STACK Magazine December Issue 122

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GAMES
DECEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
FEATURE
040
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“I t was the largest battle on the Western
Front featuring the US Forces almost
exclusively. We love the drama of the
event – those early days of shock and retreat, but
featuring key stands by small ad-hoc groups of
soldiers that literally change the dynamic of the
German plans.”
That was the primary reason that Relic
Entertainment decided to set its single-player
CoH2: Ardennes Assault during the Battle of the
Bulge, according to game director Quinn Duffy.
In December 1944, Hitler launched a surprise
offensive into Belgium that caught the Americans
completely by surprise. His plan was to divide
the American, British and French forces, retake
the port of Antwerp, and force the Allies to sign a
favourable treaty. He could then focus his attention
on halting the Soviet advance from the east. But
the Americans had other ideas.
However, don’t expect a faithful recreation of
the battle. Some of the historical facts
form part of the game, but most of
Ardennes Assault will be decided
by you.
“We wanted to make sure the
beginning and ending of the
battle were true to history, and
those bookend the middle of
the campaign where player
choice is the critical component
of the metamap,” says Duffy.
And that’s the mantra for
Ardennes Assault: Player choice.
Operation
WatchontheRhine
Relic Entertainment launch a new single-player
expansion pack for Company of Heroes 2. We spoke
with game director Quinn Fuffy.
The metamap that Duffy refers to allows the player
controlling the US forces to decide exactly where to
stand and fight during the campaign. Subsequently,
the story is driven entirely by the user.
“For the first time in a Company of Heroes
campaign, players get to choose which company
they use for any given mission,” says Duffy. “We
realised as we were developing the campaign that a
linear narrative wouldn’t work across our metamap,
as there are just far too many variables, so we
developed ‘commanders’ for each of the companies
in the game. These characters have a story arc that
the players can uncover through their play – they
learn more about the commanders, what makes
them tick, and how they change as the player’s
campaign unfolds.
“Each commander has more than 80 possible
response outcomes to every mission the player
chooses – if the player fails a late mission and
loses a lot of soldiers, the commander’s response
is tailored to those outcomes. It’s
a great way to give a well-written
and beautifully narrated recap
on the battle the player just
fought. In linear campaigns
the story is generally
delivered regardless of
how effective the player
was during the previous
battle, and we wanted to
try something dramatically
different for Ardennes
Assault.”
At your disposal are three upgradable
companies: Mechanised, Support and Airborne.
“Each of the companies was designed to add
unique flavour to the US Forces,” explains Duffy.
“Support has a lot of artillery-based abilities to
allow players to smash any opposition they find
on the map. Airborne are about precision infantry
engagements – dropping in paratroopers to
seize enemy objectives, supporting them with
airstrikes or airdropped munitions and weapons,
and the Mechanised company is built on the idea
of infantry/vehicle combined arms tactics – using
infantry or mechanised cavalry riflemen to flank
and expose enemy positions which can then be
attacked with tanks.
“The unique thing with the ability customisation
is that players can spend requisition points they
earn through victories or events on the metamap
to tailor their companies as they see fit. They can
invest in airstrikes for Airborne – for example, to
provide some of the kind of hard-hitting firepower
that they can get from the Support company.”
With 18 scenarios that include 11 missions and
seven engagements based on actual events that
unfolded during The Battle of the Bulge, Duffy says
Relic wanted to deliver the “concept of replayability
and bring the gameplay style and intensity of
multiplayer into a solo experience”.
“We had looked at our user data and saw a
couple of key things; our multiplayer community
was deeply engaged with the game, and we
found our campaign community was more likely
to play the game once, and then move on. So it
was decided to split the content very early into
the Western Front Armies (all MP) and Ardennes
Assault (campaign) to deliver unique content to
each of our major communities.”
So, can we play as the Germans?
“Not this time. We wanted to deliver an
experience from the US perspective.
There are a lot of our players that
ask for a German campaign
and we’ve said that if there’s
enough interest, we’ll look at
something.”
• Company
of Heroes 2:
Ardennes
Assault
is out now