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Video Games > War Video Games > Item 50
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Warhammer Dawn of War II
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Windows Vista / XP
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ESRB Rating:
Mature
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List Price: $39.99
$29.99
At Amazon
on 2-25-2010.
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Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
The game is fun, but it had the potential to be amazing, and fell short. Originally I said to wait before buying, but the bugs have been ironed out, and now it's a good time, specially at the discounted prices. Things to know: - Requires Games For Windows Live (GFWL) account - Steam installation and account required - No base building (departs from traditional RTS) === SUMMARY === I just realized the review has gotten pretty long as I've added other information, so I wanted to write something for those people who want a quick overview: If you don't mind few units, Steam, Games For Windows Live and lack of base building, you will enjoy the game a lot. The loot/items, unique characters, combat right from the start, persistent troops throughout the single player campaign, and an engaging and different 4 races make this game a great departure from traditional RTS. All wrapped up with great graphics, sound and animation to boot. The single player campaign does become very very repetitive after mission 30 or so. (there are probably 80 plus missions - I'm on 75 and counting) === THE BAD STUFF === - Steam (more details below) - You need to be connected to the internet to play the single player campaign. - You need to be logged in to Windows Live to play the game... ugh... - [[EDIT February 27: While the game crashed quite a bit when I first got it, it has been very stable with the last 2 patches, improving things dramatically. I only have 1 BSOD right after a February 23 major patch. So it looks like the crashing issues have been ironed out. But it was a serious issue at first]] - Single player campaign ONLY for marines... This is just plainly a bad decision. There are 4 fun and distinct races, with multiple heroes each, and they just do 1 (albeit quite long) campaign with only 1 faction, involving just 1 hero. Very disappointed. I hope they add more campaigns for cheap, like 9.99 for a long campaign for the Eldar or Tyranids. - Can't restart a mission. Got distracted and lost your units? Too bad, you can't restart it to get that reward you wanted. The game goes on even if you fail, which means you have to always be careful of what you're doing. - [[Edit: My wireless internet connection dropped while I was playing, and the game didn't stopped, just a little pop-up came up for a second letting me know the connection to GFWL was dropped - this is just a sigh of relief, as I didn't really know what would happen]] == Steam (why I don't like it) == 1. No resale value. Period. The software is attached to your steam account upon installation, and you cannot transfer the software or your steam account per the agreement you need to accept. (Kills the second game market - also a word of warning: Do not buy this game used - if someone is selling you one, it either won't work, or it's somehow a cracked version.) 2. You have to log in to Steam to play the game. (offline mode is there but pointless for the game, since you need to log in to windows live anyhow, still needs to run steam though, even in offline mode). 3. SLOW. Opening a game takes forever, since it first has to load up steam, then it needs to connect to steam online, then it starts launching the game. (At least 5 times as long as non-steam games.) 4. You can't play your games if the server is busy (unless you do the walk around every boot up to set it to offline mode). This was a most unpleasant surprise, I did not know Steam would actually go that far, and honestly I cannot think of a worse thing, not even DRM is that annoying. I click on my game, then after about 30 seconds trying to connect to steam, it just tells you something like: "Our servers are busy, try again later"... I could go on and on about how dumb this decision is, but I digress. How hard can it be for them to do implement the logic: "If server is busy, launch the game in offline mode". Note, this wasn't for a minute, I couldn't play it for about half an hour of trying to connect to their servers. Also, if there is a patch, you cannot run your game. My internet connection is not blazing fast so a 150MB patch also leaves you without playing until that's done.... This is unacceptable, period. It is a single player game installed in my local computer, I don't want your server to tell me when I can play it or not. Note: Steam is not securom or a rootkit or malware like some reviewers are suggesting. It's just an extra software layer, some people love it (you can buy games online, it keeps track of your friends, so you can see who is online and play with them, etc. So there is stuff to like about Steam. === THE GOOD STUFF === - Co-op single