Dawn of War 2 impressions

Dawn of War 2 is Relic Entertainments follow up on the massively succesful Dawn of War series. Relic being the only remaining RTS studio competing with Blizzard sure has it’s work cut out for it but the success of Homeworld, Dawn of War and recently Company of Heroes seem to indicate that they are somewhat good at what they do (understating for effect).

Dawn of War 2 is a game that is more focused on small unit tactics compared to the massive armies of it’s predecessor but apart from that not a lot has really changed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a big change. And for the better in my opinion.

DoW2 is simple put: fun. It’s a lot more like the classic Myth series then Command & Conquer style RTS games which makes play a lot more focused and immersive. The graphics are great and the different units with their different abilities make for interesting game dynamics. But there are a few glitches in this new way of playing.

First though, I wonder why it requires such outrageous system specs? It’s not prettier then Company of Heroes but it makes my core2duo 2,4 Ghz, 2GB DD2, XFX 8800GT 512MB machine stutter and jerk. Sure, I’m running the game in 1080p but I have no problem running CoH in the same resolution. Isn’t DoW2 based on the same engine? Recommended system specs are way below my machine so I can’t help feeling Relic somehow forgot, or didn’t have time for optimization. Please patch this up, this is just silly.

Gameplay wise there is also a question of complexity, long time readers will know by now that I’ve been an active advocate for simple games for the past 5 years but DoW2 is plain weird. It’s a game made to be simple to pick up, small units, distinct advantages for different units. Small skirmishes and simple to understand goals. Sounds great right? So why does each unit has 3 interchangeable special abilities that seem to come in enormous variety, all with different uses and hot keys?

It’s like if some part of the design was just hammered into the game without following the same rules as the rest of the game:
Overall game design “simplicity and stream lined experience”
Unit and ability control “pre 2000’s complexity comparable to text based logistic shipping simulators from the early 90’s?”
I’m drastically exadurating now but the complexity is really strange to find in this game. It just makes little sense. Why aren’t the unit abilities locked to special roles? Or at least the ability groups locked to certain units? Does a sniper really ever need to use melee-charge?
And why can’t I control all the abilities with the same keys, as I do in World in Conflict? Button A for ability A, button B for ability B and so on. No matter WHAT that ability is?

Oh, and the multiplayer gameplay is copied without shame from the original version of Dreamlords. But that’s just awesome.  ;)

Steam tax

I just bought Dawn of War 2, the sequel to the massive juggernaut of tactical gaming Dawn of War from Relic Entertainment, so I thought I’d offer some thoughts on it.

But first, let’s gripe about digital distribution. Why on earth am I paying 10$ extra to buy the game on steam? Look, publishers, I LOVE game boxes and special editions and such. But I hate optical media discs. The reason being I always lose them and never, ever, use my optical drives anymore so I’m never sure they’re installed. Steam on the other hand is always ready to go. I will therefore always buy games from Steam, but if I like the game I will probably buy a special edition box, for art books and such. I’m certainly not alone in this since Steam has, at least, over 15 million active users, so why on earth are you charging us a “steam tax” when your obviously already making more money from a digital distribution sale because you won’t have to pay for box printing and such?

I suspect that the answer is either “publishers are dumb old-school people with no clue” or possibly “publishers want to make third party digital distribution unpopular and then launch their own digital distribution platform when it’s ready in 2025″. Because these are the only answers that seem to cover all the information. Neither is a very good answer, anyone have any alternative possibilities?

Flower impressions

Sublime.

Flower is the most engaging experience of movement, speed, atmosphere and space I’ve had in any game. The runner up, Eve Online, is not even close but even Eve is light years ahead of most games. Flower has room for improvements, nothing is perfect. But it might be the most innovative game I’ve played since Dune 2. It is not a classic game in almost any way, it is more an interactive experience of engaging fun rather then a computer- console- arcade- game. And it’s better for it. It breaks most of the molds that hold this medium from growing but is never artsy or pretentious.

The only complaint I have with flower is that I have to play it with the SixAxis controller. Don’t get me wrong, the 360 controller would certainly not be better and I doubt even the wiimote would be an improvement. A clunky piece of plastic simply doesn’t do the experience justice. For preference I would have liked to play it using an iPod nano. But we can’t have everything can we?

Flower. It’s the best game in it’s range (a short, small, cheap but luxurious experience). Buy it. You’ll not regret it, I wish I was home playing it right now.

Thatgamecompany has really hit the mark with this one, let’s hope they keep reshaping our perception of games and entertainment!

 

Defending limitations

Doing things differently, doing things in a new way is hard.  The hardest part is that you have to change how you think about whatever it is you are going to do. This is usually called thinking outside the box. Thinking without prerequisites about the project at hand.

This is why limitations are so good. Because they force a new set of rules on the product, however small or large that difference may be, that change the direction in which you take the product.

Are you stuck with some design or problem? Try giving yourself a strange rule to follow. Or find the rules and limitations of your work before you try to create it. Working without limitation just leads you in circles.

Amazon game shop

Amazon has tossed down the gauntlet on the casual games industry and started a downloadable casual game portal. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Games are priced at a competitive $10 and with amazons huge customer base it will certainly be interesting to see the effect this might have. More and more mainstream businesses are approaching the games industry, hard core developers tremble and might go extinct.

Coop mechanics again

Check out my new post on Understanding Games as I continue my intellectual struggle with cooperative play and improving how games are made.

Don’t miss my comment on how Completitive Play might be a great new model for creating active cooperative play.