Year: 2013
Type: Original Soundtrack (OST)
Composer(s): Cris Velasco
Number of tracks: 26

★★★★★

Schindler's List instead of Saving Private Ryan

When I was younger, the number behind a game title stood for progress, as everything got better over time: the graphics were more beautiful, the gameplay more refined, the game world bigger. Heroes of Might and Magic V had the number five in its title, so it was at least 2.5 times better than Heroes of Might and Magic II - according to my calculations. In short: the successor marked progress. The fact that this principle didn't necessarily apply eventually became clear to me with games like Earth 2160, Dragon Age II and Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Fortunetaly, such a disaster as those titles Company of Heroes 2 was not, but neither was it a milestone like the first Company of Heroes . I did have fun with it, but I also had to admit that I somehow liked the predecessor better. Was it the campaign about the battle on the Eastern Front that didn't captivate me as much? The poor performance, which made my PC suffer at least as much as the pixel soldiers it had to render? Or the fact that DLCs and microtransactions suddenly found their way into the video game world instead of proper add-ons and that only two of the five playable factions were included in the main game? I can't recall.

Company of Heroes (2006)

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (2007)

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor (2009)

Company of Heroes Eastern Front (2017)

Company of Heroes 2 (2013)

Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies (2014)

So the game is rather okay, what do I have to say about the soundtrack? Since I started this review with a comparison between the past and present, I'll continue gallantly and point out the obvious: Not only has the size of the OST been whittled down to 26 tracks, no, there have also been changes to the composers. Instead of Ian Livingstone, Inon Zur or Jeremy Soule, Cris Velasco is now solely responsible for the orchestration of the world war drama. With games such as God of War, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Borderlands 2 and Mass Effect 3 on his CV, it should be clear that he was more than up to the task.

Anyone expecting a seamless continuation of what they heard in the first Company of Heroes will soon be disappointed. That game thrived on its varied mixture of emotional ambient pieces and military-sounding action pieces. We find this again in Company of Heroes 2 , but with a significant twist. Because here, as already mentioned, all the pieces come exclusively from Velasco, which is why the score automatically has a much stronger coherence than the hodgepodge that can be heard in the predecessor. The latter's high rating proves that the experiment worked, at least for me, but there is never any guarantee of this.

Naturally, the OST does not adopt a completely different perspective. Once again, we are musically at the mercy of the turmoil of the Second World War, once again epic and tragedy face each other and weave an emotional tapestry of encouragement and despair. The composer achieves what was only partially possible in the predecessor due to the composing trio: a main motif that accompanies us throughout the entire score and sets selective accents.

Company of Heroes 2 opens quietly, deliberately, like a leisurely igniting storm gathering on the horizon. As it slowly seems to gain in intensity, the drawn-out strings and percussion fall silent. They are replaced by a violin that sounds lonely, beautiful and fragile, like John Williams' theme to Schindler's List . However, it quickly gains strength, which distinguishes it from its cinematic counterpart. The strings do not remain alone for long: the orchestra grows as if it were a chamber piece, becoming larger and more powerful before it is joined by a choir at 1:40.

Now the first violin dances on the spot, almost death-defying, like a dancer on a rooftop, flying over the dark turmoil of the street below, from where the orchestra seems to reach out for it. It becomes louder, more menacing, more determined. As if she had not fallen from the gable, but the street had risen up to meet her, she immerses herself in the soundscape. The fusion succeeds, a marriage of enchanting rapture and stoicism - but it cannot last long. The beauty is replaced by dominant winds and percussion that seem to swallow up the string instrument: War has come, death has come. The piece closes again on a contemplative note, but the beauty of the moment has faded.

As noted, this will not be the last interplay of melody and male choir within the soundtrack, which is thematically based on Eastern European / Russian tropes. What made me roll my eyes in the Eastern Front-mod for Company of Heroes works brilliantly in this case. Velasco, who already impressed with his brute style in the God of War-series, hits the perfect sweet spot here, neither becoming too pathetic nor too trivial.

We hear the vocals in combination with the strings in March Into Hell, O My Brother, Be Strong (here also together with the heroic main theme) and Stand, Rise Up!, which is initially reminiscent of the GoW-series before later drifting more in the direction of Star Wars - interesting! The leitmotif can also be heard briefly in the fast-paced Blitzkrieg , whose combination with the horns touches a little on the Star Trek-films of the Kalvin timeline. In Onward to Victory , on the other hand, the combination of dominant strings, brass and choir is convincing.

Where Velasco shines in the upbeat battle tracks, the ambient pieces fall off the back of the supply truck. Unlike the first Company of Heroes, where Soule's talent for moving background tracks brought some variety to the gray of the battlefields, pieces like Footsteps in the Snow, We Toil with No Respite or Ghosts of the Fallen with their dark and oppressive (cello) sounds are more reminiscent of horror games like Dead Space or an uninspired Supreme Commander (Soldiers, Be Wary). Although they are still better than what we hear in comparable scores of this genre and fit perfectly with the setting of the cold Eastern front (or OST front), it still feels like a bit of wasted potential.

