bugs ‘n’ stuff
So, Dawn of War II…
The game has a few rough edges, which is to be expected from a beta. It worries me, a little, that the game has already gone gold and I’m having some issues with a beta at this point. But none of it is really show-stopping. And I think some of it is, I believe, beyond the control of Relic at this point.
I’m not real thrilled with the Games for Windows Live thing. It seems like an extra, un-necessary step in the process. I’ve already got a Steam account. They know I’ve got a Steam account because that’s how they’re distributing the beta. And the retail product will also be available through Steam. And Steam provides the same kind of profile/scoreboard/tracking stuff that this Live thing is doing. So I really don’t know why they chose to go with the Live thing. It really seems un-necessary.
The player-matching thing seems a bit less-than-functional right now. I’m a noob. I don’t know how to play. And I’m being matched up against folks with a lot of games under their belt. They’re obviously better than I am. There’s no way this can actually be considered a good match. I’ll be generous though… Maybe that’s happening just because there’s a relatively small playerbase for the beta, and it’s just eventually giving up and matching me up with anyone it can find.
But the scorecard/profile thing is also not working so well. I played one ranked/tracked/whatever game as the Tyranids, and lost. That game doesn’t show up anywhere in my profile. I played one ranked game as the Space Marines and got disconnected before the game even started. That game shows up in my profile as a loss. I played two ranked games as the Eldar, one of which I actually won, but both show up in my profile as a loss. I really don’t know how that information is being reported or tracked, but the scorecard is simply not displaying accurate information.
I’m finally starting to grasp the gameplay. I’m slowly getting better. Largely because I’m tossing aside all my preconceptions about how the game should play. I do best when I can completely forget that I’m playing an RTS… Because, honestly, DoW2 isn’t much of an RTS. It’s really more of a squad-based tactical shooter or something like that.
There is absolutely zero base-building. It just doesn’t happen. Which keeps weirding me out when I try to look at DoW2 from an RTS standpoint. It’s like looking at a bicycle from an automobile standpoint and wondering where the engine and two of the wheels have gone.
There’s also a fairly harsh population cap. You can’t build up ginormous armies and dominate the map. You need to pick and choose your units very carefully. You need to pick and choose your battles very carefully. And you need to keep an eye on the entire map at all times. You have to stay mobile, but you can’t abandon anything. You have to leave at least a token force behind to guard anything that you value.
Your hero is very, very important. It’s hard to accomplish much of anything without your hero unit somewhere on the map. They really contribute a lot to the battle, even if they aren’t in the front lines. It genuinely hurts when your hero dies.
I also do much, much better when I’m playing as a race that I’m actually familiar with. The Tyranids, as cool as they may be, are just too new and unfamiliar to me. I have no idea how they’re supposed to be played at all. I haven’t had a chance to really understand how they work. And, because of that, I get slaughtered.
I’m finding, once again, that I really like the Eldar. Their mobility was always very fun… But it’s even more important in DoW2 than in the first games. It’s great to set up some webway gates and pop around the map on a whim. It becomes almost trivial to defend anything and everything important. Just set up a webway gate near-by, throw some infantry into the webway, and wait.
Of course you can’t put your vehicles into the webway, which sucks. But if you get a decent mix of infantry built up you can mow down just about anything.
That’s another important thing – getting the right mix of units. Units have always had their strengths and weaknesses… But in the original games it was relatively easy to overcome shortcomings with sheer numbers. Enough guardians (or banshees, or rangers, or whatever) could take down almost anything. But now that the cap is much lower, you really can’t brute-force things. You need to have the right tools for the job. Which means it is very important to mix up your ranged with some melee, and throw in some vehicles for good measure. Otherwise you’ll just get stomped.
And running away is very, very important. Which confuses me. Individual units are actually fairly expensive. It takes a little while to build up enough requisition and power to call in a squad of banshees, or warp spiders, or whatever. You certainly don’t want to throw them away on a suicide mission. So, when the battle goes sour, it’s a very good idea to run for the hills.
This seems counter-intuitive. I’m used to treating individual units as disposable. I’m used to throwing them into the meatgrinder of battle and not caring if they make it out the other side or not. So it seems really odd to be running away all the time.
And it’s also fairly frustrating when your opponent keeps running away all the time. Unless you’ve got some decent suppression with you, it can be nearly impossible to actually pin down a squad and kill them. They’ll just run away…reinforce…and come back for more later.
On the whole, I’m enjoying myself. It’s a fun game. The graphics are beautiful, the visuals are impressive, the battles are amazing… It really is a lot of fun.
But it just doesn’t feel the same as the first Dawn of War games. Hell, it doesn’t even feel like an RTS. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing… But as I’ve been anticipating DoW2 I’ve been looking forward to a new RTS game. And DoW2 apparently isn’t actually an RTS.
