Today i'm going to review the 2nd installment in the Company of Heroes franchise in Company of Heroes 2, the review will be split into 2 parts, the single player and the multiplayer campaigns, i'll be looking at the parallels between 1 and 2 as well as what has been expanded on and what could of used a bit more work, I'll also be including the Ardennes assault expansion as it was pretty awesome.

So lets dive straight back into the world at war, in Company Of Heroes 2.

Setting and Story.

Company of Heroes takes place largely in Russia during the second world war, the story begins as a commisar visits Lieutenant. Lev Abramovich Isakovic, who is currently in a gulag in siberia for what was considered desertion of his duties, the Commisar and isakovic talk about what happened during world war 2 and how he came to find himself, a once proud follower of the Communist state, in a gulag for treason and desertion, he relives the story of the invasion of Stalingrad and what he saw there.

Arriving across the River Volga, thousands of soldiers were ordered into battle against superior weapons fire with little more than a uniform, seeing Commisar's shoot retreating red army soldiers for being cowards changed Isakovic when he realized they were killing their own men faster than the Germans were, Isakovich motivated his men to push through the lines and avoid gun fire while also avoiding the Commisars acting under order 227, that if a soldier retreats he is deserting the motherland and is to be executed for being a traitor and coward.

Through the numerous battles that Isakovich commands he knowingly defies direct orders from command so that he can limit casualties and save his men, but at every turn he is hounded by Colonel Chukin to follow the strict lines set forth by the army, as he keeps disobeying them he is eventually sent to the Media detail of the army to document the "glorious battles" of the red army and their successes, Isakovich however chooses to document the real horrors of war, which under the communist regime were considered high treason.

As the Soviets take back Russia and push into Germany it isn't until they reach a small town where Isakovich gets the idea to defect so that the world may learn of what happened, encircling the town full of Germans, none of them are spared, not even civilians, children and women, Isakovich, while respected by his men, now shows an utter disdain for the Red Army and indeed all of Russia, as the war dwindles down, the Soviets take Germany and win the war, Isakovic tries one last time to give his unadulterated version of the war.

Completely depressed and demoralized by the apparent lack of interest by the Soviet Regime to publish the truth, Isakovic attempts to defect to the west to get the story out but is captured and sentence to execution, on the 11th hour however as the execution is being set up, Colonel Churkin steps forward and kills the executioner and allows Isakovic to escape as "the world must learn what happened" Churkin then shoots and kills himself after he learns that he was to be killed in Stalin's next Purge.

The story is steeped in the realism of what happened during WW2 and what happened afterwards, it's largely based on the real world book, the gulag archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who depicted life during the war and in the Russian Gulag system, so while the story may be a little lite on the details, it is still a real world experience as is the entire campaign, if you're a history fan like myself you'll probably love the story line for that fact.

But the story is only a small part of Company Of Heroes 2, the main aspect is the game play, so lets jump into that.

Gameplay and Mechanics.

Company of Heroes 2 is very similar to Company of Heroes 1, however it is a bit more refined than it's predecessor in terms of unit control and battlefield manipulation and awareness, during the campaigns you will control large amounts of squads as was true in World War 2, the Russian colossus comes to life in CoH 2 through multiple unique and authentic maps as well as a story driven campaign that see's you retake Russian from the Germans than push into the Heart of the Rhineland.

Lets have a look at the opposing Armies.

The Red Army.

Mostly comprised of conscripts and officers, every man and woman was ordered to fight by Stalin when Germany invaded, as such most of the soldiers are inexperienced and ill-equipped, some only going into battle with a simple rifle and little ammo, the conscript is also equipped with Molotov cocktails to burn out enemy emplacements, but that's not say that the Russian army wasn't also ready for war.

Specialized infantry such as the Shock Troops and the famous Russian sniper teams, as well as auxiliary support units such as mortar teams and heavy machine gun teams, they also had some of the best tanks available at the time, the Russian T34 was feared by the Germans as was the SU85 tank destroyer and the SU76 Assault tank that could bombard enemy positions with never ending mortar shells.

In Company of Heroes 2, Russian armies rely heavily on overwhelming numbers to break through enemy lines and take positions, it's not uncommon that you will see Penal battalions(prisoners forced to fight) surrounded by shock troops and conscripts that make up an unending wave of bodies, as one German field commander said "they have more bodies than we have bullets".

Russian armies are largely ground based as they lost nearly all of their airforce in the opening stages of the war, so even though it might seem counter-intuitive to other RTS players, sometimes just sending wave after wave of conscripts at a tank might actually be the best thing to do.

Wermacht

The German soldier is well equipped, well trained and has superior technology on the Soviets, one squad of Volksgrenadiers may equal an entire battalion of Conscripts, coupled with their superior amount of tanks and air support from the Luftwaffe, the German army is better equipped for surgical strikes and for using overwhelming firepower to destroy enemy positions.

The dreaded Tiger Ace is the finest tank on the field capable of destroying numerous tanks at one time due to it's superior armor and firepower, what the Soviets make up for in numbers, the Germans make up for in engineering and raw power, as well as having a superior line of communication with Germany and access to special doctrines and units that can be used in a variety of different ways.

The German army isn't without it's weakness though, in the brutal winters of Russia, most soldiers were not equipped with winter close and will freeze to death if outside for to long, like wise German tanks will stall and be unable to move in the deep snow, as well as having a limited supply on fuel during the winter it's easy for tanks to become useless and have to be abandoned or salvaged for parts.

On to the mechanics of the game.

Suppression and Cover.

As in Company of Heroes 1, Suppression and cover mechanics are back and more refined in this installment, as static defenses no longer play the biggest contributing role in defense or attack, you need to use the environment to your advantage, being caught on an open field by a HMG team will see you get gunned down extremely quickly, like wise though, being on an open field with a destroyed tank to hide behind will provide you cover to slowly move up or even grenade out the enemy position.

