Dawn of War 2 Open beta

[Meneldil]

For those who didn't already know, the beta of DoW2 is available on Steam.

I've been playing it for a few days (it has been available to Soulstorm owners for something like a week), and so far, I'm clearly disappointed.

I knew DoW2 wouldn't play like DoW1, as the devs repeatedly said it would be more like CoH. Still, I expected the game to at least look or feel like DoW, and it clearly does not.

Obviously, DoW wasn't the best or most original RTS ever (I'd go as far as saying it would have been a below average RTS without the W40K setting), but what the hell is Relic trying to do ? In its current state, DoW2 looks like CoH - a watered down CoH, mind you - with W40K skins.

There is not unit diversity (there are barely 10 units per race, with 3 or 4 so useless you will never see them, ever), W40K fluff is just put aside for gameplay reasons (not that I am a fluff fascist, I had no problem with DoW1 and its sometimes iffy fluff, but it's going too far with DoW2), etc etc.

People go around claiming it's more tactical, requires more skills and what not. How so ? The game is all about rushing to get the bigger units, using your units' abilities whenever they are available (which means a lot of clicking, almost SC-Korean-kekeke like) and a paper-rock-scissor approach that I absolutely loathe.

And, the worst of all, even though the game in some aspect looks more W40Kish than DoW1, it certainly doesn't feel W40K-ish at all. No sound, no more people screaming, no more battlecries, no more Ork teared appart by a dreadnought, no more people flying everywhere because some huge badass unit kicked their ass. The Tyrannids are a complete letdown (like the Necrons in DoW): since they can't talk, Relic decided it would be cool to use a robot-like voice to explain you what's going on. How crappy it is to see a Hive Tyrant dying, without any cool animation. It just fells on the floor like it's going to have a nap. Give me some Zergs over this anytime.

To end my (long and whiny) rant, I'm disappointed. If the campaign is not a complete let-down and offers some replayability, I might spend the 50$ to buy the game. Unhappilly, I don't think that will happen given that the campaign solely focuses on Space Marines.
Here am I, waiting for SC2 now (note that I enjoyed DoW1 much more than SC1, if only for the setting and the general ambiance).