Company of Heroes 2 is a real-time strategy video game created by Relic Entertainment and released by Sega for Windows, Linux, and OS X. It is the follow-up to the 2006 game Company of Heroes. Like the original game, Company of Heroes 2 is set during World War II, with a focus on the Eastern Front. Players mainly control the Soviet Red Army during different stages of the Eastern Front, from Operation Barbarossa to the Battle of Berlin. The game uses Relic Entertainment’s special Essence 3.0 game engine.

In January 2013, Sega bought Relic Entertainment and the game rights to Company of Heroes from THQ. The game was released on June 25 in North America and Europe.

A follow-up game, Company of Heroes 3, was released in February 2023.

Gameplay

The resource-generation system from the first game has been changed. Players still capture marked points on the map to collect munitions and fuel credits, which are used to build units. Many armies can build caches to increase the amount of fuel or munitions collected from these points, but some points produce more of one resource and cannot have caches built on them. Instead of soldiers gathering directly at the marked point, a point can be captured if the player's units are in a specific area with no enemy units nearby. Capturing multiple points across the map helps players collect resources and grow their army faster. To benefit from a captured point, it must be connected to the player's headquarters through a continuous area of captured land, forming an unbroken supply line. If the enemy captures land that separates a point from the rest of the player's territory, resource collection slows down. Manpower is used to build basic units, and the amount of manpower decreases as the player's army becomes larger.

Units can take over civilian buildings and use them as temporary strongholds. However, enemies can force occupants out using attacks from artillery, flamethrowers, or grenades. The building-damage system from Company of Heroes is kept and improved; wooden buildings that catch fire will burn until completely destroyed. Tanks and light vehicles can also damage buildings by driving into them. The Soviets' main building is the Regimental Field Headquarters, which produces soldiers and engineers. The Special Rifle Command, Support Weapon Kampaneya, Mechanized Armor Kampaneya, and Tankoviy Battalion Command are the Soviet equivalents of the original game's barracks, weapons support center, vehicle center, and tank hall. A field hospital can treat seriously injured soldiers. The Wehrmacht's main building is the Kampfgruppe Headquarters, which produces pioneers and MG42 Heavy Machine Gun teams and allows upgrades to create more advanced units and structures.

Combat includes units that players recruit and control directly, either through buildings or special abilities, as well as support actions like artillery attacks or air cover. Every unit, whether infantry or vehicle, has a cost to build, a time needed to recruit, and abilities for fighting. Vehicles and infantry can be upgraded by purchasing specific improvements, which usually make them more effective. Some upgrades help all units immediately, while others must be bought for individual units. Most battles happen through direct combat where units can see each other. As in the original game, colored dots show areas that offer different levels of cover for soldiers and support units. Soldiers can climb over low obstacles like fences or walls, while vehicles can break through obstacles depending on their type. If a vehicle takes too much damage, it may be abandoned instead of destroyed, leaving the crew dead but the vehicle intact. Abandoned vehicles can be repaired by engineers, captured by sending enough infantry to operate them, or destroyed by enemy fire to prevent the enemy from using them. The game also includes optional side quests marked by an inverted triangle icon.

The game's Essence 3.0 engine introduces a new visibility system called TrueSight, which makes unit visibility more realistic. Unlike the overhead view in other strategy games, TrueSight shows how far a unit can see based on the environment and its type.

Weather plays a major role in gameplay through the ColdTech system. Since many battles on the Eastern Front happened in winter, soldiers can suffer frostbite if exposed to severe weather while under enemy fire. A thermometer icon shows a soldier's body temperature. Soldiers can warm up if near a fire or inside a building, but those in cover outside do not change temperature. Moving through deep snow slows movement unless on a road, and footprints are visible to enemies. Some maps have frozen water, allowing more movement options but also risking ice breaking under heavy units or explosions.

The game includes "Theatre of War," a series of single-player and cooperative missions that explore different parts of the Eastern Front from both German and Soviet perspectives. Eighteen missions set in 1941 are included at launch, with later missions from 1942 and beyond available as downloadable content. The first mission, "Case Blue," is free for pre-ordered or Red Star edition copies and focuses on Axis forces during the Fall Blau campaign. Later missions include "Victory at Stalingrad," set in 1942, and "Southern Fronts," covering events from 1943.

The game's campaign includes Joseph Stalin's Order No. 227, which forbids retreating unless ordered by senior officers. Starting from the fifth mission in Stalingrad, this rule applies if players use Fresh Conscripts, Frontovik Squads, or Penal Battalions. A time bar appears on the map; during this time, players cannot let their soldiers retreat to headquarters or face execution for doing so.

