Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts Q&A - Breaking Down the New Factions and Features

With Company of Heroes, Relic and THQ managed to rejuvenate the World War II real-time strategy genre with a game so good that it won numerous awards, including GameSpot's 2006 PC Game of the Year award. Playing Company of Heroes was like watching a World War II battle come to life on your battlefield, because the game's detailed physics system allowed for environmental destruction; you could destroy a village in order to save it, and that could open up many tactical possibilities. Meanwhile, smart artificial intelligence made your troops act and behave like real soldiers. Throw in a solid single-player campaign and excellent multiplayer, and it's a game that any strategy fan must play.

Now Relic is working on Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, a stand-alone game that continues the saga of World War II by adding two armies, two campaigns, and a host of features and improvements. To find out more about Opposing Fronts, which is due out later this year, we turned to lead designer Josh Mosqueira.

GameSpot: We understand that Opposing Fronts isn't an expansion pack, but rather a stand-alone game. Could you tell us why THQ and Relic aren't going the traditional expansion pack route?

Josh Mosqueira: For Relic, Company of Heroes was always a starting point, a jump-off point. Opposing Fronts is the next chapter of that story, and there are many reasons why we decided to go with a stand-alone game: We just couldn't do it justice with an expansion pack.

First and foremost, it's all about the content. With two full armies, each with unique units, tech trees, and commander trees, we couldn't have squeezed all that content into an expansion pack that traditionally only includes a couple of new units for existing races. What you are getting with Opposing Fronts is a complete experience that takes Company of Heroes into new territory.

We also wanted to show Relic's commitment to making Company of Heroes the definitive World War II strategy experience. Our plan is to make the Company of Heroes series accessible and easy to jump into. We didn't want players to have to buy the original if all they're interested in is the new armies or campaigns.

With that said, there are a lot of benefits to owning both games in the form of unlockable content, more maps, and more online options. If Company of Heroes was the first step, Opposing Fronts is not the last. We have big plans for Company of Heroes.

GS: Are we looking at roughly the same amount of content as in Company of Heroes, or more? How do each of the two campaigns in Opposing Fronts compare to the COH campaign?

JM: Opposing Fronts, with two full armies and two campaigns, exceeds the content of Company of Heroes, especially when it comes to single-player. While each of the two campaigns has fewer missions than COH's single-player campaign, when combined, players are looking at a total of 17 missions compared to COH's 15.

GS: What can you tell us about the new British 2nd Army and Panzer Elite factions? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What battles do their campaigns cover?

JM: With Opposing Fronts we wanted the British and Panzer Elite armies to feel different and offer new and exciting gameplay that stands alone but that also enhances the multiplayer gameplay of Company of Heroes.

The British are a defensive-focused army that favors setting up a strong front and then smashing the enemy with artillery and heavy tanks. That said, the British are not the most mobile or agile army. The British excel establishing a front line and then holding it against all odds. This doesn't mean the British do not have tricks up their sleeves. They have officers, a mobile tech tree, and their commander trees (based on famous regiments) that give them a ton of flexibility.

For example, the Royal Canadian Artillery regiment opens up new tactical uses for artillery, from counterbattery fire to overwatch and creeping barrages. The Royal Engineers regiment and its Churchill AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) heavy tanks allow the British to smash almost any defended position. Finally, the Royal Commandos regiment gives the British tactical flexibility. The commandos can call in glider troops and set up forward bases deep in enemy territory.

One of the most unique features of the British is their ability to pack up their bases and redeploy them where they need them the most. This gives the British many strategic options: deploy the headquarters near the front to call in reinforcements, or hang back and secure a key resource point. Add to that new defensive options like slit trenches, and antitank, machinegun, and antiaircraft emplacements, and the British are a well-rounded army.

The Panzer Elite sit at the other end of the spectrum. The Panzer Elite are the hardest-hitting army in Opposing Fronts and COH, but that firepower comes at a cost. That's because the Panzer Elite rely on small, elite squads. What makes the PE so deadly is their mobility. They're a vehicle-based army relying on light half-tracks, scout cars, and tank hunters to win the day. Where the British are about defense, the Panzer Elite are about speed, and it's true what they say: Firepower wins battles; speed wins wars.

