We’ve played through a small handful of maps, with both Annihilation and Victory Point game modes, and everything is just as good as you’d remember from the original game. Both the Soviets and the Germans have very different play styles, and it can take some getting used to trying to if you keep switching back and forth. The snow mechanic – which you’ve probably read a lot about already, still works quite well and provides an interesting tactical challenge. I also don’t remember the AI being this good either. There’s only so many times you can get spanked by the AI and still be good and still feel good about yourself as a strategy gamer, so the less said on this the better, but yeah... that AI is good. Even with a real-life team mate AND a ‘hard’ AI partner, we still got pasted.
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| There still seems to be a bias towards vehicle combat, especially as a match progresses. This doesn’t help the soviets, who have weak AT capabilities early game |
Outside of the combat, we’ve been able to play around with the customization systems as well. At the moment, players can customise their Commander ‘load outs’ – as in which set of three commanders they take into a match. When you unlock your first command point in-game, you then choose which of the three commanders you then roll with for the rest of the game. Every commander is different, and offers different bonuses, different unique units etc... At the time of writing, there were only five commanders in the game: Three unlocked initially, and two to be unlocked as you progress up the level trees. We imagine there are going to be many more available at launch, and possibly more as part of a DLC plan or something. What we’d really like to see is a system to be able to customize your own commanders.
In addition to this, you can also add cosmetic changes to your units that you unlock – different types of camouflages that apply to whole unit groups, and you also get to pick which ‘Intel Bulletins’ you want to associate with that load-out. Intel bulletins are essentially buffs that you can unlock, that apply bonuses in a variety of ways. We had a bonus unlocked right away that gave a small accuracy boost to the basic Soviet and German troop type. These buffs apply regardless of which commander you choose, and you unlock them by performing certain actions in game – for example there could be a flamethrower buff that you unlock by killing x amount of people with a flamethrower.
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| frozen rivers, as well as bridges etc... can be destroyed, for devastating effect |
For all that though, we can’t shake that feeling that something is... off. Obviously, this is still early days – we haven’t seen the single-player at all, as mentioned above there is a lot of content waiting to go in, so we’ve yet to get a full picture of the multiplayer back-end, but when you’re actually in a match, playing the game, something doesn’t quite feel right, no matter how much fun you’re having. Personally, I don’t think there are enough defences available, especially to the soviets. The Germans have this bunker they can plop down, which is very useful, but the Soviets have nothing. Conscripts can throw up a light sandbag wall-thing, but no other soviet unit has something similar to that, and the only thing their Engineer units can do is drop down barbed wire and AT mines. For a game that only has two modes, one of which includes taking and holding victory points, having one side lacking in actual defences seems a bit weird to me. Still, perhaps there are still units; buildings etc... to come.
Looking at the back-end, it’s clear there’s room for a lot more content. Going by current trends, perhaps a DLC plan is in the works (would be a shame, but what can you do), but there’s definitely scope of improvement here. I think ultimately, the main reason why I feel reserved about this game is that, really, I’m playing the game I played in 2004. Except there’s less stuff (what can I say, I’m going to miss the UK faction). With an industry obsessed with chasing trends and sequels, perhaps it’s a good thing to have just more of the same for a change, but on another level you have to consider whether or not you might as well just stick to the original Company of Heroes. Playing through the beta has still been a fantastic experience though, so anyone waiting for this game has nothing to worry about. Company of Heroes 2 is due out on PC on June 25th 2013.
Most Anticipated Feature: Well, the only thing we haven’t seen yet is the single-player, so we’re looking forward to seeing how that turns out.
