Been playing the
DOW 2 Campaign Mode here for about 40 hours and here is my two shiny coins:
The Campaign mode ROCKS!
At first it was a little weird since it is really different from
DOW 1. I played the Multiplayer Beta and really struggled with it since there was no manual, its really a completely different game from
DOW and playing against other people, instead of an AI doesn't give you time to get a real feel for the game since you are constantly getting blitzed by people that know what they are doing and looking to stomp your face.
I won't go into the storyline as you need to play it to experience it. I think it is immersive environment. I love the character building aspect of the game and watching the story unfold.
The game play has two different screen play levels. You have a planetary/system/unit skills and equipment/drop pod unit allotment screens (lets call them the strategic view) and then the fighting, planet drop missions, kick some butt screens (lets call them the tactical view).
At the strategic view each game turn is a day. You start out doing a drop deployment once per day. There is a balance of a constant time pressure applied to you to keep the Tyranid Infestation level low on a particular planet and accomplish certain key missions that are needed to move the storyline forward. What I think really rocks at the strategic view is there are certain character building abilities that you can see that are really important initially but as the game unfolds and you see that you are not stuck on one planet anymore, that there are other abilities that you will need to spend skill points towards to unlock them (and the sooner the better).
Also from the strategic view there are certain buildings in the various areas on the worlds that for each one you control or if you control all of them, then you further augment your capabilities. Remember that each game turn at this level is one day and at first you can execute one drop per day (unless you do very well at the tactical level or capture so many of the key buildings of a certain type). As you get deeper into it you have to balance the time factor of how many missions can you do in a day with getting key missions done vs. doing optional missions to try drive the Tyranid Infestation lower vs. completing optional missions that either have a cool item as the reward vs. going after control of a key building that you don't control so that it unlocks other abilities that you might need later for other missions.
The tactical screens are really dependent on picking the right units and building a blend of skills and equipment for a mission is a key to success at the strategic screen level. For instance, I don't like scouts. Tried them a few times and ended up costing me a couple failed missions (remember you initially only start out doing one mission/deployment per day) so I ended up with a couple of wasted turns. So I focused on the other 4 teams. Now that I have a Dreadnought in the mix, I have refocused my teams to switch back and forth between the Dreadnought and the Assault Marines, amongst my Commander, a Tactical Squad and a Devastator Squad with a 75/25 favor going to the Dreadnought.
As you play with the various units in combat you gain experience which you can use to spend on boosting stats such as stamina, ranged fire, close combat and energy. At various thresholds, you unlock abilities that can augment the unit greatly as well as boosting that stat line. Also you pick up items that can be used by certain unit types that can boost your ability and stats as well as give you outright new abilities. If you have too many items, you get rid of them which gives all your units some experience for trading them in. I enjoy this area as it gives you alot of choices and adds to the replayability.
At the drop pod team screen, you have 4 slots you can fill in the drop pod. You will have to pick from the various teams in order get set up for the coming battle. I think your commander is mandatory but everyone else you can swap in and out.
There are two other strategic screens which allow you to navigate around the sector. As far as I know the fighting takes place over three planets. Each planet will have a list of available missions and the current Tyranid Infestation level. The other screen gives you an overview of the three planets and lets you see a high level view of the missions available (if it is a planet that your strike cruiser doesn't currently orbit). You can examine each mission at the planet view and get intelligence about the mission (which changes depending on the number of buildings of a certain type you control within the sector), see how many days are left before you lose the mission if you don't try to complete it and if there are any buildings within that area of the map that are not controlled by you that are available.
At the strategic level you see that there is two different missions - Defend and Attack. In defend it is pretty straightforward, at a minimum you will need to defend an installation for a certain amount of time. So you build your team around that and go to work. In the Attack mission there is a little bit of variability but most of the time it involves get from one end of the board to the other and killing the end level 'boss'. There are some slight variations, such go here pick something up, go here get extracted. However you gain experience based on how much stuff you kill, how many unit/characters you keep alive without them ever dieing and how fast your were in completing the primary objective. So within a mission there is a lot of basic play styles that can be applied to accomplish the primary objective. Oh and by the way, the higher the experience points you gain in a level can gain you additional deployments that can be used for the day, thus buying you more flexibility at the planetary level when you are in a time crunch.
