# Dawn of war retribution betas



## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

The beta is coming soon and I personally cant wait for it to come out.

January 31st Key Dow community members and the THQ team
February 1st Anyone who has pre-ordered the game or registered to Dow community site before January 25th
February 8th anyone who has bought a DOW game off steam <----Me


So anyone who registered before 25th or has pre-ordered the game of steam tell us what you think.


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## Tyrannus (Sep 19, 2010)

aboytervigon said:


> February 1st Anyone who has pre-ordered the game or registered to Dow community site before January 25th


Damn. 

My pre-order was just accepted yesterday. Ahh well, 8th feb for me then.


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

No its the registration that was for 25th your golden for Feburary 1st.


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## Mr.Juggernaught (Nov 16, 2010)

I'm gonna be testing all day on febuary 8th as its 60 blooming US dollars thats crap you can but dawn of war 2 and chaos rising individually for that price. Does any one think that it will be cheaper after the main release?


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

aboytervigon said:


> registered to Dow community site before January 25th


Oh yes . I registered about two years ago so I'll be playing on the first. On a different and really frustrating note the first of January is also the day that school goes back :angry:. If that wasn't bad enough I have year 10 camp on the second week of school so I'll be missing out on almost a whole week of retribution for some stupid camp.

EDIT: Also, while I'm raging, why the hell won't GAME let me preorder Retribution yet, I want my collectors edition damn it!


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## Azkaellon (Jun 23, 2009)

wombat_tree said:


> Oh yes . I registered about two years ago so I'll be playing on the first. On a different and really frustrating note the first of January is also the day that school goes back :angry:. If that wasn't bad enough I have year 10 camp on the second week of school so I'll be missing out on almost a whole week of retribution for some stupid camp.
> 
> EDIT: Also, while I'm raging, why the hell won't GAME let me preorder Retribution yet, I want my collectors edition damn it!


Because the internet hates us all.....


Also HELL YA AUTARCH!


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

I believe it needs to pre-ordered on steam but not sure about that.


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

aboytervigon said:


> I believe it needs to pre-ordered on steam but not sure about that.


What do you mean?


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

*posting from work*



wombat_tree said:


> ...why the hell won't GAME let me preorder Retribution yet


Because GAME are about as much use as a soluble condom?


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

Svartmetall said:


> Because GAME are about as much use as a soluble condom?


Looks like EB games for me then....


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

weird how 3 votes already yet the games not out yet .


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

aboytervigon said:


> weird how 3 votes already yet the games not out yet .


well i voted its shit because unless they completely re programme the whole game and include fluff correct units and increase the unit count by several thousand percent and include all the hardware marines have its gonna be shite.


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

bitsandkits said:


> include fluff correct units and increase the unit count by several thousand percent and include all the hardware marines have its gonna be shite.


1. What's wrong with the fluff in Dawn of War II (other than the small squads)? 
2. The tabletop game doesn't have several thousand units, why should a computerised version of Warhammer have so many units? 
3. What do you mean by hardware?


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

wombat_tree said:


> 1. What's wrong with the fluff in Dawn of War II (other than the small squads)? answered your own question
> 2. The tabletop game doesn't have several thousand units, why should a computerised version of Warhammer have so many units? i never said thousands of units i said thousands of percent,but while were here the table top is limited by size and space a computer game isnt, looks at a real RTS like total war series many hundreds of men, war(and neither is the table top version) isnt fought by 10 blokes and a dog called dave
> 3. What do you mean by hardware?


all the other marine toys, tanks,speeders,artillery etc

Sorry but this game is just a poor attempt at RTS and for the love of god i wish people would stop buying it and complain about its glaring flaws, I get accused of being a GW fanboi because i get all squishy about models but honestly DOW2 sucks ass, yes its pretty to look at but no one is going to mention the elephant in the room, three man squads ???WTF? 10 marines max(using first game as reference) no vehicles?? marines just teleport in???
Random chapter wargear relics just strewn around Ork camps willy nilly.
Its obvious that GW had alot less influence in the making of the second series of games and personally i think that was a mistake, alot of GW fluff makes no sense but its still important and when relic chuck it away it hurts the game.but even then i found the game too short and too easy and not very tactical.


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## rawrgh (May 28, 2010)

DoW2 Is an good game, if you want millions of units go play TA/supreme commander/SC2 which are the benchmarks for true large scale RTS.

