[cheery Christmas tune] [*WHAM*]
[cheery Christmas tune] [punchy artillery fire]
[cheery Christmas tune] [*BLAM*]
[cheery Christmas tune] Wow, we made it to the holidays! I guess there is still time for meteor or something, but still – congratulations! Now, last time was disappointing: some good but a lot really bad. So I figured that I started the year with a good Warhammer game – maybe I should end it with one too. There are likely two main thoughts looking at this. For one, “Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2” sounds like the title of a badly translated anime. But beyond that, how come I’m not starting with “Battlefleet 1”? Well, you don’t really need it… For starters, the game only has four factions for Skirmish and multiplayer. You can get two more, if you buy each of their DLCs. Compare that to “2”, which has twelve, and lots and lots of sub-factions. The same twelve from the actual board game. Which I won’t be bringing up again, because I never played it. And, unlike “Deathwing”, they didn’t try to change the board game into a different genre, so I don’t think it’s relevant. The first game only has a single campaign – the Imperium one. Each ship can very much be its own character, with lots of upgrades and RPG progression stuff for them. Which is cool, and something that “2” isn’t as in-depth on. There’s still ship progression, just not as customizable. The trade-off for that is a vastly increased scale. You own three factions: the Imperial Navy, the Mechanicus and the Space Marines. So, joint operations in a bigger galaxy against more threats is a fair trade. Plus, there are three different campaigns now, and a DLC one. So you’re not just stuck playing humans yet again. The graphics, the sound, the interface, the gameplay – just about everything has been improved over "1". The only real reason to go back and play it would be for the campaign and story. There are callbacks to it that come up in “2”, but you don’t need to have gone back and played it – they give you plenty of context. If you’re a fan of the setting, it’s definitely a story worth playing, but for the depth and variety in fighting the battles, I think “2” overrides it pretty hard. It could be worth looking into, but with “2”, I don’t have much to say on it. However, when people say “Just go back and play the first thing for the story”, that’s a sign of a good sequel. With that out of the way, let’s get started! “Battlefleet 2” is all about strategic ship combat. More specifically, you have a flying gun-brick the size of a freeway. It’s named some shit like The Litany of Litany’s Litany. Use it to ram. [*WHAM*] “Our brothers have fallen!” I bet they have. As far as visuals go, this is great for this kind of game. Each faction’s ship is very detailed, and these can scale up to ridiculous sizes. In the tutorial, you might think the massive Chaos Blackstone Fortress will be the big bad of the campaign. Until the next mission, where it gets smashed down by an even bigger ship. So the stupid size of Warhammer is all there, and it never gets too muddy, graphically. Which is good – I don’t want my cosmic horrors to be too blurry. All the different factions and sub-factions means there is a good variety of ships, too. All the sub-factions help mix this up even more. Like in the case of Chaos, it’s pretty easy to see which god they’re aligned with. It is a more dramatic example – some sub-factions are just recolors, but every little bit is appreciated. The environmental effects, the weapons and all the effects also look fantastic. Whether it’s some kind of superweapon going off, or just terrifying natural phenomena, the particle effects are especially good. It looks like something Nvidia would call “Intelligent AI Smart Dust”, and then, like, shackle it to a $1200 card, but no – it’s just well done art-direction. The maps have interesting backdrops, like nebulas or wreckage or something more dramatic, so, no matter what, they’re not just showing you in black space over and over again. It’s what I imagine “Homeworld” would look like, if it came out today. Then again, I don’t want to get too far into talking about “Homeworld” in THIS video. It’s all a lot more colorful than I expected, which I welcome. The visuals add a lot of weight and satisfaction to the combat. There aren’t many ships per battle, but each one blown up makes me feel warm inside. That also counts Tyranids exploding into blood. I haven’t seen blood spaceships since… ugh… The only negative I’ve seen here is that this game is performance-heavy. I’m not sure if it’s maps or what, because some fights will be smooth, then others will be a lot more laggy. The game has crashed a few times, too, but I’m not sure if that’s related. So there are stability issues, and you should proceed with caution. This brings us to how the game sounds. The music sounds like exactly what you’d expect from a 40K game. They go even heavier on the vocals than most, but it’s a good addition! The incredible soundscape of the battles themselves is the best part of it, but it’s a fitting backdrop. When the music does overtake it, it feels appropriate. [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] “Fury interceptors in flight!”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] “Receiving your order!”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] “I am listening!”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] “Coordinates acknowledged!”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] “Changing course!”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] “Initializing motive power.”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] [Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] “Inevitable!”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Chaos Approaches (variation)] SPIRE: “The debt comes due!”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] AMARKUN: “Your words are like the droning of scarabs – full of fury, but lacking import. I have delivered warning, as protocol demands.”
