I've played close to 1000 hours in this game so I'd have to say its good value for money :)

You basically get 3 games in one. The campaign mode, the multi-player mode, and the last stand (co-op) mode.

All 3 are distinct, polished and fun to play. If anything multi-player and last stand outshine the campaign.

My personal recommendation would be last stand - good fun with a few friends :)

After playing this game for what seems like days and days I absolutely love it. Most of it is the fact that its based off of Warhammer 40K but once you get used to how the game controls it becomes really quite fun although difficult at times. I did find the Campaign mode rather lacking seeing as all the factions campaigns are literally copy paste of the previous just a few changes here and there like first boss you fight or some of the dialog but the option to actually pick the other races was a little refreshing. Last Stand mode hands down my favorite part of the game and is where I pour most of my time with the game on....nothing quite as satisfying as just crushing hordes of enemy's with a few powerful attacks. The Multiplayer is good although a little under populated as of late but ive always been more for co-op types of multi as opposed to vs multi. All and all I say this is definitely a must at least try title.

The Dawn of War Franchise is outstanding, and Retribution is a wonderful game that brings back the joy in the serious. The Vanilla version and Chaos Rising were missing a few key ingredients that made the original series great. Retribution comes out with a bang and you will not be disappointed in this game. 5 stars!!! Easily my favorite in the series.

Really great RTS game. If you like the Warhammer 40.000 set and RTS, then theres no possibility of avoiding this.

The tactical approach to Dawn of War has payed off! This game successfully introduces new combat systems similar to those in some popular WW2 strategies (Men of War, Company of Heroes) and the graphics are astonishing too!

I warmly recommend this game to all serious RTS fans out there :)

For me this game was a disappointment. Its not that it's bad but it isn't what I was hoping for after thoroughly enjoying the campaigns of DoW2 and Chaos Rising. The campaign just didn't interest me, the lack of story and changes to gameplay just jilted me. I tried last stand but just didn't hold my interest. Of course for many the multiplayer, last stand mode, and variety of races are all very good things. Still worth getting in a pack but if you are after more of the same single player campaign you came to expect then you may want to get it on sale.

This game is great, if you've always liked the Warhammer franchise, then this will allow you to play the factions you've always wanted.

The value for money for this game is also incredibly satisfying. If you like playing alone, have fun with the different campaigns. If you wanna play with friends, there's the Co-op campaigns to be played with a friend, skirmishes against friends or with them in a team, and the most interesting, Last -stand, a wave survival mode with 2 other friends. I spent 30 hours on this mode alone.

Dawn of War II's latest (standalone) expansion, Retribution, doesn't really add a huge amount to the game, but then again, it doesn't really need to either. For the price of admission, you get all the previous Dawn of War II factions plus the newly-added Imperial Guard faction, the action-oriented Last Stand multiplayer mode, the ability to add custom badges to your armies in the Army Painter, and a new (albeit slightly underwhelming) campaign playable by any of the factions.

Arguably the best change is that Relic switched the DRM over to just Steamworks, thus discarding the huge amounts of problems that arose with the original game and Chaos Rising's use of Games for Windows Live. Now online play is easy to manage rather than impossible due to some weird GfWL glitch or other. Ultimately I have to say it's well worth grabbing for both fans of the series and newcomers alike, though the campaign isn't quite as good as the original game or Chaos Rising (and sadly you can't play either of those in Retribution, but that's not a huge issue).

First, i'm totally unfamiliar with the wharhammer universe.

It's something i dicovered with DoW, and i have to say, i liked it a lot!

Retribution is probably the best on a gameplay point of view, but the worse in terms of scenario.

Nevertheless, for that price, get it , it's a blast, especially if you can convince a friend to play with you!

To start off I only play single player. Ever since the first Dawn of war two I haven't really had any interest in multiplayer. It's possible that extend the value of the game for you, but it didn't really for me.

What I like about this game is that it allows you to treat some of your hero units for a larger quantity of lesser units. By lesser I don't necessarily mean week, as the generally they lack the special attacks and have no benefit from armor and such that you get with the main hero units. This means that you can choose either double small squad or if you go all in you can have a semi-large army.