Plot

In 1952, at a Siberian gulag, NKVD Colonel Churkin questions his former officer, Lieutenant Lev Abramovich Isakovich, about a journal that describes his experiences during the Great Patriotic War. Churkin asks Isakovich if he truly supported the Soviet Union, while Isakovich criticizes Churkin for not caring about Soviet soldiers' lives.

Isakovich remembers meeting Churkin at the start of Operation Barbarossa, where they used scorched earth tactics to stop German forces from advancing on Moscow. He led a counterattack at Mtsensk and fought German troops during the cold winter. Later, Isakovich's unit was moved to Stalingrad, where he believed the only motivation for Soviet soldiers was Order 227. During the battle, his soldiers left their positions to save Isakovich after he was trapped in a collapsed building. As punishment, the soldiers were executed, and Isakovich was assigned to work as a war correspondent.

While recovering from his injuries, Isakovich learns about the Siege of Leningrad and the relief efforts in Operation Iskra. He then joins Soviet troops attacking Orsha and Lublin, where he discovers the Majdanek concentration camp. After reporting on the execution of Home Army partisans in Poland, who were seen as a threat to future Soviet control, Churkin sends Isakovich to a penal battalion. There, Isakovich sees the Battle of Poznań, the destruction of the German Ninth Army at the Battle of Halbe, and the final Battle of Berlin.

Isakovich attempts to leave the Soviet Union to reveal the truth about the Eastern Front but is captured and sent to the gulag. After finishing the interrogation, Churkin kills a guard and lets Isakovich escape with the journal. Churkin had found out he would not survive Joseph Stalin's next purge. As Isakovich escapes, Churkin takes his own life.

Development

In May 2012, THQ announced the sequel to the well-received game Company of Heroes. THQ’s senior executive, Danny Bilson, stated that the company would continue developing Company of Heroes 2 after its release the following year. On December 19, 2012, THQ filed for bankruptcy shortly after delaying the game’s release date. The next month, on January 23, 2013, THQ sold Relic Entertainment to Sega for $26.6 million as part of a company-wide auction due to bankruptcy.

Company of Heroes 2 uses DirectX 11 technology but also works with DirectX 10. The game includes Valve’s Steamworks technology, which supports online matchmaking and achievements.

The game was released in North America and Europe on June 25, 2013. After its release, Relic Entertainment added downloadable content (DLC) to the game:

• Commanders: This DLC adds new abilities and units that players can use in battles. Players can select up to 3 commanders, but only one can be used at a time. Each commander provides access to 5 unique units or abilities. Some commanders were given away for free during special events.
• Cosmetic Items: These include vehicle skins, which change the camouflage pattern of vehicles and tanks. They are only for appearance. Faceplates are another cosmetic change visible only in the main menu or during multiplayer match loading screens.
• Content Packs: The Western Front Armies DLC added the U.S. Forces (USF) and Oberkommando West (OKW) as playable factions. Relic also released the Ardennes Assault DLC, which introduced a new, non-linear campaign set in Belgium. Players control U.S. forces in scenarios and skirmish maps with unique challenges. This expansion was praised for its added strategy and difficulty. A third expansion, The British Forces, added the British as a playable faction in battles and multiplayer modes.

Reception

PC World gave the game a score of 3.5 out of 5. PC Gamer rated the game 80 out of 100, saying: "Company of Heroes 2 is the USSR of real-time strategy games: very large, strong, but with some problems." IGN gave the game an 8.4 out of 10, stating: "More like a large expansion pack than a true sequel, Company of Heroes 2 repeats many of the original Company of Heroes' features."

As of March 31, 2014, the game had sold 680,000 copies in Europe and North America.

Relic, the game's developer, has faced criticism from critics and historians for how accurately it shows events on the Eastern Front during World War II. An article written by Colin Campbell for the video game website Polygon said that comments from players on forums and Metacritic show how strongly people feel about the war. The article also included a statement from the game's director, Quinn Duffy, who said that "the second game covers a wider range of events," while "the first game focused on a small group of soldiers and did not take a broader view."

In Russia and other Post-Soviet countries, the game was criticized for showing Red Army commanders as cruel, using their soldiers in harsh ways, and exaggerating brutal war tactics. After a video made by the Russian blogger BadComedian (real name: Evgeny Bazhenov), thousands of people signed a petition on Change.org, asking Steam to block the game in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The Russian game publisher 1C-Softclub stopped selling the game on July 26, 2013, because of strong negative feedback, including a petition from players. After this news, the game's publisher, SEGA, said they were "taking this issue very seriously and thoroughly examining these concerns with all related partners."