[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 OST - Attack Without Mercy (variation)] It’s well-produced music, and there’s a good variety of it. It may not be something weird and new, like “Mechanicus”, but I’d wager it’s what most people want. Besides, like I said, the weapon and explosion sounds can stand on their own. That is some crisp artillery. [some crisp artillery in the vacuum of space] [thumping shots and booming explosions] Just excellent. The voice acting also sits at a high bar for the most part, and at the same time, it’s delivering some excellent writing. Though, it is one of those games where what’s good is so good that, when something’s below par, it really sticks out. [the actor struggles with "Schwarzenegger impression" syndrome]
STERNHELL: “…those… monstrosities. And I find the Imperial Navy has abandoned us. Where is Admiral Spire?” Despite it, every campaign has some memorable moments in it. It’s the exact kind of thing I come looking for in 40K games. VUCIUS: “I regret that I cannot be there in person, but my plagued apostles will only be too glad to usher you into my Grandfather’s welcoming embrace.” SPIRE: “Your rotten form has clung too long to life. Fear not, we shall bring you the release you so richly deserve.” VUCIUS: “We all wallow in mortal corruption before long, admiral. Won’t you embrace the gift of entropy?” THRASSYLUS: “The lord primarch has promised aid, but there is no guarantee when he will arrive.” AMARKUN: “Primarch, Zaa?” ZAA: “Their leader, Great One. Like them, but taller, I understand. Not to be underestimated.” KULAG: *screams alongside wet thudding sounds* That’s enough about sound. To put it simply, I’d say the space combat is like a more in-depth “Empire at War”. But, sadly, not everyone has played that, and there are some key differences. The smallest controllable ships are escort class ones – your standard frigates and destroyers. Now, there are smaller craft, like fighters and bombers, but you don’t control them as directly. They get launched out with their orders from the Big Dick ships. Bombers can be sent out to do a run on a larger vessel, interceptors can be sent out to fight other fighters – you get the idea. If you are a micro god, I could see you being disappointed by this. But you know what? When I see how they fight, I’m glad I can stay out of it. Most small ships can run silent to avoid detection, or ping their sensors to try and locate enemy vessels. Beyond that, their loadouts and roles can vary greatly, even inside the same faction. It’s not just “a frigate” or “a destroyer” – there is a few of them, and that goes for every ship. However, escorts are limited by the number of line ships you have, so there is no having an angry beehive of small ships. The overall fleet size is limited by ship tonnage. As a campaign goes on, you unlock a higher cap for it. In Skirmish and multiplayer, it’s a set number. Though this number can get damn high, with a warning (you know the drill). The line ships range from coffee sizes of cruisers, to battleships and finally – titans. But titans are saved for special scenarios, so you won’t see them all too often. Regardless, each ship has different weapons and features, with skills and stances tied to it. These options can get exotic, to say the least, but it doesn’t take too long to figure out what your race is good at, which brings us right to ship fighting. Most ships have rechargeable shields, a hull and morale. There are exceptions, like Necrons not using shields, and regenerating their hulls instead, but I’ll be generalizing for simplicity’s sake. Besides having a big, dumb blue and green bar, each part of the ship is also accounted for. As I said before, the skills are tied to your ship parts, which, in battle, means they may not work, if it’s not attached to your ship anymore. No shields if the generator’s out. Something could break from a torpedo strike, or a lovecraftian monster. Space is famous as being somewhere where expensive things go to break. If light damage is caught in time, there could be skills to repair it, but when things are in the red, life gets harder. This might all sound overly complex and in-depth, but it’s really not. For starters, a lot can be automated to prevent micromanaging. Set your ship’s range and orientation and let it go. You can then set the priority of an enemy ship, and whether to shoot at weapons or engines or anything. So, if you are just starting off, you don’t have to juggle everything at once. Other decisions are more commons sense. This ship keeps running away – I should probably hit the engines. Damage to you just means your options are more restricted. Your engines getting borked means no maneuver abilities. Some ships, like Imperial ones, can crank it to full speed ahead for a short time. Or burn fuel in a high energy turn for elite space drifting, which could allow your vessel’s side weapons to unleash a broadside. The battles aren’t