I can tell that I?ve grown sort of used to yearly or bi-yearly launches for franchise entries when I found myself pretty surprised it?s been seven years since Company of Heroes was released. Even with the demise of THQ, former publisher for the title, and with Relic being bought by SEGA late last year / early this year, that?s a hell of a time span for most sequels nowadays.
But has that time been well spent for Relic with Company of Heroes 2? Yes and no. Yes, in that it?s mostly a clear improvement over the original game in a number of ways. Flashier visuals, a completely new faction with the Russians replacing the Allies, and some neat ideas like the way winter can cause a number of impacts on any given battle. But there?s a lot about this game that also feels like a spruced up version of the original, which isn?t out of place for a sequel, but there?s not a lot of broad, sweeping changes in play here.
Company of Heroes is split between three modes. The campaign focuses on the Eastern Front of World War II, attempting to wrap a story around the conflict via cutscenes that portray a ?treasonous? member of the Russian Army imprisoned and reliving events of the war via his cell. This aspect isn?t entirely necessary or well executed, and does little more than set up each mission while constantly reminding us that war is pretty awful, even if you come out on top. The historical focus that was present in the original Company of Heroes still takes center stage though, and focuses on a number of known events from the conflict between Germany and Russia, which actually ends up being a bit more interesting to someone that grew up with constant reminders and history lessons focusing more on the American and British exploits.
However, the campaign does introduce you to the winter element, and how that can have a variety of effects on battle. Winter snow can accumulate quickly, slowing down troop movement significantly outside of a select few units. Also, being caught out in the open during the cold can lead to frostbite, and actually kill enemy units if they?re not near a source of warmth like a campfire, or huddled inside of a building. Each squad under your control will have a small meter that lets you know how cold they currently are, and this concept really adds another layer to how you?ll control and execute the movement of troops for any given fight.
You?ll occasionally run across frozen bodies of water, which can provide handy shortcuts to areas that you?d normally need to trek around. But these can be a double edged sword as well, if an enemy spots and targets units crossing ice, they can literally sink you with a number of direct shots. This is especially useful against tanks and other mobile units, which is one of the earliest examples given during the campaign.
If you?re not interested in fighting against other players, you can opt to team up against A.I. opponents instead, or even play 1 vs. 1 against the A.I. across the 8 maps featured with the custom play settings. While 8 maps might not sound like a lot, there are some winter variants tossed into the mix as well. And the maps are all pretty varied, with control, ammo, and fuel capture points spread out in unique patterns. Fuel and ammo capture points in particular emphasize a lot of risk in maintaining your hold on them, making them almost like choke points of a sort due to their high value.
There?s also the equivalent of perks present here divided up between different unit types. When equipped into one of three slots these Bulletins will add bonuses to things like accuracy or damage, or potentially speed up the time required to build units during play. The bonuses are mostly small, nothing that seems particularly game-breaking, and are also tied into various achievements available. Most perks also require a certain level to be hit first, so it?ll take a while before you gain the full suite of options here.
The third mode featured is a bit more unique to Company of Heroes 2, called Theater of War. This mode is comprised of a series of missions and challenges, some of which can be tackled alone or with a friend, that focus on either unique scenarios or actual battles from World War II between Russia and Germany. This doesn?t simply recycle content from the campaign for the sake of co-op, but generally constitutes new missions unique to Theater of War. It adds a lot of content on the backend of the single player campaign for those that aren?t interested in competitive multiplayer, and promises to be updated via DLC with additional missions. I wasn?t quite able to finish the content found in this mode prior to review, but what I played I definitely enjoyed.
Another aspect to be wary of is the fact that Company of Heroes seems to be a GPU beast. The system I played on is quite modest, so I expected some framerate sacrifices would be made. Even then the range given for FPS when running tests with various settings selected, or going by the suggested settings that Company of Heroes 2 gave me, was quite wide. And judging by forum reactions and online rumblings, I don?t seem to be the only one surprised by this. While Company of Heroes 2 is certainly a better looking game than its predecessor, I hardly think it?s such a massive leap as the GPU requirements seem to dictate. Hopefully this issue will be worked out over time via patches, but as of now it is well worth demoing before diving all in, even if you exceed the requirements.
By and large though, this is an RTS that you?ll most likely enjoy. Even if you?re not familiar with the original game, just having some affinity for the genre should do the trick. As tired as World War II might be for a video game setting, Relic really does a great job of infusing historical accuracy and storytelling with fantastic gameplay and tactical depth. It might not be leaps and bounds over the original, but it?s enough of an improvement that I can?t see myself going back to the original Company of Heroes any time soon.
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