bit-tech News: Dawn of War 2 multiplayer beta impressions

[news 28]

Hi all,

 

We have just published a hands-on with the *Dawn of War 2 multiplayer

beta*. If you could post a link on your site that would be very much

appreciated.

 

*Link:*

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2009/01/27/dawn-of-war-2-beta-preview/1

 

 

*Picture:*

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2009/01/dawn-of-war-2-beta-preview/fp_img.jpg

 

 

*Quote:

*/What I'm trying to say here is that Dawn of War 2's multiplayer beta

is, at the moment, very, very inaccessible for the uninitiated. While

the full game's single player campaign will no doubt familiarise you

with the myriad array of abilities you can wield and expect to have

wielded against you (and their appropriate counters) going in cold

without any real tutorial is more likely to turn players off than get

them interested in the full game. Getting whupped by more skilled

players over and over again is not a good advertisement. /

/

The use of four armies so different from each other provides yet another

obstacle for the uninitiated, and just when you think you know

everything that the Tyranids might throw at you, you play a match

against the Orks and are faced by a completely new set of units and

challenges.

 

While we know this sort of knowledge, especially in an RTS, can come

only with experience and time, the Dawn of War 2 Multiplayer beta

doesn't so much throw you in at the deep end as strap a heavy boulder to

your back, tie a Tyranid swarm to your leg and then throw you into the

middle of the ocean. Without a single player campaign or decent tutorial

to first familiarise yourself with all the game play elements it soon

becomes an exercise in confused frustration. /

 

/But we're not worried. Oh no. It's clear from our time with the beta

that there's an enormous amount of potential here, and what now appears

confusing and intimi[censored] could, given more experience with both the

single player and multiplayer aspects (and a swift boot up the arse of

GFWL to sort out the match making system), become a very entertaining

multiplayer RTS with a remarkably varied set of units allowing for a

large number of branching strategies.

 

The ability to add a number of different upgrades to each unit within

each race is, while daunting right now, a very exciting prospect, and we

haven't even mentioned the blindingly high level of polish and

production values that's been applied to the game by Relic. Whether

you're willing to slog through the multiplayer and learn from your

mistakes now, or wait for the full game to get some experience from the

single player campaign before heading online, //Dawn of War 2 might just

be worth that four year wait after all.// /

*

 

*Cheers guys!

 

Tim Smalley

www.bit-tech.net