14 DAY TRIAL // I will be separated from my usual FIFA 15 multiplayer partner over the holiday season, which means that, for those moments when I do not have plans to stay close to the family, I will need to find some other kind of multiplayer experience to satisfy my streak.
Given the kinds of games with which I have spent the most time this year, that leaves me with two major choices: Company of Heroes 2 or Wargame: Red Dragon.
My first instinct was to jump into the Relic-made real-time strategy game, which focuses on World War II, because the matches tend to be relatively fast but also tense and the variety of factions and commanders included makes it replayable in the long term.
But for all its content, Company of Heroes 2 can quickly become repetitive and each faction has a very clear path to victory and any deviation can be an invitation to defeat.
These are not problems associated with Wargame: Red Dragon, the modern military-themed real-time strategy from Eugen Systems, which has more nations to choose from, a complex deck system, and has recently received a major DLC package that upgrades Scandinavian rosters.
The title requires gamers to spend a bit of time preparing before the fight, reading about the capabilities of each unit they plan to use, and the matches, even one versus one, do take more to unfold.
In exchange, Wargame does deliver more tension than other titles in the genre and a focus on deploying the right tool at the right moment.
Rushes and over-confident tank-based strikes will probably lead to a quick defeat, while success requires careful unit placement, solid preparation for offensives, and attention to the movement of even the lowliest reconnaissance squads.
