Server Help :: View topic - Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

Server Help

Trash Talk - Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

Mine GO BOOM - Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:41 pm
Post subject: Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

As a side note, I've never played any of the Warhammer computer games. I've played only a few real Warhammer table games. I've played many Mage Knight games, as that was very simple to get friends into playing, and much cheaper since you can buy huge, and I do mean huge, lots of guys off eBay.

I first got this game, just because of the name. I've always liked Warhammer, but the fact that it takes a while to play, and that my friends are all too stupid to do the needed tasks to run a game smoothly, I've only played a few times. I had no idea whats this game had in store for me, and read no reviews or even knew what type of format it plays as.

So, blindly, I installed it. Took three CDs, so I'm expecting this to be a horribly coded game, since I can't imaging why it would need so much data. Looking at the layout of the files, it seems that a huge chunk of the data is just repeats of sounds/graphics. Instead of down sampling in the game, they made three libraries of the graphics and sounds for the low/med/high levels. Some extra movie stuff takes up almost another full CD worth of information, with the level files filling in the rest. As for the other stuff, it looks like since they knew it was going to be over two CDs, might as well flood that one with junk too. So it sits on my drive as 1.6gigs.

Load it up to a nicely designed and pretty intro scene. Plays for a couple of minutes, and doesn't really explain to me much of how the game will play out.

When it pops up to the main menu, I was pleasantly surprised with an Army Painter option. Good, so they included one of the best features of the real Warhammer, making your army look cool as hell and different than everyone else. Includes a bunch of clan designs, though I didn't notice a simple way to create your own. Might have mods to do that, but didn't look that hard into it.

So, I jump into a campaign. It asks if I would like to do a tutorial, as all good games now-a-days with more than two buttons to push should do. I enter the tutorial, and am greeted with a Starcraft type interface. Oh, so this is a real time strategy game. I was sort of hoping for turned based, but this still should be able to keep true to form of the real game.

Play through it a bit, overwhelm the enemies with hugely superior forces, as I like to do. Plays a bit like Starcraft, in that you have food limits, and the gold/lumber type idea. Though, in this game, I don't really understand the mining of the 'gold' in here. The 'lumber' is power, so I can see how you build generators to make that at least.

To get to the theme of being like Warhammer, you don't truly control every guy. You build squads, which can range from one guy, to upto 8 for most groups, and as high as 20 I've seen for the cannon fodder type units. You can resupply the squads in field, and the new recruits warp right into the squad. Sort of a weird feeling, but makes it so you have to kill every last enemy. If you let one guy out, he'll respawn his squad back upto full within a minute or so.

After a bunch of wussy levels, I finally get to the good stuff: machines. Oh god, how I love the Dreadnoughts. They were my favorite unit in the real game, and still are. Thankfully now, I'm not limited to how many I buy in real life, but instead how much my technological level can produce of the vehicle units.

As I'm only into like mission number 6 or so, I haven't gotten around to playing as the other guys yet. But one of the best features of this game I like over Starcraft and such, is that it has a much, much more 3D feel to it.

In Warcraft 3, you can zoom in a bit, and look to the left/right by holding buttons down. Ugh, I want full control. In Warhammer, they delivered. Middle scroll zooms in pretty close, and you can get a feel for why this game took up so much damn space. The models look great. Very nicely done.

Ok, so you can zoom in real pretty like? So? Well, hold ALT and move the mouse around, and you can move the camera anywhere above the surface level, at any angle. Its stuck to going only as low as parallel to the ground, and sadly stuck above the height of most units. When guys blow up and fly through the air, you really wish you could angle the camera into the sky.

So, now some fancy rating system that I made up on the spot:

Graphics: 5
They looked good compared to the blockiness of Warcraft 3. With the ability to zoom in really, really close, you are thankful for that. The ability to paint your army for multiplayer games just adds to the whole.
Sound: 3
The voice acting for the cut-scenes (which are done like Warcraft 3, using the game engine to do it) are pretty poor, which rank about a 2 for me. They didn't copy Blizzard's idea of making every unit say neat things when you click on them a whole bunch. They also repeat boring 'move' and 'attack' lines, which you use a lot in combat. To make that stand out even more, they are much louder than almost everything else, thus adding to the annoyance. You don't understand how much I want to punch someone who next says "Walk softly, but carry a big gun."

