Dawn of War 1 or 2 for son?

[splunge the 2nd]

My son (age 11) is interested in the Warhammer 40,000 miniature games but I don't feel like spending $100 for a whim, nor do we have the space to set it up.

A buddy of mine who's a hard core gamer loves the Dawn of War games. Anyone play/have the games? Can you reccommend one over the other? Are they too violent for an 11 year old?

Thanks!

 

[Synobun]

Dawn of War 1 is definitely the best, but it entirely depends on the maturity of your son. There is A LOT of gore and violence, more than your average game.

 

[GoodGame]

It's a fun game, but very dated. Probably only worthwhile if you can get it 50% off. But yeah it does have gore compared to a game like Age of Empires online.

 

[Antilogic]

My brother loved the first Dawn of War game--it introduced squad-based combat, so you have fewer units to keep track of at any given time, and you can give squads different equipment and such. Violence-wise, it's an RTS game. That means plenty of dudes moving around, shooting each other, blood, etc.

Bro's favorite: Tyranids, or the Bubblegum Brigade (Space Marines in hot pink with yellow smiley face patches on their tanks).

 

[OrsonM]

None you irresponsible... bad person!

DOW is an extremely violent game where machineguns fire in huge volleys, body chunks and blood fly everywhere and you chainsaw and burn other troops.

thats a chainsaw

a something blowing up

Not sure what goes on, but I think it's some type of slap

soldiers do get impaled

The openning cinematic of DOW 1 alone is very graphic.

Dawn of War Cinematic

And in DOW 2 you can see arms and legs flying when units are blasted by explosions.

Although, in fairness it's hard to find videogames were you don't blow characters into pieces, even Terraria does this. But in any case, don't get him DOW or DOW 2, they are both equally too violent for age 11.

However, this does sound like an awesome opportunity for you and your kid to bond if you indeed get him some of the tabletop units, get him a cheapy army and get in the tabletop game with him (as in collect the parts with him, paint the soldiers with him, etc). Just a thought.

 

[Skwink]

That looks like a silly game. If you want an RTS, get Age of Empires 2. It's probably the best RTS ever, and it could turn your son on to History, which is a great subject to learn.

Or Rome Total War. That's a great game with very good battles.

 

[GoodGame]

I'd say it's not much more gratuitous in display than their Company of Heroes, except that they spray an unrealistic bright red everywhere. If the gore were a concern I'd go with another game.

If you want to play the real tabletop game, there are some skirmish versions I believe, including Inquisitor.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Eleven years might be pushing it, but I was twellve when I played Mortal Kombat and thirteen when I played Mortal Kombat 2 and didn't screw me up. It's a judgement call the parent has to make.
I have Dawn of War and it was fun, but rather short-lived without any expansion. There's only one single player campaign in the core game and it's not that long. My only experience with Dawn of War 2 was the multiplayer beta and I was hopeless.
I don't know where you live, but you can get Dawn of War for 10€ or less over here, so I'd just buy it and play it myself, and then decide if it's suitable for my son.

 

[Graceheart the Leopard]

Unverantwortlich du bist, mein herr.

However, going back to Dawn of War, I would recommend the Dawn of War I, which is much more of an RTS than 2. I would especially recommend the Dawn of War: Dark Crusade with the Steel Legion, Witchhunters, Daemonhunters and Tyranid mods installed. You CAN get Soulstorm, but it's rather crappy, although the Imperial Guard: Brothers in Arms mod will be coming out for that (unfortunately it has been suffering the Immaterium Socordiarum since 008.M3).

 

[Maniacal]

The Dawn of War RTS games are very different from the tabletop one. The RTS is fast paced and you need to be on top of the situation everywhere all the time, if you take the time to actually watch the combat you'll miss that enemy squad that sneaks around your flanks and has now destroyed half your base. The tabletop game is much slower and tactical, unfortunately the last 40k video game like that was Space Hulk which is ancient now.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Thanks all for your comments. DOW with all 3 expansions comes as a set for $18 or so. We have Rome Total War and haven't made it throught he campaign yet, but love the quick action battles-beautiful!

I think the gore level is a bit much. The 9 year old often hangs out with us and the flying body parts turns me off too! Some games have parent controls for the ick factor- does DOW?

I'll take a look at Age of Empires.

 

[Maniacal]

Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology are both classic RTS games that were pretty good (and child friendly).

 

[OrsonM]

I don't recall being a method for lowering the violence, there are workarounds, like toning down a few of the graphical options (particles and the like), but violence remains a big part of the game, both in the story as well as in the values of the game.

I guess this might help

And about some of the content, which is pretty heavy handed at times, here's some bits from the story:


Chaos Ending

Chaos Defeat

Sisters of Battle Ending

Imperial Guard execution


I guess it's a bit over the top though. Still good points for no drugs, cursing or sexual related content.

Age of Empires 3 is now sold with all the expansions, and it's actually pretty good.

 

[Graceheart the Leopard]

Dawn of Wars I & II are seperate games, you know.

Also, those are cutscenes. If he just sticks with the scenarios then he should be (relatively) fine.