Most missions are multi-staged you might start out having to gain a foothold in a town, then defend against a counterattack, then capture the remainder of the town. The campaign contains fourteen missions overall, many of which lasting in excess of one hour if you attempt to complete bonus objectives. The tale of the brutal conflict is compelling enough on its own, and missions are contextualized in this regard with a simple paragraph as each one loads. This framework really doesn't add much to the game, but fortunately these cut scenes are brief and can be skipped, and the never interrupt the gameplay.

The brutality of the Red Army is dealt with in a rather hammy way thanks to cheesy Russian-accented voice acting and stiff facial animations rendered in a game engine designed for an isometric overhead view. The missions are played as flashbacks from an ex-Red Army officer who is being interrogated in a Gulag several years after the war. Instead of telling the story of the conflict in a straightforward manner, a narrative framing device is used to dig into the morality of the war. As the Russians eventually held the Germans back at Stalingrad and started pushing toward their borders in the war, the mission design changes as well. The lengthy campaign covers the entire conflict between the Germans and Russians, with the first set of missions involving frantically defending against the Nazi blitzkrieg. The morally questionable tactics employed the Red Army are dealt with head on in the campaign, albeit in a rather ham-fisted way, and as a result you don't really feel like a hero as you send scores of men to their deaths in order to achieve victory.

The sequel takes place on the Eastern front, with the campaign following the invasion of Russia by the Germans in 1941 all the way to the eventual Soviet victory at Berlin four years later.

The first game followed the compelling but heavily used tale of American soldiers fighting through Europe immediately after D-day. The most obvious difference between Company of Heroes 1 and 2 is the setting. Soviet conscripts double as meat shields in a pinch

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