The graphics and voice acting in this game are good. I have no complaints there. The levels are well laid out and I found them all the fun. A lot of cases you have to take advantage of cover and be strategic with your units or they'll all get slaughtered. You're also able to play the single player campaign with any of the factions. The best thing out of the game to me though, is it FINALLY ends the story of the first Dawn of War game way back when this was more a traditional RTS. I'd been waiting for that resolution ever since I played Winter Assault and was disappointed it didn't carry on the story.

So there so many factions and you can play single player, why do I say short? What problem is that each race plays in almost identical campaign. Sure they're sometimes different dialogue, some of the races don't play every level, every race gets their own blurb at the start, and their own ending, but the levels play pretty much the same and you only have a short period of time the level of any of your characters so the whole thing feels abbreviated. Despite the really impressive allowance to go with heroes or sacrifice them for lesser units, the story is weaker and it still feels like the weakest of the three Dawn of war two games.

Very impressive! the 6 factions available in the Campaign really do lengthen the single player experience, although the missions are kind of the same, anyhow, The Last Stand is very addictive! It's a bargain now, get it!!

It's a pretty cool strategy game, its easy to pick up and learn how to play, you can kill Orks until you're heart is content, sometimes they drop loot but usually at the end of a 'mission' you get to choose a reward and once you level a character you get to choose his stat progression.

If you like point and click games like this..which is basically what this is...its fun but it was over quick. I didn't play the multiplayer portion so I can't comment on how that plays out.

The Good

- Orks, Tyranids, Chaos, and Eldar finally playable in a campaign

- More diverse gameplay than its predecessors

- The Imperial Guard faction is a great addition.

The Bad

- Some factions' stories are poorly fleshed out

- Bugs mar the Imperial Guard campaign.

Retribution offers a lot of content for its $30 price tag. Each play-through of the campaign takes somewhere between five and 10 hours, which, coupled with multiplayer, makes this a superb value. The ability to play every faction in both multiplayer and the campaign; the high production values and attention to detail; the hilarious characters and spectacular set pieces; the single-player, co-op, and competitive game modes; and Retribution's incredible value all overshadow its few failings. Retribution isn't just a stand-alone expansion; it stands out as the best iteration yet in this series.

Really awesome game. For its price you get countless of ours of gameplays of so many different races.

Multiplayer also has its strong points as there are not just a standard RTS style mode but also a wave survival style mode.

Introduction: Warhammer 40k DoW2 is a RTS game, but unlike other RTS games this game focus on squad base combats, with an emphasis on using covers and tactical combat. Set in a diverse universe with a strong backstory. It have spawn numerous expansions and sequels since its first game.

Gameplay (8/10): DoW2 retribution was released as a standalone expansion so you dont need to purchase the original DoW2 to have fun in this game! Although you may have to purchase other expansions to have access to the other heros in the Last Stand mode. The gameplay is fairly nonlinear as you get to choose which missions to take as you progress the game. An element of character building (rpg-style) is also included in the single player and last stand mode, where you will accumulate exp and obtain different equipments to use as you progress through the game. Unlike most RTS single player campaign which you have to build a base to begin, there's no base building in the single player, primarily focusing on where you take cover and use what unit against enemies.

Graphics (8/10): its not the best looking game out there but it certainly is not bad. Environments are destructible and visuals are fairly crisp. The scale of units against buildings and vehicles are well presented (not 100% accurate though!) and the requirements are not overly demanding. I can still run the game smoothly on my 3 year old laptop (2.1ghz dual core with ati 4570 mobility) using medium graphic settings. However i still wish the tau energy weapons could look better.

Sound (7/10): Good voice acting with nice explosion and gunfire sounds. Nice soundtrack that add that epic feel to the game.

Replayablity (8/10): The single player is fairly short as i managed to finish it in about 2 days time. The fun of this game however lies in its multiplayer backed up by a large community. The match-making have been improved as it no longer uses the Game for Windows live platform but rather uses steam instead, some people may not like the idea of play games on steam but to me its better than using GFWL as i had alot of issues with it!

