Company of Heroes 2 may look quite amazing, the most important thing to Relic Entertainment is to re-inject tactics into its real-time strategy.
We want to be rewarding smart players. It's not an APM (actions-per-minute) game. To play Company of Heroes 2 you need to play smart and be aggressive in your decision making. We want smart players to be able to maximize the value of their units. A guy playing smart with his defenses and his cover and his movement, you want him to beat up on a guy with three squads." - Quinn Duffy, Relic Entertainment
One way of doing this is the new TrueSight system, giving each unit on the ground their own line of site, along wiht more movement options and the introduction of dynamic waether. Breaking ice and snowstorms have already been shown off, but the war on the Eastern Front lasted four years, which means every season will be covered in game.
"We're covering the full breadth of the Eastern Front campaign, and only half the war was fought in winter. There's spring, fall, and summer... the weather and the environment had a big impact on both sides. That's part of the narrative experience of the Eastern Front. "
Seems like Company of Heroes 2 could be the real return of strategic glory.
By Stephen Heller