The Chaos Space Marines make a dramatic entrance into the Dawn of War II saga. The Tyranids don't seem so scary anymore.
Chaos Rising is set one year after the events in the original campaign (OC). The planet Aurelia emerges from the Warp, and from what should be a barren planet, devoid of life, they receive a distress signal. Along with your old comrades, you go to investigate, but are met with an ambush by traitor guardsman. Before long, forces of Chaos make their presence known, and while trying to discover their motives, you and your band of Blood Ravens begin to unravel a mystery concerning your own chapter. One that has terrible implications, and keeps you wondering until the final few missions.
As noted, the cast of the OC is back, with the addition of Jonah, a powerful Libraian who you'll meet along the way. He is an independent character, much like your commander, but as you would expect from a Librarian is a bit lacking in raw combat prowess. Instead, he makes up for it with a variety of spells, allowing you to heal friendly units, render them invisible, more resistant to damage, as well as damaging and disrupting enemy infantry. With the level cap raised to 30, your existing squad captains also gain access to new skills. Such as Tarkus' 'Feel No Pain', which renders a unit invulnerable for a short time, and Cyrus' 'Flanking Expert', which increases his damage output the farther away he is from the other squads.
A nice little feature of Chaos Rising is the ability to import data from your final save from the original campaign. You retain your old stats, but are allowed a stat reset after the first mission (regardless of whether or not you've imported). You retain some of your old wargear, I believe whatever your characters may have had equipped at the end of the OC. So if you had the bright idea of stocking up and donating all your junk for all that extra XP, that's not gonna work. This is justified, as the Armageddon had apparently gone down during the climax of the final battle with the Tyranids. If you choose not to import, you're still given a decent amount of wargear to make do with, which doesn't make the game much more difficult. However, I should note that one of the achievements then becomes impossible without posessing four suits of Terminator armor.
The game plays out much like the original, but mission progression is much more linear. There are a few side missions, and you get to have a fight or two with the factions you faced in the OC, but for the most part, it's pretty straight forward. The actual missions themselves are more scripted and interesting as there's more to them than simply 'go point A to B, fight boss, mission end'. Secondary objectives also have more meaning, as completing or ignoring them has an effect on all deployed squads thanks to the new Corruption System. Usually the easier path will corrupt squads, while the more difficult task redeems them. Not taking a character on a mission that has personal significance for them will cause them to become frustrated and earn corruption points as well. Even many of the most powerful pieces of equipment you come across will be tainted, and cause corruption when used. The more corrupted you become, the more powerful your squads get and the more commander skills you get. One even being able to revive and heal all incapacitated squads...which earns you more corruption.
So, with all these benefits, who in their right mind would pass them up? Well, being a Space Marine, it's kind of your duty, right? Oh, and it affects the outcome of the story, though it's really not apparent until the final few missions of the game, and even then, very little changes except for the very end. It would have been nice to see even a small branching path if you chose to corrupt your squads. It could have been a chance at some added replay value.
On the technical side, the voice acting is still excellent. The music - everything from foreboding, to gothic, to heroic orchestrated themes fit the universe and setting much better than any thing else ever could. Then there's Planet Aurelia. A world dotted by long abandoned, frozen structures, massive shifting glaciers, and a perpetual feeling of hostility is probably one of my favorite settings in an RTS in recent memory. It's cold, bleak and barren, and it's so perfectly 40k.
Even if you don't own Chaos Rising, you still gain access to the new unit that was added to each of the existing factions in multiplayer (Wraithguard, Genestealers, etc.) via a free patch. You'll be unable to play as Chaos, however you may still be matched against them. To top everything off, you also get The Last Stand, a new game mode in which you and two other players control a single hero unit. As they level up, they earn equipment, which you are able to save from game to game. It took me awhile to get on board, but once I did, I had a good couple weeks of fun with it. It's charming in it's own way, satisfying creating your own character builds, and surprisingly challenging to actually finish all 20 waves.
Now, for a bit of a rundown on Chaos by someone who plays 1v1s exclusively. They're definitely solid as a faction. Between the three heroes, the Chaos Lord, Sorcerer and Plague Champion, the Lord and Champion are more competitive, and depending on which you pick, many upgrades for the rest of the army change. Their basic unit, Cultists, are surprisingly good in melee when upgraded, and annoying at range as the game goes on with their disruptive grenade launchers. They also eventually gain the ability to place shrines that that cast different AoE auras depending on your Hero. Individual tactical squads can also be given marks that turn them into one of the specialized tactical units like Khorne Berserkers. Throw in daemons like Blood Letters and Blood Crushers who can be healed in combat by commanding Cultists to worship, and effects AoE shrines and you can be extremely difficult to dislodge from a defensive position. On the down side, you don't have access to Terminator Squads and the Chaos Dreadnaught feels inferior to the SM one. I could go on, but this is just a game review, right? Anyway, they've become my second favorite army online.
All things considered, with the patch providing much of the content for free, I would recommend Chaos Rising anyway, especially if you're a fan of the Blood Ravens. If you're looking for a new faction to play online, and you feel like the regular ol' Space Marines don't yell enough, need more skulls and spiky bits on their armor, and aren't always "Emprah, Emprah." well, Chaos welcomes you with open arms.
Well done, Relic. As always.