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Retribution Preorders Up

By 5*General - 19th November 2010 - 05:50 AM

Preorders for Dawn of War 2: Retribution have been spotted at e-tail for $30 (USD); specifically, both Amazon and Steam have preorder pages up. What's no doubt more important to everyone here at GR is that the preorder postings come with some new information - here comes the break down.

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First, new screenshots!

Amazon already has all of these screenshots (in their full resolution forms) posted, so we won't bother reposting everything here, instead we'll post a select few and dissect them for new information. The first image you already scrolled by is obviously the temporary box art, or perhaps it is the actual box art? It just seems a tad plain compared to Dawn of War 2's and Chaos Rising's boxes of the past, so it is likely not the final product.

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The image above is pretty standard, some Sluggas charging at a lone Wraithguard. Look closely at the Slugga in the foreground wielding a Burna - he seems to have a funky little blue aura on him. It could just be remnants of an Eldar attack, the effects of an Eldar ability, or it might be something else entirely (an upgraded Burna?).

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This next image is mostly just to confirm that Deff Dreads are available in the Ork campaign. There's also a cool terrain decal as well, always refreshing to see in Dawn of War 2 maps to give them that extra visual spice.

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This is a big 'un. Let's start from the bottom-left and make our way around, shall we?

Looking at the mini-map area, we have the same icons surrounding the map as we did in Chaos Rising's campaign. So what's new? The icons on the map. The icon for requisition points is quickly and easily identifiable to anyone who has played multiplayer Dawn of War 2, but this is new for singleplayer. As well, there is a power node icon partially obscured by Brikkfist's hero icon. But then there are three other icon types. These are all new. There is an arrow (or a pentagon, depending on your interpretation), a person (directly correlates with the population symbol used in multiplayer), and a cross. What these are, we can only speculate, but one of the arrow points should be visible on-screen according to the camera orientation, and looking on-screen we see something that looks only like an uncaptured power node, so that doesn't help us much. What's interesting is the lack of Victory Point markers, which had been used in Dawn of War 2 singleplayer for reinforcement beacons. As for what the remaining three points could be, we relayed in one of our earlier previews that there will be requisition points (we've already identified those on the minimap), capturable production facilities (we haven't identified those yet, so undoubtedly at least one of these three remaining point types is responsible for that- Relic seemed to suggest vehicles have a separate facility so that could allow this to account for two icons), and popcap points (one would assume the icon that corroborates with the population icon would relate to this point).

Shifting focus to the command bar, we have a lot going on. We have the usual set-up with advanced sub-selection focusing on Kaptin Bluddflagg (hopefully the portrait is updated before release). On the left-hand side, there are three icons that likely correspond with equipped wargear. Compared to multiplayer, this is a reduced wargear user interface, as wargear cannot be purchased (and it seems that it cannot be swapped either) on the field. Moving right, nothing new. The ability icons for Kaptin Bluddflagg are both familiar and foreign (Stomp and WAAAAGH! are recognizable to Ork and Warboss players). Moving up, requisition, power, and population values are shown. Interestingly, requisition per minute and power per minute figures are absent, suggesting perhaps income for those resources will function differently in the campaign than in multiplayer. Moving up again, we have the familiar global ability panel. Interestingly, there is an ability here called down with the 'C' key, suggesting it is actually attached to a piece of commander wargear (it looks to be a Mekboy turret). The rest of the global abilities are all familiar to multiplayer Warboss players, but Call da Boyz is oddly out of place (perhaps players will have some capability to swap what globals they bring into battle? Or perhaps Relic is just using Retribution as an excuse to move Call da Boyz' position to reflect its cost and power and they haven't updated its hotkey yet).

We can now look at the side panel and the squads. The top four squad icon positions are all occupied by the campaign heroes- Bluddflagg, Nailbrain, Spookums, and Brikkfist. Of note, these heroes all have unique icons- campaign only? Regular Ork units occupy the remaining four slots (Loota, Slugga, Weirdboy, and Slugga).

Now let's focus on the main screen and... it's actually the least interesting area in some respects. There isn't anything particularly new other than the unit type icons seen on the side panel. The only real thing of note is the incredibly loose formation of the one Slugga squad where two of its members are taking the long way- but that's not particularly new to anyone familiar with the game, and for anyone hoping Retribution would handle that behavior differently...

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Here's another shot that displays user interface elements. The power node that was previously covered-up is now visible on the mini-map. Also interesting is that Spookums is selected this time instead of Bluddflagg, but the panel to the left of the command bar has the same icons. Perhaps this is not for wargear at all, but rather global bonuses to all commanders or all forces. Looking at Spookums some more, we disappointingly see the same portrait as a Kommando Nob hero, but the ability icons offer something new. On-screen, Spookums is clearly carrying a Burna, and we can definitely see he has an ability associated with that. The icon to the right of that one, activated with the 'F' hotkey, seems to be the fabled Grappling Hook! To the right of that, standard Stikkbombs make their appearance, and back over to the far left is Spookum's Infiltrate.

