Dawn of War games: what am I missing?

[vean]

I played a bit DoW 1 when it came out, so recently I was thinking about strategy games and decided to replay it. I was expecting it to be at least mildly entertaining, but so far it hasn't been.

The gameplay just hasn't been there. I max out the squads, which takes about a minute, then I send them all into the enemy and click ++ when units start dying. Base building is minimal, micro seems to be non-existent, pathfinding is atrocious, and you can't zoom out to see more than 4 squads at a time.

I also tried DoW 2, which I don't get at all. It's a squad based tactics game with heavy reliance on cover, but also the most awkward implementation of cover possible? Half the time the cover places half the squad on one side and half on the other.

It's just surprising since these games are pretty well liked, but I'm having trouble seeing anything redeemable about them.

 

[Aothan]

many of these issues appear to be related to problems concerning A.I.

having played both for reasonable amounts of time, such as DoW II for about five years (!!) I would suggest not really looking for the game's potential in the campaigns alone. Of which after about five or so years of playing (and yet having recently stopped for other reasons) I have only played the campaign for at most two hours, and probably less

multiplayer is where much of the intended design comes to the fore, where human players and playstyles interact with game design

having said that, DoW II is not a well balanced game for public team or 1v1 games, some armies are simply better than others so that at this stage of the game a knowledgeable player can effect strategies that will often prove difficult for other reasonably capable players by din of army differences at specific phases of the game

there are also balance issues that simply won't go away and determine the game time and again, Shootas always come to mind, Chaos as a whole, and of course the Imperial Guard (etc)

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Do you wanna really know what's really missing?

Spoiler

100 Baneblades.

 

[markec]

DoW 1 in multiplayer is pretty fun, last time I played there were still many players on official servers.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

dow 1.0, just 1.0, or even earlier, was god damn fun.
every subsequent patch has worsen and worsen it, sacrificing gameplay and entertaining in the name of a never reached, never cared of, supposed balance.

 

[Neanderthal]

Campaigns pretty good but lacks variety in DoW 1, Winter Assault its expansion has better gameplay if you ask me, far harder, varied and interesting for both sides. I guess a lot o it is 40k setting, which is so full o potential but so poorly realised in many game, in comparison to a lot o shovelware DoW stands out. There are a few good missions in DoW 2, but once again the expansions are better, Chaos Rising has some fucking good scenarios and campaign while in Retribution you can play as da ork boyz of Kaptain Bludflag, which is cock on.

 

[Animal]

Dow 1 is the best rts game ever!

What are you talking about?

Play in a harder difficulty.


Omg, the heresy around here!


Dow 2 is dog droppings tho...

 

[spectre]

There isn't a lot to miss here. You either cream your pants whenever the dreadnought goes: "Burn, heretic!", or 2/3 of the fun will be lost on you.
Get Dark Crusade, it's got the best campaign of the bunch (if a bit repeatable), avoid Soulstorm, unless you want to play skirmish with mods.