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Hello folks!

Starting playing Dawn of War II again after a long break from it.

Well I've finished the original Dawn of War II and am working through Chaos Rising (I think I have like 5 or 6 more missions).

I have a question on Retribution. Is it another campaing/story like Dawn of War II or Chaos Rising? or is it just some Mulitiplayer thing where they put in a bunch of new factions and units?

I normally check GameFAQs but there wasn't a Faq for it (I wasn't looking for a walk through but was looking to find out how long the campaign might be).

It has a campaign/story. You get to play it as each of the playable races, but it's effectively the same campaign.

Oh that's cool.

And what is this 'Last Stand' thing? Is that like some kind of survival mode?

Kind of, it's a team based mode. The main game plays more like the Skirmish mode for DoW 2/CR, Retributions Last Stand mode plays more like DoW2's campaign if that makes sense, except you only control a Commander unit against increasing waves.

Ah okay. Last Stand sounds like it could be cool.

Honestly it's more enjoyable than the campaign is, and the only part of the expansion worth playing through more than once. The campaigns a half hearted mix of DoW2 and DoW1 with identical stories for each race. Honestly just play your race of choice, and then play the orks, they're the only ones remotely worth a second run through because of the dialogue.

The campaigns are the exact same identical missions for each race. It can be sort of interesting watching the progression of hero units for each race, which are all fairly unique...but the missions are 100% identical

Its worth noting that the last stand is pretty much just a grind for levels and you only do okay with certain combinations of teams (mind control = win) there really isn't that much tactical depth to it

 doc1234 wrote:
Honestly it's more enjoyable than the campaign is, and the only part of the expansion worth playing through more than once. The campaigns a half hearted mix of DoW2 and DoW1 with identical stories for each race. Honestly just play your race of choice, and then play the orks, they're the only ones remotely worth a second run through because of the dialogue.

Yeah I beat it with Orks and loved it, then went back with IG and it was just woefully boring.

The characters are so flat compared to the Orks (not to mention several missions where you loot gear from xenos is REALLY out of character for the IG) that the campaign just bugged the heck out of me.

Wish I was better at multiplayer. It's a fun game but my god do I suck as any race other than orks.

I'll echo the above statements (just started playing DoW2's campaign again while I wait to replace my PC, it's reaching the end of its life), Retribution is only really worth playing in campaign as whichever is your favourite faction, and then Orks. Kaptain Bluddflag is easily on par with Gorgutz; an amusingly schizophrenic combination of Ork and Pirate, and an absolute pleasure to hear yammering on about taking someone's hat.

The Last Stand, from what I understand, is actually more heavily played than the game's competitive MP, at least according to Relic before THQ went under. It's easy to get in to, the different characters play substantially different from one another, and even though you'll lose pretty much every time unless you're with an ace team, it's always fun. The game's actual MP content is amusingly unbalanced with a lot of curious design decisions which prevented me from ever getting very seriously into it, unlike other Relic offerings. The word from Relic is they admitted they made some missteps, and had hoped to refocus the game with DoWIII, but then the rest, as you know, is history.

Yeah, it's the same campaign for all 6 races, but the Orks one is by far the best. I quite liked the IG one for the interaction between the commander and the sergeant, particularly the ending cut-scene which was witty.

Last Stand is a team-based survival in waves. You can pick one of the 6 commanders (7 if you get the Tau Commander DLC) and unlock gear per level up to 20. Teams can go up to 3 players and, as of Retribution, there's now two maps to play on.

Awwww yeah... guess who's got his commander, tac, dev, and assault squads decked out in Termie armor... this guy!

 doc1234 wrote:
Honestly it's more enjoyable than the campaign is, and the only part of the expansion worth playing through more than once. The campaigns a half hearted mix of DoW2 and DoW1 with identical stories for each race. Honestly just play your race of choice, and then play the orks, they're the only ones remotely worth a second run through because of the dialogue.

Orks are ALWAYS worth a second run in Retribution.

Or a fifth, in my case

About to do the last mission on Chaos Rising... then on to Retribution!

ugh... This is why I can't have nice things.

Got my Preds killed pretty easy lol... I think I need to be more tactical or cautious... or just not stupid.

Done like steak with some Heinz 57!

Finished Chaos Rising... on to Ret-Ret fun!

EDIT: woog... trying to warm up to Retribution... only kind of liking it so far. I'm taking it the 'Ret' in Retribution is for 'Retcon'...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Changed the topic to reflect current state of affairs... or something like that.

How did you find the end of chaos rising? Which ending/traitor did you aim for?

And how are you finding Retribution so far OP?

 doc1234 wrote:
How did you find the end of chaos rising? Which ending/traitor did you aim for?

And how are you finding Retribution so far OP?