I agree that it's not truly and RTS its an RTS/(simple)RPG hybrid (similar to spellfiorce which was also a very good game) and for me that is it's strength. However I can understand how people may be disapointed if they were wanting/expecting a full on RTS. However if relic had gone down that route I'm afraid it would have failed miserably and dissapeared into oblivion as the market is saturated with RTSs and higly competitive. (Mark of chaos anyone )

Personally I find the small squad combat interesting and more tactical as you cant simply amass a massive army and overpower the enemy. But my one problem witht he game, and It really is a big one, is the boss fights.... I mean WTF.. theyre all pretty much the same and serve very litte purpose.

Back on topic, retribution looks good form what I've seen, but I havent even played chaos rising yet


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## turel2 (Mar 2, 2009)

Dow 2 is a good game, but it is more based on company of heroes with 40k skins.

DoW2 is best played online with Multiplayer, but it can be difficult to get into because of the high level of competitveness of the game.


Also, heres a link to Company of Heroes Online. Its free to play, so you can see how similar the games are if you want.
Company of Heroes Online


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

turel2 said:


> Dow 2 is a good game, but it is more based on company of heroes with 40k skins.
> 
> DoW2 is best played online with Multiplayer, but it can be difficult to get into because of the high level of competitveness of the game.


so its basically money for more old rope, this is kinda the point, they shouldnt be trying to shoe horn 40k into the boots of another game, the designs are already done for them so they have saved a significant amount of time and money, they have a ready made fan base and a legacy from the first DOW series why fuck with it ?


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## turel2 (Mar 2, 2009)

bitsandkits said:


> so its basically money for more old rope, this is kinda the point, they shouldnt be trying to shoe horn 40k into the boots of another game, the designs are already done for them so they have saved a significant amount of time and money, they have a ready made fan base and a legacy from the first DOW series why fuck with it ?


I do miss the first DoW series, it does 40k a better justice. DoW2 is a good game too, its just completely different.


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## Wusword77 (Aug 11, 2008)

bitsandkits said:


> so its basically money for more old rope, this is kinda the point, they shouldnt be trying to shoe horn 40k into the boots of another game, the designs are already done for them so they have saved a significant amount of time and money, they have a ready made fan base and a legacy from the first DOW series why fuck with it ?


Because they were hoping to add to their fan base by modeling it after Company Of Hero's.

The first Dawn of War was good, but it suffered from issues of it's own from the fluff. Like building every where all over the planet, Blood Ravens/Imperial Guard going against each other for no reason, and others.

The game also had balance issues (Blood Ravens were insanely overpowered compared to over factions).

DoW 1 was great, but holding it on some high horse over DoW2 isn't right. Especially when both are VERY different games.

I'm looking forward to Retribution, it seems to be blending DoW1 with DoW2 and has a multi-directional story. I'm hoping it'll be amazing.


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

I hated Dawn of War II at first as well, I thought it was just Dawn of War with less units and prettier graphics (though with my computer I have to run it on the lowest settings anyway). I didn't like it because I was expecting something different, I was expecting a 'true' Dawn of War II, basically an update to Dawn of War I, but that isn't what Dawn of War II is. Really Dawn of War II is more of a 'spiritual successor' to Dawn of War I, sure it has similar features such as reinforcing squads and capturing requisition points but otherwise it is a very different game focussed more on tactics than numbers (which would explain why I'm not very good at it ) and if you can come to terms with this fact and look past the fluff inconsistencies then I think it is a very good game (except for the matchmaking system which is utter rubbish, though they're changing it in Retribution). On a different note, how much of Dawn of War II have you played, Bits and Kits?

P.S. Bits and Kits, increasing the unit count by several thousand percent would mean Space Marine squads with greater than 30 members


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## Roninman (Jul 23, 2010)

Dawn of War 2 was for me a HUGE disappointment. First DOW was quite good and Company of Heroes was excellent. This game has so many bad points that im suprised people still play it other than total fanbois. It was obviously made for e-sports in mind and has even failed in that too.