Retribution offers a new campaing that you can play with all races, so you have several hours of timeplay. Multiplayer is more focus on take the point and destroy enemies units so you don't have to worry about manage resources and drag the mineral to your HQ. The Last Stand Alone mode is a great and fast game mode, even only with 2 arenas. Take your hero, select your equipment and prepare for defeat enemy waves with 2 friends.

Dawn of War 2 – Retribution is a great strategy game, and at its price point of $30 there’s simply no excuse not to pick it up if you’re a fan of the series or have been curious to check it out. It makes warfare into something violently beautiful, and pays homage to the nerdy lore that Warhammer fans like me can’t get enough of.

Building on the success of THQ's Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising, Retribution offers a completely reworked single-player campaign mode and a host of new units and features for the multiplayer side of things.

While single-player seems superficially very large, with seperate campaigns for each of the game's playable races, in reality the different campaigns all follow a very similar story arc with a few key mission archetypes repeated across the full spectrum of campaigns. As such, what replay value that exists in playing through the campaign again as a different race is mitigated by the repetitive nature of the missions themselves.

The new playable campaign races are the expansion's real strength - the Imperial Guard, finally playable in a Dawn of War 2 game, are a joy to play and the greatest highlight of the expansion, offering a good mix of infantry and armoured tactics for the aspiring general of the far future.

Retribution trades off the heavy story focus of the first two Dawn of War 2 games in exchange for a more open approach to single player, and fans of the Blood Ravens characters may be disappointed at how the trilogy's story is resolved now that the focus is wider than the Space Marine-centric narrative of the originals.

Retribution offers a variety of interesting multiplayer modes, ranging from the campaign co-op and competitive tactical battles present in the first two games to an expanded version of the Last Stand mode from Chaos Rising. All three modes are well worth a look, and help to round out the game into a good value package that's easy to recommend whether you're an established fan of the Warhammer 40,000 universe or not - at its' heart, this is fun explosive space opera territory that many will find enjoyable.

The only let-downs are the slightly cut-and-paste feeling campaign mode and the somewhat perfunctory dismissal of the heroes and storyline of the first two games; this feels less like a coda to the Dawn of War 2 game than it should, which is a shame, but even so you're getting a fair amount of bang for your buck. 3/5

A nice change in the feel of RTS games, different from most, but in a good way. I love this game, it's beautiful, it's fun, it's addicting, and overall I have no real complaints about it. I would recommend picking up this game asap and playing through it. The expansions are also quite fun, check them out as well.

I love warhammer 40k! I simply just love the lore of it. And this game gives me the warhammer 40k feel. The campaign is better then compared to the other two, since i wanted to play chaos.

Orcs are still very charming and lovable. The campaign system is alright. Last stand is still an awesome timekiller and the Multiplayer mode is outstanding. The graphics are grimdark like they should be, adds lots of atmosphere. I would think a person without interest for warhammer 40k will lose some of the immersion. I myself were very immersed, shouting ''SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD'' while seeing my dreadnoughts smash puny marines.

I give it a full five, because i am bad at finding flaws, but i love the game. The story feels right, the graphics and sound are awesome. I would recommend people in love with 40k lore or a love for tactical stratergy to get this!

Ah this game brings back good ol memories of table top gaming.

6 playable armies with a really cool army painter for multiplay and Co Op gaming.

Small amount of missions for single play tho playing each army gives you a diffrent aspect of the story which increases replaybility there.

Plenty of dlc still coming out for this game in the form of army packs with new models.

A fun game for anyone who likes RTS games even if they have never played the table top.

I had expected more from this game, the campaign is alright, I would have like more variety for the different races campaigns but it's still quite fun. The orcs inparticular are very characterful. I would say if you aren't a big fan of warhammer this game loses some of it's impact. As a stand alone strategy game it probably falls a little short. It is still fun however, the campaign, last stand mode, and the multiplayer combines to give good value. Assuming you will make use of all.