This screenshot should allow us to safely confirm that the person-shaped icon represents population points and controls the maximum population for a player. We can assume this because maximum population has not changed between this screenshot and the last, despite that additional arrow/triangle points and the cross point have been captured, while person points have remained untouched.

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An impressive shot displaying the might of the horde. What conclusions can be drawn from this? Nothing definitive, but if you look closely at the top of the hill, you can see part of what appears to be a WAAAGH! Banner. With Orks streaming down the hill from that, it's definitely feasible the banner could be some form of production or reinforcement structure (all of the squads in this image seem to be full, whereas squads in most other images are battered and missing members).

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Not much in this screenshot other than an indication that the Orks will be facing more than just Eldar in their quest.

After all that, there couldn't have been much more revealed today, could there have been?
Ten years after the events of Chaos Rising and the fall of Blood Raven's Chapter Master to Chaos, Sub-Sector Aurelia remains in a state of constant warfare. The pirate Freebooter Orks have arrived to take advantage of this and loot the sector, the vile forces of Chaos continue to spread their blasphemy, the Eldar of Craftworld Alaitoc work to recover key artifacts from their past, and the feral Tyranids remaining from the failed Hive fleet invasion have suddenly reestablished contact with the Hive mind. Choose your race and determine the final fate of the entire sector, in Dawn of War II: Retribution the next installment in the critically acclaimed Dawn of War real-time strategy franchise.
  • Multi-Race Campaign - For the first time in the Dawn of War II series, players will be able to experience a single player campaign customized for their chosen race.
  • Army Builder Metagame - Upgrade your heroes and unlock new buildable units as you progress through the single player campaign.
  • 6 Playable Races - Choose from 6 multiplayer races, each with their own unique super heavy units
Source: Amazon

Oh, well then. So what's new in that text? The text itself does not offer much as it refrains from revealing a possible Chaos, Space Marine, or sixth race campaign, instead sticking to the three revealed campaigns (Ork, Eldar, and Tyranid). It does shed some light on the Eldar campaign's story arc (faint light).

The bullet points are a little more interesting. The wording of the "Multi-Race Campaign" bullet continues to insist that all factions will have playable campaigns. This seems difficult to believe that Relic would go from one campaign in the first two entries to six in the third entry (and six campaigns of a length similar to the Chaos Rising campaign), but that seems a possibility right now. The wording though is guarded, careful. The third bullet has no problem spouting "6 Playable Races", but the first bullet refuses to go beyond the vague "Multi", with only the "chosen race" bit supporting six campaigns (and even this could well be misconstrued- maybe intentionally).

The middle bullet from Amazon we have covered extensively already, but the third we will take a little more time on. Dawn of War 2 currently has five playable races, and we have been expecting a sixth in Retribution. Nothing new there, and we still do not know what that race will be. Where this third bullet point gets interesting is its claim of "each with their own unique super heavy units". This seems to indicate that many of the new units will be super units like the Avatar and Great Unclean One. For Tyranids, we know the Swarmlord is afoot, and that unit would definitely fit such a description. An Eldar Autarch has also been spotted, so despite the Avatar, Eldar may have another elite unit inbound.

We may be able to shed a little more light on two more unit candidates. Community member Tarik Torgaddon brought it to GameReplays's attention that the Tier 3 upgrade tooltips were sneakily upgraded with some extra text. If those are indeed hints, then Orks will receive a Battlewagon and Space Marines a Land Raider- both units certainly fit the "super heavy" requirement that Amazon's bullet point lists. If those two vehicles rampage into Retribution, one might have to wonder if the Baneblade isn't far behind...

The Steam page for Retribution does not offer anything new with its paragraph or bullets, but the feature listings offer some insight. Singleplayer, Multiplayer, Co-op, Steam Leaderboards, Steam Cloud, and Stats are all ticked-off for Retribution, compared to Dawn of War 2 only listing Singleplayer, Multiplayer, and Co-op. Also of interest are the minimum and recommended requirements:
Minimum:

OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Processor: Pentium IV 3.2Ghz, or any dual core processor
Memory: 1GB (XP), 1.5GB (Vista), 1.5 GB (Windows 7)
Hard Disk Space: 8.5GB space free
Video Card: 128 MB Video Card using Shader Model 3 (Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI X1600)
Other: Online Steam Account
Recommended:

OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Processor: Any Core 2 , Athlon X2, or better
Memory: 2GB RAM or higher (XP, Vista, Windows 7)
Hard Disk Space: 8.5GB space free
Video Card: 256 MB Video Card using Shader Model 3 (Nvidia GeForce 7800GT or any Nvidia GT200 series or better, ATI X1900 or any HD3600 series or better
Other: Online Steam AccountSource: Steam

Very similar to Dawn of War 2's, with one major exception:
"Online play requires log-in to Games For Windows - Live" appears in Dawn of War 2's minimum requirements.

Here's what appears in Retribution's:
"Online Steam Account"

The lack of Games for Windows Live in Retribution's requirements has already emptied quite a few bank accounts of $30, and Gork knows the recent mess with Games for Windows Live 3.4 and its complete absence from Retribution will be the primary reason for many more bank accounts dropping $30 towards Retribution.

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