Chaos Rising is the first stand-alone expansion to Dawn of War II, 2009's popular real-time strategy/tactical role-playing game based on the Warhammer: 40,000 universe. Leaving core gameplay
essentially unchanged, Chaos Rising adds a new single-player Blood Ravens campaign, the Chaos faction for multiplayer games, two new heroes for the Last Stand game type, and several multiplayer maps. Although you don't need the original DOWII to enjoy the campaign, you'll probably want both games for multiplayer, since Chaos Rising alone won't give you access to the original four factions in multiplayer matches. Even with this caveat, however, Chaos Rising is a gem of an expansion that shines on its own, thanks to immersive gameplay, robust cooperative play, and a delightfully evil tone.
The single-player campaign, which you can also play cooperatively, with a friend controlling half of your squads, brings back your party from DOWII. This includes characters such as Avitus, the rage-filled devastator squad leader, and Captain Davian Thule, whose disembodied spirit pilots a dreadnought battlemech. If you'd like, you can import your existing characters from DOWII, but be warned that they'll arrive without their best war gear, including their terminator armor, which has been damaged and can't be equipped until later in the campaign. Chaos Rising also adds a new character, Jonah Orion the librarian, a versatile and highly customizable spellcaster more at home on the battlefield than at the circulation desk. These simple but robust characters, combined with an intriguing storyline, varied battles, and the cooperative option, make the campaign the highlight of Chaos Rising.
Chaos Rising's campaign forgoes base building in favor of real-time battles, followed by breaks to customize your characters' skills and equipment, listen to intelligence briefings and determine which squads will deploy to your next mission, and (optionally) communicate with your team members and superior officers. In addition to experience points, your characters can now gain corruption points, which grant them access to corrupted war gear and twisted, magnificent new powers bestowed by the Chaos gods. Corruption comes from a variety of sources, including wearing tainted war gear, using Chaos powers, betraying the Empire or your Space Marine brothers, and prolonged exposure to dark energies. Similarly, you'll get plentiful opportunities to redeem yourself and earn the right to wear war gear that requires a pure spirit; however, being good gives you only one special ability per character, so the dark whispers of the void can be very persuasive. Another reason to give in to the dark side is that the "pure" ending cutscene has a tendency to crash to desktop. Although you'll notice in-game consequences for becoming corrupt and evil, sadly you don't get any additional missions as a result, which can be a bit of a letdown if you spend the entire campaign plotting to turn against your commanding officer and do battle with the incorruptible dreadnought Davian Thule.
Your band of intrepid Space Marines must do battle against the Eldar, Orks, and Tyranids over the course of the campaign, but the new Chaos faction is your primary antagonist, not just on the front line, but within the ranks of your own chapter. While fighting the forces of Chaos, you soon discover that one of your own has turned traitor and heretic, working to undermine the Blood Ravens from within. Consequently, your adventure focuses on both driving the Black Legion from Imperial space and unfolding the foul conspiracy infesting the chapter. In Chaos Rising, you'll revisit some of the planets from DOWII, but thankfully, you won't play the same map twice, which keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging. The downside is that the campaign is only about 10 hours long. However, it does have some replayability if you take a different approach to corruption, use alternative skill and equipment builds, or deploy different squads to the battlefield.
After you finish the campaign, you'll want to collect some "skulls for the skull throne" and try out Chaos in multiplayer or skirmish mode. Their units range from psychotic humans, such as the Chaos Space Marines, to grotesque demons, such as the monstrous Great Unclean One, who can fling enemy infantry to their deaths with his agile intestines. Additionally, you can customize several of your units by devoting them to different Chaos gods, who in turn grant unique blessings. For instance, Havocs, the Chaos version of Devastator squads, can earn a rate-of-fire bonus for their loyalty to Tzeentch, while Chaos Predator tanks blessed by Nurgle gain health at the expense of speed. Furthermore, each of the three heroes dedicates himself to a distinct Chaos god, granting you access to both special Chaos powers and the ability to build shrines to his master. The melee-heavy Chaos Lord favors the blood god Khorne, whose shrines periodically spawn powerful demons; the defense-oriented Plague Champion prefers Nurgle, whose shrines heal allies and reinforce your units; while the fragile but potent Chaos Sorcerer lets you build shrines to Tzeentch that shoot bolts of energy at incoming enemies.
They say you can't go home again, but whoever coined that old adage apparently wasn't talking about the realm of Ferelden. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening returns you to this familiar and fair
fantasy world, where degenerate demons called darkspawn have ravaged the land. The forces of evil may still lurk, but fans of 2009's wonderful Dragon Age will settle easily into the game's first full expansion pack, which harbors few surprises but delivers all the loot-happy adventuring that they'd expect. Awakening is not as exceptional as the main game; its story and characters make little impression, which is a disappointment compared to Dragon Age's splendid yarn. But in spite of some story frustrations and scattered bugs, Awakening is more of a terrific thing. It isn't a groundbreaking expansion, but it's an entertaining one that reminds us that if it isn't broken, there's no need to fix it.
