Company of Heroes

Craig: So, because we are so god damn on trend again we’ve been playing Company of Heroes, which is what, 2 years old now?
Paul: Something like that. But with sales and stuff on recently, these games get refreshed in our collective consciousness. So… we’re justified in our unforgivable finger-off-the-pulseness.
Craig: Yeah but I’ve had this in a boxed copy for…years. And on steam since Christmas.
Ed: It’s actually 4 years old. Current!
Craig: 4 years? Fucking Christ. That’s yet another game of 2006 then, which was the best year ever for games. But anyway.
Paul: So, why are we playing this game again? But we’re kinda not, cus we’re fixated on the multiplayer skirmishes.
Craig: Because I’m impulsive and persuasive. And you all do what I tell you otherwise you get fired again and again. Also Multiplayer is the only way to play RTSs really.
Ed: I think I’m still claiming redundancies for the past seven times you fired me.
Paul:Yeah, that’s becoming something of an idle threat.
Craig: You’re both fir-. Err. Next time I’ll mean it.

Paul: So! WHY ARE WE PLAYING THIS GAME?
Ed: Possible guilt at the THQ pack sat there lying unused on steam.
Craig: I think it’s because I know it’s good, but never got into it, and games like that I know that if I actually put the effort in it will turn out to be an amazing experience, which is what CoH has turned out to be, right? And it also might have something to do with the new thing coming out.
Ed: The free to play online version?
Craig: Yeah, which I have no interest in because we have the ‘proper’ version, but it probably planted the idea.
Paul: There’s something to say for the atmosphere of CoH, it’s fun to share with others in a kinda of Band of Brothers-y way, unlike other WWII game experiences perhaps? Excepting the slightly ‘off’ swearing.
Craig: Gritty, shaky cam war? To be honest, and this might sound stupid, but it doesn’t feel so much like a serious WWII RTS.
Paul: Oh, stop being such a robot – I don’t really like RTSs but CoH’s atmosphere appeals to me – the locations, units, blowing up trees with artillery, the little men helping each other back to the med station…
Craig: I wasn’t knocking it. I’m just saying that it’s more Band of Brothers than, say, Stalingrad, but that’s by no means a bad thing – especially for a game.
Paul: My point is really that I found playing it alone a bit dull – playing it as a team against scary AI makes the game compelling with the addition of cameradery to the WWII aesthetic.
Ed: I like to think of it as Kelly’s Heroes, particularly how everybody is shit scared of the Tigers. I mean, fucking tanks! They’re scary, and pitter pattering infantry fire at them won’t work. Also how hit and miss projectiles can be is great, which though frustrating means things aren’t as clinical and predictable as other RTSes. Say I want to counter said tiger and lay an ambush, sneaking some men around the back. I tell them to let loose and their two missiles miss, leaving a pissed off German to turn his turret around at my brave little fellas (no euphemism intended).
Craig: It does the ‘chaos of war’ thing really well. I suppose it’s like what we said about Battlefield – everything is inaccurate and unpredictable enough to keep things just on the nice side of messy. And Tanks are fucking scary which is a refreshing change in an RTS.
Paul: You’re damned either way, prepare for tanks and the infantry will get you, defend against infantry and the tanks will get you. Seems you’re in a state where you’re constantly ill-prepared. To me anyway.
Craig: Like in war! Probably. I don’t know – I’ve never been. But it does lead me to a major point I wanted to talk about, and that’s that each battle has an amazing ebb and flow to it. Tanks come at you – you counter them. Then you’re ambushed by infantry, and you push back against that. It’s wonderfully flowing rather than “build up big force, kill”.

Paul: I don’t have a brain for RTSs usually, but I’m starting to get the feel for CoH I think, in that you have to fight tooth and nail, pursue your enemies, hold chokepoints – constantly push forwards however exposed you may feel. My instinct is to construct some solid defences and then advance but you can’t really do that. The battles, as you say, are constantly moving.
Craig: Especially with the Americans, so it would seem. Their whole philosophy is generally “attack move, flank” with infantry – rarely are you holding one point, more running over it and pressing people further back. It’s quite exciting.
Paul: Agreed. But this is old news right? Dawn of War instilled this idea of resource points and this style of RTS has gone from there – isn’t it the norm now? Sup Com 2, for example…
Ed: Supreme Commander doesn’t have fucking Commandos. They also seem to only focus on having one resource to capture, where CoH leaves you delibitating what resources you need or should choke from the enemy more-so. Cut off their fuel? No tanks from them. Took their munitions? Lack of special abilities and upgraded units.
Craig: I don’t think any other RTS’s really push the attack as much as CoH, and they feel a bit Old School because of it. You get resources here from taking ground rather than defending your base; to my knowledge nothing else does that.
Paul: I think, within a skirmish, you have to see the entire map ‘as your base’ to be defended and strengthened. The way to win is to dominate the most land; make the majority of the map as heavily defended as possible and you stand a good chance of winning.
Craig: Weirdly, I think it’s quite diverse in its factions with that. You play British which might be more defensive (especially with their trenches and what not), but with the Yanks it’s almost the opposite – like I’m in the Germans base and have to attack it.
Paul: The British are defence orientated but you can’t cluster around your base, you have to get out there and plant your defences in key positions on the map.
Craig: Yeah, I’m not saying you have it easy or anything. Especially with your level of competence.
Paul: If anything the Americans have it easy. The Brits have pretty crappy late game units.
Craig: So do the Americans!
Ed: Commandos man!
Craig: Yeah, Commandos. Shut up Paul.
Paul: Commandos aren’t that good… maybe I’m just crap at using them.
Ed: They fly a goddamn glider into the middle of a base, a six man squad, smoke grenades, trinitrotoluene charges and Sten guns. Balls the size of Saturn’s moons. For anyone unfamiliar with the game, I love this unit.

