Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2 -- Retribution

The Dawn of War 2 series has long been a story about the Space Marines, but Retribution gives your choice of Space Marines, Tyrannids, Chaos, Orks, Eldar and the new guard. After you select an army, you play through 16 missions that are only vague enough that they are written for each work force. It is a clever way, which was a huge selection, but it also leads to a weaker story than the previous Dawn of War 2 games. None of the characters stand out as the previous entries in Space Marines, and retaliation lacks the same sense of attachment, at the time of the many, many hours I was with the campaigns of both the original Dawn of the first enlargement, Chaos Rising spent built.

Even if the story is not as compelling, the gameplay is as addictive as ever. Retribution, as the Dawn of War 2 franchise in general, is a unique real-time strategy game that forces players to focus more on things such as cover, unit facing and general site layout more than just production of an overwhelming force. And unlike so many other real-time strategy games, Retribution pushes physics into the mix, so that to control a wild chaotic, violent experience compared to the predictability of something like StarCraft. It is not crash for explosions crater in the ground and exploded enemies from the sky, knocking back your infantry rarity. All the while, your machine guns lay suppressing fire while you micromanage small forces to overcome the odds.

The best part of a campaign of several playable races is that you have a good reason to play things over and over again. Every army is playing just different enough that stadiums do not feel too repetitive and Warhammer nerds like me to play certainly appreciated the chance to be their favorite army. In this case it is the newly added Imperial Guard, which I love, who just specialize the right mix of squishy people and tough-ass armored vehicles Other armies in some areas such as ranged or melee, but the Imperial Guard have a bit more - if also of lower quality. It makes them somewhat less heroic, and easier to identify.

Like the previous Dawn of War games, Retribution is still much of its mileage from their role-playing aspects. After each mission you gain experience for heroes and units fitted Wargear. The result is a system, the player selection and tactics still further increased, so that you can customize your hero to your playing style and better understand your forces to the missions. For example, you could love a hero that compliments your ranged troops with buffs or a powerful weapon, or a heavy hitter that can absorb damage and rush into battle, inspiring people around them. It keeps the Hero units of interest, and serves as a reason to look forward to the briefing screen-between missions.

It's easy to think of revenge as an expansion, but it is much more than what I normally do with that moniker, as there is with Dawn of War 2 multiplayer comes. Although the multiplayer never something that I have is in super - Dawn of War 2 has always been on the campaign first and foremost for me - but it's still a fun distraction from the story. The online co-op mode called Last Stand, where players use hero characters wave after wave of enemies for experience and Wargear struggling, even fun, though certainly not the main reason to get revenge.