Relic has just released their third paid cosmetic downloadable content (DLC) pack for
Dawn of War 2: Retribution, and it's all about those big, blue Ultramarines. This is the very same chapter of Space Marines you will find in
Relic's upcoming game,
Space Marine, and that's no mistake.
Relic have spent quite a bit of time and effort bringing the full glory of the chapter to
Retribution, so let's step in and see what they've brought.
The Ultramarines pack, much like the Dark Angels and Ulthwé packs before it, seeks to bring about a truer representation of the chapter by retexturing various units and adding model bits. The DLC paint schemes tend to be much more detailed than even their rank 60 army painter counterparts, and the Ultramarines scheme is absolutely no exception. In fact, we'll find that in many ways, Ultramarines are the new standard for
Retribution cosmetic DLC.
Before we get much deeper into that though, let's first cover what Ultramarines won't do for you. First, it won't make your Space Marines anymore "ultra" than they already are in terms of gameplay performance. That is, unless your opponent has such an aversion to the color blue that coming into contact with an entire army of blue warriors will cause your opponent to promptly go away from the keyboard to wash his or her eyes out. Also, audio remains the same. Diomedes, even with a flashy helmet, will still hear you and still ask you to go ahead. And finally, there is no convenient way to modify the colors of the paint scheme. It is possible to do so through a workaround, but you can't just pull the scheme up in the army painter and create something new off it like you can with others- it's intended to be Ultramarines, and Ultramarines are blue!
There is a huge Roman Empire influence throughout the pack. The Force Commander dons a helm and cape that both hearken very directly to high-ranking Roman military commanders. Many other Space Marines possess golden laureling on their helms. Beyond the Roman influence is a big emphasis on raised bits and extra battle-readiness, seen in the varied 'U's and ammo pouches and such worked onto the Ultramarines models.
Two of the three Space Marine heroes have gotten major visual overhauls. The Force Commander, as in Dark Angels, slaps on a helmet, but this one is very different from just about anything seen before- very Roman, as mentioned above. Likewise, he wraps on a cape just as the Dark Angels Force Commander does, but its Roman influence and the Ultramarines badge-sporting backpack really differentiate it. Finally, some influence from
Space Marine's Captain Titus can be seen in the shoulder pauldrons, and the cape and tabard sport new animations. The Apothecary's alterations are more reserved only in comparison with those of the Force Commander. The Ultramarines Apothecary is predominantly blue, not white, instantly marking him very different not only from non-DLC Apothecaries, but from pretty much any Apothecaries the
Dawn of War 2 army painter can produce. Extra details all over make him more appealing to the eye and the extra blood spatter adds to his badass nurse nature.
Tactical Space Marines break from the heavy emphasis of gold as the theme's secondary color in favor of white, leveraging gold more sparingly, but including it for their laureling. While white sounds like a more boring secondary color, the Tactical Space Marines more than make up for this with truly intricate shoulder pads. Both Tactical and Assault Space Marine Sergeants get red helmets and more detailed armor than their peers. On that front though, Assault Space Marines are rather disappointing, sporting a scheme that is arguably simpler than high rank versions of non-DLC Assault Space Marines with the only solace coming from the laureling on their helms and the proper coloring of their helms. Devastators look good though, following in the wake of Tactical Space Marines.
Terminators make themselves distinct with reworked symbols and the addition of the Ultramarines badge in many areas. Assault Terminators are particularly notable as their shield has a hugely detailed Ultramarines crest on it and their hammers are gold. And standing even taller than Terminators are Dreadnoughts. The standard Dreadnought is where your jaw just hits the ground with this pack. It just isn't comparable to the regular Dreadnought. It has a battle banner with a dead Tyranid Warrior on it and dead Tyranid chitin on a leg. It supplements all that with an intricate golden chestplate with purity seals tossed all over. And there's just straight-up more detail than there is on the standard Dreadnought. The Venerable Dreadnought, by comparison, isn't so Venerable. It shares more similarities with its regular counterpart, but tints the gold a much darker shade, edging towards bronze, and eliminates blue areas from the chestplate. It also swaps out the top protrusion for something new, and adds detail to the legs. It's still impressive, no doubt.
And what of the metal boxes? The Razborback, Predator, and Land Raider? They get raised, fully-modeled Ultramarines livery to make them blue boxes with some very distinct white pieces, and even some gold hatches to boot. They aren't jaw-droppingly different, but as with the Dark Angels vehicles, they do simply look much better and more detailed.
