Dawn of War II, was awesome. Chaos Rising which was the add on, it was okay, as a fan of the series, I'd say that Chaos Rising brought nothing new to the field. However Retribution is pure awesomeness.

From the offset Retribution shows off it's stawberries in style, there are several factions to play. No longer do we have to be tormented by the rightousness of the space marines (who are heroes) but lets face it, it gets boring. So the introduction of the Eldar, Orks, Tyranids, Imperial Guard, and Chaos Marines is a welcome appearance. Each playable in the campaign.

The initial DOW II, focused entirely on your heroes. This one gives you the option of investing in them or sacrificing their potential upgrades for additional units. It undoubtedly provides more depth to the game. At the end of the missions you can select which path you wish to take your tech tree down, and you can develop these if you wish. There is the usual wargear regarding your heroes.

Visually the game is beautiful, the effects of plasma grenades decimating a platoon, or tanks destroying cover is epic. It builds on DOW II, although the difference is not immense. It is always nice to drool over your keyboard. The beauty is backed up by the micro-animations of your heroes, seeing them pummel an Orks head with a power hammer gets you excited no matter how many times you see it happen. Furthermore the gritty hardened voices make you hot under the collar. Retribution shows you that it is good to be bad.

I would say that people may be frustrated that the game has to be downloaded, even when bought in store. You have to go home and download it. For people who have a download limit or a poor internet connection, it may be troublesome. You can thank Steam for this, if you wish to. Personally as a dedicated gamer I think it is a ridiculous farce. But that's just me.

Overall, Retribution plays beautifully. It's taken DOW II and given it the mother of all revamps. I would strongly recommend this to fans of the original, and to those who want to be swept off their feet. Re-playability value is debatable, however with so many factions you'll be kept pre-occupied for a while.