Dawn of War 3 - are the reviews justified?

[Stg-Flame]

The overall review at Steam shows "Mixed" and every single top comment are all negative. They all pretty much touch on the same subjects of a boring and bland single player campaign and mechanics that are too spread out to appeal to any single group (MOBA/RTS/squad-RPG). Most people on other forums are calling it a reskinned Starcraft 2 (or "The SC2 Tranny" by some of the more die-hard 40K fans).

I absolutely loved the DoW series and I became pretty hesitant with DoW2 when they shifted focus away from RTS and into a squad-based RPG. I was even skeptical when I saw some trailers as I was worried they were trying to accomplish too much.

So, has anyone tried it? What are your thoughts? I only ever played DoW for the single player campaigns and according to the reviews, the entire campaign is just a tutorial to gear you up for multiplayer since they restrict certain buildings and researches throughout every map of the entire campaign. There's also the aspect that you don't have three separate campaigns given we have three races. It's one campaign that bounces between the three races which is extremely disheartening to hear.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I think whenever people discuss RTS games they need to clarify if they're primary concern is with single player or multiplayer (or both). Seen some streams, looks like people are getting better used to the game so it's not quite so Dawn of Blob. From what I've seen of single player though... that just looks boring and terrible.

"since they restrict certain buildings and researches throughout every map of the entire campaign."
Hasn't almost every RTS ever done this (at least through the first half of a campaign)?

 

[sweenish]

Are critics saying the same things?

As a rule, I never trust individual Steam reviews, and even the aggregate can be off-base if the users get into some kind of fervor, positive or negative.

 

[Zenoth]

Big Dawn of War fan here (that's putting it lightly, I adore that universe), and been playing Dark Crusade and [modded] Soulstorm for years on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis. I just can't get enough of my WH40K skirmishes. Now, with this said, when DoW3 was first announced and I watched the trailer I almost literally screamed like a schoolgirl and my heart was probably beating too fast for my health. I threw money at the screen and nothing happened, very disappointed I was let me say.

However, time passed and my excitement - even though was still there - calmed down to a more 'grounded in a reality' state. I thought "Ok, you know what happens when you buy 'big games' on day one, don't make that mistake and wait for all sorts of reviews to come out". To put things in perspective, when it comes to WH40K I normally don't bother thinking, I just buy, period. There were two particular points, however, that I wanted (wished) from DoW3 that had not been shown officially nor mentioned in any of the given 'details' about the game's features and modes, and that information 'silence' lasted until just very recently when some reviewers (for their previews) and YouTubers got an early Beta copy to play and show us.

The first point was concerning the actual factions that would make it in the final version at release. Would we have only 3? Would we have 4? Maybe even 5? I didn't know, and I wanted to know (prior to the game's release, that is). Now of course, like many I thought "It has to be just 3 huh?" ...but I had hope for more. I didn't want to buy DoW3 with only 3 factions, because Soulstorm spoiled me forever. Then, there was the last point: Is there a Last Stand mode in DoW3? The answer to that question literally could only be found recently in actual Steam users reviews, because no one else I watched playing the Beta on YouTube ever even mentioned it (although I did see the main menu at some point and noticed there was no such mode present at least not on that menu specifically). And unfortunately, the answer to that was a resounding and profoundly disappointing NO.

So I opted to simply not buy it until 1) More factions make it later on via expansions and/or DLCs, and 2) They make a Last Stand mode for it. And once these two things happen I'll gladly buy it.

In the meantime I happen to have a backlog of a solid 20+ unfinished games to attend to.

 

[Ranulf]

The beta didn't impress me much at all. Ignoring all of the complaints about what people wished it would be, art style, etc and just looking at what the game offers, its not worth full price. It has only 8 or 9 maps and one multiplayer mode that has moba aspects to it. The base building is mostly window dressing and could be taken out of the game entirely. The economic system doesn't seem robust, nor does the doctrine/strategy system. The late game in my experience meant you relied on the hero units. The single player doesn't look that compelling and people say its just a warm up for MP. There are youtube videos out there of the single player so go see for yourself to make that call.

I had hoped for a remade DoW1 with parts of two added in. 3 seems to be a superficial mix of both.

 

[Majes]

I really wanted to buy it since I'm just waiting for the new PoE content to release this summer. I thought this would be a good game to get into. I was really good at Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 so I thought that a new RTS might be fun. Then I saw it didn't even have a ladder on release. So what's the point? I can just wait till it's 10-20 bucks now.

Some companies just don't understand their audience...

 

[Elcs]

It is like MechWarrior Online. They are using a big universe license, it's name and things that look/sound generally okay but without the proper soul.

Whilst graphically it is superior in some ways, the art style is a backwards step.

Elites are joke units. They were strong in Dawn of War 2 but

Base Building was a mistake. It's okay for Orks but Eldar and Space Marines are more of a specialised short, sharp shock troop unless in SM's case they are supported by waves and waves of Imperial Guard who build the bases.

They have taken too many things away from the lore, using the justification of balance, and made the game worse in the process (cover system, Harlequin-like Terminator movements, high number of SM models compared to Xenos, Solaria does not have a title (Expect she'd be a Kar or Freeblade), Lascannons are not DoT weapons, Diomedes is a Chaplain now (what manner of sorcery is that?!) and the list goes on)

The Campaign is plain and banal. It is a glorified tutorial for MP. And it's worse than Retribution's Campaign which I never thought possible... but it happened.

--- Dawn of War 2 was a massive step in the right direction. It brought the game closer to the lore whilst it improved heavily upon the graphics and game modes. This has tried to go half-way house and take ideas from popular RTS-style games but ended up being Mickey Mouse.

PS: If anyone else wants to call the Knight Castellan or Knight Paladin a Titan then I'll drop a blooming Imperator on their heads. Knights are not Titans. /end

 

[shortylickens]

Seems like it. Game is quite meh.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

The beta didn't impress me much at all. Ignoring all of the complaints about what people wished it would be, art style, etc and just looking at what the game offers, its not worth full price. It has only 8 or 9 maps and one multiplayer mode that has moba aspects to it. The base building is mostly window dressing and could be taken out of the game entirely. The economic system doesn't seem robust, nor does the doctrine/strategy system. The late game in my experience meant you relied on the hero units. The single player doesn't look that compelling and people say its just a warm up for MP. There are youtube videos out there of the single player so go see for yourself to make that call.

I had hoped for a remade DoW1 with parts of two added in. 3 seems to be a superficial mix of both.

I didn't play the open beta much but I agree with this.

Things I liked:
Looked cool
I liked how you could paint your army
Animation looked cool too

 

[Stg-Flame]

Well, I guess it's time to go back to Dark Crusade. For Soulstorm, I couldn't ever find any mods that made the game really playable other than the persistent bases mod. There were far too many things broken about the game to make it enjoyable for most maps.

 

[Skel]

I love Warhammer 40K, I buy most things for it. I loved the DoW series so far. DoW 3 however just doesn't really feel right to me. I can't help but feel it's a micro manager type game where you spend a good chunk trying to make sure you use the right unit's special ability before they're all killed due to the amount of crap the game throws at you. The Elite units are the backbone of the game so far (note: I've only done the single player, I'm not so into multi) and honestly I find that throwing them into the fray to clear out areas works best. More so on the missions that don't give you units other than what you come in with.