An underappreciated gem
A game of this high of a calibre deserves an equally heavyweight statement as a start to its review - Forgotten Hope 2 is the best World War 2 shooter when it comes to simulating the wholistic experience of frontline combat on the European and African theatres, and there has yet to be a game that comes close to this. It perfectly captures the absolute chaos where two armies meet, and it does so on a wide variety of historical battlefields - you can experience the Fallschirmjäger’s uncoordinated paradropping onto Crete and the slaughter that followed; the equipment-sparse fighting between Italians and Commonwealth troops in Ethiopia where it’s not about who has the better tank, but who has a tank left at all; the North African campaign which involved armored battalions striking at eachother from vast distances of sand; the D-Day landings and subsequent strikes into Western Europe by the Allies; the true hell that is urban fighting on the Eastern Front, and the desperate Defense of Berlin under constant air and artillery strikes by the Soviets. Nearly every major battle you can think of has been recreated in as much detail as the old engine under the hood will allow, with the developers checking historical day by day equipment records to accurately include the weapons and vehicles used.
Just to give an example of how meticulous these people are - they recently found out that one of their maps covering the southern section of the Battle of Kursk is inaccurate because it includes a German tank destroyer which was indeed present at Kursk, but on the northern echelon - it was brought to be used in the south, but got relocated north. As such, as soon as a gameplay-relevant replacement is found they will amend the map.
Rolling out with the 3rd Armored Division
While Forgotten Hope 2 is technically a mod based on Battlefield 2, it reuses next to nothing from the base game and goes a step further by modifying and improving aspects previously thought impossible due to engine limitations - to not call it a “game” and reduce it to a “mod” would be an insult to the monumental achievement of the developers.
The port of Tunis, 1943
It’s very difficult to pin down exactly what makes FH2 so incredible - the graphics are severely dated by now, though the work put into the models and maps is impressive and I have witnessed some of the meticulous process which the devs go through to ensure utmost historical accuracy and visual quality. It’s not the absolute leader when it comes to amount of content either as it does not even include the Asian and Pacific theatres (though they are currently in the works), and there is no naval combat to speak of. It doesn’t try to portray any of the atrocities of the war, the strategic destruction or the politics of the era. But it doesn’t have to, because what it does portray has been perfectly captured into the experience of playing this game.
An example loading screen.
Loading into a match of FH2 you get the most basic of information: a place, a time, a brief of the lead-up to the historical battle which the map seeks to emulate, and a couple real-life images to set the tone - this really helps to put you into the mind of the soldier(s) you’ll be possessing for the next 25 minutes. The little historical synopsis is particularly helpful in explaining the maps’ layouts - if you aren’t previously aware of the circumstances around the battles, you may find yourself quite lost when dropped in. A good example is the Bastogne battle playing as the Americans - the date is December 20th 1944 so you’re likely to be expecting to be on the attack as this is only 5 months away from the Fall of Berlin, but you may be surprised to see that you’re stuck spawned in defending a city with a couple outdated tanks completely surrounded by the Germans’ spawn points, who are equipped with state-of-the-art Panthers.
The infamous Pz. Kpfw. V “Panther” firing on Americans at St. Vith.
The bread-and-butter of this game is the infantry combat - the gunplay has gone through multiple reworks and rebalances, but the iteration that the developers have decided to stick with feels just right. The vast majority of soldiers are equipped with bolt-action or semi-automatic rifles which one-shot pretty much anywhere on the body, and the ones that have a different weapon tend to make big trade-offs for them - the Panzerschreck/Bazooka-equipped soldier only has a pistol for self-defence, the LMG-equipped soldiers are either incredibly inaccurate or outright cannot use their weapon without going prone or deploying the bipod on a ledge, the offensive/assault class will have the faction’s closest thing to an SMG available, but has nothing viable for engagements beyond 50 or so meters. And so the old reliable rifle will be what you spend most of your playtime with, which isn’t all that bad given how precise they are, and that feedback you get on getting a hit is incredibly satisfying. FH2 does an amazing job of making you feel the mortality of a soldier in the war - there is no medic class whatsoever which is a big divergence from the base Battlefield series. Once you’re shot - that’s it. You move on to possess another unlucky conscript thrown into the meatgrinder.
Street fighting in Tunis during Rommel’s final retreat from Africa.
And what a meatgrinder that is - death reaches an incredible peak and average lifespans can be measured with less than a stopwatch’s revolution when you throw combined arms into the mix. Even an outdated tank is something to fear when you’re a dude with a rifle, and demands the attention of everybody in the vicinity; a single mortar can completely devastate an area from a safe distance - something larger and more powerful can and often will completely turn the tide of an engagement. Multiple times I have written off a flag as guaranteed to fall to our advance, only for an enemy anti-air tank to roll up the hill and prime its quad-cannons on 3 full squads of us stuck defenceless in the open. On certain maps you will see groups of people entirely ignore the flags and run past them, hoping for the slim chance of throwing a grenade into an MG nest, or launching a Panzerfaust into the side of an overlooking Jumbo Sherman. The mere presence of some equipment warrants the entire team’s focus.
The Nebelwerfer 41 - a rocket artillery installation infamous for its roaring sound, and a prime example of equipment around which an entire match can revolve.
