DoWII: Retribution Good for Business On Steam
The dust has settled on Dawn of War II: Retribution’s release, and with market math to back it up, was it a good idea to drop Games for Windows Live support in lieu of Steamworks?
Dawn of War II: Retribution
Players: 1 offline player, 6 players online
Publisher: THQ
Genres: Strategy
Publisher: THQ
Genres: Strategy
Release Date: March 1, 2011
Developer: Relic Entertainment
MSRP: $29.99
Developer: Relic Entertainment
MSRP: $29.99
It is ten years since the events of Chaos Rising and Sub-Sector Aurelia has been in a constant state of warfare with the Imperium struggling to retain control. The apparent betrayal of the chapter by Gabriel Angelos and his Space Marines has shaken the Blood Ravens and now the Imperial forces are beset on all sides by hostile aliens. Retribution allows the player to select the race of their choosing in a battle to determine the very survival or destruction of the entire sector.
DoWII: Retribution Good for Business On Steam
Posted By Johnny Maloney about 1 year ago
While a menacing image, it’s not quite as horrifying as Chaos Space Marines in Beachwear.
Dawn of War II: Retribution was a bit of a gamble. Concern was that the switchover to Steamworks wouldn’t go so smoothly, and the lack of compatibility with its predecessor’s Dawn of War II, and Chaos Rising would split the player base. A month and a half has passed since release, and we can look back now and decide whether or not Relic’s decision to move away from Games for Windows Live was the right choice.
The answer appears to be a resounding yes. In an interview with the[a]listdaily, Relic Producer Jeff Lydell and THQ Director of Global Brand Management, Georgina Verdon had nothing but good things to say about the switchover. Georgina had nothing but good things to say about having the opportunity to run the multiplayer beta through Steam, explaining:
Going exclusive through Steam helped drive awareness with their millions of users by way of banners and message support so by the time we opened the beta up to all Steam customers, we had a huge number of people playing. At the very tail end of the beta we partnered with Justin.TV and some of their top Starcraft players, who held several live streaming broadcasts of the Retribution MP beta and single player campaign mode to a receptive Starcraft fan base. This hype and activity helped us exceed our digital pre-order forecast by 129 percent.
Jeff Lydell added:
…one of our goals when making expansions to our games is to address problems in the original. The combination of requiring both a Steam account and a Games for Windows Live account had been a source of frustration for many of our players, so we took the necessary steps to fix that. We also got to take full advantage of the Steamworks SDK features like cloud saving.
On the subject of a split player base, the news also appears to be good, with Jeff saying:
There was a lot of concern the move away from our previous expansion strategy would fragment the community. Looking at the numbers, it’s clear most active players have moved over to Retribution, and the total hasn’t gone down.
You can read my review of the Dawn of War II: Retribution standalone expansion here.
Source: the[a]list
Dawn of War II: Retribution Review
How many Cadians must a Carnifex tear apart before you can call him a man? Johnny M. finds out in his review for the brand new Dawn of War II standalone expansion: Retribution.
Dawn of War II: Retribution Review
How many Cadians must a Carnifex tear apart before you can call him a man? Johnny M. finds out in his review for the brand new Dawn of War II standalone expansion: Retribution.
Dawn of War II - First Impressions
Dawn of War II: Retribution is the latest in a long series of Warhammer 40K
Dawn of War II: Retribution Beta Access for Pre-orders on Steam
Those who pre-ordered Dawn of War II: Retribution on Steam will log in today to find a surprise: Early access to the multiplayer component of the game in a month-long beta dedicated to balancing and Steamworks.
Details for the IG Heroes in Retribution
A post on the Relic Community pages outlines the four heroes that will be available for the Imperial Guard in their upcoming Dawn of War II expansion.
DoWII: Retribution Good for Business On Steam
The dust has settled on Dawn of War II: Retribution’s release, and with market math to back it up, was it a good idea to drop Games for Windows Live support in lieu of Steamworks?
Dawn of War II: Retribution Review
How many Cadians must a Carnifex tear apart before you can call him a man? Johnny M. finds out in his review for the brand new Dawn of War II standalone expansion: Retribution.
Dawn of War II - First Impressions
Dawn of War II: Retribution is the latest in a long series of Warhammer 40K
Dawn of War II: Retribution Beta Access for Pre-orders on Steam
Those who pre-ordered Dawn of War II: Retribution on Steam will log in today to find a surprise: Early access to the multiplayer component of the game in a month-long beta dedicated to balancing and Steamworks.
Details for the IG Heroes in Retribution
A post on the Relic Community pages outlines the four heroes that will be available for the Imperial Guard in their upcoming Dawn of War II expansion.
