It's in this mode that you really start to understand the importance of Company of Heroes' resource management, as manpower, munitions and fuel dictate everything from the bases you can build and troops you can recruit to the individual abilities that can be used. The victory point mode splits maps into individual territory segments that must be captured and held in order to reduce the opposing team's score to zero. Online multiplayer ranges from tense 1v1 up to riotous 4v4. Freed from the desperate attempt to provide context for the harsh brutalities of war, the generous amount of content beyond those 14 story levels shows moments of genuine brilliance and variety. The single-player is where Relic has invested the most effort to create drama and epic spectacle, but it's actually beyond the campaign that Company of Heroes 2 really starts to shine. 'Who stole my biscuit?' intones one indignant soldier. Some of the incidental dialogue heard during levels reveals the petty squabbles and mundane worries of frozen troops. Given enough time, you may even start to view the sacrifice of conscripts as a useful way to slow the enemy vanguard in order to buy time for a more strategic counterattack - which feels at odds with what the sometimes heavy-handed cut-scenes are trying to convey. On their own they are little more than cannon fodder, but they are actually vital for plugging holes in your defences and shoring up more experienced veteran squads that have earned associated stat bonuses. One of the key elements to understand is effective utilisation of Soviet conscripts that, depending on the resources you have to hand, can occasionally feel near limitless. However, it might come as something of a shock to those that have been happily breezing through the game on a wing and a prayer and so, while losses will follow, discouragement should not. It's at this point that the campaign becomes much more fulfilling, as it starts to reward canny strategy rather than simply yielding to the tactical equivalent of using a hammer to crack walnuts. The game is immediately all the better for it as you start to look properly at how best to combine squad abilities using snipers and engineers in conjunction with one another to keep track of the mechanical behemoth while laying traps and claiming abandoned anti-tank artillery. Then, during an excellent level in which a small band of Soviet brothers hunt a German Panzer through a snow-covered village, this tactic abruptly stops working. Certainly, for the first half of the campaign, selecting all onscreen units with a drag of the mouse and pointing them at the enemy is a valid and successful tactic. In this regard, and much like their in-game counterparts, it's the rookies that are going to bear the brunt of an occasionally obtuse management system. Of course, Company of Heroes veterans will feel immediately at ease with navigating the various tabs, icons and hotkeys to marshal idle units on multiple fronts. You quickly come to appreciate the benefit of cover being caught in the open will usually lead to certain death. Unsurprisingly, this leads to a few losses (that you should not be discouraged by) as you get to grips with things the game's early levels don't deign to highlight. Instead, it's the kind of experimentation that comes simply from trying to figure out how best to keep track of everything and prevent units straying off course when moving from A to B. Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of experimentation that empowers you as you test the flexibility of approach and marvel at its versatility. Basic concepts like grouping squads for effective unit management and the utilisation of troop abilities are left largely up to you to experiment with. It's more that the manner in which certain elements of the game design are introduced and subsequently managed can leave you a little hazy on how best to approach a given situation. It's not that Company of Heroes 2 is particularly difficult - not on the standard difficulty level at least. Ultimately, it turns out to be a call that should be heeded across every mission, mode and map if you're to derive maximum enjoyment from Relic Entertainment's sequel. What passes for an Eastern Front rallying call does little to bolster the morale of the rookies, some of whom don't even have a weapon to fire in anger, but as the hours pass it feels like it's meant as much for the player as it is for the for the conscripts. "Do not be discouraged by a few losses," comes the bark of a Soviet officer as the Red Army's ill-equipped recruits scramble to reclaim a beleaguered Stalingrad. Early in Company of Heroes 2's campaign mode, there is a single line of dialogue that so succinctly encapsulates the spirit of this World War 2 strategy game that it could have featured as the title's tagline.
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