Retrospective Review - Dawn of War II Chaos Rising 

Finally lol

Cyrus in this game becomes an even bigger one-Scout army than in the base game.

I love how the traitor's mission and their reason for betraying the chapter changes based on who the traitor is. Tarkus is disgusted at what has happened to the Blood Ravens and actually wants you to kill him/prove him wrong. Avitus is just a complete dumbass and deserving of an asskicking. And Orion doesn't even betray you, instead getting possessed by a daemon that wants to use him to take control of the Black Legion away from Araghast/Eliphas. The fact that they didn't have to take the time for unique missions and still did it is great, as far as I'm concerned. Also Davion Thule doesn't betray you for any reason because he's too much of a chad to go falling for Chaos.

Hey, Zade, any chance you'll do the Battlefleet Gothic Armada games? I freaking LOVE those, and they feel a lot like DoW II with giant spaceships.

A brilliant review. Thanks for making it!! Honestly, just adding increased popcap and better AI in Elite Mod, have changed how DOW2 plays. More like the scale of Dow1 and with the intensity of Dow2.

Dream Game: A Warhammer 40,000 version of SW Empire At War with BattleFleet Gothic Armada Space combat and Dawn of War Planet Combat.

I loved this game with a great story and fun missions. Except that final boss fight - I rage quit a lot before I finally beat it!!

15:30 this is what I've felt about any RTS up until DoW2. Multitasking between base building, worker management, building expansions and battles had always been too much and left me feeling like lacking control is the name of the genre for me. Which is why, looking back, I really appreciate what DoW2 did with multiplayer, making it much more accessible and a lot less APM demanding. Turns out there's an RTS I can actually be decent at without asking for an arm and a leg! One can argue whether it's a good sequel or not, whether it's an RTS or not or whether multiplayer is good or not... but for me it's the only "RTS" I am able to play competitively and I enjoy it a lot

Awesome video. I've replayed this game 6 times. Brilliant replay ability 👏 also the inclusion of the Space Hulk missions.... epic

I have all DOW2 Games and Chaos Rising a great one. Excited for the last expansion Retribution which is my favorite of DOW2 games. Great review man.

Nice I was eager for that vid :)

It's always good after Dawn of War to move to Battlefleet Gothic. It is suprisingly consistent experience gamewise (as far as ground units to ship units matter).

Favourite Dawn of War game after the 1st game and Dark Crusade. The story is really well written and connects to the last few games very nicely.

Another fantastic video by zade

Campaign gameplay of this one is pure bliss! It is what every 40k game, maybe every strategy game should aspire to(next to CoH, when done right)! It is over the top, it is awesome and you really feel like a SPACE MARINE! It's best that DoW 2 has been. Imo.

Count Dooku - “I’ve been looking forward to this”

Adding Tau Commander and Necron Lord to Last Stand was just shameless Dark Crusade nostalgia bait. Granted, both races have undergone a bit of a ...shift on the tabletop so it makes sense as to why we never got them back as full factions. That being said we can only hope for DOW4.

Araghast's voice acting is among the best in the series and his taunting was on point.

“I can feel the warp overtaking me… it is a good pain” 😂

I actually like all the DoWs except the third one and still visit them from time to time. I even like Retribution, but that's 'cause there's IG.

