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So, having played CoH2 a bit (I was given a free week for owning CoH on Steam), I have to say, it's rather fun. Superior to any eastern front mod I've played, but then again I have low opinions of most mods to begin with on strategy games.

Keeping in mind that the only thing I've done is play skirmish and some multiplayer, here's my review:

Audio: The voice acting, as always, is just freaking superb. This was always something that was great about the CoH series, the audio is immensely immersive and always enjoyable, the music, the ambient noise, the voices, the sound effects-- everything seems to fit in perfectly.

Graphics: Nothing to call home about, but perfectly serviceable and I have no complaints. They look like CoH graphics, but improved, and thankfully only having slightly more of a pull on one's graphics card (I can still play on ultra).

Gameplay: It feels like CoH-- the Sequel, so I suppose it being Company of Heroes 2 makes sense. I wish they'd add a bit more differentiation between CoH2 and CoH, but then again CoH was a great game so I shouldn't complain. That said, there ARE notable differences. There's more variety in unit abilities and upgrades than in CoH, and the commander system and army customization is a nice change. You can create various loadouts where you give slight buffs to certain types of units, such as giving 2% accuracy to conscripts and the like, as well as selecting which units you'll include (to a limited extent) and your three commander choices (you select three out of six for your loadout, and choose one of hte three in game). All in all, I have no complaints, except that I wish I had more new stuff to write about.


Anyone else have their experiences with the game, especially the campaign, which I don't have access to yet?

I do like the stuff they have added.
It does feel like a sequel, my only real problem so far is that the AI are cheating bastards... oh and some units take forever to actually do what you tell them.

I was a big fan of the first COH and signed on to the open beta immediately. Must say i'm mightily impressed. I've just finished uni so been playing it most days, got up to level 27 on multiplayer I like both of the teams as well, the soviets are great early on, with scout cars and heavy mortars but the Germans can really crank up the pressure later on. The commander abilities seem more balanced as well, in the first COH some of their abilities were so OP it was ridiculous. Great game, I've pre-ordered.

 Melissia wrote:

Graphics: Nothing to call home about, but perfectly serviceable and I have no complaints. They look like CoH graphics, but improved, and thankfully only having slightly more of a pull on one's graphics card (I can still play on ultra).

When I read this I thought it odd considering CoH1 looks way better on my machine than CoH2, and this thing (not exactly optimized for games but a fairly new and powerful computer) runs shogun 2 on high setting. So I did a bit of research and turns out its completely random if the game likes your system or not with regards to what kind of performance you get. I can run on low-medium ok enough.

Its the same game as CoH with a few different units and crisper graphics. It also has the same historical innaccuracies (Tigers and IS-2s at Stalingrad etc).The AI is far more robust and the match maker seems better but is it worth £40?

I will be waiting for the inevitable Steam sale.

I personally didn't feel like the game was worth it's cost. It's fun and I like it, but it's not that different from CoH1.

I don't believe it is worth £40.

£20 maybe.

To me it feels like CoH 1, but with Russians!

Have to say having installed my pre-order i am a little disappointed in one major area, lack of skirmish / MP maps, if you don't count the winter / summer bit that not even all of them do you just get 8 maps.

With no editor i have a horrible feeling maps will start appearing as DLC to buy, suckage.

I would think with the development time they could have given us a little more in this area.

Relic often releases games with a limited number of maps (DoW2 had like, 6 on release day?) but in the past has always released additional maps free of charge in patches. If we're lucky the game will support player made maps but I won't hold my breath. WHo knows how things'll change with Sega calling the shots.

I still think this should have been the Pacific front...we have enough Eastern Front games and mods. It would for sure add a lot of new stuff while still feeling like CoH.

I will save my money back and spend it on CoH3, if its Pacific-based or something like Men of War: Assault Squad.

Frankly, I'd rather see a modern army setting for a CoH game over any of the fronts of WWII.

Or sci-fi even.

But I'm one of those players who played a ton of WWII style games that existed before Call of Duty made modern settings popular, and got burned out on the setting.

Yeah..me too, I am done with Russian front games..something new , even a korea war, or Arab-Israeli, or hypothetical WW3 in Europe would be cool. RTS ww2 Russian front, I had to take a pass. Regrettably, since I liked CoH.

No one want WWI stuff?

Not unless it involves time travel and miniguns.

Hmmh. I was a bit worried due to THQ's struggle and how it would affect this game, but from how y'all make it sound like, Relic ending up with Sega worked out well, at least as far as CoH2 is concerned. Nice to see all those positive opinions here. Looks like I need to put this on my list.

uk_crow wrote:the soviets are great early on, with scout cars and heavy mortars but the Germans can really crank up the pressure later on

This sounds like it should be the other way around.

purplefood wrote:No one want WWI stuff?

That's what I thought as well! Such an under-used theme. Give me bloody trench wars with machine gun emplacements, gas attacks, German Storm Troopers and Russia's Women's Death Battalions. Not to mention those first huge-ass boxy tanks!

I'd want WW1 stuff, but only after we get some actual pacific front games that aren't DOS games.

I confess, the Pacific is also one of my most favourite theatres. Although it was at least featured a bit more often than WW1, if usually in FPS and flying games rather than strategy, tho.

And suddenly I'm feeling an urge to re-watch Letters From Iwo-Jima.

I want a naval RTS set in the Pacific, but I guess I'm weird

I'm 7 years late - I just got the first one! Looking forward to playing it and this one.

 LordofHats wrote:
I want a naval RTS set in the Pacific, but I guess I'm weird

Theres a few naval games for the Pacific....but little-to-none about the ground combat in that front.

 purplefood wrote:
No one want WWI stuff?

I'd love WW1, and maybe its just because I live in a pacific nation but I am sick to death of hearing about the pacific front

Mr Hyena wrote:Theres a few naval games for the Pacific....

