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[Hurr Durr Derp]

DoW2 is a very different game from DoW1, so it's no surprise that a lot of fans of the first game didn't like the change.

Personally I also prefer DoW1, but I didn't think DoW2 was boring. A lot of the maps were too repetitive, yes, but most of the story missions were pretty cool. I also liked the smaller scale of the missions, because it feels a lot more like WH40k than the whole base-building resource-gathering part of the first game.

I haven't played Chaos Rising yet, but if they made the maps more varied and less predictable that would fix my biggest problem with DoW2 right there.

 

[Sebenko]

My main problem with DoW 2 was the bosses. On the hardest difficulty it mean just half an hour of dodging and waiting for the bosses unreasonable health to fuck off.

I got to about the third mission before giving up on it.

Completed it on normal though.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

compared to the first one...just didn't do it for me, not bad, but just not good enough

 

[Elivercury]

Hmmm, DOW1 and DOW 2 are very different games. I'm skeptical that i'd even call DOW2 an RTS (for campaign and last stand) becaus e it plays more like an RPG, if one controlled by your classic RTS interface.

I agree with much of what people have said here. The earlier missions aren't especially challenging (especially on lower difficulties) and as you said there is no real punishment for losing early on. However later on you will have missions with limited number of days to complete them and a "level" on each planet which corresponds to the number and difficulty of the enemies you'll be facing. Therefore later on in the game if you lose a mission you will end up being unable to do missions, which in turn will possibly cause you to lose support structures from that planet (and whatever shiny reward might have been available for completing the mission) AND the missions will all get more difficult as you failed to lower the "level" for each planet.

I would also state that primarch difficulty is very difficult and i'd be amazed to see anyone do it solo, as i personally had to do it multiplayer.

On the flipside of this argument, if it's the fact it's not really an RTS that is bothering you then that won't change and perhaps i'd suggest sticking to the muliplayer which is generally more RTS like. If it's just the difficulty and lack of incentive to avoid death which is bothering you, then i suggest either holding out for a few more levels or ramp up the difficulty.

 

[Elivercury]

My main problem with DoW 2 was the bosses. On the hardest difficulty it mean just half an hour of dodging and waiting for the bosses unreasonable health to fuck off.

I got to about the third mission before giving up on it.

Completed it on normal though.

While true early on, I found orbital bombardment made just about every boss a cakewalk once i got it. Even in primarch difficulty it removes like 1/3 of their HP minimum. Use that twice then just use all your shiniest abilities to take them down swiftly.

 

[literallyanythingelse]

Yup very. If it had stayed in the mold of Company of Heroes it would have been much better instead it tried to integrate components of the excellent Soldiers:Heroes of World War II. Unfortunately not enough of those elements.

Yes, BUT Chaos Rising is a lot more fun. A LOT. They got rid of all the repeated maps and added a load of awesome stuff.

Out of interest,stuff like what ?

Well, there's the corruption scale - certain items of wargear are corrupt and so will corrupt your guys - the items tend to be better, but if your guys are too corrupt then it affects the story. Also, the level or corruption gives you or denies you various abilities and items of wargear. For me personally, this was the best part, as I love Chaos.
Then there's the librarian, all the new abilities that the new level cap of 30 brings (Thaddeus gets an amazing upgrade to his Merciless Strike ability), and a great couple of missions on a space hulk which really give it some atmosphere.

The main change is that the missions don't use the same maps, which I hated in the vanilla campaign, so the variety is really nice. There is also some variation in the objectives, so there is less "go here and kill the boss at the end" factor.

So yeah... I blasted through it in like two nights, so that should tell you how good it is.

 

[Scobie]

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[BigHandInSky]

Also i suck at MP too, in fact, i've been put up against rank 20+ players even though i'm rank 1 basically so i can't give you any tips but here's a link to a fans guide i found while randomly searching for Warhammer 40K lore:


http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=218492

Cheers, that looks really useful. I couldn't find much online that helped with the multiplayer side of things.

As for the main topic, it's sort of moot now. I played another mission in the campaign, and at the end of the mission the game crashed and failed to save. So my current thoughts are "Fuck this. I'm just trying to get through the crappy bits in order to get to some missions that I might conceivably enjoy, and the game's not even letting me do that. I'm gonna go play a game that I know is fun all the way through." So I've kinda given up. The campaign is crappy, and I've been given forced updates that got rid of all my paint schemes and replays, rejiggered the units in a way I didn't like (give me back my Tier 2 carnifexes, you motherfuckers) and introduced massive graphical problems just because I had the temerity to not have an Nvidia card. Relic are swiftly going down in my estimation. Grrr.