Craig: The first time I saw them drop in I had unit envy.
Ed: Yes, where the American air troopers just parachute in like the wusses they are. Real men crash.
Craig: Pfft. Those “real men” wear fucking berets. What sort of war gear is that? Stupid.
Ed: They wore them to mock the French whose soil they were landing in. “We’re six men wearing berets and are taking on the entire German army. Your men wore them, outnumbered the Germans and decided to surrender”. Note: This reason for beret wearing could be a made up historical fact.
Craig: So does anyone has any desire to play The Jerries? They do have some pretty spectacular armour.
Paul: Sure, we usually play the allied armies but I’d be very interested to see what it’s actually like to have some effective armoured units. Each army has such specific ways of playing that it’s not much fun til you get used to their nuances.
Ed: I tried a little with the Americans and after playing as the Brits it felt weird. It was stranger still when flipping over to the Germans, as wonderfully – even though the same principles remain – they have a very particular focus. All of the sides are human and constrained by realistic technologies, but whilst still remaining believable, they have their own unique synergy that makes them enjoyable. They’re not too overly difficult to get to grips with though. Really, what amazes me is that even though this game is 4 years old, nobody else outside of Relic has made a chaotic war game as accessible as this since. I tried Men of War and that required way too much micro to play easily.
Craig: No, it feels brand new to me, which is shocking really. I mean, sure, RTSs have made developments – I really miss tactical zoom and properly queing orders – but this really feels innovative rather than just refinement.
Paul:It just goes to show that there can be several shades of RTS, rather than a very specific kind of game to be finely honed and balanced. You mention the absence of tactical zoom, the proximity to the ground bothered me as well to begin with, but that’s what the game’s all about, that’s CoH’s style – rubbing your face in the grimy, frantic war.
Craig: I don’t know about that – it feels more like a lack of control at times. I’m relying on the minimap too much where I could just be zooming out a but. Just letting me re-bind the “tactical map” key to my mouse would solve my problems though.
Paul: It’s not a problem – it’s just how the game is.
Craig: We’ll its wrong.
Paul: You’re wrong. And your face.
Ed: They should just let you keep zooming and zooming out, till you get to a god sized view of the universe and can gently prod planets, coming to a Zen understanding of life and our roles in it.

Paul: You should just be able to zoom out and zoom out til you can see the universe and then zoom out further still, finally emerging from the anus of a GI and back onto the battlefield in some kind of ouroboros space-time inversion. That’s what Craig wants.
Craig: Yes. That’s exactly what I want – ass cam. No, just a bit of a wider field of view is all I’m asking. Jesus. Anyway, two big questions: 1. Are we going to be playing this in 6 months? 2. Is it better than Sup Com 2? I think Yes and Possibly.
Ed: I say yes and yes. I enjoy Sup Com 2 still, but CoH is more atmospheric even if it lacks crazy death machines.
Paul: I prefer CoH’s aethetic to SupCom2 and find it easier to play. Sup Com 2 brushes too closely to Starcraft’s crazy e-sport RTS style.
Craig: As an aside, and as far as I know, CoH has quite a big e-sports thing behind it, while Sup Com doesn’t. Probably because of the amount of depth on offer with tactics and differences between factions. And, as you said, the atmosphere and explosions. Man, it’s a bloody good game isn’t it.
Paul: I would have thought CoH wasn’t balanced finely enough for e-sport types. And yes, it’s a good game – do the people know this?
Craig: They will soon after this exclusive. On balancing: it’s had about 10GB of patches so far and I’ve not read a single thing of “X is overpowered”
Paul: X is overpowered though.
Ed: They nerfed Y. This game sucks now. Like Craig!
Craig: So. Very. Fired.