Let's briefly touch on the other two highlights: Don’t Weep, That Time Has Passed is an onslaught, both metaphorically and instrumentally. I particularly like the whipping sounds, this forward motion that, in conjunction with the choir, chases us out of the trenches onto the battlefield and makes us ignore bullets and explosions. A Red Army Rising is in the same vein, but leaves more room for doubt. We don't actually want to be here, but we have to. For victory. For triumph. Velesco withholds this from us for almost the entire track until we are finally granted catharsis at 2:39.

"The soundtrack for Company of Heroes 2 is very good." This could be a summary, which is essentially true and at the same time leaves so much unsaid. Cris Velasco has not tried to copy the work of his predecessors. Instead, he has succeeded in retaining the spirit of their compositions and transporting them to a completely different theater of war. While the first Company of Heroes celebrated the heroism of Normandy and the liberation of the West, the soundtrack to Company of Heroes 2 depicts the cruelty of the wintry Eastern Front. Of cold, destruction and death. It adds exuberant patriotism and heroism, which meets the harsh reality of war, hopelessness and sadness. And so the score ends with the devout A Prayer for My Company, whose cello fades quietly into the dark of the void ... just like this review.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Company of Heroes 2	Cris Velasco	5
02	Blitzkrieg	Cris Velasco	4
03	Footsteps in the Snow	Cris Velasco	2
04	Tread Softly	Cris Velasco	2
05	March Into Hell	Cris Velasco	4
06	O My Brother, Be Strong	Cris Velasco	4
07	We Toil with No Respite	Cris Velasco	2
08	Stand, Rise Up!	Cris Velasco	4
09	The Advancing Hordes	Cris Velasco	3
10	Ghosts of the Fallen	Cris Velasco	1
11	Soldiers, Be Wary	Cris Velasco	2
12	Don't Weep, That Time Has Passed	Cris Velasco	5
13	Epitaph	Cris Velasco	2
14	Sneak Attack	Cris Velasco	3
15	Gather Your Forces	Cris Velasco	2
16	Shadows in the Mist	Cris Velasco	1
17	Onward to Victory	Cris Velasco	4
18	Not One Step Back	Cris Velasco	4
19	The Fog of War	Cris Velasco	2
20	In Russia, Rubik's Solves You	Cris Velasco	4
21	The Struggle Remains	Cris Velasco	2
22	Za Rodinu!	Cris Velasco	4
23	Frostbite	Cris Velasco	2
24	A Red Army Rising	Cris Velasco	5
25	The Long Winter	Cris Velasco	2
26	A Prayer for My Company	Cris Velasco	2

Year: 2014
Type: Gamerip
Composer(s): Cris Velasco
Number of tracks: 14

★★★★★

The Western Front Armies

The add-on to Company of Heroes 2, The Western Front Armies, unsurprisingly revolves around the Western Front, just like the first Company of Heroes. Even though the main game focused on the conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the question still arises as to why the number of playable factions did not reach significant regions until a year after the release with the US troops and the German High Command West. After all, CoH 2 only offered us the Soviet Union and the German Eastern Command to choose from. As a multiplayer title - and that's what Company of Heroes 2 apparently wanted to be - this couldn't be considered a smart move since the early Command & Conquer-games.

I also consider the omission of an original soundtrack, which was still included in the main game, to be just as 'misguided'. Instead, we are presented with 14 nameless tracks from the Gamerip trenches, which seem standardized not only because of their names. The content of the tracks, too, is rather uniform, as they are all characterized by their combination of fast strings, sustained brass, restrained percussion and a lack of climaxes.

Composer Cris Velasco takes a more conventional path here, which lacks the creativity of the main game. While the ambient pieces 01–04 are almost fantasy-like in their calm nature, the action tracks are more reminiscent of an Empire: Total Wars or Star Trek-film scores by Michael Giacchino (05+10). Unfortunately, the gamerip never reaches the depth or even that of its predecessor, but rather acts as a means to an end for most parts.

This is a real shame, because it would have been nice to have a direct juxtaposition of Velasco's interpretation of the subject matter with that of his three professional colleagues. As it is, the score would bob along in insignificance if at least one piece worth listening to had not emerged from the fog of war in the form of 13 . Its dramaturgical structure at least offers some variety and tells the familiar story of preparation for, encounter in and the aftermath of the battle.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 01	Cris Velasco	2
02	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 02	Cris Velasco	2
03	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 03	Cris Velasco	2
04	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 04	Cris Velasco	2
05	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 05	Cris Velasco	4
06	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 06	Cris Velasco	4
07	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 07	Cris Velasco	4
08	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 08	Cris Velasco	4
09	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 09	Cris Velasco	4
10	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 10	Cris Velasco	4
11	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 11	Cris Velasco	4
12	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 12	Cris Velasco	4
13	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 13	Cris Velasco	5
14	Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies 14	Cris Velasco	4