The sense of engaging in a skirmish or defensive action that is only part of an incomprehensible whole is as convincing as I’ve ever seen, sometimes distractingly so. The constant stream of allies and enemies pouring across many of the campaign maps, the planes and mortars shrieking overhead, and the battles occurring at the periphery all contribute to the sense of a larger conflict. Zoom in close and the grisliness of the scene is more apparent – explosions make meat of soldiers, and the dying crawl and stagger. The sheer visual splendour of combat and the might of the engine can make war a thing to goggle at, players peering at the screen like dogs on the wrong side of a butcher’s window, but it’s a grimy sort of spectacle. It’s hard to spot the company of heroes among the legions of anonymous dead and doomed, although the cutscenes, which provide a post-war reflection on the horror and guilt of the survivor, are often strong. The number of men dying on both sides of the conflict is terrifying, and the focal points of each map are soon clogged with bodies and the smoking ruins of machines. Given the setting, the constant barrage of noise makes sense. The soothing click-click of the mouse is drowned out by the death rattle of machine guns and the occasional whirr of a brain cog is lost in the audible violence as the Eastern Front repeatedly explodes. It’s quite comfortably among the loudest strategy games in existence.

But does the long-awaited sequel add anything more than enormous flurries and drifts of snow? I donned my thermal underpants and went to war.įor the first hour, Company of Heroes 2’s campaign threatens to be all sound and no strategy, fury without thought. That's what Company of Heroes 2 would have you believe at any rate, with a flashy new engine and a great deal of clamour presenting its conflict. The Western Front isn't as quiet as you may have heard from other sources but the Eastern Front is almost certainly a great deal louder.

Map company of heroes 1