COH2 Multiplayer London Event Review

COH2 Multiplayer Event Review

Introduction

On Thursday December 6th I was lucky enough to have a chance to play COH2 Multiplayer. I played several games and watched several others be played as well. I know that most people wish they could've had the chance to experience COH2 Multiplayer in person so I hope to give you as full and detailed a breakdown of the day as I can.

Before having a chance to play COH2 Multiplayer hands-on we were given a short presentation by Relic's Lead Designer Quinn Duffy. Luckily HelpingHans was on hand to record it and it is available on his youtube, featuring 12azor's hair and Sepha drinking coffee. Here are the key points from the presentation :

New Essence Engine 3.0 - Graphical improvements and performance improvements, gives a better ability to tell the story of the Eastern Front.

True Line of Sight system - This new system adds a lot to the tactical aspect of the game in terms of flanking, ambushes and using the terrain to your advantage.

Authenticity - COH2 tries to give the feel of the Eastern Front, the intensity, the tone and the immersion of the player in the game.

Tactical Gameplay - Combination of strategy and tactical gameplay; use of the environment and terrain, using combined arms and the importance of map control.

Cold Tech - New feature in COH2; fragile ice, deep snow, temperature effects for infantry, blizzards and persistent tank traps.

Seasonal Warfare - maps will be both summer and winter based and these will have different impacts on gameplay, as will the settings of the battlefield e.g. rural or urban.

Resource changes - All map points now give an income for all resources but there are certain high income points. Fewer resource points on maps than in COH1.

Map types - two different types of map; Frontline, a more symmetrical style for competitive gameplay and Battlefield, asymmetrical maps with greater tactical ideas and to make the same map feel fresh.





Upkeep - new standardised system for upkeep to make manpower income and upkeep more clear for players.

Commanders - 7 potential commanders for each faction with over 20 abilities available. Before the game you can select 3 of the 7 and then you make a final choice in-game once you gain a Command Point. This allows players to tailor their strategy. This may also act as a method for releasing new units through new potential commanders being released.

'Load-out' - Combining the pre-selection of Commanders with 'Intel Bulletins' to give an aspect of players making some choices before the game starts. Also includes the skins and is about tactical customisation for each player.

'Intel Bulletins' - based on historical bulletins that were issued to the armies in the field during WWII. They will highlight weak points and give small bonuses to specific units against certain enemy units. These will be unlocked through experience against these units in actual gameplay. Players can pick 3 out of over 100 to potentially unlock.

Skins - Winter and Summer skins for all units, camouflage skins for vehicles and historically accurate skins.

'Progression' - Player profiles will gain experience up to a maximum level 20 from playing any kind of game. There will also be a 'Battle Honour' system where players will be rewarded with visible medals for the type of game they play and the manner in which they play.

Full Units List

Ostheer Unit List :

HQ : Pioneers

Tier One : Grenadiers, Mortar Crew, MG Squad, Sniper (1-man)

Tier Two : PanzerGrenadiers, 251 Halftrack, 222 Scout Car, Pak 40 7.5mm AT gun

Tier Three : StuG III, Ostwind Flak Panzer, Panzerwerfer 42 Rocket Launcher, Panzer IV

Tier Four : Sturmpanzer IV, Panther, Elefant Tank Destroyer

Commander unlockable : Mortar Halftrack, Pak Emplacement, On-map Howitzer (built by Pioneers)


Soviet Unit List :

HQ : Combat Engineers, Conscripts

Tier One : Sniper Squad (2-person), Scout Car (Guards)

Tier Two : MG Squad, Mortar Squad, AT Gun

Tier Three : M5 Halftrack, T-70, T-34

Tier Four : SU-76, SU-85, Katyusha

Commander unlockable : Guards

New Features

Commanders

This was the first chance we had to really experience the new Commander system in COH2. Unfortunately we didn't have the full selection available to us in this playtest as we only had access to three potential Commanders for each faction. However, it was clear from the three that were available to us how the new Commander system will function.

Players will pre-select 3 of a potential 7 Commanders before going into a game. These Commanders each have specific passive and active abilities which can be unlocked by gaining experience and Command Points through combat. The Commanders also each have a speciality, for example there was a vehicle-centric Ostheer Commander who had both active and passive abilities which would compliment a vehicle-centric play style. In contrast to that there was a Soviet Commander who allowed you to unlock the elite Guard infantry unit early in the game for a more elite infantry style of strategy.

