Do you need GFWL for DOW II Singleplayer?

[Ninjamedic]

I asked this before, but I wasn't specific.

I'm planning on getting the Dawn of War 2 Collection off Steam and I need to know if I can avoid installing GFWL. I'm going to use Retribution foe multi and i just want to play the campaigns from the other two.

 

[Lordmarkus]

Yes, DoW II and Chaos Rising both use GFWL for multiplayer and achievements. However if you only plan to play the SP then it should be a non-issue.

Don't take my word for it however cause I don't know what happens if you play without it, I play them with GFWL enabled since I don't have a problem with the service.

 

[Easton Dark]

I... can't remember if it lets you save the single-player or not without GFWL. I know you can play it without it, but I can't remember being able to save.

Red Faction: Guerrilla does the same thing.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Yes, DoW II and Chaos Rising both use GFWL for multiplayer and achievements. However if you only plan to play the SP then it should be a non-issue.

Don't take my word for it however cause I don't know what happens if you play without it, I play them with GFWL enabled since I don't have a problem with the service.

Is it invasive? Will I be able to un-install it once I'm finished with the campaigns?

 

[wasbored]

if i remember right u just need a account for it. u dont have to install GFWL

 

[Ninjamedic]

if i remember right u just need a account for it. u dont have to install GFWL

So I can just sign in offline for the campaign, then abandon it?

 

[wasbored]

it wont track acheviments with out signing in, i think

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I don't have retribution, but I had to make and sign into a GFWL account before you could play the game (including single player) It was a pain in the ass as GFWL wouldn't work, and it took me ages before I could play.

 

[Ninjamedic]

it wont track acheviments with out signing in, i think

I use a PS3, and I don't care about achievements other than Steam.

 

[FlashHero]

I just bought the games as well...It uses GFWL but you can make a offline account just like on the xbox360. So it only appears at launch and then your done with it. There isn't a way to run the game without it i'm afraid. But the campaign is worth installing it and only seeing it at the start of the game IMO. Also if you haven't bought DOW II Returbution yet then buy it on Amazon for cheaper.

http://www.amazon.com/Warhammer-40k-Dawn-Retribution-Download/dp/B004NBZBM4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313880946&sr=8-2

It is about $3 cheaper AND it registers on steam...so you don't even have to download it from amazon you just get the key.

Then get this:
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4026/

Now you have all 3 games for $3 cheaper than buying the collection pack on it's own from steam.

 

[Ninjamedic]

I just bought the games as well...It uses GFWL but you can make a offline account just like on the xbox360. So it only appears at launch and then your done with it. There isn't a way to run the game without it i'm afraid. But the campaign is worth installing it and only seeing it at the start of the game IMO. Also if you haven't bought DOW II Returbution yet then buy it on Amazon for cheaper.

http://www.amazon.com/Warhammer-40k-Dawn-Retribution-Download/dp/B004NBZBM4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313880946&sr=8-2

It is about $3 cheaper AND it registers on steam...so you don't even have to download it from amazon you just get the key.

Can I un-install GFWL after? Will it run without me starting it?

 

[ManimalR]

Dawn of War 2 and Chaos Rising both use GFWL, which screwed both of them up for me. however, retribution does not and works fine, so I would just get Retribution instead

 

[Ninjamedic]

Dawn of War 2 and Chaos Rising both use GFWL, which screwed both of them up for me. however, retribution does not and works fine, so I would just get Retribution instead

Do I need to play the campaigns of the first two? Or Can I just jump straight into retribution?

 

[Flour]

Dawn of War 2 and Chaos Rising both use GFWL, which screwed both of them up for me. however, retribution does not and works fine, so I would just get Retribution instead

Do I need to play the campaigns of the first two? Or Can I just jump straight into retribution?

Unfortunately, you won't really understand the campaign of Retribution if you don't play the first two DoW2 games, and you'll miss all the races for The Last Stand(you only get the Imperial Guard captain with Retribution)

But to answer your original question: you need GFWL to start DoW2 and Chaos Rising, you can create an offline account to play the campaigns, and when you're done you can simply remove GFWL.

 

[Ninjamedic]

races for The Last Stand(you only get the Imperial Guard captain with Retribution)

But to answer your original question: you need GFWL to start DoW2 and Chaos Rising, you can create an offline account to play the campaigns, and when you're done you can simply remove GFWL.

Is GFWL intrusive? Will it run without my starting it? Does it eat up ram?

 

[Flour]

races for The Last Stand(you only get the Imperial Guard captain with Retribution)

But to answer your original question: you need GFWL to start DoW2 and Chaos Rising, you can create an offline account to play the campaigns, and when you're done you can simply remove GFWL.

Is GFWL intrusive? Will it run without my starting it? Does it eat up ram?

It runs in the background and hides itself so I don't know how much resources it uses or what it does.

However, I never had any problems with it, even on my laptop, so I don't think it's a huge resource drain.

 

[lionsprey]

If i remember correctly when i played DoW2 you needed to be signed in to GFWL in order to save or load a game

 

[ManimalR]

Dawn of War 2 and Chaos Rising both use GFWL, which screwed both of them up for me. however, retribution does not and works fine, so I would just get Retribution instead

Do I need to play the campaigns of the first two? Or Can I just jump straight into retribution?

Unfortunately, you won't really understand the campaign of Retribution if you don't play the first two DoW2 games, and you'll miss all the races for The Last Stand(you only get the Imperial Guard captain with Retribution)

But to answer your original question: you need GFWL to start DoW2 and Chaos Rising, you can create an offline account to play the campaigns, and when you're done you can simply remove GFWL.

I found the campaign to be perfectly easy to understand without playing DOW 2 or CR, and you can play ALL of the characters in last stand.

Considering GFWL wouldn't let me run DOW 2 or CR at all I would just get retribution to be honest, all the features in the others are there with a campaign for every side

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Dawn of War 2 and Chaos Rising both use GFWL, which screwed both of them up for me. however, retribution does not and works fine, so I would just get Retribution instead

Retribution, for whatever reason, resulted in enormous problems for those of us who play online. Matchmaking takes far, far too long and even loading is problematic. Couple that with a dramatic increase in games where steam issues cause the game to end early (or a player to be booted) and i find that, even though GFWL was a bit bad, it wasn't as bad as Steam as turned out to be.

 

[somonels]

You don't need to install GfwL, you just need to copy a some dll to your system32 folder. I forgot which one.