I had played the previous games from the DoW series, and this is the one I'm enjoying the most, mainly due to the different races and also the new features which allows you to acquire new units. The quality of the graphics and gameplay is great as always.

I enjoyed the previous 2 sections of Dawn of War 2, and I enjoyed this one even more. This is due to the game play change allowing regular units to be built in the campaign to fight along side the heroes. Also,now each race has it's own campaign unlike the first two parts.

This game is a standalone expansion for the Dawn of War II series. As in the previous games, Retribution features three gameplay modes: single player and multiplayer through the last stand and single or team battles.

I have not found many changes in the game but for the inclusion of the Imperial Guard as an eligible army and the changes in the gameplay for the single player campaign which now allows players to control any army and instead of focusing just on heroes permits some limited regular units recruiting.

The other technical elements of the game have remained unchanged since the first game, although it still looks impressive. Finally, a change that affects the multiplayer element is the elimination of the GfW Live client for the match-making, although I have not experienced much better match-making with the current client...

Score: 9/10. You must buy it if you liked DOW II and Chaos Rising.

A truly outstanding new wave in RTS.

Retribution is the definitive Dawn of War II title, featuring all 6 races, each with their own campaign, Last Stand Hero and all the usuals you would expect.

A must buy title imo. :)

Dawn of War II: Retribution manages to faithfully carry on the spirit of the second game in the Dawn of War series. If you were a fan of the gameplay or are interested in the ongoing turmoil in sub-sector Aurelia then this is a game I'd definately recommend.

The array of six campaigns, one for each of the prior races plus another for the newly added Imperial Guard, each coming in at around an approximate seven hour length, at least in my experience provides ample to do on the single player front. That isn't counting the return of the RPG-esq wargear menu which allows you ample customisation of your hero units.

However, the same maps are re-used across all campaigns, so unless that faction's story is intriguing you on the third or fourth campaign you choose it could very easily become a chore to slog on.

As for the multiplayer: all is well. The same options return from the other games, allowing you to lead your race to glorious victory against foes across the world! Or, alternatively, band together in Last Stand to fend off the combined force of the various factions across twenty waves with a new hero added to represent the Imperial Guard faction.

Dropping Games for Windows Live in favour of using Steam's resources for matchmaking has been somewhat double edged. The community will have been split by this move, with those on Dawn of War II or Chaos Rising being unable to play with those on Retribution.

However, the result of this is that Games for Windows will *not* be running in the background, increasing the games performance somewhat.

Overall, the game is definately worth buying, particularly if you never bothered with Chaos Rising with it being a stand alone expansion.

I found it overall to be very interesting and enjoyable. The ability to buy a number of non heroic squads during the campaign is a rather interesting change. I found it a bit ambiguous in expressing the way resources are handled, only finding out that it a normal squad dies the resources are refunded after playing one full campaign.

The story is not as engaging as the previous DAW2 games as it uses the same missions for each of the 6 races, still more structured and engaging than DOW1 Dark-crusade and Soulstorm. I think this is a very good trade off with the added re-playability of the different teams and the different play styles that come with them. Two player co-op is a very nice feature and has extra flexibility this time around.

The move to steam-works over windows live makes it much nicer for matchmaking.

As a standalone game at expansion pack prices I would highly recommend it for fans of the previous games and being standalone for anyone looking to get into a great RTS game.

Great game, have loved playing the chaos campaign on single player though i wish the campaigh for each race was longer.

I Have just started a 2nd campaign game as the Imperial Guard. You play the same maps on each campaign but the story and enemies you fight are different depending on what race you play.

Overall i would give it 8/10

This games continues the story from Dawn of War II and Dawn of War II Chaos Rising. The gameplay has not changed much except now you can control not only the heroes, but you can have ordinary units in your control, similar as it was in Dawn of War I. Still, no base has to be built and the relay system is in use. The multiplayer is good and so is the single player campaign. If you enjoyed the DoW II and DoW II Chaos Rising, you will enjoy the Retribution!