The system is similar to that of COH1 once you are in-game, although the two separate trees of the doctrine no longer exists, it is simply a linear progression through the abilities. The 3 Commanders you choose can differ greatly or have similar traits depending on what strategy you wish to employ in that specific game. The abilities generally fell into 3 categories; unit unlocks which would allow you to build a specific unit type once unlocked, passive abilities which provided buffs to units on the field and active abilities which had munitions costs.

The unit unlocks includes units such as the aforementioned elite infantry Guard unit for the Soviets or the Ostheer Mortar Halftrack for the Germans. These abilities would simply allow the player to build the unit from the appropriate structure rather than being an off-map call-in as in COH1. The passive abilities include such things as a passive repair to vehicles out of combat. The active abilities for the vehicle specialist for the Soviets had the ability to 'mark' an opposing tank for a moderate munitions cost and cause it to receive additional damage from their own tanks.

The nature of this new Commander system, whereby a player selects 3 from a pool of 7 before the game to try to compliment their play style could open up some very interesting tactical decisions for players. There will be a distinct choice made as to selecting Commanders who can counter potential strategies from your opponent or selecting one to bolster your own strategy or having a mixture of the two. Obviously it is difficult to say what impact they will have until they've all been revealed and tested extensively but it certainly adds another layer of strategy to COH2 and I'm all in favour of that.


Cold Features

Cold features were something that I went into quite a lot of depth about in my previous review of the Eurogamer Expo's pre-alpha build of COH2. However, there have been some important changes since then and I wanted to highlight these.

Most of the cold effects have remained similar to what they previously were, although toned down slightly in some cases to make the game run better and be more enjoyable to play. The massive change and one that I can only applaud is that Blizzards on winter maps are no longer completely unexpected. There were serious concerns that a random Blizzard could significantly impact gameplay as it would stifle attacks and potentially shift the momentum of a game without any warning. In this build of COH2, the Blizzards, whilst still randomised in timing, have a visual warning and countdown.

This is a great and important change as it makes the Blizzard a tactical consideration for both players and gives them a time frame to work with. An attacking player knows he has to win an engagement before the conditions worsen as his men will begin to freeze much faster during a Blizzard and their Line of Sight will be significantly reduced. In contrast a defending player can use it as a chance to recover from recent losses or to mount daring flanks and counter-attacks which may catch their opponent off-guard.

Another of the interesting aspects of the Cold Mechanics is the persistent tank tracks through snow. This can allow players to discern the number of vehicles their opponent has, their size, likely their fire power, their movements and even their positioning. This may seem like only a minor graphical enhancement, but it could have real tactical implications as well as add another layer to the maps.


Resources

Unlike COH1, where many "strat points" were a means to an end in terms of connecting the high resource points, in COH2 all points will give an income of all three resources; manpower, munitions and fuel. In the build we played it was a +3/min income of fuel and munitions for each basic point.

However, there were also some specific high resource points on the map for fuel or munitions, normally only one or two per map so these will be important points of contention. Additionally it was possible to 'upgrade' any regular point with either a fuel or munitions dump, which would increase the income of that resource from the point, similar to Observation Posts in COH1.

It is hard to tell how this change will impact multiplayer gameplay, although it does make having a broader map control far more important throughout the game for both players. Initially I was skeptical about how this mechanic would work, but playing it wasn't as bad as I had envisioned. The nature of both armies and their relative equity in unit power and availability makes the dynamic different from COH1, with natural aggressors and defenders, as either side can easily take up either of these roles at any stage of the game.


Map Design

As Quinn Duffy stated in his presentation, the maps have fewer resource points and there will be different designs and layouts. I'm encouraged that there will be definitive 'Frontline' maps for competitive play and that these will be designed, balanced and modified specifically for competitive play.

The fewer resource points is not something I necessarily agree with as a concept. It does encourage more direct combat over the smaller number of points but at the same time it makes it harder to harass your opponent. In the playtest available to us this change seemed to focus the attention a lot more on Victory Points as the areas for battle rather than cut-offs or higher resource points.