I'm glad to see that you finally do get it why Dawn of War 2 game is so great. That you feel the same satisfaction from just playing the game as I do. I'm also glad to see that you have gotten better since your last review and learned to either use tools which this game gives to you or lower difficulty level. While you won't be reviewing Dawn of War 2 multiplayer or at least you should not if you do not like it, I do want to say that Dawn of War 2 has a lot better multiplayer aspect than its predecessor. It is a lot more active, skillful and tactical. There are nearly no units which are good just because you built them like in other RTS. Each unit has its own logical strengths and weaknesses and with proper understanding of mechanics you can use stone to counter leaf and leaf to destroy scissors. It is a lot more dynamic gameplay which provides a lot more options to a player from globals to heroes and their gear. The only problem with multiplayer is that on 1 vs 1 it is more about ninja capping points and you cannot outfight the opponent. You meet, you clash and you win. However, you are forced to flee even if you won a fight, because enemy will come healed up and will recapture points and beat you. This results in gameplay which is very loose. You win, you retreat, you capture a point. Or either you lose fight badly, enemy recaptures a fight and you just get huge boost of resources due to lower maintenance. Strategic element in multiplayer matches are just bad, but tactical element is great. In most popular 3 vs 3 modes there are other issues. While your team can protect gains they make due to higher density of units. The problem is that game becomes disbalanced. It is easy to tech up quick in those games and T3 units which never was supposed to come out en-mass are now a mainstay of armies. This results in some utterly broken units being spammed which is bad for balance. For example, Nobz are notoriously overpowered and even in fan made multiplayer mode they are still too powerful. Units like these make any counter impossible and massed firepower makes tactics obsolete since it is too difficult to coordinate multiple units against overwhelming firepower. This results in multiplayer either being into slugfest or ninja capping. The most balanced experience is 2 vs 2 gameplay as it is in between strengths and weaknesses of both multiplayer modes. As for last stand, it never received balance updates. While Dawn of War 2 with its free Last Stand update was the absolute peak of my gaming in youth, it sadly did not aged gracefully. While it is still very fun to play, it is incredibly easy with massively power creeped new content which Relic had introduced in expansions and DLCs. This made most of the roster and gear obsolete and some heroes are so incredibly powerful (hive tyrant with its minions build) that you can just split and stand next to victory points and your minions will literally kill all 20 waves without even trying. Btw: I'm not sure what you had meant with not finding games. Half an year ago I played some last stand and could easily find games all the time. Maybe you were playing off-hours or were running incompatible game version from other people. Not sure if you being in Chaos rising had splited you from retribution community. Though, it should work with all three games.

I had had no idea there were that many endings. That’s why I was so confused about Marcellus being in Retribution. I had gone all goody two shoes.

6:50 Well the total slaughter at Victory Bay also done Avitus in to being corrupted by Kyras- Yeah...

I was super addicted to Last Stand for quite a few months. When it was new it was pretty darn fun and active! Really fun mode, you felt super challenged getting the higher and higher levels on your characters. (I was main Space Marine and Chaos Sorc)

the sequel we have all been waiting for

what I liked about The Last Stand is that you had a last stand. Hope you include that in your review!

For me the only games I played for the better part of 2015 were dawn of war 2, chaos rising and dawn of war 2 retribution. I loooved these games man. I liked the graphics, i liked the bombastic music and the overall grimdark feel of the game world. Chaos rising and retribution had great replay value too. Good times. The review was great. Weighed in on everything that mattered. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the vid. It's funny that I loved DoW2 but never bothered with the expansions. It's on my Steam wishlist and occasionally get the sale notice. Perhaps next sale, time to go back to some DoW2 sessions.

something i want to pick up on that you said The Drop, Shoot, Rearm and Drop again gameplay loop being satisfying, i agree with that. And it is a loop that other 40k games have followed to an extend, see Mechanicus & Chaos Gate Demonhunters. It gives a tangible sense of progression as your squads get better - or worse(better) with the corruption Funnily enough, i never knew there were different endings. On most of my play throughs that got to the end, i ended up on the purity side, not even thinking that there was the evil endings. Mind you, i was 14 at the time i played these games and an idiot to boot. I somehow landed on the Martellus ending a few times, but notably on my first as its pretty obvious who the traitor is in game as its avitus's voice in the recordings. decent review, short, sweet and to the point.

The last DLC with an active pause, Retribution has already taken it away from us.I finished Chaos Rising again about a month ago,this time, I dragged the entire team into the embrace of Chaos .Stuck in Retribution

I heard that there was HERESY and I got here as fast as I could! I brought the HEAVY FLAMER brother. Just stating it after Dawn of War 2, so thanks for no spoilers. It took me six months on and off. I've been slacking too.

Last stand was awesome got multiple characters to max level. Whish it was a new game on its own either as is or even some third person style game like the Space marine game.

I've had this game for years, but I never gave it a chance. I think I may now. You mentioned your second channel and potentially starting starcraft on there. What is the channel name? I really want to watch your first impressions on it!

