First-Look: Dawn of War 2 The Last Stand DLC
If you for aye played Gears of War 2’s Horde mode, and wondered the kind of it’d be like if you took that mode’s base universal and applied it to a real-time strategy game as opposite to a third-person shooter, well, you briefly had a Vulcan mark meld moment with a designer over at Relic. Today, THQ announced a familiar DLC pack scheduled for October, titled “The Last Stand,” for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 at which place, in THQ’s words, players will, “team up with two other lot-mates in an attempt to hold out as long as likely against wave after wave of relentless attackers.”
I recently checked out The Last Stand for myself with pair Relic employees, designer Chris Becker and producer Otto Ottosson. The concept is simple: players choose to be either a Space Marine Captain (who is essentially a renamed Apothecary), ~y Ork Mekboy, or an Eldar Farseer, and try to survive 20 waves of distressing guys. The waves start out pretty simple — just throwing a hardly any squads of Ork Shoota Boyz or maybe a Tyranid Hormagaunt Brood at rudimentary. But, as the players progress, the waves get more difficult debt to either sheer numbers or types of enemies thrown in. Once you engender into wave six or higher, you start seeing things like a cover full of Eldar Warp Spiders and Banshees, or Ork Stormboyz supported ~ means of multiple Stikkbommaz. Additionally, every fourth wave also throws in enemy Commanders at you — uncorrupt getting to wave four results in a rude surprise of Imperial Guardsman accompanied by an enemy Space Marine Apothecary. The version I played didn’t be favored with the full 20 waves, but I can already warn you touching wave 16: you’re going to encounter enemy A.I. versions of your team. So take it of the hurt you’ve been laying down being delivered ~ful back at you.
As you’re taking out these waves, the team since a whole is accumulating points. Points are awarded based on model of enemy killed, and other aspects of your session will join multipliers to your score. Surviving a wave without getting downed (you put on’t “die,” you’re merely taken down until a teammate be able to revive you — the session ends when all three players are into disrepute) gives you a point bonus. Capturing victory points adds multipliers (there are two that give 3x apiece, for a total of 6x points instead of every baddie taken out). Finally, the time it takes to polish a wave can also add points; the longer you take, the smaller the time bonus.
Whatever happens, everytime you finish a session, you gain experience points, that are applied to whichever commander you are using at the time (such don’t assume you level everyone simultaneously; you’ll have to induce in time for all three commanders). Though, leveling up a commander doesn’t increase your stats; it adds additional wargear for you to outfit before a session starts. Becker notes, “we went with the wargear in preference than stats because that gives flexibility, and it emphasizes skills and abilities rather than numbers. A good player can still use tactical skill and abilities to get a level one Space Captain as valuable in the fight because a level twelve Space Captain. So there’s not the stain of ‘oh, me and my buddy are level fourteen and we’re stuck in a courageous with a level six, we’re going to lose.’” Ottosson steps in and notes, “as the commanders level up, the player will notice that, even granting we ultimately let the players choose their wargear to fit their playstyle, that the Farseer in the main becomes a melee fighter, the Mekboy is more of a ranged/restraint/crowd control guy, and the Space Captain becomes general support on this account that the other two.”
For a mode that only has three playable characters and person map, it does actually feel pretty fun. There’s enough difference in the wargear that, even though the three commanders tend to failure into overarching roles, you can have some distinction within them. Instead of playing a innocent melee Farseer, I equip wargear that turns me into a crowd-regulate powerhouse by letting me teleport enemy units close to me and hereafter hitting said units with a mass confusion ability to make them war each other. Or planning with my buddies to have his Mekboy ~ down down a whole bunch of mines, and then having my same Farseer teleport enemies ~ful on top of said mines. Ottosson comments that Relic wants to look to the reception of this mode before trying to add more commanders. Since it’s a emancipate update anyhow, all I ask is that everyone plays The Last Stand a sort when it releases in October, and therefore show Relic that it’s comprehensible enough to warrant adding a Tyranid commander into the mix.
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 29th, 2009 at 2:18 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
