Company of Heroes 2 reestablishes the series as one of the best strategy experiences (review)

An old adage says that war is long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Company of Heroes says that war is periods of anxiety-driven planning punctuated by the chaos of firefights, explosions, flame throwers, artillery shelling, and tank warfare.

Like its predecessor and expansions, developer Relic’s follow-up continues with its own brand of real-time strategy gaming for PC modeled after World War II. More than just contending with fog of war and juggling unit special abilities, you have to carefully consider line of sight, mobile weapons setup time, line of fire, cover, positioning, destructible terrain, and buildings for digging in. All the while, you have to be constantly planning ahead by capturing control nodes around the map, adapting to your opponents strategies with an informed commander selection, and building up the meager base facilities on offer.