US Forces Campaign Announced

Gamescom - Cologne, Germany on the 13th of August
Relic Entertainment took over the Twitch.tv stage at Gamescom today to announce the next phase of the Company of Heroes 2 franchise. After the release of the Western Front Armies, many players questioned: "What's next?"

Stand-Alone Single Player Campaign Announced

The answer is: single player campaign. Relic announced today the development of an upcoming single player campaign for the US Forces. The release, slated for November 18th, will pit the US Forces against the German forces on the Western Front. The standalone single-player expansion, known as Ardennes Assault, will take players into the action of the "Battle of the Bulge" where Allied forces were beat back by a fierce German counter-offensive in 1944, before turning the tide themselves.



The standalone expansion is set to introduce new (mostly unannounced) mechanics, and deliver a strategic experience unlike the first campaign. According to the Relic COH2 Blog, players will choose from "three entirely new Companies within the US Forces, each with their own unique Officers and play-style."



In the new campaign, player choices will have a role in defining the outcome of the story. The blog states "Player choices are crucial as every decision will not only impact the story, but also their Company with upgrades and veterancy carrying over from mission to mission."

!We can’t wait to bring our players this awesome new single-player campaign for Company of Heroes 2. We managed to include more missions in this expansion than we had in the original release and it’s packed full of great new features which we’ll be revealing over the coming months.Greg Wilson, Executive Producer at Relic Entertainment

Many players expected a single-player campaign to be in development, as Relic is on record regarding the need to develop the Multiplayer and Single player games separately. After the announcement, the Twitch chat sprung to life and was noticeably unimpressed by the latest development. The release date of the expansion, November 18th, is roughly three months away. It stands to reason that significant development time is being put into the stand-alone expansion, which likely means a bottleneck for other new content.

The Twitch.tv stream also failed to show a teaser video of the new content, adding to the disappointment of the whole affair. A video will surely be coming, but in the mean time, many fans are left unsatisfied.

Are you excited? Upset? Fed up?
Tell us about it in the comments (But remember to be respectful).

Stay Tuned for more Gamescom coverage!

A Gamescom blog from COH2.ORG's very own Senior Strategist, MilkaCow, with a behind the scenes look at the event, photos of Relic devs, and more, coming soon! Check back later today. We will also have coverage of the next announcement, on Friday 15th August: 3pm CEST / 2pm BST / 6am PDT / 9am EDT.

What's Next?

With significant resources being put into the single player campaign, what hopes do we have for Observer Mode, Optimization, Bug Fixes, War Spoils solutions, Modding support and other content? Stay tuned for an editorial from COH2.ORG about the direction of the game, and the lack of what many consider to be basic features.