Fair enough, and my answer to the campaign thing is watch a playthrough online or a summary of the games events.

MP-wise losing all that data and being pissed off, play another game for a while, come back to DoW2, learn to play with the new systems and get used to it[to put it bluntly like a dreadnoughts fist]

The graphic card thing I can safely say I have no idea what you are on about.

 

[Gabanuka]

(400!) I like the campaign and the multiplayer and I haven't tired of them yet. But I like this kinda thing so to each his own.

 

[Sterence]

I found the campaign to be pretty fun, but sometimes it doesn't seem like much is going on story wise and the characters don't have much of a backstory (Never played dow1 so im not sure if they where in it or not). The mutliplayer match making is sort of annoying, I was rank 1 and the enemy was rank 60.

 

[Scobie]

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[Fusionxl]

My biggest pet peeve is the tiny handful of maps, I'm honestly not all that excited about boss battles when I have to fight them on the same God forsaken map I did the last 5 on.

Also, whoever thought forcing the player to do a defence skirmish after every 2 or 3 campaign ones should be put down for his lack of contribution to humanity.

Other than that, the tactical squad shooter part was very well developed and mowing down hordes of tyranids with some well placed devastator marines was tremendously enjoyable.

All in all, in my opinion it's a nice 'half an hour when you're bored' game of complex rock-paper-scissors and the gameplay was generally satisfying, if not slightly repetetive.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Yea. I couldn't really get into DOW2 as much as the original which is weird because I kind of like the rpg elements they worked in.

It may have more to do with the fact that I got fed up with Games Workshop's treatment of the IP around that time: 5th edition rules suck and they really ruined playing chaos by separating the marines & demons and completely abandoning the Lost & Damned. That, and White Dwarf was containing cheaper content for a 50% markup.

I've been a fan since Rogue Trader but they lost me over the last few years.

 

[BigHandInSky]

Fair enough, and my answer to the campaign thing is watch a playthrough online or a summary of the games events.

MP-wise losing all that data and being pissed off, play another game for a while, come back to DoW2, learn to play with the new systems and get used to it[to put it bluntly like a dreadnoughts fist]

The graphic card thing I can safely say I have no idea what you are on about.

I've given up on the campaign, I think. I'll come back to the multiplayer once I'm feeling less exasperated with the game. It's not learning to play with slightly different units that's the problem, I just like having as many Carnifexes as possible because I am a simple man who likes huge gribbly things.

Around the time of the Chaos Rising release my graphics suddenly went haywire and rendered the game completely unplayable. Problem was fixed after I traced its source to an update specifically tailored to Nvidia cards, leaving ATI users like myself out in the cold. Suffice to say I was a bit ticked off. Anyway, that's what I was talking about.

Same, except I love making the Huge/Super-Heavy units Eg: The Baneblade, but sadly they got rid of them in the latest versions, which ticked me off but I've grown to liking the latest tanks

 

[BladesofReason]

Easiest answer: For you, probably. It just might not be what you were looking for in a new Warhammer game. It really seems to come down to whether you enjoy the change of scale between Dawn of War 1 and 2. I appreciate them coming back to a more story driven single player mode rather than the Risk style map conquest of Dark Crusade and Soulstorm.

Also, Chaos Rising's campaign mode is an improvement over original Dawn of War 2.

 

[Volafortis]

Chaos Rising was really good.

I also enjoyed DoW2, but not as much as Dawn Of War.

 

[The Madman]

Campaign was entertaining, especially when played with friends. The 'Angel Gate' missions as well as the finale were incredible well done, the rest however? Not so much. Seeing the same environments and fighting the same enemies in the same handful of scenario time and time again got boring pretty quickly. Still, there were a couple memorable missions.

The expansion is supposed to have a really good campaign though, haven't tried it myself yet however.

Multiplayer though, there's where DOW2 shines. Hell, DOW2's multiplayer I'd say is leagues better than the first games generic rts gameplay. Fast-paced, intense, and with a focus on tactics. Me likey!

Advice? I'm not the best player really, with a more or less 50/50 win/loss count and a trueskill rating of around 25. But here's a basic tip: Watch replays. If someone just righteously kicked your ass all over the battlefield, save the replay and watch to find out how they did it! Best advice I can give. Watch replays and figure out what tricks work and what tricks don't, then try em yourself and discover what you most enjoy! Try out the different races as well, each has pretty different playstyles so see if there isn't one that suits you best. I for example *like* playing Eldar most, but actually *win* much more often as da Orkz.

Good Luck!