Facts

• On the 31st March 2011, CoHO will shut down the beta servers – source
• After 31st March CoHO will no longer exist, there will be no release after beta.  Relic is no longer working on the product – source
• Commander data will be lost – source
• Company of Heroes has generally had equal or more players online – source
• It has nothing to do with the death of Brian Wood – source
• Development will continue on CoH and Relic are still continuing the franchise, without CoHO – source
• If you registered before February 1 2011 you can get CoH Gold for $4.99 – source
• The Chinese and Korean versions of CoHO will also be closing – source

Verdict

This has come as a surprise to myself and a lot of other people. However, I had just been thinking the other day though that the incentive for me to invest money isn’t really high enough. I would have happily paid $15/month of in-game items however there was no need as I was able to buy everything I wanted entirely with in-game currency.  The more I played, the more in-game currency I earned. This seems the wrong way around to me as it’s the people that play a lot of CoHO that would be willing to fork out the cash.

It seems that having both CoH and CoHO side-by-side was a watering down of their market. It makes sense that if one has to go then the free to play is the best option. It was obviously not generating enough revenue for them.

Solution

The best solution I can see to the problem is for Company of Heroes 2 to be released. While I have inside information that another of their great titles is getting an expansion, I’ve been unable to source info on CoH2. This seems like the logical next step for them to take. We’ve seen it with their Dawn of War franchise with great success. My only hope is they don’t go too far down the path of simplifying the game as the did with DoWII with bad consequences.

I’d also like to see an expansion of CoH set in the modern era. I think this could work really well with the tactical style and upgrade system. I can just imagine driving my ASLAV’s around and upgrading them with slat armor (anti-RPG protection). It would work well for the current “war on terror” with the terrorists having a completely different feel to them and using guerrilla tactics. This would give Relic a 3rd series in using the same core engine and open them up to a lot of new customers. There have been countless numbers of WWII RTS games in the past, however the number of modern day realistic RTS games is a lot lower.

Conclusion

What are your thoughts on Company of Heroes Online closing? Did you play it and are you disappointed as I am?

Lets get straight into it, the L4D2 boycott means the following:

1. The games industry has reached mature adult status
2. Depending what Valve does from here, it may not see itself in the “Big 5″ for much longer
3. It’s not just about the money

The games industry has reached mature adult status

This isn’t the first time gamers have complained about a game.  Truth be told, gamers don’t stop complaining about games.  However, this is the first time a large group of gamers, with an intelligent manifesto have come forward with a mature complaint.  Gone is the tantrum styled foot stamping the games industry is used to.  We’ve moved beyond our simple bitching and into the realm of mature adults, where genuine concerns are raised and a solution put on the table.  The ball is now in Valve’s court…

Depending what Valve does from here, it may not see itself in the “Big 5″ for much longer

Firstly, you may be asking what the “Big 5″ is.  This is the group of major game studios that are highly respected and form the backbone of the games industry as it stands.  I’ve formed this list after many late night discussions with game developers discussing who’s doing it right, and who everyone really wants to work for.  These include:

• Valve (L4D, Half-Life)
• Relic (Homeworld, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, The Outfit)
• Bioware (Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect)
• Blizzard (Starcraft, Warcraft, WOW)
• Bethesda (Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3)

A mature, valid complaint has been handed to Valve.  How they react to this is going to shape both their business into the future, as well as the games industry as a whole.  If Valve treat this as the prepubescent tantrum they are used to, they could see themselves in deep water.

The easiest solution for Valve is to simply ignore the boycott and move on, business as usual.  This is the most likely outcome, however they have a great opportunity to set an example for other big studios.  Surprisingly, it’s been gamers who have stepped up to the mark with this mature response.  It’s important that Valve think long and hard about how they respond to this.

It’s not just about the money

This brings me to the core issue here.  Since games were first made, there has been a gradual movement from making great games, to making games that sell well.  While this was inevitable as game studios moved from backyard, small teams to large corporations with share holders to keep happy.  This has gone on in the background and gamers have more or less accepted it.  The symptoms have been a reduction in game quality, a focus on sequels/safe games and what some call a “watering down” of what games are really about. The boycott has brought this quest for money into the open and is asking one of the worlds greatest game studios a question.  What’s more important, great games, or lots of money?

