dawn of war 2 beta first glance.

in short this post is about my experiences in the days of dawn of war, so far u get 6 maps (4 single player 2 multiplayer), u get all races and i am happy to say all the stock army paints are there n complete (u get all the founding chapters + blood ravens) which is nice, unit limit in the beta was limited but it still made it very fun.

day 1:

at times this game feels like dawn of war escpecially when your in a major firefight, but when your doing other things it begins to feel more like warhammer 40k:squad command, its as if they lifted the playstle and passive play from squad command added better visuals and audio and gave us the unit production and combat we've come to expect from dawn of war. providing they fix a significant number of over/underpowerment bugs in certain character i can see it going to be a very successful game. examples of overpowerment are force commander and apothecary being 100% useful and combat effective but the techmarine is a panzy with a mechanical arm who wont move the second some cries "gunfire!"

m.ost exciting things i did on day one: ran over some orks with a rhino then followed it up with wiping enemy armor from the field with a single predeator.

worst thing in day 1: discovering i needed both steam and a windows live account to play online.

okay yes u can still join the beta, yes its fun, it does remind me of CoH however i feel they leaned to far towards squad command to try n keep it true to licensce. maps are tiny in comparison to DoW1 but then again i only saw 2 of its multi user team maps, audio is frigging awsome and they have a sweet announcer to make u aware of stuff.

the character noises like what they say is borderline brilliant ranging from scouts scream "today we join our brothers" to the high pitch howls of basic tyranid units. and you will be happy to know they do them alot of justice u will just be dissappointed to note that u cant have a fex and a hive lord as there 2 seperate heros unless your playing 3 vs 3.

u can each AI enemey to a different difficulty ranging from dumb easy to insanely hard allowing for greater npc balancing if u like a fair comp stomp.here are the heros:

tech marine, force commander, apothecary

carniflex, hive lord, tunneler

warboss, commando, mecha boss??

warlock, farseer, warp spider exarch

u will be happy to note that transport like rhino and wartrukk make a return and can actually fight back making them invalulable infantry slayers. game has some mild lag issues escpecially in firefights and ill pulkl a yougamers and say having an 8000 series or better nivida card or 3000 series ati card would be for the best as its laggy on its stock settings for even those a little. game does look much better than CoH imo and u have persistent damage on your armor on very high, meaning u will get pockmarks and paint scratches n such a very cool touch i tested this as it got laggy a bit, what some people say is true no buildings and it takes ages to build the bes tof units but those units pack awsome punches for the wait.

if i had to notice 3 draw backs its low requisition rate and some commanders are more durable than others, and the cover system though effective quickly dissipates the second they haul armor overand knock it down.

i ive it a 90/100 a great game true to form with ample to do in it, if they fix what issues it has before relase it will surely surpass DoW 1 and land itself a GoTY robbing blizzard blindly of its argueably spotless record.

That sounds nice.thusaha

thats not a very funny photo...

day 2 of my beta:

tried out the eldar today and i must say i am impressed with how well they integrated the webway without making it seem like a cheesy way of making you build stuff, is a bit of a let down that there two stongest units will not see combat often (avatar of khaine and seer council) due to their high cost, but i imagine them to be simply terrifying when unleashed. eldrich storm is back and i must say will kick the ass of the ones its replacing anyday of the week. what limited wargear they had for the beta is useful and i know ppl will learn to love them alot.

i attempted ork today aswell ork have an amazing assortment of useful units and there ability in melee combat certainly fits the description of a broad shouldered green savage with a pointy stick. i finally see the danger behind them but wish there units werent so inexpensive i see them in the future being used to base rush with wave of green. but there armor is amazingly potent against infantry and havent run out of laughs as it runs over stuff and belching smoke out of its exhaust pipe like some kind of hillbilly cart of doom. the hq is a very appropriate as it resembles a throw togeather shack with some kind of teleport gun and the turrets from the mech boy (3rd hero) is super useful in a bind or when u want to catch foes in a crossfire. they have sum veru potent later units but the cheap inexpensive units that initially get are too useful that some players probably wont even bother with such classics as the armored nob.

this has been a day of much humbling as i took the eldar to multiplayer 1 vs 1 and had my ass handed too me by a superior nids player ill investigate them tomorrow. from what i can see i am quite pleased. game-workshop would be proud of the way this game has turned out. i could literally write a novel alone on battles ive had but wont get the chance too i feel as i'll be too busy playing to recall what ive done, the game is getting a little shaky lag wise but im bearing the storm and still having a blast ill be extatic when it stands on its own two feet.

