Company of Heroes 2 understands that war is mostly about losing control more slowly than the other person.
You can build a plan, position everything correctly, and watch it collapse because one squad took the wrong route through a doorway. Then you improvise. A machine gun covers the retreat. Engineers crawl toward a damaged tank. Some half-dead unit survives long enough to become the most important thing on the map.
That friction is where the game works. Units feel valuable because they remember what happened to them. Losing veterans hurts. Preserving a broken squad can matter more than taking another point.
The campaign never reaches the same level. It is loud, clumsy, and too interested in turning history into spectacle. The multiplayer and skirmishes carry the game because they allow the systems to create their own stories.
Messy, stressful, occasionally infuriating.
Still one of the few strategy games where a retreat can feel like a victory.
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