A closer look at Company of Heroes 2

Brian Ambrozy 7 May, 2012 at 1:09pm ET Article published in Gaming

Well, PC Gamer UK stole the show when they accidentally leaked the news that THQ was releasing a sequel to one of the most highly acclaimed RTS games of all time last week, but now it’s time for the rest of us peons to get a glimpse at what Company of Heroes 2 has to offer.

We have a single screenshot, showing in-game footage running on the new Essence 3.0 engine. Since this game will be a PC exclusive, they can take off the training wheels of developing for the lowest denominator (e.g. consoles) and really show off some graphical prowess. As seen in the screenshot, we’ve got real-time, accurate shadows, very fancy snow deformations and, well.. take a look:

Company of Heroes 2 screenshot showing Essence 3.0 Engine

Just as its predecessor did in 2006, Company of Heroes 2 is going to push modern graphics to the limit for the RTS genre.

The game presents itself as a “true” successor to Company of Heroes, but this time focusing on the less familiar (to Western gamers) Eastern front of the European theater. Gamers will take control of the Red Army to repel the Nazi invaders from Mother Russia.

Since the Company of Heroes community is still going strong, we can expect long-term community support from THQ (and hey, Icrontic’s own UPSLynx is the community manager, so…) and a lot of enthusiasm from RTS gaming fans.

Launch is expected to be Summer 2013. For now, all the details are available at the newly-relaunched Company of Heroes website but if you are awesome GDY6C-I7JBZ-ZBTBQ hue hue hue.

Comments

7 May 2012 ~ 1:27pm Ilriyas Holy freaking crap, as I've said before waiting for this is going to be hell. CoH's fan-made Eastern Front mod was absolutely brilliant but with official animations, models, mechanics, AND an Eastern Front storyline this WILL be the greatest game RTS EVER!

Christ if only there were a way to sign up for the BETA for whenever (or if) they make one. (And I mean like right now, I want to be first in line to playtest that thing outside of employees!)
7 May 2012 ~ 1:30pm jared I'm really excited about this. I loved the hell outta the first CoH and this one looks just as good.

Only downside is I'll need a new PC to play it.

/me hits up Icrontic's buyers guide
7 May 2012 ~ 1:44pm primesuspect Ilriyas, if you want to potentially be selected for beta, you should sign up to the Company of Heroes community.
7 May 2012 ~ 1:53pm Ilriyas Hrm the fact that I've had the original game since BETA but never actually joined the forums astounds me.

Anyways signed up! Here's to hoping eh!
7 May 2012 ~ 2:18pm TheAlertHusky I'm going to get this so that I can finally play with my buddy
8 May 2012 ~ 2:09pm UPSLynx Yeah @Ilriyas, when I create an off-topic subforum, it'll be your responsibility to start the MLP thread.

It's funny, I've gotten a few PMs already from people begging me to be in a beta. We never even said anything about one, but people are chomping at the bit to get it. It's been almost six years since CoH came out though, so I can't blame them.
8 May 2012 ~ 5:15pm primesuspect Just so you know, when you register on the CoH community forums, it mentions the beta.
9 May 2012 ~ 12:35am UPSLynx Yeah, that's a leftover from the original CoH forums. I'll probably have the team remove it, but that's not meant to advertise a Coh2 beta.
9 May 2012 ~ 12:37am Ilriyas Or is it?
11 May 2012 ~ 1:37am midga It is now!

And I wouldn't call the shadows "accurate." Nearly, maybe, but they're not accounting for multiple light sources from the fires and such.