So what's the verdict on the whole pack? This is the second paid piece of Space Marines DLC
Relic is tossing our way now, and if you already gobbled-up Dark Angels you're no doubt wondering what makes Ultramarines a worthy pack to either use alongside your Dark Angels or to replace your Dark Angels. As always, only you can determine whether a pack is right for you, but we can do our best to help.
The simple verdict is that Ultramarines is a darn fine pack that brings serious visual upgrades to the vast majority of the Space Marine army. Of the units tweaked, only one of them is questionable as to whether it looks better with or without the pack, but even then the extra detail provided by the laureling tips favor towards Ultramarines DLC Assault Space Marines. All the other units look much better for the overhaul. In the cases of the Force Commander, Apothecary, Dreadnought, Assault Terminators, and Tactical Space Marine Sergeant, we have some of the best-looking units in the game yet.
So definitely, the pack lives up to providing really great, Ultramarines-stylized versions of the units it modified. However, whereas the Ulthwé changes managed to impact almost every unit in some very significant way, there are a few units that feel left out with Ultramarines. The Techmarine and Librarian seem to get absolutely zero love at all, and both of these make sense in the context of lore, but nonetheless players who use Techmarine as their main hero may find this pack less appealing than Force Commander or Apothecary players. Do remember though that you get a nice, new Venerable Dreadnought, although while this is absolutely a lot nicer than the default Venerable Dreadnought, the regular Dreadnought got a much better deal, and you'll probably get a better flare with the Dark Angels Venerable Dreadnought if you're trying to decide between the two packs based on that. The Librarian on the other hand isn't really even a blip on the radar because Dark Angels offers nothing better and
Relic's hands really seem to be tied there- and he is just one Tier 2 unit, all other Tier 2 units got a lot of love so you don't notice him as much in the sea of other units (remember, he already looks different from standard color schemes).
Scouts and Assault Space Marines also get relatively minimal changes (Scouts' biggest bonus is probably unlocking capes for low-ranked Space Marine armies). As mentioned, Assault Space Marines get laureling on their helmets and also get white helmets, but their midsections are pretty bare compared to the straps and such that high-rank Assault Space Marines get. However, the excellent detailing of Tactical Space Marines, Devastators, and two of the three Space Marine heroes ensure that your Ultramarines Tier 1 will still be distinguished.
Ultimately, if you're an Ultramarines fan, you're going to love this pack. If you want some continuity between your
Dawn of War 2 forces and your
Space Marine characters, you'll also no doubt be happy as well. If you like the color blue, I think you'd be hard-pressed to go wrong. If you just like the look of the pack, well there you go. If you hate Tyranids, you'll won't be able to get enough of the Dreadnought. And if you play a lot of Space Marines, this is definitely a paint scheme you'll want to have, even if you already have Dark Angels- both schemes are and feel really different, nice variety and all that.
You'll be a little disappointed if you play Techmarine, and if Last Stand is your primary game mode then for now Dark Angels are a much better choice as they influence the Captain's shield and armor. Ultramarines may get that treatment down the road, but because the shield already seems to fit pretty well, that's doubtful- but possible. Otherwise, there isn't much to be disappointed in about this pack unless you just absolutely do not play Space Marines or if you just hate Ultrasmurfs- I mean Ultramarines.
And let me just take a personal moment to say that I'm not the world's biggest fan of Ultramarines. I think they're a little bland even for Space Marines, and the
Ultramarines movie only served to convince me that Imperial Fists are a superior chapter- I mean, no spoilers or anything, but... yeah, not Ultramarines' greatest showing of intelligence. And if all that weren't enough, Space Marines aren't exactly my least-played race (not sure what mine is courtesy of randoming so much) but they also aren't at the top of my list either with Orks, Imperial Guard, and Chaos all assuredly claiming higher slots by a notable margin.
All that said, I liked the Dark Angels pack, and I'm really liking the Ultramarines pack. The intricate detail on the Force Commander's cape alone has me in awe every time I deploy this DLC in battle, and the attention to detail on just about all the other units makes Ultramarines honestly as appealing as they could ever possibly be to me. So don't toss the idea of the pack out unless your tolerance for Ultramarines is even lower than mine, as the artistry included here really is great.
Comparison Shots Between Army Painter Ultramarines and DLC Ultramarines:
More Information:
