too easy.

The Looting of Stuff is a lot of fun. It's great to get swag.

After participating in the beta I have to say that the multiplayer aspect certainly doesn't lack anything. It can be sufficiently hardcore in 1v1 and refreshingly casual in 3v3. Especially the more casual 3v3 games will keep the online longevity of the game high.

ok here is a question (I get the game tomorrow so cant try this myself just yet), when you press 1 or 2 on the keyboard, it selects the relevant unit. If you hold down shift, will it let you select multiple units that way (eg, 1 and 2 together)? I asked for this in the testing phase and wonder if it made it in at all?

legoburner wrote:ok here is a question (I get the game tomorrow so cant try this myself just yet), when you press 1 or 2 on the keyboard, it selects the relevant unit. If you hold down shift, will it let you select multiple units that way (eg, 1 and 2 together)? I asked for this in the testing phase and wonder if it made it in at all?

hmm, I haven't tried that yet. In the campaign icons of your vt Sgts heads appear in the upper right, you can click to select them there or press 1,2,3, etc. to choose the squad you want.

I haven't tryed shift-1 and shift-2 or anything. I'll try that out tonight.

For those interested. The manual is online here:

http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/15620/TQ919_DOW2_MANL_US%20Final.pdf?t=1235000410

and the quick reference card is here:

http://cdn.steampowered.com/QuickRefs/15620/02_DOW2_PC_14486_UK_KEYS.PDF?t=1235000410

Given that my favorite tactical game series is Total War (Empire this March, mmmmm), I'm really liking the lack of base-building in the game. DOW1 was pretty straightforward in that respect, too, so I'm digging the further refinement. I pretty much dislike "tree chopping" in my real-time games, so we'll see if this was dialing it back TOO far or not.

The campaign has so little in-battle management as it is, and I've not yet played any multiplayer beyond some quick CPU skirmishing. My impressions might change once that occurs.

Russ: you can indeed select multiple units, then press Shift-whatever, and they'll all come up with that number. You can then press TAB to swap between the units in your selected groups. I have noticed, though, that with the small numbers of units in the game it's almost unneeded. (That might change once I get more into playing with Eldar.)

"Warcraft 3 isn't worth the cd it was illegaly burnt on!"
Quote by a buddy of mine.
That's just my two cents, did it add anything to the discussion? Thought so.

Great to hear about the single player not blowing, I enjoyed the multiplayer-beta a lot and will pretty much buy it, if I can get the info if you can change the language or not?!? Seriously, this is the main reason why I don't buy any pc-games any more. Stupid german translation...grumblegrumble

Greets
Schepp himself

How do you have achievements for a PC game?? I am so confused.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Magc8Ball wrote:
Russ: you can indeed select multiple units, then press Shift-whatever, and they'll all come up with that number. You can then press TAB to swap between the units in your selected groups. I have noticed, though, that with the small numbers of units in the game it's almost unneeded. (That might change once I get more into playing with Eldar.)

In DOW I it was a trait to use the Fleet of foot power effectively because you had to trigger it for every selected squad individually. Now that's far more convenient. As an Eldar player I use TAB all the time, though.

Greets
Schepp himself

Ozymandias wrote:How do you have achievements for a PC game?? I am so confused.

Same as for any other game that has them: you do something "special", you get points. The difference is just that, this time, it's tied into your Microsoft gaming account, instead of Portal/TF2/WOW/WHO/Whatever.

Ozymandias wrote:How do you have achievements for a PC game?? I am so confused.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

If it is a "Games for Windows Live" game then while you are playing the game you are signed into "Live".

You appear online to both X-box 360 and Windows Live players, you can send invites, and any achievements you earn add to your gamer score.

More info on Games for Windows Live: http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/Pages/index.aspx

I like it, because I can keep in touch with friends on 360s. For example, tonight I'll be playing DoW2 until Raef turns on his 360. When I see him sign in I'll switch over to my 360 and play left 4 dead with him.

DoW2 seems to be holding its own on Metacritic:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/warhammer40000dawnofwar2

It's currently at 89.

For reference, the original DoW ended up at 86:
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/warhammer40000dawnofwar?q=dawn%20of%20war

RussWakelin wrote:

Ozymandias wrote:How do you have achievements for a PC game?? I am so confused.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

If it is a "Games for Windows Live" game then while you are playing the game you are signed into "Live".

You appear online to both X-box 360 and Windows Live players, you can send invites, and any achievements you earn add to your gamer score.

More info on Games for Windows Live: http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/Pages/index.aspx

I like it, because I can keep in touch with friends on 360s. For example, tonight I'll be playing DoW2 until Raef turns on his 360. When I see him sign in I'll switch over to my 360 and play left 4 dead with him.

Great, now the PC gamers get our achievements!!

Though you got L4D on xbox so you can't be all bad.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Sounds pretty cool. I may find Marines pretty boring in 40K, but I do like their fluff. I may pick this up.

Is multiplayer possible against a computer opponent? No other human influence?

legoburner wrote:ok here is a question (I get the game tomorrow so cant try this myself just yet), when you press 1 or 2 on the keyboard, it selects the relevant unit. If you hold down shift, will it let you select multiple units that way (eg, 1 and 2 together)? I asked for this in the testing phase and wonder if it made it in at all?

I played the beta like a week ago so maybe they've patched it since... but no... you can't select both your group 1 and group 2 in this manner. Nor can you assign all of your troops to say group 9 and yet retain their other team hotkeys. They had better damn well fix this... it's a glaring oversight (that worked nicely in the original DoW).

Mattlov wrote:Sounds pretty cool. I may find Marines pretty boring in 40K, but I do like their fluff. I may pick this up.

Is multiplayer possible against a computer opponent? No other human influence?

Multiplayer options are pretty much whatever you can dream up:

- You can play through the entire 'single player' campaign in multiplayer co-op (Think Gears of War, RTS style)
- You can play humans teamed up against 1 or more computer opponents
- You can play a skirmish game just 1 person against computer
- You can play humans vs humans, teamed up or individual.