I haven't returned to this in well over a decade, and oh my god, I see why. It is OUTRAGEOUSLY monotonous. They seemed deeply insecure in a lot of aspects of this game as they moved on from the traditional RTS of its predecessor to a radically different Company of Heroes with RPG elements style. And it really, really shows.
First is the horrible inventory management, that I can only compare to the modern Destiny style of loot where your inventory is clogged with dozens of items that are all .3% stronger against a specific enemy type. My brain is not wired to enjoy looting when I only ever actually upgraded my gear maybe 3-4 times per character, despite picking up numerous amounts of trash.
Then the length. The game has too little mission variety, too few possible character builds (again, see the lame itemization), and too repetitive enemy types to be over 10 hours long. Maybe they felt too embarrassed to release a 5 hour game after the hype Relic came off of with Dark Crusade, but Jesus. They should have just bit the bullet.
And the final entrant for the messy mechanics that betray low confidence or general indecisiveness in what the game should be is the deployment and Tyranid infestation system. Why are days a thing, exactly? Why not just fail the mission if you die instead of miraculously being saved each time and have a day pass? The only penalty for missing out on days is optional missions, and goddamn do you not wanna do those anyway after the first 30. Tyranid infestation also feels useless. Apparently it affects how many tyranids you see on missions on the planet, but frankly, who cares? Is it worth spending hours on side quests to see a few less squads of termagaunts?
But maybe the worst thing they did was have the protagonist be a silent self-insert. The fun banter is reserved only for the four squad members, and Force Commander is just a presence they will mention to dissipate any inner-circle spats. I don't know why they moved on from the fun banter of Dark Crusade, but it was a terrible mistake they never rectified until the final entry, which was far too late.
It is a fun game despite my complaints, but it's not a game I would have finished if not for sunk cost fallacy. I desperately wanted to not launch it anymore, but I was close enough to the end that I couldn't just leave it as is. Angel Gate is the real cinematic battle of the game, and then... It just keeps going for 5+ more missions? At a certain point, enough is enough.
First is the horrible inventory management, that I can only compare to the modern Destiny style of loot where your inventory is clogged with dozens of items that are all .3% stronger against a specific enemy type. My brain is not wired to enjoy looting when I only ever actually upgraded my gear maybe 3-4 times per character, despite picking up numerous amounts of trash.
Then the length. The game has too little mission variety, too few possible character builds (again, see the lame itemization), and too repetitive enemy types to be over 10 hours long. Maybe they felt too embarrassed to release a 5 hour game after the hype Relic came off of with Dark Crusade, but Jesus. They should have just bit the bullet.
And the final entrant for the messy mechanics that betray low confidence or general indecisiveness in what the game should be is the deployment and Tyranid infestation system. Why are days a thing, exactly? Why not just fail the mission if you die instead of miraculously being saved each time and have a day pass? The only penalty for missing out on days is optional missions, and goddamn do you not wanna do those anyway after the first 30. Tyranid infestation also feels useless. Apparently it affects how many tyranids you see on missions on the planet, but frankly, who cares? Is it worth spending hours on side quests to see a few less squads of termagaunts?
But maybe the worst thing they did was have the protagonist be a silent self-insert. The fun banter is reserved only for the four squad members, and Force Commander is just a presence they will mention to dissipate any inner-circle spats. I don't know why they moved on from the fun banter of Dark Crusade, but it was a terrible mistake they never rectified until the final entry, which was far too late.
It is a fun game despite my complaints, but it's not a game I would have finished if not for sunk cost fallacy. I desperately wanted to not launch it anymore, but I was close enough to the end that I couldn't just leave it as is. Angel Gate is the real cinematic battle of the game, and then... It just keeps going for 5+ more missions? At a certain point, enough is enough.