What's this? The GunnySkox, WRONG? Say it ain't so. No, seriously, don't believe me for a second or I'll be forced to drop this here well-chalked elbow on your business.
Whatever, fine! I didn't wanna go to Sally's house anydangway!
Here it is:
Some weeks/months/times back, having recently acquired the Company of Heroes Demo, I approached APS with a heaping helping of sweet, sweet virulent hatred. I complained principally about the game's sketchy interface and infuriating cutscenes (which couldn't be skipped), annoying voice acting, and insufficiently awesome gameplay.
Well, here it is: Company of Heroes leaves socks rocked in its deliciously strategic wake. You can't even handle the flava. Much of my demo-hating arose from the infuriating inability to skip the game's laughable cutscenes, and it led me to dig deep for other things to hate about the game (thought: if game developers really want to find all of the deficiencies of their game, their testing versions should be INFURIATING. Sure, they'll get a lot of irrational hatin' for it, but for some testers, the anger will turn them bitter and hateful, and they will bust up out of the bushes with handfuls of minor annoyances that need fixing, which inattentive fanboys/girls might gloss over).
The next night, a friend of mine came over, tried the demo and just fell in love. A series of Gamespot reviews and videos later, we were on the way to Wal*Mart to acquire our very own copies. Dirty Gamespot, stealing my money... But anyhow, on bringing them home, it was revealed to me that CoH is, in fact, totally freaking sweet.
Sure, many of the deficiencies I previously mentioned, like the annoying voice acting (the announcer guy should speak clearly. He does not need a tough bad ass voice. And the machinegun squad leader's "Dunlop, get that weapon loaded!" is cool once. And if I hear one more *expletive deleted*in' Noo Yoahk Engineeh say "If I see one more bag of *expletive deleted*in' dirt..."...), the moderately silly camera (doesn't zoom out far enough), are still present in their ignoble glory in the proper game, they really can't step to the game proper, even though I suck horribly at it.
The single player campaign is pretty solid, though I take a lot more joy in the small-scale, infantry-and-light-vehicles-only combat toward the beginning of the game than I do in its later parts, which get too big for my britches and aren't very much fun (to me, with the caveat that I suck). Multiplayer, particularly 1-on-1, is small enough to be manageable, and the pace of the claustrophobic games is invigorating -- there's not a whole lot of waiting involved, particularly since many single-player games don't even make it to the stages where one would be constructing heavy vehicles.
Gameplay is standard RTS fare with a twist: your soldiers earn experience as they perform tasks (fighting, building, capturing objectives), and the buildup of that experience gives you Command Points. Once you have your first Command Point, you are able to make a decision that will affect your style of play for the rest of the battle by choosing what support options will be available to you: Americans can select from Infantry, Paratrooper, and Armor "Companies",and the Germans can select Defensive, Blitzkrieg, or Terror "Doctrines". Each choice offers different support options which can be made available by the expenditure of command points and used at the cost of resources.
For example, an American Paratrooper Company can deploy paratroopers/weapons crews at any visible spot on the battlefield, or call down strafing and bombing runs; an Infantry Company can call Rangers, equipped with Bazookas, to the battlefield and order howitzer fire (and later construct howitzers themselves). The German Blitzkrieg Doctrine can bring Stormtroopers and tanks (StuHs, Panthers, and even Tigers) onto the battlefield, while the Terror Doctrine can make use of propaganda to force an enemy retreat, or even drop the V1 in on their unfortunate enemies.
Some other features of the game I really appreciate:
- Suppression: Infantry which get better than they can give become suppressed, making them hide more and less able to attack; if the suppression continues, they'll be pinned, which makes them utterly worthless. Supression makes machineguns and automatic-weapon upgrades worth their salt, and helps keep the standard Rifle Squad in their place, in the grand scheme of things.
- Retreat: Mash a button, and your squad will instantly be free of all of their supressive afflictions, gain a movement and defensive bonus, and beeline it like champions for the nearest HQ. This is brilliant and, in combination with the suppression feature, really gives a completely new depth to infantry in Company of Heroes. A Pinned unit isn't just written off: you can retreat, reinforce them back at your HQ, and send them back into the fight (thereby preserving any expensive upgrades/stolen weapons/experience)
- Graphics: Oh man. The first time you drop the 105mm on the enemy, it's just magic. Giant plumes of dust and smoke, fire, shattering buildings, craters, bodies that fly around (and sometimes apart. ew.)
- Sound: aside from the stupid voice acting and sometimes annoying background effects (ugh, I wish those engines on those tanks would SHUT UP), the sound in this game takes it to the house. BARs and machineguns are particularly loud. Even more particularly if there's three or four of them. Ow.
I'm pretty certain I had more to say than this, but it's like 6 AM and my eyes hurt. Time to sack out.
~GnSx
"Aahh.. 1943, that was a good year." [Drink!]
"I'm going to assume that's grape juice, sergeant."
"Yes sir, grape juice, sir! ... .... ... [looks around] What? It was grape juice. About a year ago." ~Cutscene after a paratrooper mission
