It was rather amusing, sitting there at the venue and listening to Game Director Quinn Duffy talk to us about Relic’s ‘vision’ for the game – solely because the first half an hour felt like a bit of a history lesson. Now, I love history, don’t get me wrong, but I couldn’t help but feel that the guys were trying a little too hard to sell the Eastern Front. Granted, we’re not representatives of the general fanbase, and maybe the general fanbase wasn’t aware that 13/15 of the bloodiest battles of WW2, and perhaps of all time, took place on the Eastern Front. Perhaps they weren’t aware of how cold and unforgiving Soviet Russia was not only to the Germans, but to their own troops as well. To call that particular theatre a ‘forgotten’ event though is perhaps taking things to the point of hyperbole. Do a game set during the 1943 Italian Invasion, or even the rout to Dunkirk in 1939, then we can talk about forgotten battles.
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| In Soviet Russia, Russian kill you |
Key focus for Company of Heroes 2 seems to be technology and atmosphere. Using the third generation of the Essence engine, which was essentially made from scratch for this game, the graphical fidelity and attention to detail looks pretty impressive. This goes hand-in hand with the studios big push for more authenticity. If you asked people what the one thing they would change about the first game, I’d be surprised if the majority said that they wanted more accurate sounding M42’s. But regardless, everything from uniforms, to weapon sounds, to environmental distortion… hundreds of little details have been updated and re-done to really help improve the atmosphere of the game, and to be fair from what we’ve seen so far it works.
It wasn’t all talk though – there was a good solid twenty minute gameplay demo to be seen as well. Since it was early code and we were watching it on a big screen as opposed to watching the ‘driver’ himself, it was hard to get a solid feel for what Company of Heroes 2 is going to be like, but so far it’s looking like more of the same – only better. Too few franchises are content with just sticking with what they know and improving on that, so it’s good to see Relic staying true to what the last game was like. The visual improvements are really noticeable, and really impressive, and the action is classic Company of Heroes. The most obvious and interesting change is the inclusion of ‘True sight’. Instead of the entire potential line of sight being open to you, you can only see what anyone actually in that situation would be able to see. No more magically seeing what’s behind trees, or on the other side of that building.
With the campaign and ‘cinematic’ side of the campaign, Relic really want to try and convey what they call the ‘Ruthless truth of War’. Even in the gameplay demo we saw, the driver commanded the squad of troops through some skirmishes only to be blown apart by a scripted artillery barrage. They were then replaced with a new group, which also managed some skirmishes before also being decimated. There were a lot of deaths in this part of war, with a reported 1 out of every 7 soviet (citizens and troopers) ending up dead. To call it bloody would be an understatement – it was Total War in every sense of the word.
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| Yeah, all these guys? Going to be dead in a minute... |
There’s not a hell of a lot else to go on at this point. Multiplayer is a ‘thing’, obviously, and Relic have already stated their commitment to it. Whether it will take cues from Company of Heroes Online or simply be more like your standard affair, we’ll find out over the coming months. The two ‘confirmed’ factions – Russia and Germany – will both be tailored to their particular doctrines. Russia will use quantity as a quality in itself, whilst the German army will be smaller but will be more advanced in terms of technology. They’ll be new command abilities, environmental effects like deep snow, and tanks can even be disabled and captured.
There’s still a lot left unsaid though, so despite being initially impressed, it’s probably best to reserve judgement until more information eeks out. It’s nice to see Relic returning to this wonderful franchise though, and we can only hope they take Dawn of War back to its roots as well. Or even create new IP, if they wanted. Whilst you wait though, now would be a great time to jump into the original CoH as there’s a reason it remains one of the highest scoring strategy games of all time… I’d be surprised if the sequel does any worse. Company of Heroes 2 is, sadly, not due out till 2013 on PC, so there’s a while to go yet.
Most Anticipated Features: We actually liked some of the innovations brought on by the Opposing Fronts expansion, so it would be nice to see more of that.
