A decade has passed since we have learnt just how deep the corruption has spread within our chapter and now, we are faced with Retribution…. We either burn these Heretics or we will burn with them… along with everything else in this Sub- Sector…
Some key points that this game offers:
- New Playable Hero characters.
- Experience the severity of an Exterminatus.
- Six different factions to choose from for the Campaign mode, such as Tyrnaids, Orks, Space Marines and Eldar.
- Army building and troop command is back.
Gameplay & Controls:
A few new keyboard keys have come into play that is to accommodate some of the new aspects and changes that have been made to the game. Changes such as adding army requisitioning to the game where you can choose from a variety of different soldier types to aid you in battle, if you can afford them via squad cap or requisition and power costs.
Other notable changes give you the option of not taking one of your Hero characters into battle with you. Doing this grants you an increased squad cap for as long as the chosen Hero character remains behind, and depending on the Hero character, unlocked abilities for him will be granted to the Honour guard replacing him.
The campaign offers different factions to choose from, but they all have the same main quest line and in the end all roads lead to the same door, with you the player confronting Kyras and ending his reign of Chaos once and for all.
The controls are pretty much the same except for the newly added keys and commands. The gameplay itself hasn’t changed much from what you are used too with previous titles, pretty much just newly added dynamics and mechanics, along with some extra choices.
Graphics:
Simply spectacular, the game is just as beautiful as ever. From character detail to weapon and gear, they all look gorgeous and beautifully drawn. As one can expect the movies are stunning and visual splendours as usual.
Level design was given the same amount of effort and attention to detail delivering beautiful levels to us, each unique in region, planet and biome… Useable terrain fields and structures are just as appealing as ever.
On the settings side of things, we once again have a wide variety of choices to customize how our game runs and plays.
Sounds:
Are you ready Space Marine? The Intro music, the start of each level… They are all as perfect as ever, the battle themes set high standards to how they amp one up as your Space Marines charge the Heretics…
The voice overs are just as deep and encouraging as ever, Captain Gabriel Angelos’s voice that can command an entire Army with his courageous, fearless and loyal speech! Relic Entertainment have outdone themselves, delivering an amazing soundtrack that compliments the entire game, voice overs that further enhance the overall game play.
Replayability:
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution offers a new Multi-Faction campaign mode that allows you to play the game with six different Races such as Chaos Marine’s, the Imperium along with four others, each with their own agenda’s and goals.
Multiplayer is back with new Hero’s, Races, and soldiers to choose from. Different Army options for the different races are also available, and then last but not least is The Last Stand mode, no introduction required there.
MGR Gaming’s Conclusions:
Spoilers Ahead:
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution is the next and final sequel to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II & Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising, it takes place ten years after the events of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising and you take control of Apollo Diomedes who is still not convinced that Azariah Kyras has fallen to Chaos.
You are joined by a few former Hero’s such as Cyrus. Speaking of Hero’s, with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution a lot of the gameplay has changed. Changes such as the following: there are only four Hero characters that you can take into each mission. A population cap has been introduced into the game once again; this time when we secure relay positions we can request a variety of Space Marine’s to join us on the field, such as Scouts all the way to Terminators.
These Space Marines all have a Squad Cap amount, a requisition cost and some even have a power cost. Along with relay beacons, new nodes have been added to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution; nodes that grant power and requisition, and then there are some buildings that can be secured that allows you to request Heavy Armor such as the Predator tank or a building that increases your squad cap.
All ability costs have been changed to energy, requiring energy to use, loot crate drops have been changed to give power or requisition as a reward.
As I briefly mentioned, this time we can choose from six different factions to play as in the Campaign mode. Each Faction playthrough is pretty much the same, same mission parameters, same outcomes except for some slight changes. Each faction has their own ending just like we experienced with Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soultstorm, but the Space Marine campaign and ending is the Canon ending.
A few notables:
- Replaying the campaign with each race gets very repetitive fast, it is the same everything, from levels, quests and outcomes, there is nothing really unique or inviting to want to play with each race.
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising was already shorter than Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, and unfortunately Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution is even shorter than Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising, some more optional missions would have been great.
- The level cap has been reduced to 10 and skill selection has also been streamlined which makes the game feel limiting.
- Wargear has also been limited quite heavily, whether it is in game drops or level rewards, there are far too few drops, and this further dulls the game, plus playing on Very Hard difficulty really adds to the challenge to overcome the difficulty that it presents.
All in all, the game has a great story, and we finally get to restore the honour of the Blood Ravens. The changes offer a fresh perspective to the series, but not all in the right areas, it feels like they were experimenting with new dynamics and mechanics and in the end, we lost some of the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II essence.
Additional Info:
Platforms: PC: Mac: Linux: Steam OS
Genre: Strategy: RTS: Tactical: Warhammer 40k: Sci-fi: RPG: Masterpiece: Fantasy
Censor Rating: Mature
Age Rating: 13
Developer: Relic Entertainment: Feral Interactive (Mac/Linux)
Publisher: SEGA: Feral Interactive (Mac/Linux)
Release Date: 4 March 2011
MGR Gaming Steam Curator:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32364038/
