I've only played 1hr 50 minutes to keep it under the steam refund time, so you couldn't call this a fully informed review, but here's my impressions so far.
Played the first 2 single player missions, took about 1hour 30 minutes (probably a bit less due to pissing around in the menus for a few minutes first).
The first with the marines was a super basic tutorial, literally how to move, how to attack, how to use a unit's special moves, how to pick up health packs and finally how to use the marines drop pod & sacred standard mechanics. It took you on a long circular route round the map to do this, but it did manage to distract you with some nice visuals on the level and a bit of exposition.
The second was with orks. It introduced their scrap mechanic, building and resource collection. And it dragged, badly. Again it took you on a long linear route round the map but this felt a lot more noticeable, whether they just hadn't hidden it as well as the first mission or it just stood out more to me because I'd noticed it in the first I couldn't say. It had taught you all the mechanics in the first 1/4 of the map (and I really don't see why it couldn't have been put in the first mission, barring the scrap mechanic) and the rest was just a boring, linear pile of meh. I was bored before I got the supposed end and then you had an extra extended "defend Ork gun while it powers up to fire" sequence, mainly spent sitting around waiting for the Eldar to attack. Then it turns out you have to do this 3 or 4 more times.
By this time I had about 1/2 hour left so I thought I'd better try out the MP.
The 20 minutes I played weren't bad, felt pretty solid as an RTS and the basic idea behind the one game mode they have was pretty easy to pick up (although I've watched a load of MP, previews, so I suppose that's kinda cheating). But, it is only one game mode and there are a grand total of 8 maps, couple of 1v1, couple of 2v2 etc and IIRC 4 of 3v3 although you can play with fewer players on the larger maps if you want.
Overall it seems like a solid base, it's a decent game, but currently doesn't really have enough content to justify the price for me. If I was super into multiplayer that might be different, but I generally play for the campaign and a good multiplayer is a bonus that keeps me playing afterwards and while the first mission didn't exactly wow me, it was okay, passable. Second mission put me right off. It might get better, but after that I'm not willing to risk it.
Finally the 40K/older DoW fan mini rant, which isn't as relevant. The Orks...while the voices aren't as good as they were, I'm not going to complain too much, but by Gork and Mork, the dialogue between the Warboss and Gorgutz after the ork mission...no ork has ever spoken the words "take care" as a friendly means of saying goodbye.
Anyone else got any further in the campaign? Does it get less shit?
Played the first 2 single player missions, took about 1hour 30 minutes (probably a bit less due to pissing around in the menus for a few minutes first).
The first with the marines was a super basic tutorial, literally how to move, how to attack, how to use a unit's special moves, how to pick up health packs and finally how to use the marines drop pod & sacred standard mechanics. It took you on a long circular route round the map to do this, but it did manage to distract you with some nice visuals on the level and a bit of exposition.
The second was with orks. It introduced their scrap mechanic, building and resource collection. And it dragged, badly. Again it took you on a long linear route round the map but this felt a lot more noticeable, whether they just hadn't hidden it as well as the first mission or it just stood out more to me because I'd noticed it in the first I couldn't say. It had taught you all the mechanics in the first 1/4 of the map (and I really don't see why it couldn't have been put in the first mission, barring the scrap mechanic) and the rest was just a boring, linear pile of meh. I was bored before I got the supposed end and then you had an extra extended "defend Ork gun while it powers up to fire" sequence, mainly spent sitting around waiting for the Eldar to attack. Then it turns out you have to do this 3 or 4 more times.
By this time I had about 1/2 hour left so I thought I'd better try out the MP.
The 20 minutes I played weren't bad, felt pretty solid as an RTS and the basic idea behind the one game mode they have was pretty easy to pick up (although I've watched a load of MP, previews, so I suppose that's kinda cheating). But, it is only one game mode and there are a grand total of 8 maps, couple of 1v1, couple of 2v2 etc and IIRC 4 of 3v3 although you can play with fewer players on the larger maps if you want.
Overall it seems like a solid base, it's a decent game, but currently doesn't really have enough content to justify the price for me. If I was super into multiplayer that might be different, but I generally play for the campaign and a good multiplayer is a bonus that keeps me playing afterwards and while the first mission didn't exactly wow me, it was okay, passable. Second mission put me right off. It might get better, but after that I'm not willing to risk it.
Finally the 40K/older DoW fan mini rant, which isn't as relevant. The Orks...while the voices aren't as good as they were, I'm not going to complain too much, but by Gork and Mork, the dialogue between the Warboss and Gorgutz after the ork mission...no ork has ever spoken the words "take care" as a friendly means of saying goodbye.
Anyone else got any further in the campaign? Does it get less shit?