Oh neato you can have different a different ending/traitor?



Ret is interesting so far. I'm kind of trying to warm up to it. I don't know why they made the gameplay changes they did but maybe those will come to light when I play more. I'm also wondering why my traitor from the previous game is alive... though its cool to get to use him and his abilities.

I've only been through the first mission.

 djphranq wrote:

 doc1234 wrote:
How did you find the end of chaos rising? Which ending/traitor did you aim for?

And how are you finding Retribution so far OP?

Oh neato you can have different a different ending/traitor?

Spoiler:

I ended up getting the tech Marine Martellus as my traitor... I can't remember the ending too much other than Gabby Angie making a speech about how me and my bro's are too root out Black Legion dudes and Kyras needs to be stopped or something

Ret is interesting so far. I'm kind of trying to warm up to it. I don't know why they made the gameplay changes they did but maybe those will come to light when I play more. I'm also wondering why my traitor from the previous game is alive... though its cool to get to use him and his abilities.

I've only been through the first mission.

Unlike Vanilla to Chaos Rising, nothing carries over to retribution, is why the game ignores your choice of traitor for its own. Ret is technically a stand alone game too.

Will spoiler about the endings/traitors:

Stand alone eh? Maybe I should take it from that approach... I think I was expecting a carry over like from Vanilla to Chaos Rising. It does sort of feel like a different game rather than an expansion.

I might have to check out Chaos Rising again to bet a different ending/traitor.

Had a blast with all the DOW II's honestly (got 100% loyal on my Chaos Rising playthrough), but I have to say Ret was my least favorite.

The missions are recycled for every race (save one or two good guy/bad guy specific missions), and sadly the IG campaign was exceedingly lackluster. Was a big fan of the SM playthrough, Chaos, and Orks as well. Eldar, IG, and Tyranids, not so much.

Massive fan of last stand as well, when the Tau Commander came out I played it so much.

Retribution was a really bad game when it came to its SP, the missions where far to easy and as others have said, had no varity what so ever to them. MP saved the game from being a utter failur but it still fell way to short of the rest of the series

Damn i'd forgotten how much of a fetha this game could be on primarch. Idrenal just ripped me a new one.

I found the SP of retribution to be far, FAR more interesting than any of the DoW1 campaigns after winter assault.

The missions as Orks and IG are by FAR the most interesting of the entire series, DoW1 and 2. Much moreso than the bluh WE R MUHREENZ AND WE R ANGRY GRR stuff.

Plus the Orks talk like pirates and that's just hilarious.

The Orks are the best from Retribution. I mean, the Orks from DoW1 were pretty funny but Retribution just gave them a new lease of life. Fantastic to listen to.

Eldar one was pretty bland. Interesting lore they went with, referencing the Farseer from Dark Crusade I think.
The Space Marine one was, average, though Diomedes is close to Lord Krull levels of bad voice acting. BAAAAAAAAANEBLLLAAAAAAADE!
The IG one was pretty good, nice new units to mess about with and the General was quite a character. I'd love to see a game more on his wars he's fought in.
Tyranid one is just a nomfest. Yawn.
Then there's Chaos which makes more of a hint of Eliphas' past. Though the mention of Mr Armless felt somewhat token.

Is this correct?

http://dow.wikia.com/wiki/Retribution/Space_Marine_Campaign

are those the only missions in the campaign or are there more and perhaps this site doesn't list all of them?

 djphranq wrote:
Is this correct?

http://dow.wikia.com/wiki/Retribution/Space_Marine_Campaign

are those the only missions in the campaign or are there more and perhaps this site doesn't list all of them?

Pretty much. There's I think 3 or 4 side missions (Judgement of Carrion, the one with Daisy and I think one or two others not really worth mentioning). It's why they padded it out with playing through as the different races.

I agree with most here. Campaign was pretty bland, even first time through. Not a patch on DoW:2 or DoW2:CR. And I think they both lacked the strategical fun of DoW.

I'm not great at multiplayer (have to be in too many places at once), but Last Stand has kept me coming back for years. I nearly always team with randoms, and no two games are the same!

Playing with new builds is always fun; my current favourite is a doomblasting tank sorcerer. He can't kill much, but on Anvil of Khorne he can take on Avatar, Swarmlord, and Papa Nurgle one on one, which is a boon for keeping them off the squishy backs! Doesn't do too well against Angelos, mind.

Starting to really like this game. I just figured out something really cool... you can make other/more units! lol... I totally didn't realize I had a base for that in some of the levels until this morning. Devastator Spam!

Wasn't that like the first part of the first level?

Fun fact, the IG and Ork commanders have abilities for instant reinforcing squads for free. For each part of a unit that dies you get some resource back. Free Currency.