Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts - Review

Before I start this review, allow me to preface it by saying that I love (Publishers of the game) Relic; I loved Homeworld 2, I loved Dawn of War and all its little expansion packs and I loved the original Company of Heroes. In the oft tedious world of RTS gaming, they are a shining beacon of excellence.

That said, Opposing Fronts is something of a disappointment, it promises so much - 2 new sides, the British and the German Panzer Lehr, 2 new campaigns, new units, better graphics, etc - but is sadly let down by poor design choices. Graphically, the game is very pretty, it boasts full DX10 support and the ragdoll physics and destructible environments really help to give the feeling that you're in the middle of a warzone, albeit a warzone with occasionally indestructible tanks. The expansion also introduces weather effects, which look fantastic, especially at night, although they don't make a huge difference to the gameplay.

The two new sides are markedly different from one another, but with a suprising number of similarities. The Panzer Lehr are basically the Germans from the original, with a few extra tanks and a dune buggy, while the British sport mobile command vehicles that tend to explode when sneezed at. Neither side can secure Strategic points in the traditional manner although both have alternative options; the Germans can booby-trap them with explosives, while the British can deploy a command vehicle nearby. In theory it's an innovative way of adding a little variety, in practice it means that you can rarely afford to secure most of your points.

The biggest issue, however, is that the game is just too bloody short - it only took me 6-8 hours to finish the game on Normal difficulty and when you consider that this is supposed to be a Standalone Expansion, that's pretty poor. Part of the problem is that both of the new campaigns start off with the usual slow & easy introductory missions, which means that around 1/4 of the game is spent being told exactly what to do. A single tutorial mission would have sufficed and all without hurting the main game, although I know that tutorial missions tend to be avoided these days in favour of "in-game learning", for reasons that escape me. At least with tutorials you can skip the bloody things if you know what you're doing. It's a real shame, because Relic's previous expansions for the Dawn of War series, have been excellent and almost complete games in their own right (In the case of Dark Crusade). Hopefully they'll listen to the feedback from the community and put a little more effort into the next CoH expansion, which I've no doubt there will be given the popularity of the game.

There was a lot of controversy on release due to the forced Relic Online login that is included with the game (and added to the Original if you install the 1.8Gb v2.x Opposing Fronts compatibility patch). Basically when you start the game it checks for an internet connection and, should it find one, it forces you to login to Relic Online in order to play. If it can't find an internet connection then it requires a CD check to play. Aside from the fact that the Relic Online servers were down more often than up in the weeks after release, the other issue is that it stops you from playing LAN games without having a copy of the game per player (which is what you're *supposed* to have, but it's usually been tacitly accepted by the games publishers that it's OK not to), not that hosting and joining LAN games is simple any more because it's all been bundled into the online game browser and by bundled I mean "shoved in without any real thought and hidden as best as possible".

All in all, this means that it really isn't worth the asking price of £30 RRP, even if you loved the original. However, on the 23/11/07, they are releasing a Company of Heroes Gold Edition containing the original plus expansion, available for £35 (or £18 on Play). This *is* worth getting, even if you've already got the original and certainly if you haven't but like RTS and/or WWII games.