just a race to the bottom of a green health bar – the capabilities of each fleet also get damaged, and you have to keep adapting to that. What enemy capabilities do you wanna get rid of? What ship is worth a limited special attack? The thing is, we’re still talking about the physical destruction of the ship, because there’s still a yellow bar to mess with. Because, sure, you could try to slow an Ork’s ship down, but they’re persistent. “Full speed!” [roaring of overcharged propulsion thingies] Each ship has a hardy crew, but the worse things look, the more they start to seek new management. At zero morale, the ship might flee the battlefield, or do whatever, because there’s a mutiny afoot. This could happen while the ship is still relatively healthy. Killing their leader’s flagship, who can restore morale, is a good start. You can also use abilities to terrify the enemy crew, or take the more direct route. By that I mean sending troops to bard to murder them. They can cause all kinds of chaos, maybe start some fires. Though, yeah, killing the crew is the main goal here. As a ship loses crew, everything it does takes more and more time: reloading weapons, using engines – everything. This gets more severe, until, eventually, everyone’s dead. Then there is a nice husk of a ship to take apart. And no, typically, you don’t want to leave it floating. Because it could seem harmless, but people can board troops right back onto their own empty ships. It will be slower, but still more guns you shouldn’t have to worry about. Ugh, there they go again… So managing crew and morale is just as important as a health bar. A mass execution really gets co-workers back on track. Make death work for you. This guy won’t make it, but I won’t waste it. “The spirits obey.” [*BAM*] [*BLAM*] “Mechanicus vessel non-functional.” Perfect! This whole setup is fantastic. There are so many elements to keep track of, with, usually, pretty even sides, that the battles are always stimulating. The variety of factions helps stop fights from playing out the same, because what tactic works on one will not work on another. My biggest issue with it is movement. It’s not bad, but it’s charted in a stiff way. Lines can show where your ship is heading towards, but they won’t plot the exact path they’re going. As in plotting out the turns and what they’ll actually have to do to get there. Which isn’t a huge deal, but it would be nice to have, especially when ships can get so close in fighting. You do have the option of slowing down time to be very exact, but still… I also couldn’t find a formation move of any kind, which was also strange. Second – some maps have hazards, like exploding space jellyfish, solar flares or… space whales. Along with obstacles, like gas clouds to hide ships in, or asteroid fields. But I would have liked if some maps had… “space terrain”? I don’t know how to put it. Big asteroids, or wreckage, or something that blocks the map off. Just as an option, since most of the maps are so open. It’s a 2D plain anyway, as it’s not like the game uses full 3D space combat. Once again, not sorely needed, but it would add some good map variation. So, all good in the fights. Now for the campaigns. You could expect the campaigns to be a back-to-back series' of skirmish missions. I thought for sure that’s what I was in for. Instead, the Imperium campaign alone was over 25 hours. AND it’s a light 4X game. Nonono, this will be concise. For starters, the campaigns can also be played in online co-op. You’re given a lot of information starting off, but it’s not as complicated as it might seem. Fleets can be moved around the map, and you can capture systems inside them. Then you can develop and build on them, but only in a set way. Each planet has its own special lore and properties, and you’re not gonna mess with that. You’re running an armada, not government housing. You can check what planets have, and how they affect your economy or your fleet. If it’s something that looks good, you can upgrade it, but only twice. Of course, a big system could have a lot of planets, and some planets are much more useful than others. A system could be a place where you could build a big space station on it, to help you out in battles. Or a shipyard – and only the bigger, more elaborate shipyards can make the biggest ships. As the campaign goes on, the map expands. It almost becomes a quasi 40K “Total War”. It even has the shitty auto-resolve battles. Feels like I’m right at home. There are side missions to complete, and battles have bonus objectives, and as you complete them all, you earn renown. It’s a fancy level up. You earn a new technology each time, but that’s tied to ship rank. As ships survive missions, they naturally get better at what they do. They give bonuses for it already, but the tech tree lets you enhance that even further. So, in combat, it could be worth making a ship disengage to save your crew. But the fire escape stairs through