Recent reviews by Anony1200

The update that came out with this DLC is probably bigger than this DLC. Still a win, overall, though. It felt like they looked at this as a redemption arc after some rough patches and it shows, massively blows VotP out of the water. Good job, Victoria 3.

Before I get onto things, I'll start with what I think is the most important point:
As someone who loved CoH 1 and absolutely hated 2, this is actually everything I wanted CoH 2 to be. Of course, I'm more than aware that this is an extremely small minority in the playerbase, but if you were like me and got so stung by CoH 2 that you didn't give 3 a chance, I'd say it actually may be worth taking. It's nice to see people outside of that group coming around on the game now, though, since I understand you cannot run a game with that demographic alone.

With that being said, let's cover things in the classic most important to least important fashion.

The actual matches you have in all modes- the core gameplay- is probably the best it's been in 3 games. CoH 1 leans on defense with matches focusing on sieges on strongpoints, where CoH2 is about quick back-and-forth offensives where a prepared defense is there to buy time and won't win on its own. CoH 3 leans more towards CoH 1's design, but both map design and unit design mean that you get fewer rough stalemates where neither side can really break through the defenses, so you do have CoH 2's more decisive nature at play as well.

The units feel very nice to play with and with a few exceptions, there's less overall redundancy this time around. There's some interesting and creative choices with the choice of units as well. Here's one neat idea per faction- the M29 Weasel for the US, the M3 Grant for the UK, the SdKfz 222 SPzB for the Wehrmacht, and the Recovery Vehicle (not new, but it being a major part of the game rather than just a niche bonus unit is) for the Afrikakorps.

The units feel good in the hands and while some info can be spartan most units are good at what it seems like they should be good for. AK Panzergrenadiers being mid-range experts is kinda strange (maybe they should be given G41s as a purely visual change?) but that's it. Balance is generally good, and the devs do a good job balancing the three issues of statistics, history/logic, and public demand. I was afraid that devs would, especially after the split from Sega, go all in on the last category (generally "make the game CoH 2 again"), but luckily while they've offered concessions, it's nothing that's ruined the flow of the game so far. Updates are kinda slow, but with how the company's been shaken up that's to be expected.

Multiplayer on a matchmaking basis is fine. The low playercounts often mean long matchmaking time but surprisingly there seems to be a decent enough spread of players at all levels that you'll usually be in competitive matches. People could stand to be a bit kinder to their fellow man, but I dare you to try and find a strategy game without a similar or worse toxicity problem.

The campaign is, to say the least, a gigantic step up from the pretty abysmal affair that was CoH 2's, and I would say at least a couple steps up from the first. The bots are generally more competent this time around- still not exactly to the point of a player, but on higher difficulties I could see people really struggling with them. The Italian campaign's game board feels a bit wonky even after several passes, especially in how unclear some of the side objectives can be and how it can often feel like your game board units go from 100 to 0 in one turn. This is especially bad considering often side objectives are tied to specific units. Your SSF boys suddenly get knocked out because five bunkers and a Panzer IV fired on it from the fog? Sorry! Mission chain locked forever!

The North Africa campaign's a bit pretentious and nothing to write home about, but the more varied missions make the gameplay side fun. It's definitely not worth the price of admission and probably the weakest part of the entire game if I'm being honest, but it's far from outright bad. It even shows off the Panzer II model that the AK really should have just had instead of just having an SdKfz 231, a deep cut vehicle which isn't even a unique choice (the Wehrmacht has one too). How nice.

The game's presentation is its sorest point, and I think caused a lot of (really, probably unfair) resentment towards the game in its early days. I like how the score is even more dynamic than usual by the series's standards, including the big musical swell when you're about to win or lose a match, but the music itself is pretty bland and tries far too hard to make a leitmotif of the main theme. Sound effects wise, while the sounds are a bit more realistic than the gamey and often cartoonish sound effects of 1 or the hollywood style of 2, far too many things sound far too similar. The MGs are audibly distinctive from each other, and that's great, but it feels like almost nothing else is.