This is one of the aspects where FH2 really shines - all of those power amplifiers: the tanks, the aircraft, the artillery - are all fully player-controlled. There are no call-ins, no air spawns, no abstraction whatsoever. If you want artillery for example you need a player to sit onto the cannon piece, while another uses binoculars to mark a target - once spotted, the artilleryman can aim at the selected point and only there, eyeballing any adjustments needed, doing their absolute best not to launch into the friendly lines. It’s not entirely old-school however - the operator gets a point-down view of the exact location the spotter has selected, so they can confirm their own shots’ accuracy and adjust accordingly, which makes constant communication between them and the spotter unnecessary (though still useful).
A beautifully executed Stuka dive-bomb.
I truly find this to be the golden balance - it’s not tedious and difficult like simulating real-life range finding, while still having the limitations you would expect the equipment to have during that time. FH2 applies this design pattern to most of its mechanics which makes it very accessible to learn; it’s not half as daunting as the mil-sim genre it shares a community with, yet still gives you that dopamine rush when you successfully use one of them to full effect because the abstraction is kept to a minimum.
Another gorgeous airstrike, but with more severe consequences.
On a more personal note
My journey with this game spans nearly 7 years now - I started playing it in the summer of 2018, and explored it extensively until January 2020, when I finally upgraded my PC to one that can handle modern games, and it seems amidst the plethora of catching up I had to do I forgot to reinstall this gem. Well, catch-up is done and it’s the start of 2025 - a quick and easy reinstall and I’m back in. How does it hold up?
The answer is that, to me, it doesn’t hold up - it exceeds and excels.
Quite surprisingly, development is slow but far from dead with a huge gunplay rework coinciding roughly with the time I stopped playing and what seems like a big push for far higher quality maps in both visuals and gameplay around that time as well, along with a more modernised UI. FH2 is a better experience now than it has ever been, and still has the player count to allow you to jump in any evening of the week. It feels far more polished, and is way more fun because it seems to have stopped trying to be a mil-sim like the similar in size Project Reality mod.
The view from atop the hill with the sawmill on Meuse River, looking towards the bridge on the right, and the mountain pass on the left.
Since I’ve picked it back up, one game that really stood out as a huge highlight to me was playing Pretend King of the Hill as a squad leader at Meuse River during the Battle of the Bulge - my squad was holding the Pz. IV and the AA truck, so we set ourselves up atop the highest flag on the map to which the Americans had only two ways of reaching - an exposed bridge with no cover, and a narrow mountain pass leading into a ditch before a steep climb to our hill position. I was laid at the very front of the hill with binoculars, spotting the numerous Shermans and M3 half-tracks attempting the crossing and ranging for our superstar Panzer who did not miss a single shot, despite the range. We ended up holding the flag for the entire duration of the round, bar for when one half-track snuck through and unloaded an entire squad of Americans who quickly dispersed like bugs throughout the buildings on the hill. I was lucky to be in the nearby sawmill at the time and the map creator blessed me with a pump-action shotgun, fittingly nicknamed the “Trench Sweeper”, just sitting on one of the chairs as a pick-up weapon, calling to me to fulfil my duty to the Reich by “Sweeping” the two-story house next to me. Sweep I did.
Jagdpanther column pushing into the Hardt forest
Another great memory is The Infiltration of La Hardt - this map involves a great push with Jagdpanthers from the Germans towards dug-in Free France and American positions supported by M10 tank destroyers. I however had a different idea - both sides of the road you’re meant to push on are covered by a beautiful forest in its early winter brown and gray colours - a perfect cover for a soldier in camouflage. I crawled my way all the way past the heavily defended first flag and realised that there was no out-of-bounds stopping you from just continuing onwards, like there is on a lot of other maps - so I just kept going. I crawled past the second flag and saw an M10 driving leisurely down the road in a straight line, blissfully unaware of my presence. I readied my pocket Panzerfaust and launched it directly into the tank’s side - my interdiction operation had begun.
An artistic rendition of my viewpoint while sneaking around behind enemy lines.
As our forces hadn’t pushed the first flag yet, none of the French and Americans had taken up positions on the rear flags, so I was free to roam around and steal anything of value, and that’s when I saw it - an American Bazooka - the easiest launcher to use with a great range, great power, and 3 whole rockets to lob at tanks. With my new toy I crawled all the way to the entrance of the third flag - a fortified bridge position where all enemy tanks had to drive through to get to the frontline. It cost the enemy team another M10 and an M4 Sherman before they realised what’s going on and boy were they out to get me. I hid in a bunker near the bridge with my last rocket on the back, shot two French soldiers approaching the entrance with my standard-issue M1911 (stolen) and just as I prepared to fire my last rocket into the side of yet another M10 - a grenade blew up under my legs, and that was it for me.
Did I turn the tide of the battle? Probably not - we had Jagdpanthers and 40+ soldiers armed to the teeth rushing the flags down. But that doesn’t matter - my personal experience during that was amazing. A similar set piece in a scripted single-player experience would be par for the course, but when you pull something like that off in a game against 50 real, living people who can think just like you, the feeling is unmatched.
I hate reading my own writing about as much as I hate hearing my own voice, but this game has dragged it out of me to put my thoughts into words. I think it’s a criminal injustice that Forgotten Hope 2 does not get a tenth of the traction as a free mod that full-price games with the same purpose - a multiplayer WW2 combined arms shooter experience - and a third of the content get.