New Map Features

Something entirely new and previously not seen in any COH2 build were the special features on some maps. According to Quinn Duffy these will fall into four categories; watchtowers, medic stations, repair stations and radio call-ins. These special features will only be on some maps and usually maps will only feature one of them. The special features will be inside regular strategical points on the map but obviously these points take on greater importance with their access to the special feature.

Watchtowers will, when garrisoned, allow the player who controls it to have a much wider Line of Sight around the watchtower. Given the nature of Line of Sight in COH2 and the True Sight system this could prove to be an invaluable tool in gaining information on the opposition player's movements.

The Medic station and Vehicle Repair Stations will act as a passive healing area for infantry and vehicles respectively. This obviously can save infantry from having to retreat to be healed in some cases and vehicles from requiring a worker squad to repair them.

The Radio call-in is the most interesting of these special features and would certainly have the biggest impact on gameplay. When captured and connected, the Radio call-in feature will allow players to rally units from an off-map position in that sector! Once the unit is produced it will arrive on the battlefield in that sector rather than from the regular call-in points along your base area. The strategic importance of these points cannot be over-stated as, during an engagement, being able to have freshly produced units instantly reinforce from a closer point is tactically invaluable.


Intel Bulletins

The Intel Bulletins are a part of the new concept of players having a 'load-out' before the game. There are currently around 110 unlockable Intel Bulletins available in COH2 and a player will be able to select 3 of those before they go into a game.

The Intel Bulletins will be unlocked through playing extensively against specific units or extensively using specific units. They will provide minor improvements to the units against specific opposition units or in certain circumstances.

Unfortunately we did not get the chance to experience these Intel Bulletins in our playtest so it is hard to guage how much impact they will have on actual gameplay. However, Quinn Duffy said they were mainly designed as flavour for COH2 and wouldn't make a significant difference to mutliplayer gameplay.


Post-game Information

One of the greatest surprises from this playtest of COH2 multiplayer was the post-game statistics screen. In COH1 I have never cared to look at the post-game statistics and found the points system to be almost completely irrelevant to actually winning a game.

In COH2 I spent literally 10 minutes browsing the fascinating post-game information screens in absolute awe. COH2 provides you with a four-part post-game information breakdown; personal unit awards, statistical overview with graphs, unit breakdowns, build orders.

The personal unit awards highlights your most efficient and effective units throughout the game, with their own individual portraits, their damage dealt, kills, damage taken and how cost efficient they were during the game. This isn't that relevant to actually reviewing the game but it is a great piece of flavour and looks amazing. The statistical overview gives both a numbers breakdown and graphs for information such as territory captured, units killed, units fielded etc. and is a very interesting tool for a quick glance to see how the game ebbed and flowed. This information can allow a player to very easily pin-point where the critical moments of the game were and refer to them in the replay.

The unit breakdowns takes each unit you produced and gives the damage dealt, damage received, number of total kills and unit which damaged it the most. This is all very useful data when attempting to review which units were most impactful and discern which units were able to counter the opponent's units and build. It also gives a really interesting 'unit efficiency' percentage, which takes the unit cost relative to how much damage it was able to inflict. I think this percentage will be fascinating for players in terms of refining builds but I also think it provides a very quick and easy way to determine if certain units are poorly balanced in their cost : damage ratios. Obviously the context of the game will be very important but a quick-glance efficiency percentage will be able to give at least some information immediately in the post-game analysis.

The build order information is exactly what it sounds like. It gives a chronological list of units produced by both sides with the timings alongside the unit so that you can see what the general build order for the player was and how they teched in response to their opponent.

Each of these tabs of information are infinitely better than anything from COH1 and having access to all of them immediately after a win or loss will certainly make for interesting reading and helpful feedback for players.


User Interface

The UI for COH2 is very different from COH1. The positioning of the resource counters, the location of the commander abilities, the kill count on units and several other things have been moved around a little. Not being familiar with this, it seemed more difficult to use from my point of view, but it did seem logical and it fit together well as a package, so I have no complaints there.

A significant difference from COH1 is that every unit with an arc or cone of fire now has a far more defined visual aid at all times so that players are fully aware of their unit capabilities, even when those units are in transit. Snipers are included in this list and their ranges are visible every time you select the unit.

