Company of Heroes

My feelings on Company of Heroes are mixed. On the one hand, its nuanced action mechanics - cover and line of sight, disparate attack types and special abilities - are impressively thought-out, and lend a real sense of personal engagement to combat. On the other hand, these mechanics have rough spots that can really ruin the experience: when units don't move exactly where you told them to, exposing them to enemy fire; when units don't notice that their nearby friends are taking it on the chin, and just stand around helplessly; when units take too long to wind up a special ability, getting shot down before the ability goes off.

I want to give a special call-out to the "pinned down" mechanic - wherein a unit is under so much fire that he can literally do nothing except flee (or, depending on the unit type, use a special ability to break out of it) - as feeling like a complete, 100% mistake. There's nothing more frustrating than sending a surge into the enemy stronghold, and taking the time to pick cover for each unit, only to have them scramble out in the open, cowering, waiting to die.

It's a shame, because the game is really well made for the most part -- the production values, especially the voice work, are excellent as well. If I had any patience at all, I'd probably be glad to put up with the game's annoyances; but the payoff, when the combat mechanics actually come together to your advantage, just doesn't seem worth it.

It doesn't help that this is yet another World War II, Allied invasion of France game. History buffs might get a lot more out of it, but I'm just not that interested in historic troop movements and tactics.

Progress: Gave Up -- Defended Carentan (Normandy campaign)