Alright, this is far from a cutting edge review I'm doing here but I have recently got back into this game and I'd like to write a bit about it. Company of Heroes is by far the best RTS in existence today. It's beaten everything thrown at it since it turned up in 2006.
I remember the first time I played the single player demo, the campaign mission featured the Normandy landings which I had already played to death in first person, how could an RTS format be nearly as frenetic and exciting as experiencing something from the eyes of one of the soldiers.
Well, it wasn't quite as exciting maybe, but the array of things available to you. Grenades, stealing enemy weapons, suppression, it was unlike anything I'd played before. Yes, there was actually some strategy here.
And that was all before I tried skirmish for the first time and got to play as the Wehrmacht, it was from that point that I was sold on the game and played the demo to death until I could get my hands on the full thing.
So, onto the full game. I never finished the single player game, that got old fast. Skirmish mode suffered the same fate, the AI opponents weren't the cleverest and even on the highest difficulty didn't provide much challenge.
No, you have to play against real people online to enjoy this game to its fullest. I played this game a lot online until I burned out. Americans Vs. Wehrmacht got old eventually, but I enjoyed every minute up until that point. (Apart of course for the age it took the matchmaker system to find me a game.)
It was at this point they had a perfectly balanced game in many regards. There were multiple strategies you could pull and a single game often had you changing tac back and forth to adapt to your opponent. It's as good as it sounds.
The expansion inevitably came out, called Opposing Fronts. This destroyed the game for a while, unfortunately, and made it almost unplayable online. My beloved Wehrmacht were reduced to a single plausible strategy against the new arrival army, the British. The Americans had similar difficulties with the new German army, the Panzer Elite. This was when I lost my taste for the game, it was either an uphill struggle to win or a simple steam roll, it wasn't fun.
A new expansion came out this year called Tales of Valor, I was tempted to buy it but decided against it due to the bad taste left in my mouth by the new armies. Recently however I bought the gold pack (the original two releases) and played some games online. Things feel balanced and yes, this is the best RTS experience available again. Even matchmaking is radically improved.
Essentially, if you are burned out on Dawn of War 2, try this out. It's a much more in depth game.
While not a "realism" game like, for example, men of war, this game does have some roots in reality. For example a rifle isn't even going to dent the heavy armor of a tank. Rocket artillery is good against everything and aggression is the name of the game, holing up in a corner of the map is going to make you lose.
Of course, you could write pages and pages on the mechanics of this game and everything possible in it so I will try to skim over some of it. If your guys have mp40s or sten guns you rush them up to close range. Snipers are best at long range.
Less obvious dynamics are that allied infantry kick ass at close range while Axis infantry are better at long range. (Not sure why this is the case, it's a balance thing.) Tanks need to be countered by mobile heavy guns that must be deployed before firing and defended by infantry AT weapons and mines.
Well, what I'm trying to convey here is that this is a game that encourages the use of combined arms. You won't win (or you shouldn't!) by massing a single a unit and attack moving them. This is a game where you have to think, and I salute that.
I haven't done my usual break down because its multi player is a unique experience and its worth buying it for that alone. Yes, it has great graphics, sound and the rest but all of that would be nothing without its excellent game play.
If you are looking for a modern RTS to play online. There is only one game to get.
100/100
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