Recent reviews by SuperHusky

A very captivating game for fans of turned-based RPG and Roman history.

The game has outstanding combat, stunning graphics and yet very well optimized. Highly recommended to anyone who's a fan of action RPG.

**Score:**
Campaign: 7/10
Game Play: 9/10
Balance: 7/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Community: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

Though I have been a big fan of this series since 2008 when I played the best RTS of the time then, Company of Heroes, I did not try the sequel until July last year, 2016. All the negative reviews about how the sequel failed to live up to its name and that the game, after years of development and being patched, is still broken and plagued with balancing issues and bugs had made me think hard about whether I should spend my money on this game (I am a spendthrift just fyi).
Turned out all those are trivial issues at best and huge exaggerations at worst. I have to say that the decision to buy the game last July, 2016 was one of the best decisions I made last year.
I do not go in deep into the campaign. Well to me I find the campaign decent and am not troubled by whether it is historically correct or not, because I believe that is not what it aspire to be, a visual version of history textbook. No. The campaign is decent and helps you learn about the basics of the game, that is good enough.
**Where the gems are hidden**
I will go straight to the point and state that the best thing about this game is not about the game play, the realistic physics or the intense battles but the community. I switched from Dota 2 to this game and immediately got hooked to it because of the community. Here the people are extremely supportive, they helped newbies like me and were willing to spend time tutoring me. There is a small but active group dedicated to this game in my country, Vietnam, and it is always a joy for me to play with them. We spend time discussing tactics, lend each other a hand to thwart an incoming tanks army, run away together from an incoming artillery barrage or cover each other while hunting Tiger tanks. It is a thrill to go through such moments together.
It is the community that makes me stick to this game until now and spend nearly 300 hours on it.
And of course there is also a big online community which actively provide feedback to Relic about things needed improvements and how Relic could make the games more balanced. The community also frequently churn out new stuffs such as new mod or maps. And MORE IMPORTANTLY, it is much much less toxic than Dota 2. Yes.
It is such a blessing to be part of such community.
**The intense battles**
The second outstanding feature of this game is also the thing that made Company of Heroes shine back in 2006: the intense battles. Unless you are playing 1v1, where most of the games will end in 20–25 minutes with only light tanks involved in the battle, the battles, when fought between two equally-skilled teams, will drag on for nearly 1 hour with artillery bombarding every 2 minutes and tanks crazily cram into each other. It is really really intense. At the 40 minutes mark, the 5-man squad you send into battle will be crippled by mines, trimmed by sniper, pinned down by either machine gun or jet fighter, torn into pieces by either artillery or enemy tanks. One minute into battle, you have to use smoke barrage from your mortar squad to cover the retreat.
Thanks to the excellent graphics, I feel it to be very real. It feels real to see the squad struggle to crawl through mortar barrage and machine gun, or light tanks blown up by mine, or the desperate men running back to base through fire and explosion, every moment the enemy tanks get destroyed by my tanks is a pleasure to the eye.
All those things made up most of my battles with my friends and by going through hell together, we form a very strong bond with each other.
**Your brain will be squeezed**
The learning curve is stiff. It will probably take at least 2 months for a newcomer to the game to learn all about the game fundamental mechanics, or maybe more for those new to real time strategy games. This game is different from Starcraft or Age of Empires in the way that it is more action-oriented. It is less about resource and more about strategy, the player needs to pay more attention about position of the squad and, thanks to the true sight mechanics, focus on gathering intelligence.
Here large army does not translate to domination. Instead it is more about combined arms tactic. If you position your squad well, with machine gun to cover your rear and mortar squad ready to blow up the enemies hiding behind walls, you will be able to crush most of the incoming head-on infantry attacks. The feeling of seeing your meticulously crafted plan went off smoothly is so satisfying. I would never forget the thrill of seeing the enemy tank to carelessly rush forward only to be have its engine destroyed by my mine and then immediately knocked off by my and my allied well-positioned anti-tank guns. It became a pile of metals within just 2 seconds.
You have to learn to make use of the surrounding environment, to use snipers or reconnaissance plane to gather intelligence, to outwit the enemies and coordinate the attacks to win. You need plan, courage and of course, luck, a lot of luck.
**Where the games needed to be improved**
As I am writing this review, Relic is experimenting new changes to the game and from the feedback from the community so far, the changes proposed are necessary and on the right-direction.
Currently the game suffers from lack of strategic diversity. Many units are under-utilized or even ignored in the game. For example for the US, M20 light tank or AA gun half-track are rarely used, they are not necessary and not needed, most of the players would rush M3A1 Stuart because it has better armour and is more effective in dealing with enemy infantry. For the UK, it is the Valentine tank, which is a doctrinal unit and usually came too late to the battle to make a significant impact. As a result, people would often ignore it. Thus overall, the build-order is limited and predictable.
And while many units are under-utilized, others are heavily used, I can say abused. For the Soviet, it is the penals, for the US it is the infantry squad with double M1119 light machine gun which grant them God-strength in long range gun battle.
About commanders, Ostheer and Soviet faction each has about 15 commanders yet only 3 or 4 of them are truly useful and have the potential to change the tide of the battle. The rest are barely touched. For the UK it is the the same with Artillery doctrine, the Saxon and Valentine are rarely called into the battle, the Artillery barrage usually misses the target and is too costly for its limited usefulness.
There are also issues with bugs, sometimes the units will get stuck or do not obey command (which will spoil your plan).
**Conclusion**
Overall, the lack of diversity in build order and limited number of useful commanders are balanced out by the limitless tactics and strategy, the awe-inspiring graphics and brutal battle. This game is a must for those who love fast paced action and chess-like strategy.

First it is fun, then it ruins your day.

I completed the Dawn of War I series 7 years ago but it was not until 2 days ago that I started playing this series again. While combat and tactics remain more or less the same, the graphic and sound effect have been hugely improved, creating a unique battlefield atmostphere that no other RTS games could have. The fast-paced combat is highly engaging: once you get into the fight, you forget everything around you. The campaign so far (I haven't finished the game yet) is good with a compelling story.
Thank you Relic for making such an immersive, fascinating and "explosive" game.