Company of Heroes 2 Beta To Release In January

Company of Heroes is a real-time strategy game released back in 2006. The game is set in the invasion of France by the United States in World War II. It was an interesting evolution of the RTS genre, where players had to control territories and have a good understanding of positioning and the various tools in each of the two (and later four) factions available. The game was well received on release, and was supported with a number of tournaments and expansion packs, including Opposing Fronts (which introduced the Panzer Elite and the British as playable multiplayer factions) and Tales of Valour (which had a DOTA-style mode, an Onslaught-style cooperative defense mode, and a tank arena mode). According to the review aggregrator GameRankings, Company of Heroes scored an average of 94%, making it the most highly rated strategy game of all time.

Now, six years later, Company of Heroes 2 is on the horizon. The original developers Relic are back with the next chapter, slated to be set on the Eastern Front of World War II, where the Russians and Germans fought both the treacherous conditions and each other in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. With new gameplay elements including snow, ice and an incredible line-of-sight system, the game should be quite something.

According to developers THQ, the game will enter closed beta "shortly after the New Year." The game is currently in a very limited Alpha, which aims to stress test the servers before the beta proper starts. If all goes well, the game is slated for release in March 2013. The game is available for pre-order from a number of sources including Steam, Origin and THQ's own website.

Relic have also released a new multiplayer trailer for the game over the past few days, which shows off a few of the units we can expect in the game, from Russian Kitakyushu rocket trucks to German StuGs. The trailer also reveals that, like the first game, Company of Heroes 2 will support modes from 1v1 all the way up to 4v4.

What do you think? I'm personally quite excited about the prospect of the beta!

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK's largest online retailer of iPhone 5 docks.