The first Company of Heroes was one of the best real-time strategy games of 2006. It was visually stunning, detailed and fairly complex. The sequel from Relic and THQ was released just about a year after the original. However, unlike most sequels, Opposing Fronts is a fully stand-alone game that if played with the original, allows all four factions to be used.
To begin, Opposing Fronts has the same high level of graphical detail that its predecessor does. This game is simply a joy to look at, with its fully destructible battlefields and well-voiced units. This sequel has added weather, so be prepared to battle in rain, dusk or haze.
Opposing Fronts is the debut for two new factions, the British and the Panzer Elite. There are single-player campaigns for each, the British focusing around the capture of Caen and the Panzer Elite around repelling the Operation Market Garden offensive. The combinations of both campaigns are actually longer than the campaign of Able Company in the original Company of Heroes, which should give plenty of enjoyment to those who enjoy the single-player capabilities of the game.
Both of the new factions give some options to players. As a defensive player myself, I found much to like in the British, who are extremely defensive-minded. The British have a different approach;, instead of building base buildings — from which issue units — they call in trucks that serve much the same purpose. Those trucks, however, can pack up and move on the battlefield to other places, either running from an attack or gradually moving closer to the front.
The Brits have basic infantry units that build small defensive emplacements, like slit trenches. The Sapper units build bigger defenses, such as anti-tank nests and Howitzer nests, which to my mind are some of the most deadly units in the game. These powerful units don't just shell, but with the Artillery specialty, allow such ferocious attacks, such as the dreaded Creeping Barrage. This attack is just about guaranteed to break down enemy lines or stop offensives in their tracks, as it drops shells across a sequential line doing massive damage.
Other options include as playing with a Commando specialty, which allows you to crash land gliders and use them to generate both infantry and armor units, essentially an ability to rapidly bring an attack toward undefended or lightly defended areas.
The Panzer Elite are built around rapid movement, and the ability to hit incredibly hard. Units like the Funkwagen Halftrack actually allow the Panzer Elite faction to leach resources away from enemy-held areas. Units like the Hummel, Tank Hunter and Panther all bring heavy firepower to a fight and, with their speed, quickly can outflank opponents. Tank Destroyer, Luftwaffle, and Scorched Earth Tactics are the three choices for specialty in the Panzer Elite.
While Opposing Fronts does very little to advance the RTS genre, especially if you compar it to the original Company of Heroes, it also doesn't make the mistake of making too many changes to a very successful formula. Opposing Fronts is definitely more complex than the original, and I would not recommend it to someone making their first foray into the R, unless they had significant experience with the genre. For fans of the original game, this is simply a must-have expansion.
