Dawn of War vs Dawn of War II

[Jeivar]

I played the first Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War some years back, and for the most part enjoyed it. My dislikes were mostly about only playing as the Space Marines and the skirmish battles being about capture points rather than fighting things out properly. (I don't like capture points)

DoW II and all the add-ons are now available on the Steam summer sale. I'd like to hear how the two games compare. If they are basically the same I'd be willing to grab it. And what about the DLC's? There is... quite a lot of them.

[Pronounceable]

If they are basically the same I'd be willing to grab it.

They're completely different. One is a unit based RTS, other is a dungeon crawling RPG. It's pretty cool but you might wanna watch some gameplay videos first.

Though you should just get it cos orks.

[shadow_archmagi]

I played the first Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War some years back, and for the most part enjoyed it. My dislikes were mostly about only playing as the Space Marines and the skirmish battles being about capture points rather than fighting things out properly. (I don't like capture points)

DoW II and all the add-ons are now available on the Steam summer sale. I'd like to hear how the two games compare. If they are basically the same I'd be willing to grab it. And what about the DLC's? There is... quite a lot of them.

I mean, I always just disabled capture point victory in options, or ignored it and let him capture the critical points and it'd be like "FIVE MINUTES UNTIL TAKE AND HOLD VICTORY" and I'd just be like "He doesn't have five minutes" before destroying his base.

They're completely different. One is a unit based RTS, other is a dungeon crawling RPG. It's pretty cool but you might wanna watch some gameplay videos first.

Though you should just get it cos orks.

To be fair, every DoW2 game PAST DoW2 itself had a much less RPGish campaign, and the skirmish battles are very similar to DoW1.

[Murmaider]

Holy cow, that's a lot of DLC. I didn't know there was so much of that. I think the only DLCs that matter are 'Chaos Rising' and 'Retribution', atleast those are the ones I own.

The Campaign is very different than it was in any of the DoWIs. It's quite linear like vanilla DoW except you sometimes choose where you want to go next on a planetary map, like in Dark Crusade or Soul Storm. So far so good. Now, the actual gameplay during the campaign is more like a topdown action RPG in which you control up to four units per map. Before you go into battle you can change your units loadout, level up and decide which squad leader to take on the next mission.

Once you start a map you can't build anything, except reinforce your units with new Space Marines on preset points. At the end of each map there is usually a Bossfight with a Bulletsponge who oneshots your units if you stand in one of his area attacks. But never fear! You can revive any squad leader as long as you have units alive.

Rise of Chaos is just a sequel with Chaos Spaces Marines where you can load your save from the vanilla game.

Retribution is basically the same deal, except you can play as any of the available factions. The maps are the same through all the factions, with little story and dialog though.

Skirmish is different as well, compared to DoWI. You just have a base and from there you spawn units and level up tech with Money/Gold/Candy you got from capturing points. I don't like it. But maybe that's because I'm bad.

[Guancyto]

Did you play Company of Heroes? Did you like it? Do you want to play Company of Heroes with Spess Mehrens, and some RPG elements added in?

If the answer to all of these is yes, then you will like DoW2.

If you did not like Company of Heroes, you aren't likely to like DoW2.

If you didn't play it, then you should give DoW2 a try because it's on sale and it's honestly pretty good. Except for the final level, Chaos Rising is pretty much a frigging masterpiece.

Multiplayer is much closer to DoW1, as are the Retribution campaigns (if you don't like heroes, you can ditch them in exchange for moar units).

[darksolitaire]

I played the first Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War some years back, and for the most part enjoyed it. My dislikes were mostly about only playing as the Space Marines and the skirmish battles being about capture points rather than fighting things out properly. (I don't like capture points)

DoW II and all the add-ons are now available on the Steam summer sale. I'd like to hear how the two games compare. If they are basically the same I'd be willing to grab it. And what about the DLC's? There is... quite a lot of them.

Dawn of War 2, Chaos Rising and Retribution are all separate games. In the first two, single player is only with Space Marines. Retribution has campaign for Space Marines, Tyranids, Chaos, Imperial Guard, Eldar and Orks. And the DLC's are pretty much just multiplayer "packs" you don't need.

[GolemsVoice]

Yeah, DoW has a RIDICILOUS amount of DLCs, mos tof which are only a few items, or kits for your favourite (Chaos) Space Marine Chapter. Chaos Rising and Retribution are the two addons, both of which are quite good, with Chaos Rising being the most story-driven of the three games.

[Cespenar]

Did you play Company of Heroes? Did you like it? Do you want to play Company of Heroes with Spess Mehrens, and some RPG elements added in?

If the answer to all of these is yes, then you will like DoW2.

If you did not like Company of Heroes, you aren't likely to like DoW2.

If you didn't play it, then you should give DoW2 a try because it's on sale and it's honestly pretty good. Except for the final level, Chaos Rising is pretty much a frigging masterpiece.

Multiplayer is much closer to DoW1, as are the Retribution campaigns (if you don't like heroes, you can ditch them in exchange for moar units).

This guy hits it spot on.

Basically, DoW 1 was a RTS, while the others are Tactical RPGs.