E3: Hands On with Company of Heroes 2

[A_Parked_Car]

I'm extremely interested in a sequel to Company of Heroes. Even after this many years I still regularly play the original. The fact that Company of Heroes 2 is set in the far more important and (in my opinion) interesting part of the war against Germany makes me even more excited.

As a side note, for anyone who wants a single volume overview of the Eastern Front you can take a look at either "When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler" by David M. Glantz and Jonathan House or "Thunder in the East" by Evan Mawdsley. Hehe, I get pretty pumped over things like this, since I'm a military history major that has focused in on the Second World War.

 

[Grape_Nuts]

It's hard to look at the COH series and not feel so superior over the "mash B to not die" games. The level of the gameplay is unrivaled.

 

[A Weakgeek]

CoH was my number one favorite game, however, I'll be very disappointed if they don't do more in CoH 2. Back in 2006 it was a revolutionary game (because most people have never played Ground control), no resource collection, squad based unit control, cover based combat, firing arcs for weapons support teams, all of that was very interesting. That was what made it a good RTS. However, if they just try to release the same game 6 years later... ... it would just feel like the same game, but you know, out dated by six years of development.

Problems with CoH 1 system:

1) Capping points is an abusable system that took away all sense of realism in multiplayer. Pio-Spam, Rifle-Spam, Volks-Spam in COHO, are all results of the point capping system. Europe in Ruins mod and Wargame: EE has come up with better systems already.

2) Infantry (Especially Vetted KCH) will eat up hundreds of machine gun bullets, take 155mm artillery shells to the face, and still kill anything on the battlefield like they are God. I frequently run vet 3 KCH around sherman tanks and charging head on into MGs, knowing that 76mm HE shells and 7.92mm bullets are evidently not enough to kill 3 flesh and blood men, because as we all know Nazis in black leather are ******* gods.

3) House ownership. Why can't I just storm into an enemy occupied house and fight them for it? But instead have to run around the house like a bunch of idiots shooting at walls? Also bullets that shoot through terrain is an engine problem.

4) Accuracy. Most of the units in the game can't hit an elephant standing right in front of them with a ******* rifle.

5) Hit Points for Tanks and Vehicles. <-- This is what makes RTS games so unrealistic. After all these years of RTS development why do we still have hit points in games?! When an AP shell hits a tanks, it should do one of three things: a) Bounce off, b) Penetrate and damage specific modules and/or kill crew members, c) destroy the tank. It should NOT take away some hit points from the tank. I mean WTF do hit points represent for a tank?!

CoH was one of the best games ever made, and I bought it twice (on disk and on steam), and I told all of my friends to buy it and try it. However, if they make the same game six years later, then it will be nothing but a derivative RTS title. Look at Starcraft, which was the best RTS game in 1999, but Starcraft 2 is a boring and outdated RTS game for 2010. I don't want to see CoH go down that same road.

Have you tried men of war? It may fit your niche just right! None of your problems apply to Men of War, except maybe the victory point thing, but it has alot of other modes.

And so it begins.

I assume you... DID ask for this.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

And so it begins.

 

[Kathinka]

i loved the first part and still actively play it. the voice acting is still brilliant as ever.

"fire zee panzerfaust, fritz! letz un-pimp zeir ride, ja!"

i'll buy the second part for sure, already just to support a company that still makes true pc games and no dumbed down shit that has to be playable with four buttons and a wobbly thumbstick..

 

[Frankster]

I still play COH and its still my overall fav rts of all time but nonetheless I'm lukewarm about where the sequel is going.

As some of you might know, there's already a godly eastern front mod that exists for COH which adds russians (and adds them VERY well) aswell as snow maps and stuff, so this feels like a step back, we are gonna lose panzer elite, british and perhaps even american sides (i ain't seen any of those 3 mentioned anywhere) all to gain a side that already exists in mods.

Oh well, new COH, lets see what they do with it At the very least looking forward to infantry being able to vault over walls, and the new god level voice acting.

the voice acting is still brilliant as ever.

"fire zee panzerfaust, fritz! letz un-pimp zeir ride, ja!"

"They scratching your paint job helmut'" "Give em a shot doktor!"
"Ya, tank battles is not at all like boxing!"

Actually kinda prefer the brits...
"Duffy we sitting on a ton of explosive fuel and you smoking a ciga-fucking-rette?"

 

[Namehere]

Fine! Just fuckin' fine! Take my money already...

Seriously? I'm excited to see an engine designed and dedicated to COH as opposed to COH developed on a different game's engine - which I believe is how the original was made, making it that much more remarkable an achievement. I'm shocked a lot of its elements haven't been snapped up by other RTS's, but they haven't. There really is nothing quite like COH.

The ability to see lasting tracks in the snow, get troops bogged down in drifts and such, sounds amazing. I just hope that they can MAKE THE FLAMETHROWERS WORK! As of the last patch they never fixed the bug that basically had them doing max damage all the time, no matter whether your forces were in cover or not making Pio spam an infinitely tedious and often successful tactic.

I never thought of COH in Africa, but now that someone mentioned it... COH 3 anybody? Well guess I'll just have to keep hyped over 2 for now.

 

[Quazimofo]

Looks good, the persistent tracks in the snow are going to be awesome. I still wanted Africa though...

think of it this way, they could do an opposing fronts-esque expansion for the desert theater in africa should the game be successful, and we ask for it. but they still need money to make it happen, so without further adoo,

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

 

[tipp6353]

I was spoiled by Men of War and its direct control system so I don't know if I will buy it or not.

 

[Easton Dark]

I didn't like the first one, but maybe I'll try this one anyway.

 

[csoloist]

Super stoked, was worried that they'd try to mess with things and ruin it like DoW2.

...