player campaign. You can progress through the campaign online with a friend. - Graphics are really good, animation is great. - Loot. (there are white, green and purple 'drops' to powerup the crews from the campaign. So you can customize your characters with new weapons. - Leveling. You level up both in the single player and the multiplayer games. In the campaign you even get to enhance your stats by spreading those points around. In multiplayer it just increases your attributes, making a veteran squad much more powerful than a new one. - Tactics are all about combat. (Even though I like base building, it was nice to depart from it - more info below). - Smaller number of units - (you cannot just outnumber your opponent to victory, you need to plan and use your units accordingly) - 3 levels of cover (standing behind rocks makes you harder to hit/damage at a maximum level, while standing behind say, a fence gives you only a medium level of cover protection. - Destructible environment - The 4 races play very differently, making the game more unique. - Even though I am disappointed the campaign is only for the Marines, I have to commend the developers, because it's actually a long campaign. I haven't finished it yet, and played through at least 35 missions, if not more. Granted you have the option of finishing it sooner, but I am doing all the optional missions too. === NO BASE BUILDING === Since these 3 items are new for RTS games, I wanted to expand on Relic's implementation as far as the single player campaign goes: - I have come to really, really enjoy not having a base. It works superbly along with the small number of units. In typical RTS I found myself building a well defended base, while "teching" so I could unload lots of powerful units and overwhelm the enemy. So basically, it took a while to complete a mission, and most of the time was spent building defenses and teching up, while the actual battle took very little, since the enemy was outmatched. In this game, you start fighting right away. === SMALL NUMBER OF UNITS === Most of the time you control 4 squads (in single player, multiplayer is 100 units per race, which depending on the unit type can be 12-15 squads) What I like about it: - You learn to care more about your units. (you cannot afford to lose squads in an important battle) You get to experience each squad's personality through their leader, and they are always with you - they are with you through the entire campaign. - War tactics become most important. Using cover wisely, using the special items wisely (like a grenade to quickly clear units inside a structure) - And what I like the most: I know my squads 1 - 4 hot keyed, so I can call upon each squad when I need them. I am not managing 100 units where I just select all and click attack - in order to be successful, you need to plan out your attack, heal your quads when needed, and basically be able to quickly call upon any squad when the need arises. (My sniper squad is being attacked by stronger melee units, I need to quickly hit the hot key of my jump squad to jump there and save them) === LEVELING === Commenting only on the single player campaign. Do I want my hero to be melee based, or do I want him to be a range damage type? (through the levels and experience points you can choose a path). Do I want my all purpose squad to be stronger in melee? Or do I want to make it into a range squad? Do I want my sniper team for this mission, or should I go with my melee team? === BOSS FIGHTS === They are fun, and a lot of them really hard. They can quickly wipe out your squad if you are not careful. They drop powerful items some times, which you can then use to bolster your squad. I think they did this very well, since bosses have special abilities, all the boss fights (so far) have been different from each other. === LOOT === I like having to make decisions as to how to equip the squad, which squad should get which powerups, which armor is better suited for x, y or z. However, it also suffers the same problems of most loot systems: - An item will drop that I can't use for 2 more levels (which could take about 4 missions to do at the latter stages). - Right now I have 6 extra pretty good armor drops level 6-9 green drops (sit unused, or switched in for some missions). While my commander has a level 0 gun, and a level 4 sword (there just haven't been good weapon drops for me). My supression squad meanwhile has like 4-5 great guns to choose from. Basically, it is what it is with random drops. I just wish my hero had better weapons at this point, my sniper team is also pretty weak in the weapons department, as is my all-purpose squad. - The reward items for completing missions stink at first (white items, and the random drops from the mission are better). In the latter stages the reward items become very powerful. On a side note, a lot of blue drops seem worse than green drops... - One annoyance is changing the...
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Warhammer Dawn of War II
Available from Amazon
Price: $29.99
Updated on 2-25-2010.
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