Warhammer 40k does it again!
I haven't regretted it since.
I own the entire DOW series from the original all the way to Soulstorm and enjoyed them all for HOURS. They got me into painting the miniatures, kinda the reverse of how everyone else got into it, and now I'm a Warhammer fiend.
DOW2 presents its first expansion here and they deliver on reviving the game as they promised. Though the plot is much more linear now, it feels fresh and challenging without the old kill, kill, kill, boss fight formula.
As you probably know, DOW2 doesn't do any base building and instead deploys your space marines on the field of battle to do their deeds without building support. There is no collecting of resources for the single player campaign and instead simply presents way points to capture to reinforce your troops should one of them fall.
DOW2 gets a lot of flack for this, namely because people love to turtle and zerg units just like the old days, but I say to hell with that. That was 1996, this is 2010 and we do things newer and fresher. Sure, I admit that I wouldn't mind one or two base building levels int he game, you know, as part of establishing a planet side beach head, but mostly having it gone is a good thing. Taking upgrades and skills with you from one mission to another, not worrying about finding resources and re-upgrading over and over again is downright refreshing.
RANT: This is what worries me about StarCraft 2 - as much as I love the original two SC games, the base building and re-upgrading drudgery is something that I fear. Boring.
Anyway, this isn't SC, this is DOW which is, mostly, a totally different game. Let's not get into that whole thing.
DOW2CR presents new challenges and new fun for the game as a next step toward, probably, another expansion. It introduces the Chaos Marines, which you know about already, and a new corruption system.
I have to agree with GameSpot, the corruption system doesn't seem to matter at all until the final cinematic. They could have taken two totally different branching story lines depending on your corruption choices, but for some reason they did not, so you really have to wait and see at the end how things changed for you overall.
CR also introduces two new playable characters for the online Last Stand arena and also a new playable race for online competitions bringing the total up to four... out of about 12ish from the 40k universe. We can only hope there will be more expansions to come.
Honestly, I expected to see the Imperial Guard as an online playable race in some regard. I guess I fooled myself.
Also, sort of expected a few more new weapon types, most of all for the dreadnought. Man, I want a hellfire dreadnought so bad I can taste it!
Next time?
This is a good thing. A really good thing. I won't spoil anything for you with much more info than what I have here. If you have the original DOW2 this is a must have.