When the Last stand was first launched it was good bet getting a game now with a good team can be a chore especially trying to level up to get the good equipment

I keep getting a fatal scar error in the second mission of both the 2 and CR campaigns. Happened on 2 different PCs now. But I still want to try a full chaos playthru…

The best thing about this expansion is the sound track .

too good video my brother just rush💯💯💯💯

COH 2 & DOW II retribution are still in my gamer groups regular game rotation.

Return of the King 🤴

Hey Zade, i was there on your old Discord before it was uh, F. i was wondering if certain fans can have access to it, somehow. Great video by the way

Please mention the Elite Mod when talking about Retribution!

I really like the last stand in retribution playing it with one of my mates helps it give an amazing experience and the only commander I don't like playing is mekboy (probably not levelled enough yet tbh) both maps are amazing but the chaos lord reviving commanders you've spent minutes on end trying to kill and stay alive is honesestly so cool and annoying at the same time and fighting gabriel in the end of anvil kinda begs the question what is the cannon reason for this mode if gabriel is fighting us? good video zade can't wait for retribution

Love DOW 2

I always played fully pure campaign :)

I love last stand mode

My favorite DoW

You can never have too much Chaos

The music! You forgot the music! Its pure perfection - for all of DoW2! Thanks for your vid :)

1:26 It would what? Pehuged? 12:40 What does 'lichkute' mean?

the best warhammer 40k i ever play

Dawn of War 2 was, well, it was good for what it is. Which is an RPG where your characters have a bunch of allies along for the ride, and not an RTS. The branching endings and sub objective systems of this expansion were the clearest indication of that to me, and honestly I have since playing it discovered that I am not particularly fond of RPGs. Of the three campaigns to play in the DoW2 style, this expansion is the one I am least likely to go back to, and that is honestly because it has all those endings. Multiple endings mess with my head and make me focus too much on how to get to a specific one in a way that distracts me from the gameplay unpleasantly.

I always wanted to do af full corrupted run, but then I remember that Thule nopes out if you do, and I can't lose my angry stompy murderbox :(

First time I played Chaos Rising I went full chaos. I don't know if it was a glitch in my game or a feature, but after a certain point Thule stopped appearing in the game at all, making me think if you fall too far into corruption he refuses to interact with you. If this is true it's a cool touch.

You didn't mention one of the best parts of the narratives! That they gave each of the characters their own motivation, it's not just "he was corrupted, therefore he's now evil." And you're not quite technically right. There actually are multiple ending speech for the first game depending on your score. (But that was missed by a lot of people, even Big Dick Cheney didn't know about/post the alternative ending.)

Chaos Rising definitely sucked me in more than the base game. Just couldn't get into it like Dawn of War 1 did. Took me almost a year to finish the base game and i finished Chaos Rising in 4 nights.

I wish Last Stand allowed me to play as a Chaos Champion just like the Space Marine Captain because I dislike the sorcerer's gameplay, otherwise I think it is a great game mode and is the only thing that has any replayability in dawn of war 2 since like you I dislike skirmish.

One step closer to the dawn of war 3 review, oh dear oh dear.

Please, make a review of Dune 2 and/or Dune 2000.

Now do the pure emperor route and purge the heretics to redeem yourself for the heresy shown.

Will it be less than 8 months for the Retribution review...?!??

So I gotta entirely disagree with your comments about the Talking heads - That is one of my favourite parts of DoW2 - the Banter between the Sargeants, the way the story is told, it remains one of the best bits IMO. That said, the Corruption system with Chaos Rising really does make this the most re-playable of DoW - I've clocked it multiple times.

man i wish retributions campaigns were as good as chaos risings... especially the gutted tyranid one with but one character...

