it's bloody cold... it's bloody cold out here

It’s cold out here… so very cold. Markov lost his foot the other day… then he lost his temper and threw it at Cherkov, which shattered his hand, which we all just found funny. We stopped laughing though when the bullets began to fly, the slow crack of a rifle, the puka-puka of machine guns... and every now and then a tank would roll up and really ruin our day. World War II was full of stories like this, and in Company of Heroes 2 you get to create your own... Relic wants you to feel the human tragedy of the Eastern Front, and playing through a build of the game at Gamescom, it’s easy to see how they plan to do it.

The key thing you have to bear in mind when talking about Company of Heroes 2 is that, really, it’s a lot like Company of Heroes 1. Some people are going to love this, some aren’t – it’s just one of those things. Personally, I don’t have too much of a problem with it, but I also kind of liked many of the changes and variations brought by the Opposing Fronts expansion – it was interesting, and gave the new factions truly unique play styles. With Company of Heroes 2 going back to a bit of a binary system again though, this time with the Russians vs. the Germans, there is a slight nagging sensation that it’s not going to feel like enough, but that’s just us. We still really enjoyed our hands-on session though.

At the moment, only Engineers can plonk down fires, so you’ll want to keep some at hand

The first part was taken up with a campaign mission that was very much a tutorial of sorts, and probably something you’ve already seen before (we certainly had) – it hit home that this is the Company of Heroes you know and love, just in a different place. You’ve got the cover systems, the automatic AI behaviours for infantry, all the tactics that you remember when attacking fortified positions… we even got to use a flamethrower on a couple of buildings, which was fun. Graphically the game is looking very slick – you can tell they’ve been working hard on making the Essence 3.0 engine competitive in today’s market, and all those little details will be there. As ever though, even managing a small group of several infantry units can be a bit of a mental challenge, and the AI is no slouch once you get into the thick of things. Multitasking FTW.



The second (and longer) part of the session was playing a 2 v 2 Skirmish, against two AI’s with an AI as a partner. We’re not sure if ours had been put on an easier setting or not, as the AI seemed a bit timid at times but it certainly wasn’t a pushover – but the best thing about this part was the snow. In this match we were shown the new environmental system which, if you’re not careful, can cost you dearly. Visibility is low – especially with the True-Sight system now in place- and if you don’t keep your soldiers warm they will literally die one by one, something that I found out the hard way. You can keep them warm by plonking down fires (which in turn will make you a bit of a target), or by shoving them into a building or a vehicle… which makes for a bit of a safer hiding place but not a really effective defensive position.

Everything else – the little details, was vintage CoH though... the resource management, the base-building... picking up random weapons and vehicles about the map. We only got to really experience the Russian side of the game, but their faction is mainly geared towards infantry and infantry tactics (even though they got some nifty tanks later on in the war), mortar and machine gun teams as standard, but also cheap conscripts, and more advanced guard infantry units.

This isn’t the map we played on, but we hope to recreate many scenes like this...

The session left us confident that Relic were doing a good job, but it did leave us with some lingering questions: was the unit and building roster we had access to ‘it’? If so, then we worry it’s going to be a bit limited and, well, boring. The use of cold in that skirmish level was fantastic, but we wonder how the player base is going to react as, essentially, strategy is being dictated and your options are far more limited than that of a normal map, not that it really matters as not all maps are going to be like that mind, but still, it gets you thinking. Great use of environmental effects though.

Company of Heroes 2 has a lot to live up to, considering its predecessor was the highest rated strategy game of all time. Can this one do the same? Probably, but like before it’ll probably rely on the multiplayer aspect of the game to really keep it going, but the partnership with Steam should help with that… the new engine, the new environmental effects are all looking good as well. We’d be surprised if something went seriously wrong with this game, and we look forward to seeing more. Company of Heroes 2 is due out for PC sometime in early 2013.

Most Anticipated Feature: We just want to see what else the game has to offer.