Just got my copy of Dawn of War II: Retribution last night. It was a little frustrating having to wait an extra 3 days to play when I could of downloaded on steam at launch, especially since I am such a fan that I paid extra for the collectors edition. If you are going to offer a digital download and a boxed collectors edition, IMO you had better make sure that your die-hard fans get their copy first. Of course RC had a different opinion:
"Screwing die-hard fans should be part of their business model. What are you going to do, quit? No your not, that's what makes you a die-hard fan."
Guess I gotta give you that one.
Games great. Campaign mode really shines through. For people who were ho-hum because of the beta, try out the single-player. It is really a lot of fun. One thing of note, I am a little concerned about the implications this game has for the 40k MMO. They seem to have separated the characters from the squads, which was something I really enjoyed about the last two iterations of DoW. I really want the 40k MMO to be truly squad based and not a character with some pets.
The last two games in my mind were the model for what the character selection for an awesome squad based RPG should be. You can have one kick ass character (chapter master, librarian, etc.) or a squad of marines (a tac, devastator, assault, or command squad). Then for squads, abilities are based on how you kit out the squad members. In my head here is how a 40k MMO should play:
- You select a marine squad and you get your main SGT and 4 other dudes.
- You then have a chance to select your specialization.
- If you pick a tactical specialization you get one heavy weapon, one assault weapon, and a wide range of SGT wargear
- If you pick a devastator specialization you get 4 heavy weapons but limited SGT wargear and you move slower (or something)
- If you pick an assault specialization you get jump packs, an assault weapon, and some assault focused SGT wargear.
- If you pick a command squad specialization you get an apothecary (healer), a banner bearer (buff/debuff), and some SGT wargear
It offers so many possibilities. But the biggest is that you truly play as a squad. Instead of having a character with a bunch of abilities and some pets shooting at things every once in a while you get a full squad. Your spell bar (a la wow) is the tasks your whole squad can do. So if your a dev squad, button 1 might be Brother Barius firing his lascannon, and button 2 is Brother Gothor firing his missile launcher...so on and so forth. Also imagine that individuality in your squad for aesthetics. Imagine a chaos squad (working the same way) where you can give each squad member unique grisly trophies.
Anyway, rant off I guess.
The new DoW is great.
Rix