CoH 2 did a great job of reinventing the suppression mechanic to work with the world environment, before the game was largely on an x axis which mean which meant you could kind of cheese your way around the map around defenses if you knew what you're doing, in CoH 2 however the Z Axis is there and the standard line of fire of troops is gone, if a machine gun team is setup on a hill over looking a valley, you're more than likely dead before you even get in range of them.

While i wasn't the biggest fan of changing the dynamics of the game to accommodate more unit control defense, a lot of people enjoy it, especially since people like me, who are defensive wankers, probably ruined them by making machine gun nest lines all the way up to their base, whatever the case for it is though, it seemed to draw a bit of division from players who either liked it or hated it.

More unit control and better army makeup.

Company of Heroes 2 focuses a lot more on basic unit control and setup rather than supplemental systems such as defensive or offensive operations, instead you mainly focus on making the best possible army for your push, previous in CoH, having 8 or 9 Panzers was enough to destroy most defensive lines and push through, this has changed a bit in CoH 2 as ground units do a lot more damage compared to number 1.

Most units in both armies have better anti tank weaponry, and unlike number 1 it's not that hard to achieve, you'll instead focus on strategy as opposed to overbearing fire power, if you're a good enough player you can take down a Tiger tank with a anti tank turret and a squad of conscripts with smoke grenades, it's all about positioning and timing, I personally enjoy this a lot more as it makes the game harder over all, and makes it a lot harder to cheese the game early on by having 8-10 medium range powerful units on the field while you're still building your base and teching up.

Your base upgrades also go a long way into making up the face of the battlefield, before it was pretty standard, get units out on the field, build defensive positions and wait for someone to make a move, with different tech tree's and vastly different units in Company of Heroes 2, it's possible to build in the wrong order and pay for it, for example if you tech into heavy anti infantry and they show up with vehicles, it's going to take a lot of bullets to destroy them.

But that's really the biggest change in Company of Heroes 2, the strategy and unit makeup dictates the game more than your special units or abilities, while different orders and special general functions are there, they don't play such a huge part in the game play anymore instead letting players focus on their unit control and tactics or "microing" to get the best possible outcome, anytime an RTS game makes it harder to be good at is a good thing in my book.

You can see some of the game play you'll expect in this video here.

So lets move on to the expansion.

Ardennes Assault.

In December 1944, while Germany was being pushed back on all sides, Adolf Hitler, the fucking lunatic, decided to launch a massive offensive operation near Belgium, the marignot line in France was holding so they decided to go straight through the extremely thick forest of the Ardennes, this caught the Allied forces off guard entirely, who weren't expecting even a small contingent of German forces, let alone an entire army.

You play as 3 different commanders of the US forces in the Ardennes, Dog Company, the support army, Fox Company, the home of the Rangers, Baker company, the Mechanized armor company and finally Able Company, the home of the legendary Airborne fighters, you will get to pick 3 out of the four to hold back the tide in the Ardennes, with each company having unique units, commanders and squad upgrades.

You're tasked with taking back much of Belgium after the surprise assault quickly overwhelmed the Allied forces before they had a chance to react or fortify their positions, instead relying on retreating to safer ground and regrouping before pushing back into the Ardennes region and securing the western flank as the Germans try to break out to avoid being surrounded.

The campaign of Ardennes Assault is actually on par with the base game for being an expansion, missions are completely different and usually will see you doing things like defending massive lines, trying to stop german armor from getting fuel while also letting players participate in historic battles such as Bastogne one of the most brutal and hopeless battles of World War 2.

As you progress through the story, your success and failures will stack up, succeeding in missions will allow your commander to rank up to unlock different special tactics and units, as well as upgrading the existing ones you have, while failure will see you lose entire sectors on the map and strengthen the German army while also depleting and demoralizing your own, it's a high risk campaign where if you pick easier targets to go for first, you may end up seeing the retreating army become incredibly powerful as the retreat to other parts of the forest and link up with other parts of the army.

While the campaign and upgrade system is different in Ardennes Assault, it still has all the same mechanics as the base game and doesn't really add anything game changing in terms of mechanics and abilities, it does however introduce numerous US armies into the fight that can be used in Multiplayer as well and adds a lot of content and a lot of value for it's low asking price of $20.

I won't go into a full review with the expansion as I fear i'd just be repeating what i've already told you in the base game's review, but trust me when I say, it's worth your time and money.

Critical Review and Reception.

While personally not as exciting for me as Company of Heroes 1(mainly cause i'm a defensive player and the game is lite on it) it's still a great sequel to an amazing game franchise, it also made the game a lot tighter and made competitive play a lot more enjoyable, while not compromising on what made it great in the first place in terms of units and environmental awareness.

If you're a fan of World War 2, regardless of your preferred game genre, this is a game for you, the battle to retake Russia and then to assault Germany and end the third reich is an important part of human history and Company of Heroes 2 does tell a very faithful and authentic tale of the war while not compromising on game play and vice versa, a lot of games tend to do that by sacrificing one of the other, but that's the great thing about RTS, you can tell a story while not compromising on game play as they're one in the same.

It's not known yet if Company of Heroes 3 will be made, but I can safely say that Company of Heroes 2 is a game that is an industry leader in the now revitalized RTS genre and fans of the first game, or just RTS fans in general will not be disappointed by this offering.

Thanks for reading my review on Company of Heroes 2, if you enjoy my work and want to support me, feel free to up-vote, resteem or follow, did you guys enjoy Company of Heroes 2 or do you think Number 1 was still better? let me know below, thanks guys!