Now comes the fighting, once you deploy, you move onto the Tactical Screens. It takes a while to understand what is going on but there are a couple of key points. Like
DOW 1 there is cover and features that your units and the enemy can use to give them defense bonuses or slow them down. Like
DOW 1, each unit has abilities that can be used. Like
DOW 1, there are objectives to the mission. However, while initially this looks similar and when it comes practical application, that is where the similarities end.
How is fighting different between
DOW 1 and
DOW 2? Terrain in
DOW 2 is used a lot more and if you don't use it to great effect or nullify your enemies ability to use, you will die! Abilities in
DOW 2 are earned by gaining experience or utilizing certain items picked up and used by character/squad leaders in the game. So just because you have a certain unit in the Campaign game doesn't mean they automatically come with them. However, the biggest thing that is gone from the game is the typical build your base pump out units, unlock new buildings/units, keep building go attack, go defend vicious cycle grind that is prevalent in most
RTS. Most of the time, what you drop down to the planet with is what you are going to play with throughout the duration of the mission. If you lose individual guys you can have other unit leaders revive the fallen leader and then send the unit back to the drop site or various locater beacons you can gain control over on the map. If all the team die, the Thunderhawks roll in and pull out and you then are back at the strategic screen and need to figure out what you are going to do with the either the rest of your strategic turn or move onto the next day.
The fighting usually ends up being a blend of move units up into position or scout and look ahead (fog of war). Once set up, you can use various tactics to either bait the enemy to come into your kill zones or figure out a way to flank them or just a plain out and out assault may be the way to go. Once the combat in a given area is done you usually regroup, heal wounds and then move on to the next fogged out area. The enemy on the defense is pretty adequate but really doesn't do a whole lot of outflanking, sometimes will bait but that is really about it. The enemy attacking is not really that sly either. The best I have seen is if you move too far forward to try capture an area and leave your base undefended, they will try to come in at a different point of entry but that's about it. Once you figure out the point of entry they are coming from you can usually sit back and grind the attacking waves down.
Once you get a feel for the synergies of the different units, you can really put a good hurt on the enemy. However, mistakes such as overextending, not utilizing cover or just a wrong team/equipment/skill mix and you can really feel it when know your overall team efficiency suffers and exposes you to a harsh whipping if you make some game play mistakes.
The Campaign Game Balance seems good. The AI looks at the level of your units and tries to set the level of the enemy units to match yours based on the difficulty level that you are currently playing at. I took Russ Wakelin's advice and set my difficulty up to the second hardest and have been thoroughly challenged. You can very easily get your arse kicked if you reveal too many enemies or stick a unit out too far ahead without adequate support. I haven't see a unit on its own totally dominate. You just have to quickly analyze an enemy unit mix and pick the right unit for the job for that given situation. For instance, the Dreadnought can dominate the enemy with light anti-infantry weapons but if there is heavy anti-tank close by, you'll need to neutralize that stuff quickly and make sure you bring supporting unit up and get then set up before you make the big push with the Dread.
Overall, in the campaign mode, I can see a lot of replayibility. There are a lot little choices made throughout the game which can alter your strategy and tactics later. Seeing how these different choices play out again in a new campaign is something I look forward to trying out.
I have not tried out the multiplayer and will only really do this if I have other friends online and will probably only play against the AI. Multiplayer
RTS style games are aggravating for me since I always seem to get matched up against the guys from Korea that are coming off of their Starcraft binge and looking for someone to turn into paste. Why do I always feel like I brought a knife fight to a gun fight?
From my standpoint, this is truly a game that scratches a lot of itches and does them in such a subtle way that usually one mistake or one victory isn't enough to win/lose but over time those little wins and little loses add up and can send the whole campaign over the edge. So for the campaign system alone, I would rate this game a 9 out of 10. Or using the
D6 generation rating system a 3+ with a reroll.