From Bad to Good

I downloaded the demo when it came out, not expecting much as I’ve played most WWII RTS’s that have come out in the past few years (a lot). I played through the demo and was quite unimpressed. I also tried the multiplayer beta and I started to see what all the fuss was about. As I have a friend at THQ (thanks Damian) I decided to get it for cheap and give it a go. I started playing multiplayer and fell in love with the game. I was really bad though, so I decided to give single player a go to see if it was any good. I usually steer clear of SP in RTS’s completely, however after the first 3 missions I was hooked with SP as well. For some reason, the two worst missions out of all the Single player game were the two they put in the demo. I played through the entire campaign and both had a lot of fun, and learnt quite a few tactics to use online.

Unique ideas

Rather than give a regular review, I’d like to just talk about a few of the key features that makes CoH stand out for me. There are two unique concepts that CoH has that I’ve never seen in an RTS before, and I’ve played a lot of them.

1. Retreating
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I only just found out about this, 50 MP games into playing. I’ve always said that RTS games should have a good retreat in them making ‘running away’ a viable option in the battle. In every other game, retreating only works if you have a faster unit than the enemy, and even then, it’s barely worth using. CoH actually has a ‘retreat’ button which makes your men stop whatever they are doing, and run at great speed back to their base. You can’t control them until they are back there nor where they go so they can sometimes cross in front of enemy fire, however most of the time it works. This is pure genius. It opens up so many great strategies and means that one simple mistake isn’t completely punished by losing your entire group of men and giving the enemy precious XP for the kills.

2. Snipers
I’ve been thinking about snipers since they appeared in C&C and wondered how they could be implemented properly. CoH has the best implementation I’ve seen. Take the regular hide until they shoot, add in some detected at close range or by a recon unit and you have a fairly standard sniper dynamic. This is done in a lot of games and works well. Where the guys at Relic have excelled is adding an extra element to the hidden status. The first few times the sniper fires it becomes visible for a brief instant, not long enough for an MG nest to re-man the gun to return fire. However after quite a few shots, the length of time he becomes visible increases, until after quite a few shots he is visible continuously. Just like in real life, the sniper gives away his position more actually the more he fires. It also means that a sniper can’t simply decimate enemy squads without moving around or having some kind of support.

It’s all about the tactics

Once you’ve played a few weeks of CoH, nearly every other RTS feels like it has no strategy (I’m talking about you Tiberium Wars). In CoH you can use every part of the terrain to your advantage from dead cows to walls to buildings. Unlike in nearly every other RTS where hopping into a building is a sure way of winning, in CoH it comes with its own disadvantages. The key here is that there is no perfect strategy that will always win the day. You may figure out an awesome setup (like putting MG’s at all the choke-points around a map) but there’s always a counter to the strategy. I’ve played 50+ games online now and I’m still continually learning tactics and counter-tactics each time I play.

A simple example of this is the movement of your troops around a map. When you start playing you figure out fairly quickly that different objects on the map supply your troops with different amounts of cover. The green, yellow and red shields denote Heavy Covert, Light Cover and Exposed respectively. Easy to pick up, instant strategy added at little cost. In fact, you don’t even need to worry about this if you don’t care. Players can just move their men around and they’ll automatically move to cover if left exposed. Once you move on though, you realise that each type of cover requires your men to position themselves differently. If you make them all huddle around a burnt out wreck they will have great cover, however they’ll also be tightly bunched. This means that throwing a grenade their way will inflict major casualties, negating the advantage of the cover. If you’re quick though, you can start out in good cover, draw the enemy out and then retreat to a more spacious but less protected area as the enemy draws close to throw their grenade. This kind of simplicity with layers of complexity is what RTS games should be all about.

Conclusion

So my recommendation if you haven’t played CoH is to go to EBGames or equivalent and buy it. Try it out for a week and try and get as far into the Single player game (and a little multiplayer) as you can and decide if you like it. If not, take it back, free of charge, but I’m fairly sure once you start playing you’ll see how truly original and deep the game is.