One of our key goals with Opposing Fronts was to really enhance and cement Company of Heroes as the leading team-based multiplayer RTS game. With the British and Panzer Elite armies we've really elevated the team-based aspect of COH by giving the player more choices. In fact, we've doubled the number of possible commander tree combinations from 12 (in a four-person game) to 24! This gives players more opportunities to try different team-based tactics and roles.

For single-player, the two new campaigns really showcase the new armies. The British Campaign follows the 3rd Battalion as it takes part in the liberation of Caen and faces the might of the SS division trying to stop the Allies. The Caen campaign features intense urban combat and some of the largest tank battles seen on the Western Front. Operation Market Garden has the player command a Panzer Elite Kampfgruppe as it tries to defend against the largest airborne invasion in history.

Weather or Not

GS: Company of Heroes won almost every major PC award there was to win last year. Still, what lessons did you learn from COH, and how are you applying them to Opposing Fronts?

JM: Even with all the awards, which were both rewarding and humbling, we are our own worst critics. Company of Heroes was a labor of passion, and for over three and a half years the team poured their souls into the game. Even then, even after close to four years, there were features we wanted to enhance or add that we simply could not. Now we have the chance to do just that, and with the bonus to being able to learn from what our players liked and did not.

First on the list is vehicle pathfinding. COH set new benchmarks for squad AI, but our vehicle pathfinding suffered from the same issues that plague other RTS games. It is one of the hardest problems to solve for RTS games, but we're taking steps to make our tanks look and behave with more intelligence.

Secondly, while we were happy with how the armies in COH played, we wanted to add new armies that felt and played very differently. Back when we started developing Opposing Fronts last year (before we were done with COH) we knew we wanted to give the players more army choices, and we're happy with how the results are turning out.

GS: We understand that one of the new features in Opposing Fronts is the idea of "mission persistence." What exactly does this mean, and how does it work?

JM: Some of the most successful missions in COH were what we called counterattack missions. These were missions where the player was tasked with securing a location and then defending it in a different mission, such as the Carentan set of missions. Counterattack missions really showcased COH's dynamic and physics-driven environments--a building destroyed in one mission was no longer usable in the next.

For Opposing Fronts we wanted to make mission persistence and counterattack missions a key element of the single-player campaigns. In addition, objectives and medal opportunities you complete in one mission may impact a later mission.

GS: Another of the new features is the idea that weather can affect the battlefield. How? And is this a feature that could get rolled into the existing game via a patch or update?

JM: First, weather features prominently in the single-player game. Rain obscures infantry and mud slows tanks and vehicles down. The intent is to make weather an aspect of Opposing Fronts' "real battlefields."

For multiplayer, this means that players will be able to choose the time of day and weather conditions for their games. We're still determining the exact effect of weather in multiplayer, but rest assured it will add a new element to Opposing Fronts' already intense multiplayer games.

Weather will be added to the original COH via a patch.

GS: We love multiplayer Company of Heroes, and the thought of new multiplayer modes is pretty exciting. What can you reveal about the modes or any other multiplayer improvements and enhancements?

JM: Relic Online is going through a massive overhaul. Again, we've been listening to our community and are trying to incorporate as many of their suggestions as we can. Arranged team auto-matching, observe mode, and better stat tracking are some of the features we'll be adding to both Company of Heroes and Opposing Fronts.

In terms of multiplayer modes, we're still keeping those secret for now.

GS: If you only get Opposing Fronts and you don't have Company of Heroes, will you have access to all four factions in multiplayer, or will you need to own COH to play as the Americans and the regular German factions?

JM: Players that own Opposing Fronts can only play as the British or Panzer Elite. However, Opposing Fronts players will be able to play online against the Americans and Werhmacht armies from the original Company of Heroes. Likewise, Company of Heroes players can play against (and on the same team as) the British and Panzer Elite.

Our plan was not to fragment our community. Instead, we wanted both sets of players to be able to battle each other. And once you've seen someone use a glider or call in a Jagdpanther tank destroyer, you'll want to rush out and pick up Opposing Fronts.

GS: Thank you, Josh.