Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts Review

The game uses the same technology that powered the original and by the look of things, it still works. Unit animation and highly detailed maps, along with the realistic physics, all contribute to the true-to-life ambience. Also, I had a decent frame rate at 1280*1024 res, with most of the details set on "High" - I ran the game on my Athlon 64 3500+/2 GB RAM/8600 GT rig. Like I said, the physics also play a huge role. For instance, buildings may provide sanctuary for troops, but if an armored truck or heavy tank accidentally backs up and smashes the building wall, you'll have a shelter that's slightly less reliable.

Overall, Opposing Fronts comes close to the visual quality of today's RTS heavy hitters, such as World in Conflict. Of course, the lucky ones among you, with powerful enough hardware, might want to try out the game's newly-fitted DX10 support. The switch to DX10, however, won't make too much difference. The game looks superb and works just fine with DX9-based graphics.

The audio is, once again, first rate and goes perfectly with the game's brilliant soundtrack. The voiceovers in the single-player campaign are quite believable and further add to the atmosphere.

To wrap things up, Opposing Fronts is a worthy continuation to the original Company of Heroes and is every bit as enjoyable. You'll have fun with the realistic tactical combat, as you blow up buildings or use them as shelter, launch powerful mortar attacks, destroy enemy tanks and then utilize the wreckage as cover for your infantry and so on. In terms of tactics, the possibilities are almost endless. Still, the game doesn't appear to offer any radical improvements and the gameplay is bound to prove a bit too complicated for those who haven't tried the original. Both the German and British factions were, clearly, targeted towards veteran gamers, therefore inexperienced RTS gamers will need to invest extra time and effort to get the hang of all the units and their abilities. So, if you wanted to get into the spirit of CoH quickly and straightforwardly, Opposing Fronts may not be the best way to start.