Not as simple as it may seem... but that's absolutely not a negative, on the contrary.
The above are the main reasons why I never bothered with the likes of "Company Of Heroes". An added reason is that around the same time, the "Call Of Duty" series kicked off and me being more of a first-person-shooter player, I concentrated on the latter and forgot all about the former.
Now, with "Company Of Heroes 2" on the horizon --and me having found a source of older games for less than two times nothing on eBay-- I decided to still have a go at this first installment.
And what a nice surprise it turned out to be. The animations are pretty damn good for a game of 2006, with the little soldiers crawling lifelike along the path you set out for them.
Units --both allies and enemies-- and the terrain on which everything evolves are extremely detailed, from shrubbery to bricklaid houses, from brooks to swampy lakes, from footsoldiers to panzers and half-tracks, from mortars to FLAK canons: everything looks like you can put your hand into the screen and grab a hold of it.
The aforementioned eye for detail is also one of the main reasons why a game like "Company Of Heroes" is totally immersive. Because you never feel like you're staring at a computer screen and manipulating tin soldiers into getting from point "A" to point "B". From the word 'go' (and after having worked through a fairly interesting and well done tutorial) you are not playing a game but directly become part of it, such is the level of involvement.
Another reason why "CoH" is such a great game is that the missions never feel tedious. Everything makes sense, first and foremost because you know what happened for real, some 70 odd years ago, but also and not in the least because of the intro movies for each mission and the voice-over explaining what happened.
Each new mission is preluded by a short but detailed briefing, with details about recon on where to find depots of ammo or communications antennae.
Each mission also comes with a map with everything pointed out; a map of which part is sitting miniaturized in the bottom left corner of your screen and on which you can follow progress on some of your troops.
The menus for steering your troops around is very clear and well defined and avoids confusion --although one must still pay attention what and where to click, in order to not send some troops elsewhere instead of where they initially were sent to --leaving you confused when you go looking for them, only to find they've disappeared from where you thought you left them and see they popped up with another bunch you've sent in a totally different area.
I also must add that what at first glance looks to be a fairly simple game --what can be easier than giving orders to a large (or smaller) group of soldiers, who are predestined to win the war anyway, right?-- is a touch more difficult than one might presume.
This is majorly due to the clever set-up of the A.I. and the way this A.I. counters your troops with German ones.
A bit of a letdown at first is the way your soldiers are getting to cover: when pointing at an area, there's yellow or green points appearing on the ground you point at. Yellow meaning not so decent cover against heavy weapons, green meaning fairly decent cover.
Problem is that your soldiers don't always choose the best route to get under cover, and once they get to the area you sent them to, they don't always go sit behind yonder low wall, but in front of it --despite you clearly clicked behind the wall-- leaving them like sitting ducks for zee Germans.
Another often comical --but rather annoying-- feat is that when there's only two routes to get somewhere --like two bunkers with a trench in-between and entry roads on either side of said bunkers-- and both entry routes are blocked by other troops you've positioned there, a third party, when ordered to get in-between the bunkers, will keep running from left to right like headless chicken because they cannot get where you ordered them to go.
You also have to look after yer troops, because once they've carried out an order --like putting land mines in the middle of an access road-- they don't return to base after having finished laying the explosives, but dutifully sit next to their laid out mines awaiting fresh orders... which can lead to loss of troops when said mines are there because an enemy convoy is about to drive through...
But these are just small inconveniences which you get used to --and adapt to-- very quickly, just because the resistance of the Germans is so ferocious that you actually can't afford to get careless and lose dearly needed soldiers. You can get careless once, but usually remember your wrong doings by the second time you leave soldiers to carry out orders.
And should you suffer too heavy losses, there's often the possibility to get reinforcements by means of recruits being flown-in and dropped right at the side of their comrades. Only drawback is that those 'shipments' are going at the rate of one at a time instead of, for instance, whole battalions...
All in all, this is a very nice game, cleverly thought out and well balanced, with very nice animations and graphics and a satisfying gameplay.
Now, tell me, what more can one want?
JJ