You begin Awakening by selecting a character, either by importing one from Dragon Age: Origins or by creating a new one, who will start at level 18. Whichever route you choose, you're immediately dropped outside the fortress of Warden's Keep, where darkspawn continue their assault in spite of the Grey Wardens' earlier triumphs. It's clear from the beginning, however, that these foes are not the usual expendable masses. You hear tales of a darkspawn that speaks, and soon thereafter you meet this growling beast. As the keep's commander, it's up to you to venture into the surrounding environs, searching for clues that may help you identify and stave off the forces behind the new threat.
This is a straightforward fable much like the original, though it does provide a few memorable threads. A damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't decision toward the end of the game is possibly the finest of these, and your choice has major effects on how your adventure plays out. Tension between siblings and a journey into the realm of spirits known as The Fade serve up some additional highlights. Yet in spite of a few quality moments, the story isn't as interesting as you'd expect. One of Dragon Age: Origins' most shocking moments illustrated the sacrifice Grey Wardens must be willing to make to join the order, and it underlined just how determined and self-possessed its members must be. In Awakening, the ritual is treated so casually that the Grey Wardens--and the Joining--no longer retain their edge. The story treats The Right of Conscription with a maddening degree of carelessness; what was once serious has become almost flippant.
Luckily, your old ale-swilling pal Oghren will be there to remind you of the good old days. While you run into a couple of friends from your previous quests, the dwarf Oghren is the only party member from Dragon Age to cross over into Awakening. He's as funny as he ever was and a never-ending source of comic relief. His belching, cussing, womanizing ways always make for entertaining stories during your travels, and he's a great foil for Anders, a sarcastic mage who joins your party early on. You'll add four others to your party, including a warrior named Justice who proves that looks really can be deceiving, and a Dalish elf called Valenna who regrets the loss of her people's ancient myths and legends. Oghren is practically a legend, or at least he's one in his own mind, but none of your new cohorts are as unforgettable as old friends like Dragon Age's Alistair and Morrigan, let alone Oghren. There are no romances to undertake, and while giving gifts to your party members will lead to new dialogue options and other surprises, you aren't likely to get too caught up in their personal tales. So classic characters they aren't, but they are still appealing, in part due to the uniformly excellent voice acting that brings them to life.
What hasn't changed is the fantastic combat that made Dragon Age so much fun. It remains the same as you remember, letting you switch among party members at will, customize automated behaviors for those controlled by the AI, and switch from a third-person view to a more tactical overhead position at will. Battles are a total blast: colorful, intense, and occasionally challenging. Most basic conflicts aren't likely to give you much trouble, but several encounters will have you pausing to micromanage party members. One of them is an intense battle against several small dragons who have a good eye for seeking out your mages; another is the final boss fight, which is just as challenging as Dragon Age's last boss, but a lot more enjoyable. Some new enemies help liven up Awakening's standard battles, including heavily armored ogres and foes called the children, who have a nasty habit of taking your party members temporarily out of commission by leaping onto them. And of course, there are hordes of darkspawn to take aim at, along with familiar foes like desire demons and the like.
Luckily, you get new goodies to use along the way, including new types of weapon coatings and traps, along with stamina draughts to help refresh your warriors and rogues. More importantly, you get fun new spells and talents to tinker with, as well as two new specializations for each class. These elements don't have a dramatic effect on gameplay, but they don't need to; they're simply logical additions to the talent and spell trees that go along with the increase in level cap. But the new spells and talents are ever so fun to unleash, from the keeper's One With Nature defensive field to the spirit warrior's Fade Burst. There are also three new skills: runecrafting, vitality, and clarity. Runecrafting is the only active skill, letting you piece components together to make runes you can slot into your weapons and armor. Vitality and clarity are passive bonuses to health and stamina, respectively--an unimaginative addition but welcome all the same. These additions lead to greater combat flexibility and give you more flashy abilities to look forward to as you rise in levels.
Compared to the original Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening doesn't offer the same kind of outstanding value--$40 for under 20 hours of questing, as opposed to the 50-plus hours of the $50 main game. Yet the length is nothing to sneeze at, particularly when the questing is this involving. Your objectives are typical role-playing tropes--fetch a plant, kill some demons, seek out the apostate mages--but good quest writing gives them context, and improved art design makes some of the environments fun to explore. Awakening still looks like a typical fantasy game, and the forests and underground corridors look much the same as before. But a few of the new areas clearly received some artistic attention. A creepy marsh is one such location; an abandoned dwarven stronghold is another. Even a late-game trek down a series of winding stairways is a nice change of pace for the series and adds a welcome bit of environmental variety. Unfortunately, a few bugs let the visuals down here and there. We had a character's arm get stuck in an odd position and remain there for hours; at another point, initiating a conversation with a non-player character spawned a doppelganger that clipped in and out of its twin's body as it moved. These and other quirks might be small distractions, but they're common enough to be notable.
