Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts Preview

E3 2007 Preview

When you have a title that employs strategic gameplay in the World War II setting, and it is successful, when it comes to continuing the franchise what do you do? For developer Relic, and publisher THQ, it makes making a new title that not only works in concert with the previous release, but is a standalone title as well.

That is what Company of Heroes: Opposing Forces brings to the table. It is a standalone game, but should players have the first title, you can bring units into Opposing Forces and the multiplayer aspect will be much broader. The game itself features two new armies and two full campaigns – the Liberation of Caen and Operation Market Place. The campaigns are played from the perspective of the British and Germans, respectively. Of course, with the game there are bound to be some improvements to the original concept and these are in full force. The game runs in DirectX10 and the effects are dynamic, graphically. There are day-to-night and night-to-day transitions.

The new units include the British, likened to a bulldog on the battlefield. Defensively tough, once these units grab a chunk of territory, it takes time and a well-coordinated strike to root them out of it. On the other side are Panzer elite forces of the Germans. The Relic developer on hand to demo the game likened them to the scalpel of the Fatherland, a unit capable of swift surgical strikes against the enemy.

There has been some tweaking to the game’s AI, or as was put: “We worked with the levers and pulleys already in the game” to fine-tune it slightly. The result is units that will carry out orders independently, allowing the player to oversee an entire battlefield rather than micro-manage individual units. One of the areas that did get some loving was the vehicle AI. Relic listened to its fan base and really upgraded that element. Before, those riding in halftracks were merely passengers. Now the infantry soldiers onboard can fire from the halftrack and do damage.

It was estimated that there will be between 8-12 hours of gameplay per campaign. The game itself is 75% complete at this stage but is still on track to release on PC in November.

The look is solid, the sound is a terrific supporting character to the visuals, and the gameplay mechanics are tight. This is a title that should give real-time strategy fans, and fans of the World War II genre, a lot to look forward to.

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