When comparing Age of Empires II HD vs Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, the Slant community recommends Age of Empires II HD for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” Age of Empires II HD is ranked 22nd while Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is ranked 166th. The most important reason people chose Age of Empires II HD is:
While the graphics are slightly outdated, they were very well done for their time. And when combined with the history behind the game and its wonderful soundtrack, the game comes across as extremely polished.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Awesome ambiance with a great finish
While the graphics are slightly outdated, they were very well done for their time. And when combined with the history behind the game and its wonderful soundtrack, the game comes across as extremely polished.
Pro Runs on very old computers
As this game is quite old, requiring only a 1.2GHZ processor and 1 Gigabyte of RAM, this title will run on older PC's and laptops alike without issue.
Pro Facilitates the user's preferred pace
This game neither gives the impression of being thrown to the wolves nor that of being left stranded on an island. Whether you want to move slowly and steadily through the game or take things at a more heightened pace, Age of Empires 2 will allow for both (given a little planning).
Pro Campaign Merges RTS and RPG
The campaign of Dawn of War 2 differs from other iterations in the series as, instead of base-building and steamrolling your foes with an overwhelming force, you are instead placed in charge of up to four hero units, leading them against the vast hordes of Ork, Eldar and Tyranids. During the campaign you will gain experience and thus allocate skill points into four different trees, with every fifth point in any tree giving your units new abilities and powers, as well as equipping your heroes with new weapons, armor and accessories, further increasing their deadliness in battle.
Pro Easier than other Real-Time Strategy titles
For those looking for a title that is a bit easier than your standard RTS, Dawn of War II may fit the bill as there is less of a focus on strategy and the gameplay is a bit more streamlined. The Single Player and Muti-Player components of the game focus more upon the placement of units rather than amassing a singular horde. A single unit in cover can decimate enemy combatants with ease if they find themselves out of position. With the main mechanic being fewer but more powerful units, this makes for an ideal scenario where players looking to get into the genre can easily understand how to play within a few matches.
Cons
Con A lack of proper User Interface scaling makes a clunky UI worse
While this is a remastered edition of a classic Real-Time Strategy title, the UI was left largely unchanged. Selecting workers still prompts you to click buttons to bring up both economic and military buildings, then choosing whichever building you wish to construct. This is uninteresting design and makes the UI difficult to navigate.
On top of this, the game does not feature UI scaling. Since the game is bound to your current desktop display settings, the UI will adjust itself to match that resolution. This means if you play at 4K resolution the User Interface will be absurdly small, making it near impossible to see what buildings you wish to construct or what units you want to train. This is counter-intuitive design, for this era of modern gaming, and makes properly playing the game more of a hassle than it should ever be.
Con Age of Empires II HD is an unsuccessful remaster due to its outdated graphics
With the only notable upgrade being high resolution options, Age of Empires II HD fails at being a proper remaster. While higher resolutions give the game a slight face lift, the rest of the engine is left largely unchanged. This means the graphics we see in this remaster are nearly the same in its original 1999 release. Due to this, the game is grating to the eye and does not deliver on its high definition promise.
Con Lack of logistical strategy
Unlike in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War I, Dawn of War II does not allow base building. This was a design decision to allow faster-paced combat, streamlining the core multiplayer experience. However, it may be seen as a downside to some if they were expecting the much-accustomed-to logistics of other Dawn of War titles.