hell won’t be free: they could come back with some trauma or a daemon problem… But, come on, who hasn’t this year? It is a risky, time-consuming maneuver, and by the time you use it, it could already be too late. So it is worth keeping special ships alive. The tonnage rule applies to the campaign too. That stops sending a death stack in – every ship counts. There’s also a doom timer going, which makes things harder when you’re not completing missions. There are ways to reduce it, and it does reset after completing a task, but if it fills all the way up, it’s game over. It’s not crazy short – it’s mainly to prevent serious turtling. This goes for all the campaigns, too, and they’re not horribly different on the map side. The Necrons are almost identical to the Imperium, except for how they move around the galaxy. The Imperium and everyone else uses space lanes to get from cluster to cluster. Everyone uses lanes inside of them, too, but these ones are different – all connected. Instead, Necrons have a designated gate system they can jump between. They always appear and disappear from one location. There it is! They’re very different in battle, but not too far in campaign. The Tyranids do take things farther – instead of capturing worlds, they vo- devour them whole. You even get the special technology by eating planets. Systems can also be pre-seeded for invasions, thanks to crafty gene-stealer infiltration. Structures can be weakened for the impending invasion. Another debuffs stack up too, culminating in the place being taken over automatically. They are more of a locust swarm, but they still have reasons to hold systems. Now, mechanically, these campaigns are all fine, but, as things start to scale up, they become more clunky. It seems like the interface didn’t account for the game ever being at this scale. Managing multiple fleets and sectors is awkward to do, and it’s easy to forget something. It looks like a 4X, but it is a lot more leased in. For example, you can barge in and invade an enemy system whenever you want, but on their end, it could take between one to several turns to give you time to prepare. Because the mechanics aren’t fleshed out enough to account for proper fortifying. It’s in a weird spot where they could flesh it out into a proper grand campaign style of game, but it’s not there, so parts of it are awkward to interact with. Which brings us to the issue with the DLC. VRYKAN: “Mankind languishes in a tumultuous galaxy.” VRYKAN: “Its potential shackled by a corpse on a gilded throne.” It’s a strong opening, and… how are they gonna follow that up? VRYKAN: “There is little glory in escorting transport ships, while the Aegis Ocularis burns!” VANE: “Patience. Like a fortress, glory must have solid foundations. This escort mission is but the first step on the path.” Why would you start with an escort mission? What year is it? I… Forget it, back on track. To give some more context: all the campaigns have great stories. I’d say the human one with Admiral Spire is the most substantial, but the other ones are good too. When your story begins with the Mechanicus and Necron team up, something interesting is bound to happen. And they do – there is a wealth of characters and events and twists and turns. It’s not the kind of story I’d want to talk about in a play-by-play fashion, but it’s a fun ride. The Imperium wants control of the area back. The Necrons are awakening their dynasty, with all the internal political struggle you’d expect. ZAA: “I merely counsel caution. Arrogance is a poor shield.” The Tyranids are out to eat everyone, which isn’t a very compelling narrative on its own, so instead you follow the galaxy reacting to them. TYRALEAN: “Holy Emperor, I can hear them in the walls!” They’re well-written adventures and a fine framework to hang skirmish battles on. But they probably could have cut down on the amount of systems, and it wouldn’t have hurt the game too much. In contrast to this, the Chaos campaign is much more of a slog. On the map, they mainly play like the Imperium, but they also have a Chaos god mechanic. Certain planets can be dedicated to a god, to gain their favor. Using favor, you can summon a fleet dedicated to that god, each with their own different thematic special abilities. Or you could use favor to affect an enemy system, similar to the Tyranids. Sounds good so far. Well, the first issue is that Khorne and Nurgle blow the other two out of the water, so the choices are less compelling. Outside of battle, your system effects are pretty bad, and you have lots and lots of invasions to deal with. To be fair, the campaign difficulty can be heavily customized, outside of the stock options, so you could tweak the map to be less oppressive. There are fun missions to play. One of the first ones is the Alpha Legion hijacking a cruiser. If it was all in the base game, I wouldn’t think much of it, but it’s a value issue. Chaos is already in the base game – you