Article Dawn of War II Retribution Review

Dawn of War II Retribution Review

In the grim darkness of a future where there is only war, the immediate reaction to such a tagline is “that would make a great game” and so they did. Relic Entertainment, responsible for games such as HomeWorld and Company of Heroes, had the same reaction and fulfilled the wet dreams of the fans of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe by releasing Dawn of War to the PC on the 20th of September 2004. After that there were some wildly successful expansions, Winter Assault and Dark Crusade, and one of which wasn't so popular *cough* Soulstorm *cough*. But the premise was set, the fans were hungry for more and Relic announced, much to the cheers of their fans, Dawn of War II. This melded RPG and RTS elements to the game which left a bittersweet taste in the mouth of several fans; some fell in love with it while others felt betrayed as the base building was forsaken for micromanagement. But it could not be denied by either side that the sequel was much more story oriented than the previous installments. Then Relic went on to release Chaos Rising a stand-alone expansion, this expansion while being similar to Dawn of War II introduced the infamous heretics, the Chaos Space Marines to the fray. The story had a certain amount of replay ability, and was engaging to a fault.

Fast forward a year and Relic announces and releases Dawn of War II Retribution, and here’s the kicker, they have separate campaigns for each of the six races. Fans were overjoyed; haters grudgingly accepted the error of their ways. Has it succeeded in satisfying the masses?
Let’s find out.

Box art

Note: I am a bit of a fan of this game, so expect the review to be a bit biased.