14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Eastern Front was arguably the most important theater of World War II and it has rarely been given fair treatment in video games, which tended to focus more on the landings in Normandy and the battles in the Pacific.
With Company of Heroes 2, the new strategy title from developer Relic and publisher SEGA, gamers can experience the most important battles that took place in the area while at the same time creating their own scenarios and narratives using the deep mechanics of the series.
Many fans of the original Company of Heroes were expecting a revolutionary new set of mechanics, but the team working on this second title has chosen to be safe and expand on the core ideas of the franchise while adding a number of elements unique to Eastern Front warfare.
Story
The game uses a flashback mechanic to tell the story of two characters that lived through the campaign of the Eastern Front, jumping from one battle to another to first show how the Germans advanced to the outskirts of Moscow and then move to the tale of the Russian revival, which eventually led them to Berlin.
Relic aims at emotional resonance and historical truth, but the cutscenes linking the levels are little more than distractions, especially for those who already have the historical details.
More effective are the battleplans presented at the start of missions, showing players what they are expected to do and how to best achieve their objectives.
The actual combat scenarios are pretty varied and, by the end of the campaign, they become pretty hard to solve, especially when the Artificial Intelligence relies on unfair moves like spamming unlimited Panzergrenadiers.
In addition to the normal campaign, gamers can also try out the new Theater of War mode, which is designed to eliminate some of the storytelling in order to focus on a number of specific battle challenges and on cooperative scenarios.
It’s an interesting addition that will receive more content from Relic in the coming months, covering all years of the war on the Eastern Front from both German and Russian perspectives.
Playing single-player in Company of Heroes 2 is also a good way of learning valuable lessons for the multiplayer matches, some of which are also offered in the Tactics section.
Gameplay
Company of Heroes 2 is a game of carefully distributed attention and small decisions that can change the course of an entire battle.
The game features limited base building and the key to victory is to strategically creep up the battlefield, securing resources and then using them to create a solid and balanced fighting force that can restrict the enemy’s movement and blunt his attacks.
There are never enough units to cover all areas of the map and Company of Heroes 2 quickly becomes a game of educated guesses, of trying to adapt unit use and tactics to anything that the enemy, human or computer-controlled, can throw at a defensive line.
It’s nail-biting stuff at times, with curses when the Soviets manage to get more tanks than I expected and hurrahs when I manage to finally break a solid emplacement with well-aimed artillery fire.
The German and the Soviet armies are very different in terms of units and tactical ideas, but they both feel capable and realistic, with specific strong points and weaknesses.
Each requires its own style of play and it’s nice to discover how each unit, form the lowly Grenadiers to the mightiest IS-2, can be used on the various map in order to achieve victory.
Company of Heroes 2 even manages to capture the infantry first nature of warfare on the Eastern Front and the way specialized-weapons teams and tanks only enhanced their ability to take and hold territory.
Winter is also a welcomed presence, with its movement-impending snow and its cruel blizzards that can kill entire squads if the player does not pay attention.
Company of Heroes 2 shows how real-time strategy can dispense with lots of resource gathering and blob tactics in order to deliver nuanced and believable battlefields, where scouting, careful assaults and determined defenses are the hallmark of a successful general.
The only small problem with the overall structure is how close the camera stays to the battlefield.
This means that the gamer has to rely on the minimap quite a bit and can often miss crucial events that take place right on the edge of his vision.
Graphics and audio
Company of Heroes 2 is a good-looking strategy game, but the only time when a player can safely explore its beauty is during the single-player levels, when a lull in fighting takes place.
Zooming-in players will discover some pretty detailed units, especially when it comes to the bigger tanks and rocket launchers, that move in a realistic matter, taking into account terrain and the amount of fire they are receiving.
The game is also designed to offer a lot of information about units at a glance, both via the way they look on the battlefield and via their badges in the right-hand corner.
The only downside is that the quest for solid graphics can lead some players to turn up their options and introduce lag in the multiplayer modes.
The soundtrack is even better than the graphics, a soaring at times, and sometimes bleak, set of tracks that really manage to evoke the Eastern Front of World War II.
Cris Velasco is the composer in charge of Company of Heroes 2’s music and the team added a number of Russian themes, including a beautiful coral section in the main theme of the game.
Multiplayer
Company of Heroes 2 is an engaging and deep multiplayer experience, one that I have been playing ever since the beta and I am still learning new tactics and new ways of using my units almost every match.
The basic structure allows for battles that range from one versus one to 4 vs. 4 players, with the degree of complexity increasing as the number of involved gamers does.
Somehow, the one-on-one fights are the most captivating because they are manageable while at the same time they never introduce the responsibility of helping out another player.
The maps are well designed, creating a lot of possibilities for players and delivering plenty of areas that can quickly become killing grounds while at times making winter and its effects important.
The community of players that coalesces around Company of Heroes 2 is also a good one, with respectful communication and limited number of disconnects, even for those players who are losing.
The biggest feature of the multiplayer is that the Relic-designed mechanics allow players who are at a little disadvantage a chance to come back and score a win, as long as they manage to create a solid tactical plan and are capable of executing it.
The only problem with the matches is that they can be very long, especially when dealing with a good human opponent who always fights for control-point domination.
The multiplayer in particular can capture the imagination of gamers for hundreds of hours, and the only thing that I want to see changed via patches is the camera. The single player is solid enough on its own, but the biggest revelation is how addictive the multiplayer can be, especially given the amount of unlocks gamers can receive as they level up their general avatar.
The Good
The Bad
Conclusion