can play them in Skirmish and multiplayer. So you’d be paying $13 only to play them in campaign. That doesn’t seem worth it to me. If you got a whole new race and their campaign – sure. But for one already in the game – I don’t think so. Overall, it’s still a great game. I had fun in singleplayer and multiplayer, and there is cross-play for matchmaking. However, cross-play won’t work for invite-only stuff, like campaigns or custom skirmish battles. The stability and performance is an issue, which I hope is addressed, but the game hasn’t been patched in a long while. It’s also worth mentioning the game uses Easy Anti-Cheat. Most people don’t have an issue with it, and I never have personally, but I was on the other side of that for years and years with that piece of shit Punkbuster. So this is a warning for those of you who have had a bad history with the program. I FEEL YOUR PAIN. After negotiating, it will be 60% off in the pinned link for a while. Though, with recent events, we’ll see how this kind of thing goes in the future. That will be enough Warhammer for a while. There is a new year coming with a lot to cover. I’ll see you then! Genuinely thanks for watching! It’s… It’s been rough… Still, next year could get better! So I might as well try to think forward, and not about… everything. Because… Christ… Matt Oburn: “Are there any other 2D adventure games [you] wanna do that [you] consider to be cursed?” O-oh yes, there’s one in particular that I’ve looked at for years wanting to do something with, but it’s kind of unstable. It’s also blatantly unfinished, so I was shocked that it got a Steam release at all a few years ago. But yeah, I absolutely have plans for it. It’s on the same logic level as “Druids”, but somehow… edgier. Kid B: “With MCC on PC, would [you] want to cover mainline “Halo” games?” There is “Halo” stuff I wanna cover, but not really those. Also, I’d rather not have to finish “Halo 4” from what I played… There’s one total conversion mod I’ve been waiting on an update for, but that will likely be the first big “Halo” thing. Artega: “What genre or setting is underused by game developers?” Oh, man, uhm… I wanna say “urban fantasy”. I know “Persona” and some Japanese games have gotten big, but that genre hasn’t caught up out here. The only games I know coming out for that are, like, “Vampire Masquerade 2” and “Harry Potter”. I think “Harry Potter” still being around in general says a lot about that. But that’s a story for another day. Have a great holiday! By the way, if you do cutscenes in, like, a motion graphic style, never ever do this… COLONEL McFACE: “Go! Make your studies.” He was fine from far! Why would you do that?
the worst thing about BFG2 is that they kinda 'zoomed out' on ship customization. It was better in BFG1, the ships have more customization and a bit more soul.
For anyone interested in it it is on Xbox Game pass for PC. So you can try it before you buy it. Especially interesting as right now you get 3 months for 1$/£/€.
By the way, he linked a GOG sale with his affiliate code, but it appears to be cheaper on steam for me anyway. If you are going to pick it up.
Edit - and it's apparently on game pass for PC.
I disliked the removal of the single player skirmish campaigns. It felt really cool to build a fleet up from nothing, customising, decorating and naming all your ships so that your fleet felt really personal. The campaigns in BFG2 are all fairly substantial sure but if you wanted to play something else like Tau, Orks or Eldar you're out of luck. BFG2 is better in almost every other way but it's still fairly disappointing that the best feature of the first game didn't make it's way through.
Ha just downloaded this yesterday. Mandalore strikes again.
I swear 3/4 of the games he talks about i either have, want to have or buy it after i watch his video
I wish he had spent more time talking about the factions and what made them unique like he did in total war vids.
So some factions are in the game for skrimish mode, but there's no 'skrimish campaign' mode like the first for you to build up a fleet in? Is that correct?
Thinking of picking this up, any reason to get the DLC? It looks like it just adds a campaign which I'm not really all that interested in. But does it offer any new gameplay features or changes outside of that campaign?
How does it compare to the first one in terms of difficulty? I'm really struggeling with it and have issues getting into it. Despite having tons of experience with RTS and tactics RPGS and what not, I can barely keep up with the AI playing on slow mo beginning to end.
The first one was so much better. More modes, more streamline campaign. More ship customization. Jumped into this one. 2 modes. 2! An immense star map where you are just repeating the same fight over and over since there is only 2 modes! After 30 hrs I was bored to death. Went back for 8 hrs after they made some change. Didn’t see a difference. So Disappointed.