Dude, from that post it's pretty obvious that you had no clue how to play. Also, complaining about lack of realism? Really?

 

[csoloist]

Fine! Just fuckin' fine! Take my money already...
The ability to see lasting tracks in the snow, get troops bogged down in drifts and such, sounds amazing. I just hope that they can MAKE THE FLAMETHROWERS WORK! As of the last patch they never fixed the bug that basically had them doing max damage all the time, no matter whether your forces were in cover or not making Pio spam an infinitely tedious and often successful tactic.

Huh? Flamers by design did max damage to units in cover. Negative cover is supposed to reduce flame damage.

 

[Mint Rubber]

Oddly enough CoH is one of the few games where I wouldn't change a lot of stuff for a sequel.

I like the cover mechanics, I like the base building (I enjoy building an impenetrable defensive line) and I really like that the story is focused on individuals involved in the war, not some kind of invisible general like most other RTS's.

 

[Pandalisk]

CoH was my number one favorite game, however, I'll be very disappointed if they don't do more in CoH 2. Back in 2006 it was a revolutionary game (because most people have never played Ground control), no resource collection, squad based unit control, cover based combat, firing arcs for weapons support teams, all of that was very interesting. That was what made it a good RTS. However, if they just try to release the same game 6 years later... ... it would just feel like the same game, but you know, out dated by six years of development.

Problems with CoH 1 system:

1) Capping points is an abusable system that took away all sense of realism in multiplayer. Pio-Spam, Rifle-Spam, Volks-Spam in COHO, are all results of the point capping system. Europe in Ruins mod and Wargame: EE has come up with better systems already.

2) Infantry (Especially Vetted KCH) will eat up hundreds of machine gun bullets, take 155mm artillery shells to the face, and still kill anything on the battlefield like they are God. I frequently run vet 3 KCH around sherman tanks and charging head on into MGs, knowing that 76mm HE shells and 7.92mm bullets are evidently not enough to kill 3 flesh and blood men, because as we all know Nazis in black leather are ******* gods.

3) House ownership. Why can't I just storm into an enemy occupied house and fight them for it? But instead have to run around the house like a bunch of idiots shooting at walls? Also bullets that shoot through terrain is an engine problem.

4) Accuracy. Most of the units in the game can't hit an elephant standing right in front of them with a ******* rifle.

5) Hit Points for Tanks and Vehicles. <-- This is what makes RTS games so unrealistic. After all these years of RTS development why do we still have hit points in games?! When an AP shell hits a tanks, it should do one of three things: a) Bounce off, b) Penetrate and damage specific modules and/or kill crew members, c) destroy the tank. It should NOT take away some hit points from the tank. I mean WTF do hit points represent for a tank?!

CoH was one of the best games ever made, and I bought it twice (on disk and on steam), and I told all of my friends to buy it and try it. However, if they make the same game six years later, then it will be nothing but a derivative RTS title. Look at Starcraft, which was the best RTS game in 1999, but Starcraft 2 is a boring and outdated RTS game for 2010. I don't want to see CoH go down that same road.

Agreed

What they need to do is take a page out of some of those indie or less well known RTS's. Men of War: Assault Squad for example has pretty damn good system when it comes to damage on tanks. Look up the demo and see for yourself.

I liked the look and feel of COH but honestly it was the piss poor game mechanics that got me. Something about Shermans taking 3 Hetzer rounds to the rear irked me somewhat. and likewise at a point blank shot with a Pershing on a Tiger and rushing infantry. They need to sort out the damage mechanics or its no buy for me.

I was spoiled by Men of War and its direct control system so I don't know if I will buy it or not.

This man knows what i'm on about. Damn fine Infantry and Tank mechanics. now if only we had more people in the world to play the game.

 

[Xifel]

If this game are going to be as bad as the first one... it won't be bad at all. It is actually going to be pretty amazing.

I am bloody excited!

 

[Blind Sight]

"fire zee panzerfaust, fritz! letz un-pimp zeir ride, ja!"

The 25 pounder staffed by newfies (folks from Newfoundland with hilarious accents) is my personal favourite.

"Twinty fiv pounder, ready for action."

"Let's bring da rain, boys."

 

[Namehere]

Fine! Just fuckin' fine! Take my money already...
The ability to see lasting tracks in the snow, get troops bogged down in drifts and such, sounds amazing. I just hope that they can MAKE THE FLAMETHROWERS WORK! As of the last patch they never fixed the bug that basically had them doing max damage all the time, no matter whether your forces were in cover or not making Pio spam an infinitely tedious and often successful tactic.

Huh? Flamers by design did max damage to units in cover. Negative cover is supposed to reduce flame damage.

And I'm 'supposed to be Immortalgodemperor of the universe.' Just because something 'should' do something, doesn't mean it does. Or in this case, just because exposed units shouldn't be taking max damage from flame throwers doesn't mean they don't. I realize that to most people Immortalgodemepror is several words, but it is just one title so I figure in the perfect universe its just one big word!

 

[csoloist]

And I'm 'supposed to be Immortalgodemperor of the universe.' Just because something 'should' do something, doesn't mean it does. Or in this case, just because exposed units shouldn't be taking max damage from flame throwers doesn't mean they don't. I realize that to most people Immortalgodemepror is several words, but it is just one title so I figure in the perfect universe its just one big word!

Ah soz, your post seemed to imply that cover should provide protection from flame damage, my bad.

 

[Sovereignty]

I hope there's more buildable structures. I love turtling in CoH

 

[TotalerKrieger]

The Eastern Front will work well for COH2. I still wish they took the series to the Korean War, it would have made for a fresher, more versatile experience. They could have included several distinct factions right off the bat; the USA, ROK and UN against the DPRK and PVA.