Tuesday 8 February, 2005

Pssh. This game is way to easy.

I played the first levels on "Normal". This happens to be the easiest difficulty setting which is select by default. I then played a few levels on the next difficult setting. Still too easy. Sigh.

I'm not sure if it is my approach to these type of games (RTS) or what. Given that Stronghold:Crusader got easy, and this one as well...I'm kind of starting to wonder what is going on! I know I'm not an awesome player.

I guess part of the problem of this game (up until now) is that the AI seems to be very reactive. In other words, If I sit tight and take my time...nothing happens and I can breeze my way through (since I took my time to get prepared). This is in opposition to a game in which you are pressured all the time to "be ready" for the enemy attack while simultaneously trying not to let the uber-efficient enemy AI get too far ahead in terms of resourcer, manpower, etc. It seems that taking your time is equal to pushover in the RTS world.

I think that is not the game but the player. I mean, it IS easy. But there are a lot of factors that help you in your path to victory. I mean, you know the units, you know the cover rules, you now the armament.

For a starting player, all those factors must be learned during gameplay. I mean, I think it must require some time to learn wich weapons to use and what each one of them do.

Hmm.. I'm not so sure about that. The system they use in the game is totally different from the tabletop one. Of course, the weapons keep their names and general functionality but the main differences are self-evident. For example, a missile launcher is...well, a heavy weapon, right?

Well, that's quite right. I've only dabbled in the TT game a bit, and already the differences jump out at me.

- As I understand it, melta-guns and plasma guns in TT are for anti-vehicle work, but they don't work that way in DoW.
- No frag missiles make missile launchers kind of pointless against infantry. Relic seems to be trying to make all the weapons very specialized.
- No krak missiles make baby Maugan Ra cry. ;)
- Warp Spiders don't have their trademark flamethrower-like attack.
- Et cetera, et cetera. A lot of the equipment/weapons have been completely reversed from their tabletop incarnations (esp. melta/plasma weaponry). Hope they put the Fire Dragon Aspects back in the (inevitable?) expansion; Eldar seriously need some early anti-armour weapons.

jp, if you found the single-player game too easy, try a few skirmishes. Skirmish AI is pretty nasty (IMO).

Hmm.. I guess I'll check out the skirmish then. Thanks for the heads up on that!