Dawn of War 2: Retribution

Genre: RTS, Strategy, Action
Release Date: March 1st 2011
Platforms: PC
Score: 7/10
Similar Titles: Command and Conquer, Warcraft 3, X-men: Legends

Gotta love the style of 40k.

Todays review isn't what you'd call a traditional RPG. Unlike the single player games I usually cover, Dawn of War is an RTS franchise. However, the second game in the series, Retribution plays like an RPG more than anything else. Relic entertainment have sacrificed a lot of what was good in Dawn of War, and replaced it with an arcadey playstyle similar to that penguin flash game where you just keep trying to fly further and further.

Loads of the badass weaponry from Warhammer are included.

Featuring multiple campaigns with the races from the Warhammer 40k universe, you can play as: Space Marines, Chaos, Eldar, Orks, Tyrannids, or the Imperial guard. Sadly the missions are exactly the same (a couple of differences) regardless of which army you choose.

Dawn of War II adopts a new combat system entirely, eradicating the construction of buildings from the game. Instead of making a base, you will capture strategic points across each map and use them to create units. Resources are collected primarily through destroying crates in the field to find them.

With no buildings to manage, focusing on tactics is essential.

The best thing implemented in the new engine is the champions of each race. During the first mission, you will be awarded four heroes, each with their own abilities, level up system, and gear slots. As they increase in power you will find yourself cruising around without backup, kicking ass and looting shizz. Despite this obvious flaw in the games balance, it's hella fun and that's fine with me.

Missions are straightforward, you will be able to either pick a side mission to gain gear and experience, or advance directly through the plot battles. Gear is thrown at you left and right, and it's pretty awesome being able to upgrade all your characters through their respective talent trees. Talents can be picked in either offence, defence, or utility. Most points will just give you attacks like grenade, but there is some really cool stuff out there (perma-invisibility or invulnerability).

Here's a video to demonstrate some gameplay:

It's pretty fun bossing it through each level, they look very pretty and are intimately designed. Overall, the lack of difficulty (harder modes are just tedious) kinda ruins the game. The Last Stand can be kinda fun for a while, but the game is severely lacking a skirmish mode. Playing online can be really fun, but after a couple of matches you'll really lose steam and enthusiasm.

Eldar attack in numbers, but are quite easy to break through.