Review: Company of Heroes 2 - Ardennes Assault (PC)

Ardennes Assaults shakes up Company of Heroes. The gameplay was already a deep well of strategy, tactics, and being able to quickly refocus attention elsewhere on the battlefield without completely abandoning anything, unless it served some larger purpose, but Ardennes Assault layers additional strategy and long-term planning on top of that with a Risk-like map of the area between Germany and France as borders ebbed under the push of the Allies against German forces.

Review: Company of Heroes 2 (PC)

Company of Heroes 2 had a huge hurdle to clear: the original Company of Heroes.

Developer Relic Entertainment would have to leap out of the long shadow cast by the critically acclaimed original released back in 2006. As far as problems go, it's actually a good one to have. Players of the original (and the expansions) that have been playing the title since its release were geared up for the sequel. That's good! The other side of the coin, of course, is the danger of wiping out that enthusiasm and anticipation and replacing it with regret and bitterness because there's an expectation that the game will rock the core of the series with a dramatic overhaul of unit and resource management and wrap the whole package in a shiny wrapper.

Preview: Company of Heroes 2 (PC)

A long time coming, Company of Heroes 2 looks to outdo its preprocessor in all respects and claim the throne (again) of real-time tactical strategy games. Careful advancement, and planning are required for success. Looping a swathe of units and throwing them at the enemy will merely kill them all. The original game and it's expansions showcased a much more deliberate and chance-driven strategy game, where the tides could be turned if players were smart enough (and maybe a little lucky) rather than simply having more armour than their opponent.