Some bad points:
- Unit responsiveness. Units dont respond to commands that quickly. 
- Maps. Really bad
- Too small scale. Scale of whole game went down so much, that i dont think tanks shouldnt even be in game. This feels like minor skirmish game, not even close to battle.
- Lack of buildings. Im ok with this, but then it sounds stupid there are exceptions like turret and power generators
- Havoc engine. Worked great on Company of Heroes, on this game its totally wasted
- Global abilities. Some ok, quite many really bad and lack of imagination. What was wrong with COH tree?
- Feels rushed. Some units are quite ok and some are bad. Also transports on game this size....
- Lack of units. Still too many units missing, but on this scale isnt even necessary
- Annihilation mode. Does this game even need that. No base building so whats point of killing enemy base which has 1000000 hp, cause at that point its already over for him.
- Unit abilities. Would have loved some more abilities on units, too few
- Tyranids. Still not seem like a horde type army. Their unit sizes are about similar to Orks and they are only few models on each unit above Marines.
- Heroes and levelling. Some ideas were quite ok, but they should look at other games were it really worked. Lack of ideas again and didnt feel like it was thoroughly thinked. Neither their equipment selection
- AI. This seems generally bad in all their games. They wander around sometimes aimlessy, dont capture points that are needed and seems very predictable. Was same in Dow and COH but here can be seen better cause of small scale.

I liked first Dow and bought every expansion to that game, it wasnt anywhere near perfect but as game was way better. And COH was one of my favourite RTS games ever released. DOW 2 is a huge disappointment. Ive played practically most RTS games since original Dune 2 where it all started and this is below average of them all.


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## Eleven (Nov 6, 2008)

Roninman said:


> hateraid


This guy's drinking the hateraid!

I played DoW2 just to enjoy the single player, which I did.

DoW 1 was a far inferior game being that it wasn't entertain in it's single player.

SC so brutally beats other RTSes at game play, that they are not even worth playing in multiplayer. IMO, just appreciate DOW 2 for what it is, an rts/rpg single player game.


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## Tyrannus (Sep 19, 2010)

Roninman said:


> This game has so many bad points that im suprised people still play it other than total fanbois.


Or maybe the people who pan it are the total fanboys.

It's fine to have your own view on the game but don't pass it on as fact. It took a different direction and they tried to be innovative and frankly, it worked quite well and has had pretty good reviews.

And I liked it and had alot of fun with the game and I definitely can't wait for Retribution to come out .


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

wombat_tree said:


> I hated Dawn of War II at first as well, I thought it was just Dawn of War with less units and prettier graphics (though with my computer I have to run it on the lowest settings anyway). I didn't like it because I was expecting something different, I was expecting a 'true' Dawn of War II, basically an update to Dawn of War I, but that isn't what Dawn of War II is. Really Dawn of War II is more of a 'spiritual successor' to Dawn of War I, sure it has similar features such as reinforcing squads and capturing requisition points but otherwise it is a very different game focussed more on tactics than numbers (which would explain why I'm not very good at it ) and if you can come to terms with this fact and look past the fluff inconsistencies then I think it is a very good game (except for the matchmaking system which is utter rubbish, though they're changing it in Retribution). On a different note, how much of Dawn of War II have you played, Bits and Kits?
> 
> P.S. Bits and Kits, increasing the unit count by several thousand percent would mean Space Marine squads with greater than 30 members


I played DOW2 to completion and it took me less than a day, which for me is a huge problem, firstly im a reasonable rts player but i wouldnt consider myself a gamer, but for someone of my level of skill to complete a game in a day is a problem, and 30 members would be a good start in my opinion.

I get that people say DOW1 wasnt perfect and im not saying its the be all and end all of 40k computer games, you misunderstand me! what im saying is in DOW1 relic set out its stall and said "look at my pretty 40k game bitches" and ok it had a few holes and a few issues with fluff but on the whole it worked and as time went on we got more units and most armies and all were playable in single player campaign mode.
When they announced DOW2 my expectation was that we would get pretty much more of the same,increased unit count and that they might address the fluff bits and make a more epic level of RTS and given they were removing the bases and resource gathering it was natural to assume that number of units could increase.

Personally i think DOW2 should have you in control of the entire BR chapter and its resources, and that your job is to over see the taking back of a star system using the resources at your disposal.So if you commit too many troops to one sector/battle and you loose many men your gonna struggle later on.
The first RTS i ever played was star wars supremacy, this game is about 15 years old and even back then you controlled either the entire empire or rebelion and was totally open ended, allowed character progression for 30 major characters on both sisdes, not to mention the raising and battling of armies on both sides and starship battles.