One thing that made the sounds acceptable, is that the weapon sounds themselves are great, as are the flying ships and other little background noise. If it wasn't for that, this would be getting a 2, or possibly even a 1.
Gameplay: 3
Sadly, I cannot comment much on gameplay. I haven't played many missions yet, and have not done a single multiplayer game. Only got it recently, though I'll be shoving it down the throats of my friends who've played Mage Knight with me, or who liked Starcraft.
Storyline: 2
Ugh, the story just keeps getting more in the way. Unlike Starcraft, which has a very cool story line (Bloodwars was ok), or Warcraft which everyone knows, this one just seems bland. Big macho commander trying to kill all the orcs. Orcs wants to "kill dem humies." The guy who is there to assist you can give advice has some secret plot twist, which isn't so secret, with the other 'bad' human group. Maybe I'm not liking the story because Warhammer did such a good job explaining the real line in the table game, or maybe its because the actors suck ass and sound like they didn't even read the script before they started recording. He'll, I'm pretty sure they still don't even know what Warhammer is. Hard to get into a story, if those portraying it don't get into their own story.
Fun factor: 4
Just watching the Dreadnoughts rip into an enemy and cut them in half, or to swing their arms and throw a huge crowd of guys high into the sky, some to land on trees and die, is just classic. They put a lot of heart and soul into these models, and did a very nice job with them. So many new neat things you take for granted, such as if your squad kills off some easy prey, sometimes one of the guys will start to kick, shoot, and even smack one of the dead bodies, just for the hell of it.
Overall: 4
This game is great. I'm having a blast playing with the Dreadnoughs and tearing guys apart. This game gives a lot into how it looks, and does great. But sadly, for all the energy placed into making the game look and feel cool, they completely skipped over the voices until two days before the game was to be shipped. The sounds don't just get in the way of the game, but begin to take away from it.

For everything its is, its not made by Blizzard. Unless they have some stupid software patents, all real time strategy games should have the spacebar go back to the 'job complete' type last events. This one seems slacked at it, where sometimes space goes to certain events, but not others. And there is no history of hitting space, and cycling through the last couple of events.

And where is my funny comments from clicking on guys? This is a game! People will click on your guys millions of times, put some humor into that. And why the hell is the stop action 'q'? Stop should always have the hot-key of 'S', hence why you call it stop, and put a stop sign for the icon.

It does do better in some ways. Near the bottom right of the mini-map, you can easily cycle through different squads, different buildings, and something else I rarely use, so I forgot. Another nice feature that came about because you control squads instead of guys, is that when you make the squad bigger, you can just right-click on the Add Guys button, and it will fill it up for you, without you having to click on it a whole bunch.

And now for some screen shots. Click on them to make bigger/show more. Full screen images are all 1600x1200 with very low compression, so are pretty damn big files.

If you notice, in this screen shot of the Hellfire Dreadnought, a tank in the background is green. This is a great addition to the game, where invisible units behind buildings/trees/just plain hidden, will become outlined. This lets you easily see where all your guys are, and not let the pretty graphics get in the way. Sometimes, it makes it even easier to notice enemies, since they are solid red when hidden.

This is the regular, more powerful Dreadnought. This one is designed for close combat, and does all sorts of cool things when it gets into the fray. In this shot, you can notice little armor symbols above guys' heads. In the real Warhammer, terrain gives you advantages against certain things. That symbol means that they are in light cover, which takes less damage from ranged fire than normal.

This is the normal view. Can get a nice feel for how the squads work, since you can see them all in little groups. Like Starcraft, you can select a bunch of groups, and number them for easier control.

Showing off people flying in the air when tanks are attacking groups.

Another pretty battle scene, a few seconds later when the next volly from the tanks go out.

This is to give you a slight feel for how well the guys look. The models are very well done, and every guy gets their own little personality, instead of all acting the same. The loops last longer, and there are many different types of stands they have for idling/attacking/flying in the air, that it doesn't look repeated. As long as you don't click on them to hear annoying voices, they are great.

Onlyone - Wed Oct 27, 2004 4:30 pm
Post subject:

My roomate is big into Warhammer ... especially the painting aspect. His shit is pretty good too:

http://groups.msn.com/TheWarhammerPhotoSociety/gonadsandstrife.msnw?albumlist=2

My favorite RTS is the Cossacks series ... damn cool shit.

Cyan~Fire - Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:42 pm
Post subject:

Looks pretty sweet.