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening doesn't reach the high standards set by its illustrious precursor, but it's still a great game on its own terms. The combat and questing are as fun as they ever were and will keep you involved up until the very end, in spite of the uneven quality of the story and the characters that fill it. Oghren once said, "Misery, vomit, and malt liquor. Ah, reminds me of home." You know you've missed such delights too, and now's the time to head back.
Just Cause 2 is ridiculous in the best possible way. In the space of a few moments, you can grapple to a hovering helicopter; beat up the pilot and hijack the chopper; blow up a cluster of fuel
tanks; put the chopper on a collision course with an enormous antenna; jump out at the last moment; and watch the resulting explosion as you parachute down to the saddle of a moving motorcycle below. But in the life of Rico Rodriguez, such events are just another day at the office, though in this case, the office is the gigantic island nation of Panau, where three gangs vie to wrest control from a corrupt government. This is a big game that gives you a lot to do and a lot of crazy ways to do it. When Just Cause 2 gives you the freedom to do the things you want in the way you want, it shines in all its preposterousness and good humor. When missions and challenges shoehorn you into specific actions, however, the same loose mechanics that make the open-world exploration such a joy become a frustrating burden. Nevertheless, this sandbox action game surmounts its few issues with liberal doses of ludicrousness; well, that, and the ability to attach disreputable cops to a buggy with your grappling hook and drag them around.
There's a story tying all of the craziness together, but it's about as believable as the crazy stunts you pull. As in the original Just Cause, you play as Rico, a member of a US agency called, appropriately enough, The Agency. The story is all silly fluff, standing out more for its so-excruciating-it's-almost-good voice acting and broad ethnic caricatures than for any intricate plot developments. (Don't bother looking: There aren't any.) You'll probably have more fun trying to figure out where different characters are from based on their insane accents than you will working out what exactly is going on or why you should care, but the tale still works well in light of the game's screwy attitude. Contradictory updates from the government-run news agency will have you giggling precisely because they're so crazy; Rico offhandedly dismisses the insane, supernatural events that occur after an eventful flight into a Bermuda Triangle-type region. Most importantly, the tale provides oh-so-implausible excuses to blow up gas stations, radar installations, and offshore oil platforms.
And blowing stuff up is what Just Cause 2 does best. Causing explosions leads to chaos, which functions as a type of currency in Just Cause 2. To unlock new story missions and other goodies, you need to wreak as much havoc as you can, and you get lots of different, preposterous ways to do it. If you see a grouping of fuel tanks, you could just run in and shoot them with a machine gun, but that is one of the less dramatic ways to do it and will use up ammo besides. (And early on, the game is a bit too stingy with ammo, given the focus on making things go boom.) But why approach things in such a pedestrian manner? Instead, you could hijack a passenger jet, put it on a destructive path, and jump out at the last minute. Or you could steal a hulking tank, drive it to a central location, and start blasting everything that looks like it might erupt in a ball of flames. The dramatic approach can take a bit more time, but it usually leads to a good deal of entertainment. Yet, even if you do things the easy way and use a dinky pistol, the explosions are perfectly loud, big, bright, and obnoxious.
Of course, such noisy endeavors will get the attention of the local authorities. It's amazing just how quickly swarms of militants will descend on you. (You might actually see soldiers fade into view directly in front of you.) The most obvious way of handling them is to fill them with lead, and when you're surrounded by enemies, Just Cause 2's loose shooting mechanics work just fine. The ultraforgiving autotargeting makes it easy to run about spraying fire, though you can zoom in if you need a bit more precision, like if you are taking out a military colonel and need to land a headshot. If you use a controller, you might run into troubles with that same autotargeting; You can aim and shoot directly at a guy's head as he leans out a car door but not land any hits. But if you're using a mouse and keyboard, you aren't likely to encounter this issue, and you're getting a more fluid experience to boot.
When you're surrounded by a dozen armed baddies and bombarded by a hovering helicopter, however, making a quick getaway may be the best option. Rico's grappling hook is a real life saver in these circumstances. You might attach it to a nearby building and fling yourself onto a roof or grapple the ground and pull yourself out of harm's way. Better yet, you can pull off a sort of inverted Spider-Man routine by grappling the ground, hurling yourself into the air, and opening your handy parachute before you hit the ground. Once airborne, you can repeat the move over and over, flinging yourself around using the grapple hook like Spidey would use his webbing. From the air, you can perform some satisfyingly silly stunts. For example, if you'd rather travel around in a motorized rickshaw, you can grapple on to one, pull yourself onto its roof, and evict the driver, who will undoubtedly be vocal about his or her displeasure. Or perhaps that chopper is still dogging you. In that case, grapple onto it, chuck the pilot out, and take it for your own. But it's plenty satisfying just to travel using your hook and parachute. It takes a little time to get used to the rhythm of taking off, but once you're accustomed to it, there's nothing like soaring above Panau's snow-capped mountains or taking in a beautiful sunset while floating slowly toward the beach.
