old CoH fan, how does CoH2 compare?

I think a lot of perspective on how good this game will seem to you will depend on a few factors:
Your age
How you feel about the commonly implemented micro transactions in games
How long you've been playing video games.

That's all that really did it for me. I'm 27 now, I probably wont touch this game ever again but I do on occasion care bout the series so I'll hop on these boards to see how the game is doing and see if people have a positive outlook.

I've been playing video games (and RTS for that matter) since I was like 7. COH1 is easily the best rts I've ever had the pleasure to play,by far the most innovative RTS in YEARS (I started with the original Command and conquer). I started playing COH1 in 2006 or 2007, I don't remember anymore. It was hard for me to not get upset when I played the coh2 alpha / beta and the game released and it STILL felt like a beta. It felt like relic had not learned anything from "supporting" COH1 over 6 or 7 years, pretty offensive from someone who took the game as one of their go-to competitive 1v1 games for about 2-3 years (towards the ending life-cycle of the game) AND relic would continue to say they genuinely planned on supporting the competitive community. This ended up to be not true.

Now that I've got that out of the way, the stale air has passed and I think coh2 is a great game. HOWEVER, they still have a shitty pay 2 win model everyone will defend to death. I've watched gaming evolve into what it is today, and I miss the days where you would release expansion packs and provide new content that everyone can enjoy within a year or two of release that didn't feel like it was chopped apart from the main game. Unfortunately gaming has changed, and this is what we have. Realistically, it isn't that bad but you feel feel at a disadvantage at times when you are unfamiliar with the commanders you don't own in the beginning and some crazy ability gets used on you or strong OP tank and you can't figure out how to counter it.

If you are looking for a competitive 1v1 RTS, I would avoid coh2. If you're looking for good 2v2 matches, coh2 is probably better. I even ended up giving up on 1vs1 like... 1/4 of the way through my playtime with the game. I had a group of friends we played 3v3 / 4v4 with and honestly just spent our time abusing glitches and OP strategies. That was what was fun to us so I mean it is what it is. I'm sure the community is better off now that we're out of the player pool, lol.

So, if you aren't like me, don't have bad blood towards relic, prefer team games (probably 2v2) then you will really enjoy the game. If you're looking for a competitive 1vs1 you would get better satisfaction playing tic tac toe with yourself because the game is JUST as predictable. That's my 2 cents.

Now that I've got that out of the way, the stale air has passed and I think coh2 is a great game. HOWEVER, they still have a shitty pay 2 win model everyone will defend to death.

You're kidding me right? Microtransaction models are constantly a topic of controversy even in games that are made from the ground up around it, basically the moment something overpowered gets released.

I think you're mistaken on that point, even 1,07 pre OF there was stug vs sherman then m8 v puma and the ubiquitous riflespam vs. semois pin. Then Ofs elite infantry spam, reborns scout car spam + luftwaffe gf, wehr pio spam to t2, or the particularly irksome which never changed T2 gren spam to KT, brit pins against flamers and an ht. There were very specific strategic flowsand evolutions throughout time, arguably more diverse to your point

This will be by last post here since this is heading back in the direction of global upgrades and doctrines which has been discussed 5000 times so I feel like a broken record here. Even though vcoh had some pretty bad one dimensional balance for a good while, the differences in upgrades and doctrines really enhanced it once the units were balanced. Once COH2 units are balanced, those other 2 systems that were the meat and potatoes of 1v1 still won't be there. Its also worth mentioning I'm pretty sure coh2 has already passed coh1 in number of patches delivered, plus more content is still coming for an indefinite period of time. It could take another 30 patches to get the final product balanced/unbugged.


Something to consider, and this is something Pez told me a while back, is people were more willing to suffer through the faulty stages of coh1 because it was a revolutionary game at the time. When sequel releases 7 years later, a lot of people jump ship when its in a bad state because it doesn't have that novelty factor.

Even though vcoh had some pretty bad one dimensional balance for a good while, the differences in upgrades and doctrines really enhanced it once the units were balanced. Once COH2 units are balanced, those other 2 systems that were the meat and potatoes of 1v1 still won't be there.


Its also worth mentioning I'm pretty sure coh2 has already passed coh1 in number of patches delivered, plus more content is still coming for an indefinite period of time. It could take another 30 patches to get the final product balanced/unbugged.

Something to consider, and this is something Pez told me a while back, is people were more willing to suffer through the faulty stages of coh1 because it was a revolutionary game at the time. When sequel releases 7 years later, a lot of people jump ship when its in a bad state because it doesn't have that novelty factor.

100% and to your second point, even transitioning to your last about context, which I think either Marcus, Inverse or Budwise brought up in a post somewhere around here, so excuse me if I'm misquoting, but the situation revolving around the collapse of THQ, and the obvious turnover in staff are I think reflective in the game state, principally optimization and strange bugs/dependencies which seem to suggest an unfamiliarity with the code--- I'm not sure we'll ever see as solid a game as vCoH-- leading into your point about expectations, they are higher, and rightfully so, but I think again given this context surrounding CoH2, I think Relic have done a fairly fine job. Perhaps points could be leveled against Relic for pumping out content that is either poorly thought out or is buggy, rather than working on the core, but again, it may have reached a threshold where it's simply non-fixable by the current team. I do find it ironic now that I think about it that commanders such as Windustry and Elite Troops, even the community defensive doctrines, although broken, if as you say they included things such as status buffs and upgrades, for instance G43's, conceptually they would have the ability to change the core dynamics of a faction and give the diversity that vCoH exhibited, shame that commanders haven't been properly implemented in that sense or rather, haven't gone that far.