Dawn of War II: Retribution Review
Posted By Johnny Maloney about 1 year, 2 months ago
Dawn of War II: Retribution Review
Dawn of War II: Retribution has to be the best story about an Ork who wants a hat so badly that he’ll go to any lengths to get it that I’ve ever heard. In between the tremendous horror of sinus infection, cholera, scurvy, tinnitus, and dropsy (all of which I appear to have been infected with at the same miraculous time) I’ve been digging my fingers into the latest Dawn of War II expansion to see if it’s worth the money and time. There may be spoilers ahead for those who have not yet played through Dawn of War II or Chaos Rising, so pr’ceed at yer own peril.
| PROS | Completes the Story Arc, Races playable, more open gameplay, no GFWL |
| CONS | Not really unique single player campaigns, price point? |
| WTF?! | ‘Drive me closer! I want to hit them with my sword.’ |
I was a bit late coming onto the Dawn of War II train, clocking in around the time that Chaos Rising, the first expansion, was released, but I’ve been a fan of Relic Entertainment’s work for quite some time now. The Homeworld games, and Company of Heroes both manage to dig money out of my wallet and I enjoyed both of them immensely. By the time DoW II came out, I was a little burned out on strategy games and was likely very busy with my brand new 3D glasses and Batman: Arkham Asylum. When Chaos Rising was released I was reminded of the series, and finally ponied up the money and jumped in.
Best Family Photo Ever.
The popularity of Dawn of War II is nowhere near a rival to Starcraft, but frequently their fans butt heads. The former has no base building in it, the latter has no cover system, the former has no resource management, the latter takes too long to play; the comparisons are often venomous. Retribution appears to have taken a high aim and attempted to satisfy fans of both classic RTS games and fans of their new ideas of the genre.
Rather than abide by both the base game and its first expansion pack’s resource system, players are provided with general resources instead of specific ones (which in prior titles were explosive or medical supplies for example). As you battle your way through the enemy lines, supply crates and capture points yield up requisition points, power and increases to a population cap. These resources can be spent to either upgrade any hero units you have on the field for the remainder of the mission, or to call in reinforcements at bases you claim across the map. The fact that you can call in units doesn’t screw players who commit to a certain type of play at the load out screen before starting a mission, as that razorback that suddenly appears just needs a multi-melta squad to put it down. You can call that in; you don’t have to renegotiate prior to the mission to counter it.
Take heroes for the higher power, or honor guard units for an increased population cap to call in more units on the field.
This does seem to have affected the difficulty some. While the regular units aren’t nearly as powerful as the hero units, those in the know for what would make a proper counter to assaults made upon them can make good use of a sudden devastator squad or group of nobs. The game otherwise plays like you’d expect of Dawn of War II, get in cover, flank if you can, suppress, etc. Each race still has their own strengths and weaknesses, which can be difficult to get to know, particularly for new players.
They’ve redone the leveling up system as well, to what I consider quite a positive degree. In the previous two installments, each level would grant you four experience points to place in one of four meters, each granting you further prowess in health, ranged skill, melee skill and energy for special abilities. Additionally, every five points in a tree would grant you a new special ability you could trigger in a mission. In Retribution here, your general skill is a direct result of your equipment and your experience-level-determined statistics. Each point you pump into a simplified three trees immediately grants you a trait or skill to be employed on the battlefield. Many of these traits will grant bonuses to other units in the field if you decide not to deploy that hero on your next sojourn into the battlefield.
8/10
Dawn of War II: Retribution Review
How many Cadians must a Carnifex tear apart before you can call him a man? Johnny M. finds out in his review for the brand new Dawn of War II standalone expansion: Retribution.- March 13, 2011 at 01:22pm
And… Mention that in stores like at wal-mart , it’s being sold at 20$
I really need to go buy it.
Also for the WTF line, for your viewing meme pleasure…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hB19tHMS94 - March 11, 2011 at 01:37pm
have played the new retribution quite alot now and i love it. it’s a good deal if you are wondering if it’s worth it’s money if you like MP it’s a really good game . And tbh i played through a few campaigns in co-op and sure it was all the same-ish and would’ve liked a grand overall story. but the Co-OP is much improved imo , in the way you can get your own units and such . Also steam works alot better haven’t been or have steamrolled (pun not really intended but i’ll pointit out anyways) -by- another team. Also games are found alot quicker IMO .
good review loving how dow2 is getting some more attention i love the game
- March 11, 2011 at 01:18pm
I haven’t played Retribution yet outside open beta (ie. playing with new unis/races in multiplayer), but I’ll ask you why is content wise the price poing a bad thing? Starcraft 2 is almost twice as expensive and has less …PvE content (ie contntent where you are not pitted agáinst other players) and no a single rewiever did made the price poing a bad thing – usre it was mentined but ussualy dismissed.
- March 11, 2011 at 11:11am
The singleplayer campaigns not being unique or having an intertwined storyline was a bit of a barb. The SP for Dark Crusade & Soulstorm worked in a similar fashion which had seemed fine at the time, but I think I was expecting a little more with this one.
Still; the story wrap-up when playing through the space marine campaign was good & I’ll definitely enjoy the additions to the MP.
Oh, and it’s 100 cadians, exactly… exactly 100. Thank you.
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Dawn of War II - First Impressions
Dawn of War II: Retribution is the latest in a long series of Warhammer 40K
Great, now make Homeworld 3
if i say i won’t buy game the use games for windows you can guess how much i hate that servis
Moving from Games for Windows Live to Steam was a good move. In other news, the sky is blue.
Man, why can’t they just release a (proper!) Company Of Heroes expansion?