Warhammer 40k Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising is an expansion to the well received RTS game Dawn of War 2, it adds a huge amount of content, making the game even more appealing than it was before.
The first and probably the most obvious inclusion that comes with this package is the addition of the Chaos to both the single player and multiplayer game modes. These evil servants of the dark gods of the Warhammer 40k universe were former members of the Imperium, but were turned either by the corruption of chaos energies, or willingly allowed themselves to be corrupted in a lust for power. However the humans aren’t the only units in the legions of Chaos, they are also supported by Daemons sent by the dark gods to aid them, these evil creatures take the place of more traditional members of a faction, and are generally stronger than the standard Chaos Marine, however like everything in the game, the units are balanced fairly well, and the Chaos will still have to fight their hardest to harvest blood for the blood god.
Speaking of fighting, despite the fact that Chaos is the addition to the game, it is to either no one or everyone’s surprise that they are the primary antagonists of the new single player campaign. Set about 1 year after the events of Dawn of War 2, as the characters attempt to cope after the events of the original game, a mystery occurs; a formerly prosperous planet Aurelia that had been assaulted and thought to be destroyed by the warp, returns, and the Blood Ravens receive a signal emitting from it at which they proceed to investigate. It doesn’t take too long for things to turn sideways, and the events that follow thrust the Blood Ravens into a full scale war against the forces of Chaos. On this second tour of duty however many things have changed, the only thing that remains the same are the characters of the first game reprising their roles.
Despite being the same people, Chaos Rising goes leaps and bounds to improve upon the personality and involvement of all of the characters in your squad, and the treatment is even applied to your Force Commander somewhat. Many of your squad mates will speak their mind, and give tactical advice based on the mission, this is greatly altered by how the mission is going, and there are a few different ways it can go with the inclusion of choices. While many of the choices are fairly black and white, or rather corrupted and pure, the choices that would lean you towards corrupted are fitting, because they are truly evil and cruel to perform and more align you to the side of Chaos rather than the Imperium of Man. As your squad mates have developed a trust for their commander, they may not enjoy committing such acts but will allow it, and in the end the acts corrupt them as well.
Besides the outcome of simply being evil, there are also benefits for being corrupted that can be unlocked in the way that additional skills or abilities are unlocked by allocating points into a stat path, this is probably one of the most alluring parts of the corrupted side, as there are many powers of corruption while only one pure benefit. Even still, the pure ability for each character is powerful in it’s own right, and either side won’t disappoint. There are of course, stat path expansions for all of the characters which further increase the customization of the first game, as well as new war gears including a new and powerful level of rarity, and a level cap increase to level 30. Despite all of this it won’t be very hard for the player to get to the cap before the end of the game.
There are numerous additions to the cast of Dawn of War 2, mostly on the Chaos side, however the Blood Ravens do have a ally in Jonah Orion, a librarian who joins them, and provides a new point of view, as well as being a powerful fighter himself. While he’s not the toughest member of the Blood Ravens, he has the potential to specialize in almost any stat path in the game, and have a completely different playing style depending on the selected path. His skills and abilities that are altered depending on the chosen tree are drastic in comparisons to the other characters, making him a highly customizable but still fun new character.
As of course with the first game, there is the multiplayer component as well. Multiplayer is largely unchanged but rather improved with the addition of Chaos playable forces, the forces of Chaos themselves have a fairly high amount of customization starting with the hero selection screen proceeding into actual game play. Each of Chaos’ 3 hero units dedicates themselves to a particular god of Chaos which strengthens certain upgrade paths, and limits others, such as the Plague Champion who will be able to build shrines of Nurgel but will be unable to build shrines to Khrone or Tzeentch. They all have unique benefits that greatly change play styles, but also compliment their hero’s already distinctive play style; for example, the Shrine of Nurgel allows the Defense specialized Plague Champion to heal their units, and reinforce if heretics are worshipping it, this allows them to further fortify a position and take on an attack.
Chaos Rising has also added two new hero characters to The Last Stand, the Hive Tyrant, and the Chaos Sorcerer. These heroes like the others have their own abilities that separate them apart, such as the Hive Tyrant while being a impressive brute of force on his own, can also call upon minions with the appropriate war gear to assist him. While the Chaos Sorcerer can take hold of a enemy and use them as a ally for the battle. In the end the Warbands of Chaos still fit right in with the other races, and are a welcome addition to the Dawn of War 2 family.
All in all, Chaos Rising is a fantastic expansion to the Dawn of War series, and while I wouldn’t entirely recommend it as a stand alone it is definitely possible and worth it if you want to just see all of the additions of Chaos that it has provided, but it’s strong point is still taking a great game, and putting massive additions to it, creating a interesting, and vastly improved campaign, and a improved and even more diverse multiplayer experience.
Concept Implementation - Great
-Improves upon Dawn of War 2’s already fantastic focus on the action of RTS games, also successfully plants the Chaos faction right in with the original 4.
Game Play - Great
-Playing the Chaos will seem familiar and different at the same time. While everything else is largely unchanged, the new additions to the single player and multiplayer are fantastic.
Presentation - Good
-The storyline is much more interesting this time around than the first, however there still is no addition of any tutorials for any races besides the Space Marines.
Graphics - Great
-All of the new units look just as good as the old ones, and the forces of Chaos look as dark and threatening as they should.
Sound/ Music - Good
-The voices of Chaos Marines on the field is unmistakable and unique, while most of the sounds in combat sound the same, there is enough added to make the sound distinguishable. Music on the other hand is largely reused, but as it is reused it retains the same quality, maybe not the same amount of excitement however.
Singularity Score : Single Player - 3, Multiplayer - 2
Overall Score - 23/25 Great
No comments:
Post a Comment