Last Stand must be played on Retribution.. Its the only one with a playerbase

lmao implying tarkus is more of a tactical character when he has an unlock that makes him throw 3 grenades at once in this

The best campaign of all Dawn of War games. It's even taken the mind of this poor RU-vidr, driving him to commit acts of unspeakable wickedness against his once beloved chapter. Bravo, Zade! You shill! 🤑

as someone who plays the games every couple of months and first played them a year ago I'll say Chaos Rising is the best Dawn of War: Now gonna be honest I hate the way DOW2 is with using small squads instead of gigantic armies etc. but chaos rising made it fun because I for one had choice in what to do instead of doing the objective there were other things to do such as making choice if i wanna get corrupted or not and i like the fact that you have to be this corrupted or pure to use a item I thought that was cool

If they created this game based on Wh40k dawn of the war... That would be really really good...

👏🏽👏🏽

I wish last stand got a sequel standalone game.

Wish dawn of war 3 just improved on dawn of war 2 , just a disappointment

1 month warning of waiting for the retribution review

i don't like the last stand because the tau and necron aren't playable races in skirmish or campains

Is Eliphas being in Chaos Rising a plot hole since he was canonically killed in Dark Crusade?

The ACTUAL moba like Dawn of war..where every unit had an ability and was as durable as a titan...

'And the fact no one plays Last Stand online'-- I swear, Zade, if you don't want to use your youtube sway to get 4 people together----

DoW2 is so good.

Warhammer 40K: Gladius did count Warhammer 40K RTS ilke Dawn of War ??

Retribution when?

does anyone want to play last stand? as last stand was the only thing i liked in DOW2, the campaigns dragged on after a while, multiplayer is frustrating, just last stand the pve mode was perfect. So many builds you could do for each character. such as blast.

Praise the God Emperor!

Despite prefering DoW I over DoW II, I think that Chaos Rising is a good example of how to do a RPG. The story doesn't change because of binary choices in dialogue, but depending on your gameplay (corruption). However, I hate Eliphas in this game, he was far more interesting in Dark Crusade with his velvet voice.

I prefer the original campaign by far. I don't like linear campaigns.

It didnt build on anyting, it threw out everything good about Dawn of War and then made something completely new, which ended up also being good. There was no design progression, if there were it would still be a proper base-builder RTS game rather than a realtime tactics game.

So I recently did a hard playthrough and continued with my save data from the first game, dawn of war 2. Didn't remember what I had or leveled up, but anyway as soon as I was at mission 4 I was a danger to the chaos gods cuz holy shit some of the squads abilities are insane. Meaning my setup: Cyrus, Tarkus, Orion. Force commander: Thunder hammer and hp and melee dmg. Switched to termi armor with a assault cannon and power first. He became pretty much the medic and a tank. Cyrus: Sniper and just energy, melee and whatever else you want to. Why the melee? He gets a trait where he uses not 1 mine but yeets up to 5. And no cost except for energy. Yes YEETS. And since except for the last 3 bosses no enemy has detection. Just yeet a mine cluster and wipe like 3 squads. Works vs infantry and vehicles. Now give him the better infiltration and he can clear like an army on his own as long as you micro well. Tarkus: Plasma gun no termi armor and nades. Up his hp and get him the grenade trait. Now he throws free grenades only energy cost and he throws 6 of em in a wave. Occupied buildings np. Supression np, tank and tactical advance. Orion: Very squishy, rush the vortex and energy lots of energy. Hes good as a caster and can rez a member from a distance. As for the vortex, he can quite easily be ragdolled. So it's hard to pull off but if you do, he just shr3ds infantry. Did the whole campaign with em, got the pure ending and except for Ulkair it was fun. Cuz yes max lv squad, hard diff, save from dawn of war 2 = 1.25 milion hp ulkair. Yeah nah that took me like 20 min. So yeah solid entry in wh40k in my opinion but fuck that end boss.

I personally think the "boss" battles are really... yeah, they're just really dumb. I really enjoyed the campaign, but this is an RTS; boss battles just have no place in the game and takes away from the fun, tbh.

Not going to lie mate, I'll be fine with you skipping DoW III, we all know you're going to shit on it anyway.

Dawn Of war 4 but other studio please, no more relic

IGN: to much chaos 🙄

13:43 E: He was bad at the game and blamed the game for it sorry :|

DoW 3 destroyed the series. CoH3 has also outdated gfx, effects and sounds relic dies

ah yes the worst chaos legion lul

Zade you are a shill and your opinion sucks (jk I love your stuff)

Nice