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The studio behind Company of Heroes has produced a string of award-winning innovative real-time strategy games; each one a different twist on a genre not known for risk taking fresh attempts at originality. So it’s no surprise that a group that’s already mastered space warfare, DNA recombination, and the Warhammer 40,000 license is now attempting to bring WWII out of the first-person.
The gritty realistic rendition of the last great war is such a refreshing breath of fresh air in this genre that while playing I forgot all about cheery cartoon orcs and generic sci-fi marines. What I didn’t forget is how to count. Almost every single real-time strategy game released since StarCraft has featured three playable factions. Relic Studios has made an interesting choice with CoH by offering only two playable sides: Allied (USA) and Axis (German).
This creates a lot of strategic and fun back-and-forth gameplay moments that I haven’t found recently in real-time strategy games. This is probably due to the lack of a third-side as much as it is to the mixture of small-group management à la WarCraft III, with the explosion-filled mayhem of C&C Generals. Whatever your style preference, any fears you have about both sides playing like twins with different paintjobs should be laid to rest.
I knew this as was undeniable the first time I watched a shell from my expensive Allied Sherman tank bounce off an Axis Tiger tank like a rubber ball bounces off that fat kid in gym class. History buffs will know that this is pretty much how it went down in the real world. Thankfully, this realism doesn’t choke the fun out of CoH.
It’s a testament to CoH that I was still having fun, even as the realism of small arms fire resulted in the death of half my squads in my first match.
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Across both single and multi-player, the authentic-ish (notice the "ish") WWII settings are balanced with a gameplay-first mentality. For example: that bunker-annihilating tiger tank wasn’t going down to the small arms fire coming from my squads. I was used to being able to throw large numbers of weak units against one big bury unit in order to take it down.
It’s a testament to CoH that I was still having fun, even as the realism of small arms fire resulted in the death of half my squads in my first match. I soon found the challenge of using feint-and-attack motions with my weaker Allied Tanks to draw stronger Axis Tanks into kill zones exhilarating.
I even figured out why my squads were getting creamed. These aren’t your father’s dumb cannon fodder grunts. Soldiers in a squad duck when fired upon, use cover automatically and intelligently, call out targets when they come into view, and scramble when a sniper takes out a member of their squad. The problem wasn’t them, it was my failure to use a bit of micromanagement and tank busting sticky bombs.
Also gone in Company of Heroes are the days of peons digging shiny stuff from the ground. Instead resources (ammunition, fuel, and strategic pts) are earned by capturing and holding battlefield sectors. Capturing sectors is also how you’ll keep a “supply line” during combat operations. Forward operating HQ’s and certain defensive structures can only be built in sectors that link back to your main HQ. (Hint: You’ll want soldiers produced near the front line given how slow they move across a map.)
This is nigh-identical to Dawn of War, but I found the WWII setting made understanding the concept of sectors and multiple resources much easier. The supply line mechanic gives battles a natural front that keeps combat centered on contested sectors. I never realized how much time I spent ordering my units around a map looking for action until I played CoH. Now I can’t stand the long stretches of random searching in other real-time strategy games
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