The hotkey system is versatile with the new system or the classic key system both being available to players, although obviously with the plethora of new abilities and units there will be new hotkeys for fingers to become familiar with.

Playing Experience

Obviously the most important part of the event was actually getting to play COH2 Multiplayer; the first chance for hands-on experience of the Commanders, the multiplayer interface, the actual gameplay in a competitive game against another player, the first chance to test the Ostheer out.

I sat down at an extremely nice PC, put my headset on and got ready to own the hell out of some poor unsuspecting journalist who hadn't played any COH in years. The players were only tagged as their machine number so I was #17 and my partner #18, facing off against the might of #27 and #28. The first thing I noticed was that we were all Soviets in the lobby - mirror matches were enabled and possible to play! This is something that had previously been discussed at length with the developers and amongst the competitive community and I was very excited to test it out (it will also remain in the build for the BETA although retail is still undecided).
The game started, I cracked my knuckles and hovered over f1, ready to build a unit as quickly as possible and get out onto the map to capture points. Unfortunately it quickly became obvious that my partner, #18, was not a COH veteran as he rallied several squads to my HQ and idled them there. By contrast my opponents were Tommy and HelpingHans and, within about 5 minutes, they trapped us in our base sector where the previously rallied troops of my ally came in very useful!

The stomping that was handed out by the remorseless Tommy and HelpingHans might be seen by some as a negative thing. However, it gave me a chance to focus less on frantically trying to win the game and instead my attention went to the details, the look and feel of the game. I liked what I saw. The infantry, the vehicles, the maps, the buildings are all incredibly beautiful and detailed to look at, when COH1 was released it was hailed as one of the best looking games at the time and COH2 lives up to this.

Aesthetics are not really my thing though so I didn't focus on this too long. I tested out the improved infantry AI, the response times for rapid micro manoeuvres, the vehicle pathing and the things which can really make or break a multiplayer experience. The vehicle pathing is certainly improved, it is by no means perfect and tanks still struggle if you drive them into a series of small obstacles, but they path well around one another and the response feels a lot swifter and more accurate than it does in COH1. The command response in general seems very smooth, although attempting to box-select units was an absolute nightmare in this build.




With my first loss in COH2 under my belt, I decided it may be well to play a 1vs1 match-up so that I could redeem myself and, more importantly, so that I could see how the gameplay was when you had map control. One of the key changes in COH2 is the resource system -- all the basic points on the map now give income of all three resources. Initially I was very sceptical about how this would work and I remain unconvinced that it is necessarily a wise change to make. However, when actually playing with it I was surprised at how well it seemed to work. This system obviously puts a lot more emphasis on holding numerous territories rather than connecting specifically to high points and so the battle for every point was contested or countered immediately to prevent falling too far behind in resources. There are still high points on the map but on the map I initially played there were only two and they were both fuel points in the furthest corners of the map, very difficult to capture early and hard to defend whilst maintaining a general map presence.

The Soviet Army's array of units and options is quite varied and both the Soviets and Ostheer seem to have taken a mixture of unit types from COH1 and combined them to make very well-rounded armies at every stage of the game. I decided on an early-game strategy of Conscripts to a fast Scout Car, upgraded my Combat Engineers with a Flamethrower and threw them inside the Scout Car. It was glorious; I ran rings around my opponent's infantry and weapon teams with a jet of flame spewing from the top of the Scout Car devastating snow, trees and Nazis.

Unfortunately the Scout Car is about as durable as a tissue in tropical storm and dies to a single mine or focused light arms fire so I decided I needed a more durable vehicle on the field. The T-70, or 'clown car' as I termed it, proved the perfect option and with a couple of them out I was able to drive the Ostheer forces back across the map, comfortably build up T-34s and secure the win!

Later in the day I watched Sepha use a completely different Soviet strategy based on early Molotov Cocktail upgrades for his Conscripts and then simply holding territory until he could produce the beastly SU-85 and support it with Katyushas. The Soviet faction has access to early-game spammable infantry, light vehicle harass, weapon crews, medium and heavy tanks and heavy artillery pieces. It has the capability to play in many different styles depending on the player preference, with heavy infantry play or early light vehicle harassment leading into either heavy armour rushes or an attritional artillery and Anti-tank gun style.