Something has to be said for the voice acting, though. It's genuinely bad all the way through, which is a big shame, given voice acting is a big part of the CoH series's charm. The Infantry all have distinct voices from each other, which is nice at least, but each faction has precisely three voices for their vehicles, something especially bad for the vehicle-dominated Afrika Korps, and you never know which one is speaking unless they specifically identify themselves, which I've noticed most of them often do in somewhat ham-fisted fashion when under attack ("CENTAUR'S IN TROUBLE!"). That's actually something which is a detriment to gameplay, since knowing instantly when things are going bad for one of your units is important, and when rare expensive vehicles like the Tiger share voices with the much more spammable Panzer IV, it's not great.

The writing for the units is also bad, especially in comparison to CoH 1, with a lot of cartoony one-liners with almost playful delivery, even when things are intense. I've seen people compare it to Marvel writing, and while I can't say I'd go quite that far, it's definitely closely related enough to show up at family reunions. The unit that stands out to me as having particularly unpleasant voice acting is the British Heavy Tanks, with a phony accent and one-note "rage-filled" delivery. Also, while this unit's voice acting isn't necessarily bad, it's kinda weird to me that they got the CoH1 Engineer VA back and then had him voice... the Airborne Infantry. Weird.

Visual design is better, at least, especially with the latest update. I've got no problems with the art style- a lot of people really frown on the game having a colorful aesthetic, somehow seemingly forgetting that real life actually also has a lot of color involved- but the animations are pretty limited, and while I'm not a big uniform guy, my good friend miss Runa loves to point out inaccuracies every time they're present. Cover can be kind of awkward to negotiate, and often it seems like units that should be behind cover logically just aren't.

Finally, the actual amount of expanded content in this game is pretty measly. I'm glad we're not back in CoH2's pay-to-win commander scheme, with the Company Commanders (translation: themed group of extra units and abilities that you choose from at the start of a battle) being easy enough to unlock through a reasonable amount of gameplay. Problem is, each faction has an astounding one of those, and the Wehrmacht and UK's both feel somewhat less-than and kit specifically for stomping bots. No sign of more (or more factions!) on the horizon at the moment. I'd be lying if I didn't say that was a bit worrying.

Still, even with all that being said, I can't knock the game for its poor presentation or thin in-game store. It's fun, it's satisfying to do well in, and it's got well enough content for price of admission. It has pretty frequent free weekends, which would be a good time to check it out if you're on the line.

They really screwed themselves here.

Originally, a lot more of the update was supposed to be locked behind the DLC. Historical agitators, more interactions with them, so on and so forth, was supposed to be paid features. They decided they didn't want to follow the EU4 path of having a load of content that was pretty necessary for basic game function to be behind a paywall, and so they moved many of the paid features to the free update. That, for the record, was a good move, it's hard not to commend them for that. When you read reviews that say "greed bro", remember that.

Problem: Now you're left with a $15 DLC that was priced to contain some major features, no longer contains some major features, and is now comically overpriced as a result, for an allotment of content that, at this point, I could easily see the argument for saying it should have just been free. It's an awkward position- I don't know who to blame for this. Maybe the play was to give up on this being a paid DLC at all and just kick off with Spheres of Influence? But then you get the "Vic 3 is the next Imperator, dead in 3 months" hive buzzing again...

Hard to recommend. At the very least, for future packs, they're going into it with this one behind them, so I would guess this as a rocky start with some future promise.

more like March of the Unsupported, Buggy Games am I right

A plane and simple DLC.

What a waste of time.

I used this build and I went 18/2/5 in my 1st match

War Thunder is the game where it took them over a year to bring the Panzer 38(t) Ausf. F down to the same tier and a lower BR than the T-50. For some reason,

Don't let the store description fool you: This is pretty much just a generic Browser game.

10: CLICK
20: GOTO 10