Anyone else planning to pick it up? I bought it on Steam but haven’t had a chance to play it yet (just the demo, which was multiplayer only…no campaign). I’ve heard this time you can play multiple races in campaign instead of just Space Marines. I’m hoping you can use your existing characters, but I have a feeling it will be all new from what I’ve read.
-XT
In what can only be termed a massively dick move, Relic - who had incorrectly defined the Europe launch date as March 1st on Steam, when it was really supposed to be march 4th - revoked the access to play the game to everybody who’d aquired it. Even though it’s released and playable elsewhere.
Yeah, that’s nice. Screw over the people who were big enough fans to actually pre-order your game.
I just hope Steam will let me treat this game as being a pre-order again so I can get my money refunded.
ETA: I’m sorry to be a downer on your thread, xtisme, but this just pissed me off.
No worries. It doesn’t look like there is a lot of 'doper interest. I started a campaign earlier, and indeed you can pick which faction to play (the Imperial Guard is now playable). And you start off with fresh guys, so all the old guys are gone (well, the sniper is back, but he starts as level 1 again). I guess that makes sense since my old guys were all geared up and pretty nasty.
So far it’s been about what the other ones were. If you liked the original game and the first expansion then this is more of the same. It looks pretty cool anyway, and the Imperial Guard will probably be pretty cool to play with the Baneblade and Ogren and such (I’m playing my favorite Space Marines for the first run through).
-XT
I played the beta and was really enjoying the opportunity to try the other races on the DOW2 engine.Back to playing the Eldar, my favourite. 
I’m definitely interested in trying out the campaigns so will probably be getting it at some point, although I might wait for the price to come down (it’s currently £30 here which, given that it’s $30, I think is a bit of a rip).
So… it’s not horrible?
Bought it during the xmas sale on steam, won’t have time to give it a go till Friday, but I loved DoW2 and Chaos Rising so I am really looking forward to it.
Nope…not horrible. About on par with the other DoW II games so far. Pretty much the same game play, same sorts of objectives. Move your squad through a map…take capture points. Reinforce. Kill lots of bad guys. Find the best path through or just bull your way through…both seem to work. Try not to die for your country while making the other guys die for theirs. Rinse and repeat.
So far I’ve fought Chaos Marines, Space Marines and Imperial Guards (renegades I presume but it’s hard to say) and Orcs going through the campaign. I haven’t picked up much wargear so far, unfortunately (I miss all the goodies I had with my guys from the original and first expansion). I’m guessing that playing the other factions shows you things from their perspective, which would be nice since from the Space Marines perspective everything is pretty freaking confusing. I have no idea this time who is causing what or why.
-XT
Good news. You can pick it up from http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DD-W40KDOW2R/warhammer-40000-dawn-of-war-ii-retribution in the Uk for £20. Downloading my copy now:)
Interesting. I liked Chaos Rising a lot more than the first game since it felt like it had an actual storyline, and I admit I would like to play as mah 'nids.
I may pick it up.
I can’t vouch for the story lines of the other races, though if you do pick it up and want to comment I’d be interested. So far it’s been interesting, in a confused sort of way. A lot is happening behind the scenes, and most of it is pretty dark.
-XT
From what I understand, the storyline isn’t really fleshed out, and they kept it as generic as possible so that each race can sort of name sense out of the campaign.
It wouldn’t surprise me. There is some sort of story going on here, but it’s difficult to tell what exactly is happening because the character you play (as a Space Marine) doesn’t seem to know…or if he does, he’s not sharing. I’m getting the ‘someone is a traitor’ vibe fairly early on, but no idea who it might be. I can say that anyone who actually serves the Emperor is a complete nutter, so maybe I’d be better off switching to be an orc or something 
-XT
Downloading it now - will write a review later when I’ve had a chance to play the campaign a bit and the last stand scenario.
Okay, so spent some of today playing the game in the full version rather than just against myself in the beta (which I believe makes you go blind). All in all: I like it! So far I’m only part way through one campaign as the Eldar but I’ve played it enough already to have a feel for it. The slow progression through the campaign where you earn rewards of either upgrades of units or new abilities makes it interesting, adding a secondary strategic layer on top of the individual battles.
The campaign maps I’ve played so far are interesting, although I’ve heard they can get repetitive so it might be that the same missions are played for each race (I hope not or that’d be a total bust). There’s also a non-linear aspect to it which is good, I like the vague illusion of choice. I’ve also dipped my toe into online multiplayer which I hardly ever do. So far I suck pretty bad but I’m hoping to improve.
Overall I’d give it 7.5 out of 10, 8.5 if the campaigns actually are separate from one another.
I played through the entire Space Marines campaign and started one with the Imperial Guard. They seem to be the same thing just from a slightly different perspective…so that’s kind of a bummer. No idea of the Zeno campaigns are different (I hope they are).
Overall it was enjoyable, though I was kind of bummed at the level cap. I actually capped out my most useful guys 3 or 4 missions from the final one. I was also a bit bummed out about the smaller number of hero units (in most missions I only used 2 of the 4, going with alternative starting units that were more powerful).
It was a good game to hold me over until Shogun II comes out, but I wish there had been more to it.
-XT