A List of Grievances

[Doug_Dimmadome]

What's the big idea, Relic? Your campaign map is buggy as hell. Units are getting stuck and become unmovable. There is a German destroyer that has been sitting outside Naples, unable to do anything and unable to have anything done to it, since the beginning of my campaign. It's clear there was no thought process on when to trigger dialogue, or how that dialogue would even make sense. "Sir, we have intel that bla bla bla anyway do this side mission out of range of your entire battle line or else."

The AI attacks me but in the same turn another AI attacks another one of my units, and both trigger a battle screen. Problem is once I battle one on the map, it's stuck. I can't move or select units, clearly related to the campaign map shenanigans. Great. Oh, did I mention that the whole "units getting stuck in the map" thing apparently happens on the battle map as well? Made that mistake and I've had infantry stuck in what appears to be rubble the entire battle, completely useless.

Also what is even the point of AI scout planes other than a routine annoyance on the player watching them carry out pointless missions? The AI already knows where you are at all times, and on top of that it can't even utilize its own emplacements. "Use cover as you move along the path or else your units will take full damage!" Yeah, right, as if they are ever under threat of enemy howitzer emplacements or bombing runs. Emplacements, like your leaders and enemy scout planes, are nothing more than a constant annoyance to the player. The MG and AT emplacement is frankly the only useful one to the AI, and that's because it doesn't have to *do* anything.

I'd love to use my own emplacements but hey, you've limited the battle-cap so hard and I literally cannot stop being "gifted" new, useless units like destroyers and bombers thanks to getting too chummy with not-Patton and not-Montgomery. The way the line moves by the time I've built an emplacement, it is now useless. So, chock that up to a feature I just don't use out of practicality.

Then there's Anzio Annie. Oh, Anzio Annie, the newest contender for the Preston Garvey award! Every, single, turn "WE JUST GOT HIT AGAIN BY ANZIO ANNIE!" except no units have apparently taken any damage, so really the only suspense in taking down that gun is to shut up your incessant, unlikable battle staff. Never mind the fact it took me forever to realize that it was a landing-only mission, which would have been nice to know before trekking my armies everywhere only to realize I had wasted my time.

This game isn't bad, it really isn't. Yet there are these constant annoyances that I don't believe you didn't see coming in development. The campaign map is *not* a bad idea at all, but your execution of it is left wanting. There are bugs that are arguably game-breaking, since if a unit is stuck in the campaign map there is no way to get rid of it. The AI is braindead. The atmosphere is tarnished by your annoying advisors and their stupid stories. Speaking of stupid stories, these letters every loading screen are inconsequential. Who is this guy? Why do I care? Same goes for the German campaign. I'm not going to go full "ewwww woke!!!" but the introduction with the mentioning of Jews in Benghazi seems... out of place? It never comes up. What's the suspense? Is Rommel going to round them up, too? Do we get some moral comparison of Rommel and Hitler hinting to his personal misgivings of Hitler and his policies? No? *Then what was the point?*

CoH1 had its story-telling almost perfect. The perspective of hearing the veterans of these missions recount the battles was like watching Band of Brothers at the time. Even the German campaign focusing on the two brothers was good, it gave suspense and context. CoH2 did a decent job as well with it being a former Soviet officer giving his disposition to a NKVD agent, and telling a story with the theme of "Was throwing Russian lives away so carelessly worth it? Did we sacrifice our humanity in trying to defend the Motherland?" CoH3 just feels hollow in that regard. I know over time CoH has morphed into an almost MP-only game, and that's fine everyone enjoys a good skirmish. Yet it seems that Relic, like many other developers, have put SP story-telling aside in lieu of cashing in on all the MP skins and goodies. Just a shame, really, because again I say: At one point CoH could tell a really, really good story.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[Tragopan]

Agreed on all points and well said!

[DeatheTech]

I agree on this, there was potential but the game is just not finished and it's clear from the Italian campaign that there were a lot of new ideas but the implementation was rushed and/or poorly executed. I think this game needed another 3-4 months of development, I felt like this was early access with how dumb the AI is and how many bugs I saw.

[Smurky Turkey]

The difference between the two campaigns is staggering issue wise. The Africa one has no real issues but due to the overworld map in the Italy one it is always close to caving in on itself, be it crashes or bugged out units/missions.

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by Doug_Dimmadome:

This game isn't bad, it really isn't.

I edited your novella a bit.

[Tragopan]

Originally posted by katzenkrimis:

Originally posted by Doug_Dimmadome:

This game isn't bad, it really isn't.

I edited your novella a bit.

It kind of really is, though. It's clear that it needed much more development time at the very least.

[Doug_Dimmadome]

Originally posted by katzenkrimis:

Originally posted by Doug_Dimmadome:

This game isn't bad, it really isn't.

I edited your novella a bit.

I mean if you're taking a jab at the length of the post, I literally referred to it as a "TED talk". I'm not hating on the game, just pointing out the frustrating inconsistencies and annoying quirks that degrade the experience.

[Dodo]

All true!HAve 10 upgrade pts but cant upgrade units XD