But will it even work on my 1.3gHz/64mb Video RAM computer? You need to add an "efficiency" to your rating.

Mine GO BOOM - Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:14 am
Post subject:

Well, level 8 had so much junk in it, it sucked up too much video ram and died. I had to set my resolution down to 1024x and everything to lowest settings so I could beat that level. Then again, I did create way too many guys, and just sat on resources, so both enemies also built too many guys.

Hehe, I had 9 turrets around every stronghold.

And now that I've beaten it, whats new? Well, unlike Blizzard games, this one's single player only has you playing as one group, the Space Marines. Worst of all, its ending sucks, and leaves you waiting for another game to finish the weak story. Storyline drops down to a 1.5 rating for that.

AnacondA - Mon Nov 01, 2004 8:51 am
Post subject:

Pretty good review, nice read... I have a 1.6amd 512mb 64Nvidia and it plays pretty good on that machine. Well i started a skirmish once with 8 players and that pretty much crashed the comp but normaly things go smooth in normal gfx settings. I must say that i played it for a week and got bored of it tho...

Purge - Mon Nov 01, 2004 9:14 am
Post subject:

I'll also try that game out :-p

Purge - Mon Nov 01, 2004 5:19 pm
Post subject:

Forget it I don't wanna buy anything now.

Cospar - Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:17 am
Post subject:

Wow is it for free? Download from which site?

AnacondA - Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:52 am
Post subject:

I dont believe its free. Its a 3 CD full game... I illegaly downloaded it from my university campus though

2 cd's instead of 3 and with "Alcohol120%" you don't even have to burn the ISO on cd.

Spyed - Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:15 pm
Post subject:

wow that game looks cool..

Kameloh - Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:35 pm
Post subject:

>_>

Mr Ekted - Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:11 pm
Post subject:

MGB = PIMP

Mine GO BOOM - Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:56 pm
Post subject:

Spyed wrote:

wow that game looks cool..

Seriously. Stop it.

Assassin2684 - Mon Oct 03, 2005 5:02 pm
Post subject:

Thats a nice game there. Looks like a good game engine and moderate graphics. Good choice MGB

D1st0rt - Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:04 pm
Post subject:

Time to whip out the Thread Necromancer card. I was looking for the image a while ago, but couldn't find it

Donkano - Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:34 pm
Post subject:

1stStrike - Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:10 pm
Post subject:

That is so Spyed.

D1st0rt - Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:33 pm
Post subject:

That's the crappy one. I was looking for the older one MGB made for lp/newb's avatar

Cyan~Fire - Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:49 pm
Post subject:

Donkano - Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:03 pm
Post subject:

I should make a real spoof card of that and give it special spam attack where you tap X swamps as where X is X/X from their attack and defence. If it reaches 0 or beyond that, they can no longer attack but can only defend as a 0/1 and is removed from the game if killed.

As I said, a SPOOF card.

Cerium - Tue Oct 04, 2005 1:18 am
Post subject:

Yeah, do that. You will be the coolest kid in school.

Spyed - Tue Oct 04, 2005 7:31 am
Post subject:

I have necrons

good army!

D1st0rt - Tue Oct 04, 2005 3:15 pm
Post subject:

Thanks Cyan, that still makes me laugh

Spyed - Wed Oct 05, 2005 3:56 am
Post subject:

It's hard to tell who Imperial gaurd are gonna get beaten by

Anonymous - Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:10 am
Post subject: Re: Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

Mine GO BOOM wrote:

And where is my funny comments from clicking on guys

George Broussard wrote:

All in all, TA has a much more serious feel to it than other games. For example, when you click on a unit in TA, it doesn't make any sort of humorous comment. Why did you decide to leave out something so popular in past games?

Chris Taylor wrote:

Well, the truth is, those sorts of comments take time to script out and cost more to do in the studio. We were under a lot of time and budget contraints so we started looking for alternatives. It occured to us that making a noise was easier to do but it was also something different and players may enjoy a break from the conventional "yes sir". In the end I actually preferred the way we did it. If I were to do it over I would probably provide an option to allow the player to turn these on or off.

Anonymous - Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:13 am
Post subject:

^ was me

GJ turning into a computer games nerd mine go boom.

If you thought WarHammer was way too short, try Mech Commander 2.
Good game, nice permise, about the length of a trailer mini movie.
Original mechwarrior games had more missions, which lasted longer, this was a joke.