Surely the Soviets are imbalanced with their multitude of options? Well the Ostheer have the same kind of options. The Ostheer faction felt like a mixture of Wehrmacht and Panzer Elite from COH1; it has Machine-Guns and Snipers, StuGs and PaKs but it also has the AC-esque 222 Scout Car and PanzerGrenadiers. The Ostheer I played as a more defensive, Wehrmacht style faction, using weapon crews and StuG IIIs to gradually increase map control. However, I saw players use the 222 Scout Car aggressive with waves of PanzerGrenadiers following up their aggressive thrusts through the Soviet lines.

It is too early to really tell the manner in which either faction will develop or play out in multiplayer. However, it does seem from the units available and the potential styles that both factions have the ability to play the aggressor or the defender during all stages of the game and I find this a very exciting possibility.

Of course another of the critical new features of COH2 is the Cold Tech and this was featured on one of the maps we were able to play at the event. The Cold is a really pain in the behind; you're fighting an engagement and you notice a unit losing men halfway across the map - they're freezing to death because you sent them to capture a point and forgot about them. HelpingHans was especially upset when his Ostheer Elefant tank on 90% hit points was immediately drowned in a river because he'd placed it on fragile ice which was then blown up by his opponent. There were instances where the incoming Blizzard warning would appear and a clock starts counting down in the corner of your screen. In one game this happened during a massive engagement of heavy armour, infantry, weapon crews all while rockets were flying in from the Katyush. The attacking player, Sepha said after that he probably lost more units to the Blizzard in terms of slowing down his movement and his infantry freezing to death than he did from his opponent's units.

I'm still not a fan of the impact Cold Tech may have on competitive multiplayer, it still feels as though it can only serve to slow the gameplay down and encourage more defensively minded playstyles. However, in this build the impact of many of the elements of the Cold Tech had been reduced to a much more manageable level.

Additionally the inclusion of a warning and a timer for Blizzards turns it into a tactical element on winter maps. If players are able to use Blizzards to their advantage through specific timings of attack, movement of units etc. then I think they could prove a fascinating element of multiplayer play. If this isn't the case though and they simply stall both sides and force them to camp in their respective portions of the map then, in my opinion, it has no place in competitive play.

One of the biggest impressions that playing COH2 Multiplayer left on me was the importance of Line of Sight. The True Sight system in COH2 is interesting, requiring units to have a direct path for their vision to travel down in order to have Line of Sight on that area of the map. This was most noticeable when multiple tanks engaged one another; when one tank was knocked out and its wreckage was billowing out plumes of smoke that smoke would block the vision of any tanks behind it and therefore make them unable to fire on the enemy tanks until they repositioned.

Even more important than the True Sight system though was the relationship between most unit's effective firing range and their vision. Especially in the case of the larger tanks they had an extremely long potential range but were limited but their vision and required supporting units to scout ahead of them in order to maximise their effectiveness on the field. The experienced of playing COH2 Multiplayer made me strongly believe that a lot of the battles or skirmishes between players will be decided by who was able to engage with the best Line of Sight and from the best angles. I'm unsure if this will lead to an intense, near constant fight over the front-line so that one player can establish vision dominance or if it will cause players to position their units in blind-spots ready to ambush any enemy unit which pushes too far forward, perhaps both?

Conclusion

I cannot stress enough how impressive the set up for the event was, great lengths were gone to in order to give the right atmosphere to the event and other than the slightly stale sandwiches and the keyboards with invisible keys it was spot on! The THQ and Relic staff are all keen to discuss COH2 and listen to feedback and it is apparent from speaking with each and every one of them that they are engaged in COH2 just as much as nerds such as myself will be in playing it.

The COH2 Multiplayer experience was impressive; after the pre-alpha build at the Eurogamer Expo this experience was on another level. The interface, the graphics, the fluidity of the gameplay, the options available - it felt very close to a retail ready game for the most part and a good one at that. The play was enjoyable and whilst I maintain some reservations about aspects such as the Cold Tech, Intel Bulletins, certain abilities and the dynamic of a 1-man Ostheer Sniper Squad against a 2-person Soviet Sniper Squad, I still believe it is shaping up to be an excellent game.

For more information regarding COH2 please refer to the links below for a review of my experience at the Eurogamer Expo, an interview with Quinn Duffy from this event, and information on pre-ordering COH2!