I suppose what im rambeling on about is they called it DOW2 but they stripped out far too much of DOW, it felt dumbed down, its barely more than a simple console game, i ant even recall having to think about any stratergy , it was just plough the ten dudes in till they kill what ever group they were fighting, if they were low on health heal them or run away regroup and try again.
I would have liked it more if they had named it DOW deathwatch or DOW skirmish and highlighted the fact its just ten blokes.

Lets put it another way, If you like the game great! but put that aside for a moment, is it what you expected after playing DOW1? and even though you have come to accept a 3 man unit system should you have to? would it have been such a stretch for relic to program five or ten man squads ?

I know im never gonna convince the lovers of the game, what im saying is that i feel short changed! i spent many hours on the DOW1 series and i played almost exclusively RTS games on PC for the last 15 years and that given this was Relics second bite of the cherry with GW IP i thought they would have done a better job with the game play, they didnt have to faithfully represent the tabletop game we know and love , but they did need to take what made DOW1 great and build on it and represent war, they could have gone balls out strategy and resource management CIV style mixed with huge battle maps like Total war, vehicles, titans, flyers, starhips, proper battalions and companies, siege's ,infiltrations, spying, propaganda, orbital bombardments. 
But what did we get? 10 marines with some shiny wargear and goto point A kill aliens move to point B kill aliens.


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## yanlou (Aug 17, 2008)

I actually like the game, its good to have the wargear customization and some of the abilitys are good, 

but i understand what Bitsandkits is saying, even though i like the game, its abit disappointing at the same time, i always thought it was bit crap having a 3 man dev team, whats the point(they also seem to go down pretty quick) and the whole thing was abit to small, i would have thought, that it been a squad based game they would have had table top sized squads,not what they got now, fluff wise i cant imagine a chapter would sends group of squads with below strength numbers.

But im liking the look of the new one and i will buy it, but no matter what it cant beat TT.


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## MadCowCrazy (Mar 19, 2009)

Im buying it only for single player and Last Stand, I dont care about the armies in DoW2. Sure the WH got me a bit interested but I wont be playing it allot until the Sisters are introduced (which will never happen). This might be the last or second last expansion for the DoW2 series so we might see 1 more army get introduced.

Since DoW3 is in production and scheduled for release in 2 years I can't see them investing more time or money on DoW2. Then again DoW3 is suppose to be a F2P game similar to CoHO.

The thing that annoys me the most is that they just restart the same shit over and over. There are too many armies in 40k to be playable in the game and balancing it all would be hard as hell. Then again they could build a game engine that uses the 40K rules as base.

I would really like to see a mix between Even Online, Civilisations or Master of Orion 2 and Total War, in an MMO ofc.
I would really like to get the complete 40k package with building up your own planets, setting out into space to conquer nearby planets and fight large scale battles with other players in a Total War type scenario.
Pretty much Master of Orion online, if you never played Master of Orion 2 it's a very old space civilisations like game. MoO3 was complete shit and failed horribly, haven't heard anything about it since.


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## Roninman (Jul 23, 2010)

Forgot to say, closest 40K Pc-game that i felt really good war Final Liberation. Game wasnt perfect but was closest to wh40k unit counts and real battlefield feel. Of course it was turn-based and not realtime but was really good.

Hope makers of Total-war could be offered to make true strategy game. Theres already good looking mod for Med 2 of Warhammer Fantasy, but would love for them to make a real game of 40k. Only time will tell.


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## MadCowCrazy (Mar 19, 2009)

Roninman said:


> Forgot to say, closest 40K Pc-game that i felt really good war Final Liberation. Game wasnt perfect but was closest to wh40k unit counts and real battlefield feel. Of course it was turn-based and not realtime but was really good.
> 
> Hope makers of Total-war could be offered to make true strategy game. Theres already good looking mod for Med 2 of Warhammer Fantasy, but would love for them to make a real game of 40k. Only time will tell.


As far as I know the people who made Total War has been fired/let go, something to do with cutting costs or some such. There was a discussion about it on the topic of RTS makers, they said that the Command and Conquer ppl had also been let go.


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

HEY 1st set of betas tommorow looking forward to your thoughts!


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## turel2 (Mar 2, 2009)

Beta Key information from the DOW2 site:




> Retribution Beta Update
> 
> While we work towards a fix for code distribution for the Beta we wanted to let you know about two important things:
> 
> ...


So basically *THEY ARE HANDING OUT BETA KEYS*, get your ass over to either the facebook or twitter pages on the links above if you want a key.


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