I'm definitely liking what I've just read in this thread. Cover system, more focus on unit usage instead of churning out mass quantities of units, hero/commander units, less base building, etc. Although the gameplay is a departure from the old system, I definitely welcome it. Looks like THQ is adapting this new method of RTS gaming since they also have done the same with Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor.

I'm definitely liking what I've just read in this thread. Cover system, more focus on unit usage instead of churning out mass quantities of units, hero/commander units, less base building, etc. Although the gameplay is a departure from the old system, I definitely welcome it. Looks like THQ is adapting this new method of RTS gaming since they also have done the same with Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor.

futs22

day 3:

i played the tyranids today and hot dang there fun, i spent forever just watching a pair of long saved for carnifex's load up and then shipout fistfuls of hurt, they successfully took on 7 razorback transports and won, just a pair of em. they stomped shot and hacked there way through about everything thrown at em and gave me time to collect an army large enuff to crush my opponents base, there damn frightening. there abilities are all amazing but i found there base units to be too disposable to keep around until u had hardened enough support to back them up. i found the lictor to be good and the hive tyrant to be just devestating when left to his own devices. there spore mines do a bang on job of removing more serious obstacles for a very meager cost. if they designed the other armies around the same resource costs as the tyranids i can see it being one of the most skillz games around. i see it most likely joining the games 2 play list next to warcraft 3, CS, half life, doom, and quake 2. its just unexpliainable the other armies are clunky to build but the orks and tyranids are just the nail on the head what can i say. i will be happy to give this an early grade in the multiplayer department of a 9/10. bang on job just need to pick up the slack a little on the other two armies.

i tested the AI today and found it to be quite umm interesting. basically each has its own playstyle it works like this:

easy: turtleing AI

normal: average hit and run enemy, but turtles his armor

hard: a very difficult foe excelling at multipronged strikes, isnt afraid to use his special abilites

insane: almost like playing a real person a well balanced player exceling at multidirectional flanking and routing. will use his special abilites and kit out his units almost immideately. but has some issues now and again as it attempts to immitate its lower tier cousins. but then normally resumes his old self.

i tried insane 1 on 1 and he just destroyed my army at every opportunity, like i often had the advantage of numbers and still found myself getting pummeled by his ability to work around you or disrupt your focus.

EVERYONE WHO ID FREAKING OUT SAYING THE GAME is shallow or there arnt enough units and blah blah blah.. remember its just the beta. there might be a few things in the full game that there not showing us. i love the game even though it is very different from dow 1.ag3ntz3rox0x

[QUOTE="ag3ntz3rox0x"]EVERYONE WHO ID FREAKING OUT SAYING THE GAME is shallow or there arnt enough units and blah blah blah.. remember its just the beta. there might be a few things in the full game that there not showing us. i love the game even though it is very different from dow 1.sSubZerOo

there isnt a tech tree period really, what tech there is is unit upgrades and like 3 other upgrades to get more of them oh my so amazing, having next to no tech tree is great, it means no complex buy items A) B) C) to get desired vehicle X it means buy this then u get that done no funny buisness, if u have next to no tech tree it prvents unfair advantages as a result not having enough resources they also did this for the slow resource gather rate.

aura_enchanted, thank you for your impressions of the game. they have made me all the more excited to try out the beta and eventually pick up the game. while i am looking forward to this game, i have not had much experience with DoW1 or CoH (i own both only because they were at such a fantastic price i couldn't pass up), and i fear that this inexperience with Relic's other RTS game will lead to some very humiliating online matches and day after day of frustration. Have you run into any jerks thus far? Or has the community been fairly mature when it comes to 1v1 and 3v3s? Also, what tips would you (or anybody here who has played the beta) give to newcomers so we can actually be of some use to our teammates?DukeEdwardI

okay use every unit to its fullest dont throw it away because it happens to be the cheapest u can buy a hero and 3 scouts can take out a tank, if your playing a builder unit like ork mech or tecmarine place turrets behind cover near strategic points this will slow there capture considerably. turrets have a limited direction of fire learn to estimate where they cant hit you to plan an attack from that direction, learn to fight for and control every point u can, we do have access to NPC's so u can experiment a little with this, finally shop wise with your resources because resource gather rates are slow, a bit too slow people suggest it get a little faster and i agree but nowhere near the old gather rates from DoW. Use transports wisely they can be used to both reinforce nearby units and to provide anti-infantry support which can be invalulable. your commander is good but not invincible think of him as a unit meybe 2-3 steps down from the ones in warcraft3 he packs a good punch but shouldnt be left on his own knowing hell make it out. finally have fun, if it gets to frustrating put it down dont pull an angry german kid.