14 DAY TRIAL // Fan reaction to the launch of Company of Heroes 2 in 2013 was a mix of excitement and disappointment, with the community praising the new engine, the winter tech and the classic mechanics, while also voicing their concern that the innovation was rather limited and that the offered factions lacked a bit of flavor.
Since then, the development team at Relic has continued to deliver balance patches for the military-themed strategy title and has offered more single-player content with the expansion of the Theaters of War concept.
Now, the studio has finally launched The Western Front Armies standalone expansion for the game and it’s clearly designed to answer at least one of the major criticisms coming from fans.
The new content allows players to choose between the United States army, as it landed in France under the leadership of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Germans of the Oberkommando West, the units that fought in the final offensive of the Axis at the Battle of the Bulge.
The mechanics of Company of Heroes 2 are not modified at their core, but each of the two factions are designed to introduce some interesting ideas and twists on the traditional formula.
Building management and progression between tech levels is innovative for both the US and the OKW and forces the player to make some interesting choices both in the early and the late game.
The two sides are also a little unbalanced and have some clearly defined strengths and weaknesses that affect how a player can use them.
The OKW is very mobile, but has a hard time securing all the resources it needs to deliver its most powerful units to the battlefield, which reflects the real-world strategic situation that the Germans were facing in late 1944.
Meanwhile, the US forces are nimble and can field some solid frontline and support troops, but they are inexperienced and need to be bloodied by their enemies before they can use their most powerful skills.
The design coming from Relic is once again based on the history of World War II and the studio’s decisions mean that the strategy title has more flavor after the launch of The Western Front Armies.
Company of Heroes also allows for ahistorical match-ups, like OKW versus Soviets and, interestingly, they can deliver some very exciting battles at the moment, mostly because of the German focus on mobility and the Russian emphasis on defensive play.