First hands on Company of Heroes 2

Relic & THQ had an exclusive set-up for Press at Gamescom, in Cologne (Köln). Company of Heroes 2 occupied three rooms, upstairs, above the main showroom hall. Each room was decked out in replica World War 2 gear, with the authentic German MP-40, MG-42, and Russian PPSh-41 being the stars of the show. The first room had a desk & COH2 backdrop for video interviews and photos, while the other two rooms had around 14 PCs, set up to give eager commanders their first hands on the game.




James McDermott, Relic’s Associate Producer of COH2, gave a short presentation to introduce us to what we were about to see. He explained that this is a very early build of the game, and that nothing is set in stone. The objective of the overall demonstration is to give the player a sense of the tonality and feel of COH2, and to introduce the new True Sight, Cold Tech, and Skirmish AI. We would play as the Russians, try out an array of new units, and have a go at new abilities, like vaulting over short obstacles and reversing vehicles. James noted that Relic is compelled to do justice to the story of the Eastern Front, which has received far less attention in western media and games than its counterpart, the Invasion of Normandy.

Relic let us play 2 demos. In this post, I will talk about the first one, called the “Rzhev Meatgrinder,” which was a simple introductory campaign mission where you control 3 Russian Infantry Convos (each “Infantry Convo” is a 6-man squad) and an Engineer squad. The setting is a small village covered in snow, bordered by an iced-over lake. Rzhev (or Ржев, in Russian), is an actual town to the north-west of Moscow, in which the Rzhev Battles took place from January 8, 1942 to March 31, 1943. The Red Army launched an offensive against a German salient, which was such a bloody fight that it became known as the “Rzhev meat grinder” (Ржевская мясорубка).




I waited with great anticipation while loading in to the first demo. After a click, the scene was revealed to me. Various shacks and houses dot the main road, and a humble church sits in the middle of large plot. My infantry come equipped with different kinds of weapons. Two of my sections had what looked like LMGs, one section had a flamethrower, and my engineers came upgraded with a flamethrower of their own. The 6-man Russian infantry squad has a large star icon in a shield to denote the unit, with a green health bar on top. When they start to get cold, a red thermometer appears as well. If their warmth runs out, they start to lose health, and eventually perish.

There are three small stars above each unit’s shield. Wes Trevor, Relic’s Senior Development Tester, informed me that these could eventually be used to denote veterancy. I found the interface for unit abilities to be very easy to use, with the hotkeys already assigned in the “grid” system. My infantry could throw grenades, attack move, halt, attack ground, and retreat. Zooming in revealed incredible detail in each man’s face, and in their long flowing greatcoats. Idling, the men take natural poses, scanning their environment, kneeling low, ready for the fight.

I couldn’t help but start to burn things with attack-ground. The flamethrower animation is awesome – it crackles and sparkles, creating plumes of thick black smoke. Targeting a snowy patch on a roof, my flamers quickly melted the snow and began to burn the shack. I ordered my two flamer squads to burn a building to the ground, but they only got it down to around 40% before it’s health bar just stopped moving. I guess the full building collapse animation wasn’t quite ready yet. I was eager to see every stage of the destructible environment enabled by the new Essence 3.0 Engine.



When my units would begin to get cold, my Engineers could build them a campfire to warm them up. Moving them into yellow (or better) cover would stop their temperatures from sinking further. One nifty feature that THQ’s Bobby „Lynx“ Miller showed me, right off the bat, was the ability to hop over medium height obstacles, like fences or sandbags. When you select a unit and hover your mouse over a fence, your pointer becomes a little hopping arrow. Right-clicking sends your units to run up and “vault” the obstacle. I vaulted back and forth like an Olympian, enjoying the variety of animations, like a simple straddle, or even a running leap.

The highlight of the first demo was the introduction of the Russian Maxim MG squad. 6 men, rolling a mounted machine gun, with it’s wheels squeaking as it moves over the terrain. The sound of the MG firing is realistic, a great improvement on its predecessor. As I completed each stage of the mission, I gained a new retreat point, where my units could both heal and reinforce. Yes, that’s right, I can retreat my Russian infantry squad, a mechanic that is, in this author’s opinion, essential to COH gameplay. Order 227, Stalin’s illustrious „not a step back“ will come into play at the appropriate time period during the campaign, but it won’t be a persistent aspect of the Russian faction.

As I approached the enemy position from both flanks, I began to become aware of “True Sight.” The fog-of-war is revealed in a highly dynamic fashion, but it is smooth and not jerky. As your units come around a corner, Line-of-Sight (LOS) opens smoothly. The whole graphic character of the revealed and non-revealed terrain has a gritty feel to it, with subtle greys and muted colors giving the overall effect of a film-noir-style graphic novel. True Sight extends past mid-height, hop-able hedges, fences, and sandbags, but not beyond tall hedges and buildings. Not only will different units have different ranges of vision, but the size of each unit’s cone of vision will also vary. And on top of that, units will see further in the direction that they are facing. Imagine the new possibilities of sneaking up behind your enemy. I expect to see this feature exploited by cunning players who know how to set an ambush and spring a trap!



Half way through my set of objectives, my troops were reinforced by a 2-person Sniper squad. “Two-person” is the only appropriate phrase, because the voice that responded to my orders was unmistakably female. Unlike COH snipers, this pair would only cloak when they were in cover. There was no cloak or uncloak button. Attack-move seemed to be different as well, as I needed to actually attack-move click on an enemy unit to get my team to fire at them. It looks like Relic is aware of the power of Snipers in COH, and they’re looking to change it up a bit. I’d need more time with my pair of Siberian killers to see if the mechanic has effectively been improved.

The mission concluded with the capturing of a stranded piece of Russian Armor. I ordered an infantry squad to hop in and commandeer the vehicle, just as an enemy Panzer IV rolled up on me at the very same moment. Tanker crews can pop their heads out of a turret to extend LOS, but in so doing, put themselves in danger of being shot by small arms fire. Squads can steal and utilize enemy vehicles. The whole concept makes perfect sense, and I expect it to add a nice extra dynamic to the multiplayer game play.




The next demo is a 2v2 skirmish called “The Battle of Moscow.” Stay tuned to this blog, as I will describe it tomorrow in an upcoming post!