Apologies for the OT, but can anyone recommend a good one here? Preferably real-time, but no close-up micromanagement a la C&C?

The last time I really had fun with naval strategy was, ironically, in an ancient Microprose aircraft game (1942 Pacific Air War) where you had the ability to plot the course for your carrier group, manage combat air patrols and fighter screens, and send out recon missions to spot the enemy force before you'd begin to send out fighters and bombers (whose loadout you could configure as well).
I'd love to have a more modern game that is as strategic as that, and I don't even need the ability to hop into the planes I send out as I like the ships more. Is there something like this?

 Mr Hyena wrote:
we have enough Eastern Front games and mods. It would for sure add a lot of new stuff while still feeling like CoH.

The Eastern Front was massive, it directly involved 6 independent nations (as well as troops from about a dozen others) and was fought in alll types of terrain except Jungle. There is so much untapped potential there that its a shame that games which deal with the eastern front focus on the exact same events. Its always Stalingrad but rarly Kursk and never Tali-Ihantala.

What I would love to see in a Pacific game would be the 14th army. The largest Allied army of the entire war and virtually no one knows who they were despite their impressive feats of arms.

 Lynata wrote:

uk_crow wrote:the soviets are great early on, with scout cars and heavy mortars but the Germans can really crank up the pressure later on

This sounds like it should be the other way around. !

Hah sorry not the clearest point i've made honestly, the soviets can pump out loads of conscripts on the cheap early in game and their unit sizes are twice the size generally than the Germans. The Germans are a much smaller specialist force but using loads of MG42 teams you can dominate early on. Late game the soviets have the advantage of cheaper top tier units but save for their heavy tanks like the ISU-152 and the IS-2 their tanks aren't much of compared to the tiger and panther with supporting infantry. Both teams are well balanced in my opinion especially compared to COH1 when by late game when you had got veterancy on all your German tanks up to full you were pretty much unstoppable.

Anyone playing currently? I'd love to have a game against a fellow dakka member

 purplefood wrote:
No one want WWI stuff?

Noone wants American Civil war stuff? :/

 purplefood wrote:
No one want WWI stuff?

Me, absolutely. The old CoD, DoD, CoH, BiA burned me out on WW2 years ago, similarly Battlefield, new CoD and every second game these days has totally stripped me of any interest in modern era warfare. WWI is uncharted territory in terms of video games, I remember a fantastic HL1 mod called 'The Trenches' which I don't believe made it out of the beta phase before HL2 mods began to appear. Those people who decry 'but it'd just be a boring tactic-less trench massacre' should pick up a history book that isn't just about the British/American experience.

Not quite a civil war mod, but the HL/HL2 mod "The Battlegrounds" was a fantastic FPS set in the American Revolution. I have some very fond memories of peering through smoke-hazed farmland at the (very) slowly approaching redcoats.

MarsNZ wrote:Not quite a civil war mod, but the HL/HL2 mod "The Battlegrounds" was a fantastic FPS set in the American Revolution. I have some very fond memories of peering through smoke-hazed farmland at the (very) slowly approaching redcoats.

Ahh, yes, the line battles were jolly good fun. It's nice how players fell in line and actually listened to the officer, knowing full well that it isn't exactly the most efficient way to fight.

If you enjoyed that, I recommend the standalone Mount & Blade side-product "Napoleonic Wars". Doesn't have anything to do with the American Revolution, ofc, but you've got the big European powers of the Napoleon era duking it out on large battlefields featuring destructible buildings, with classes that not only include various types of infantry and officer but also cavalry, artillery, and even musicians and banner bearers. Very large and fun multiplayer battles. There's even a game mode where everyone is an officer commanding large formations of NPC troops.

uk_crow wrote:Hah sorry not the clearest point i've made honestly, the soviets can pump out loads of conscripts on the cheap early in game and their unit sizes are twice the size generally than the Germans. The Germans are a much smaller specialist force but using loads of MG42 teams you can dominate early on. Late game the soviets have the advantage of cheaper top tier units but save for their heavy tanks like the ISU-152 and the IS-2 their tanks aren't much of compared to the tiger and panther with supporting infantry. Both teams are well balanced in my opinion especially compared to COH1 when by late game when you had got veterancy on all your German tanks up to full you were pretty much unstoppable.

Ah, that sounds good.

Just finished the campaign, pretty decent story considering most RTS campaigns story is just "Commander you gotta kill the bad guys in a series of random missions", all the relic staples where there, the one mission where you have to capture territory in a circle around your opponent, the hold at all costs mission, several city clearing missions so they can show off their cover and destructible environments. Really surprised there was no Kursk, my guess is that they're saving it for an expansion (hopefully a proper Opposing Fronts style expansion and not DLC)

 Melissia wrote:
Frankly, I'd rather see a modern army setting for a CoH game over any of the fronts of WWII.

Or sci-fi even.

But I'm one of those players who played a ton of WWII style games that existed before Call of Duty made modern settings popular, and got burned out on the setting.

See, a few years ago I would have agreed with you, and I kinda still do, but COD just completely ruined the "modern" military for me. Battlefield at least has some integrity, and is still damn good, and I agree we need not to return to the days of WORLD WAR 2 IN ALL THE GAMES, but something other than modern war.

Perhaps the Korean or Vietnam Wars could be a good setting? If it ditched most the traditional FPS weapons (sniper rifles in particular) and focused more on close range, low tech weaponry, like a standard sub-machine gun, flamethrowers, combat knives etc, and actually put more effort into what weapons it did have (so fixing "knife to the foot=instant death" for a start) we could see some originality, or at least in FPSs.

Don't be absurd, originality doesn't sell*.

*As much, for pedants.