Here we are again, my friends - smack dab in the middle of WWII with
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. We are also fighting many of the same battles, okay, no literally we are fighting the same battles. One of these days, I am going to go on a walking tour of Europe and I won't need a map to go through the historic battle areas, because I will have had to cross them in my game experiences a thousand times.
You now have two new factions to control. They are the British 2nd Army or German Panzer Elite. Both have distinct and unique tactical advantages and disadvantages. There are two full campaigns for you to play through. There are also many advances to the Vehicle A.I. that make it much more playable and intuitive. Real world environment conditions add to the feel of the game as well. All of these little additions are indeed improvements to the game, but they cannot individually add enough to remove me from the feeling of the fact I have been there and blown that up before.
This is a standalone expansion, meaning that you do not need to have the original title in order to play it. In its own merits, Opposing Fronts is a good game and is interesting enough. I feel that it is a little wasted if you do not have the first Company of Heroes. In fact, I have to say it is entirely wasted if you do not have, nor have you played the first. Company of Heroes sets the bar because of how it played, and not because it was another WWII RTS. And, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts grows that even larger.
Now finally to the part that puts this game over the top of the dying beast that is the WWII RTS genre, the multiplayer. You now have four different armies to play. Not different because they are wearing different uniforms, but because they each tactically play different. The summation is that it is awesome. The multiplayer is one of the most fun RTS multiplayer experiences I have had. With this expansion, they have given me new multiplayer modes to pit the Allied vs. the Axis.
