I was lucky enough to be involved with THQ’s recent Chaos Rising Community Day, where selected guests were able to get an early look at Chaos Rising, the new expansion pack for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II.  The guests got to grips with the first few levels of the new campaign, featuring the traitorous Chaos Space Marines, before trying out the multiplayer.  As we had Relic’s Community Manager, Graham Somers, on hand we also ran a Q&A on Facebook and Twitter, where fans asked questions about the expansion, new units, and plans for further additions to the game.

Watching some of the guests playing, I got a good look at some of the new units, which were quite interesting, despite their grotesque appearance – consider the Great Unclean One, pictured here!

Chaos Rising also has a new corruption mechanic, with each squad gaining a Purity or Corruption meter.  Choices you make in the game have an effect on how corrupted you become, for instance, equipping Chaos Wargear will make you gain corruption.

There are also extra units for all the existing races – I particularly like the Librarian – new maps, and multiplayer modes including free-for-all.  The Last Stand mode also gains new heroes, the Tyranid Hive Tyrant, and the Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer.  I’m looking forward to trying those bad boys out this weekend!

Chaos Rising is a standalone expansion, so you don’t need to own Dawn of War II (although in my opinion it is well worth picking up).  Relic have also released updates for the original game, adding new units to the existing races, new maps and multiplayer modes, and support for the expansion.  This means Chaos Rising and Dawn of War II players can still play together on an even battlefield, though only Chaos Rising owners will be able to play as Chaos Space Marines.