i'm not really a strategy guy, but my buddy told me to play CoH 2. I started the Soviet campaign on easy mode. Why's this shit so fash, and does it get any better?
Why’s this shit so fash, and does it get any better?
the world is fash, my friend
:deeper-sadness:
I remember CoH 2 buying into human wave propaganda extremely heavily, fake stalin quotes regarding order 227, the whole 9 yards. I was also excited for a game as the soviets, but it's pretty much fiction designed to portray them as inhuman monsters
Does it get better?
It does not.
If you're looking for a good RTS depiction of the Soviets in WW2 that avoids bad military history ("asiatic hordes" shit), my rec is Steel Division 2, which also happens to be one of the best wargames ever made.
I will second Steel Division 2. I haven't played it online but they definitely don't throw the Soviet's under the bus narratively. I do sometimes wonder about how bad the brain worms of the devs are at times. Wargame Red Dragon had some cringe DLC's like Israel and Apartheid South Africa.
Every single scenario in the Wargame series is about some NATO brain worms coming true, I'm pretty sure Eugen avoids the most common misconceptions because they put a lot of value on being historically accurate (though not a simulator).
Valid point, I think the only scenario I played was in Red Dragon, the Korean one and the intro to that one was wild.
I suggest playing them all because the game is really fun, but the other cold war brain scenarios include: Soviets invade Vietnam (for some reason!?) and for dessert fight China, Soviets invade mainland Japan over disputed islands, Chinese invade Hong Kong instead of waiting for the hand off date, and the Soviet coup against Gorbachev is successful and they immediately restart the Korean War. I guess they couldn't reuse the scenario where the Soviets invade across the Fulda Gap because both of the previous games dealt with that one.
Literally every single one has NATO being on the defensive, top tier brain worms.
Yeah saw some of those scenarios and they were pretty nuts. But obviously NATO is only a "defensive" organization, so of course they'd never attack anyone they're much too civilized. For real though the Redfor units are just so much more fun. Kind of like Steel Division too. I feel like the USSR has some of the just most fun units. (Nazi's had some wacky stuff but I cannot even entertain the idea of playing them ever).
and does it get any better?
Not really, though to be fair in the first game you could only play as Wermacht or Americans so at least there were soviets in the second game?
Yeah but like even when I'm playing as them they're depicted as sociopathic monsters. Like they make a point of showing them mowing down their own troops for retreating and shooting a surrendering Nazi soldier (as if that's a bad thing). I just don't get it from the dev's perspective like, if these people suck so much, why would anyone want to play as them?
Yeah but like even when I’m playing as them they’re depicted as sociopathic monsters. Like they make a point of showing them mowing down their own troops for retreating and shooting a surrendering Nazi soldier (as if that’s a bad thing).
EnemyAttheGates.jpg
I just don’t get it from the dev’s perspective like, if these people suck so much, why would anyone want to play as them?
Well they added the Brits, so I feel like you're kind of obligated to also do Soviets. I can't imagine it was due to overwhelming pressure from fans of the series.
Also if you add soviets that gives an entire new faction for communist themed horse armor dlc.
Never played the game but understand that many of the USSR "perspectives" from WW2 come straight from Nazi accounts, especially as it was politically expedient to whitewash as much of the Nazi record as possible in order to integrate them into the larger Cold War initiative. That shit just flows downstream culturally, and games are just as bad as Hollywood.
The campaign does not get better, I try to dissuade people from buying this game and Relic stuff in general because they doubled down on the pro-fascist, anti-communist propaganda after Russian players understandably called them on it.
But if it's too late for a refund then I recommend trying the Spearhead mod. Basically it gives all of the armies a historical authenticity makeover, especially the Soviets, so they actually have competent infantry rather than just conscript suicide squads, domestically produced MGs, etc.
It's actually a lot of fun to stomp Nazi computer enemies. If you end up liking the skirmish mode then maybe we could play some coop or something, Soviets vs. Wehrmacht.
I was looking for that, thanks. I didn't buy it specifically but got it from a humble bundle one time.
You're welcome, yeah, the mod actually gives them several different semi-authentic orders of battle that are tailored to six different doctrines, with actual historical units and even guerrillas like Belorussian Irregulars.
At least you didn't pay full price for it (I got it on sale for like, less than $5 lol). Actual respectful depictions of the Soviets in any WWII-themed game are few and far between.
:gamer-gulag:
Yeah. People were telling me to just ignore the story but even just the basic mechanics of Soviets as some swarm army taints the whole thing.
And yeah, even the few good depictions are filled with unfortunate tropes (Call of Duty World At War, for example).
It's pretty horrendous. The Soviets are the bad guys in their own campaign, from the narration down to the unit design. There are moments, for example when you go to heroic lengths to save a comrade, but the subsequent cut scene completely ruins it. The tonal shift is super jarring. It gets a bit better after the first few missions, which lean heavily into tropes, and you eventually get to liberate Berlin. I can't recommend finishing it unless you're invested in the gameplay or just want to wreck some fascists.
That said, I still play online pretty regularly as a Soviet main. DM me if you want to play coop sometime!
The head writer outright said he wanted to show the horrors of gommunism so yeah. Also, because the writers in general are hacks and ape from other stories (like Band of Brothers for the first game), they could only look to Enemy at the Gates for inspiration.
