Company of Heroes

Founded in 1997, Relic Entertainment soon captured the gamers' and game critics' attention with Homeworld. In 2004 they joined the THQ family of external studios which gave them the possibility of expanding their vision and allowing them to develop next generation content. The first hit came later that year with Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War. Now Relic Entertainment comes back into the light with an awesome WWII -inspired RTS, Company of Heroes.

Story Along 15 missions you - the all mighty gamer - will lead the Able Company through the battlefields of the WWII. You start the game with the company's debark in Normandy on Omaha Beach, known in history as Operation D - Day, and lots and lots of hours later you end your military career in the French town of Chambois, repelling the Axis counterattack. But that is the short version; hence the game takes you to the destination one step at a time. You cover the map city by city conquering and/or defending important road access points or structures.

You are securing roads in Vierville and Montebourg, capturing and defending town centers in Carentan, Cherbourg, St. Fromond and Mortain, capturing and holding Hill 192 and Hill 317, destroying Axis' defenses and master weapons (missiles in Sottevast, the Lehr Panthers in Hebecrevon, the Tiger Ace in Autry).

For everything is to be done on the battlefield there is an explanation and the small story of each battle is shared with you. Combining them, you get the story of the campaign, beautifully illustrated with the help of in-engine made videos. This much care for story details in a RTS is certainly unexpected, but most welcomed.

You could be right, saying it isn't a new story; it's more of a short history lesson, but it matters a lot that the game follows it closely and that after every completed mission you feel like you really had an important part to play there and if it wasn't for the skills of the Able Company the history would have changed.

Concept What got me a little confused at first was that, unlike other RTS games, Company of Heroes doesn't really support a defensive player that would barricade himself in his own base and wait for his opponent to strike. Although there are missions where you have to defend yourself or your allies, the majority of them ask from your forces to be highly mobile. Players don't stand much chance if they invest in buildings rather than units since they constantly have to move their troops, to push the flanks further into enemy territory.

There isn't a very wide variety of a building types or units, but than again there weren't in reality either. There is the Headquarters where additional engineers can be trained (you are not able to build the HQ yourself, but any building on the battlefield can be transformed into a field barracks allowing the recruitment of any of the units you have available at base). As Base Structures you have the Barracks that allows you to recruit Riflemen and Jeeps, the Weapons Support Center offering Heavy Machine Gun Teams, Mortar Teams and Snipers. The Motor Pool offers M3 Halftracks, M8 Armored Cars and M1 57 mm Anti-Tank Guns. The Tank Depot allows the recruitment of M10 Tank Destroyers, M4 Shermans and M4 "Crocodile" Shermans. Except for the recruiting buildings there is the Triage Center where troops can be healed and the Supply Yard. As Defensive Structures your engineers can construct Observation Posts, Machine Gun Emplacements, Medic Stations (that just return the casualties) and simple enemy traps like barbed wires, sand bags, tank traps and mines.

There is no basic unit, you won't have to send any units on suicide missions later in game just because they become obsolete. Every soldier has pros and cons. The engineers however would be the most needed. They are the ones building and repairing. Their weapons won't do much damage even to an infantry unit (unless you upgrade them with flamethrowers), but they do just fine for tasks that require fast moving like taking control of a sector or a resource early in the game. I was very pleased to see that tanks no longer needed to be healed by the medics (or not at all), this job being done now by engineers ("Just like in the garage back home" as the engineers themselves say in the game).

Next up the unit ladder, in terms of firepower of course, comes the infantry. Riflemen are very useful once you research the throw grenade ability. Snipers can be used to scout the area thanks to their camouflage ability and they'll even earn you medals in some missions for a certain number of kills using them. Heavy Machine Gun Teams, Mortar Teams and Anti-Tank Guns are very useful when defending, but they have a certain range of fire and about a 90 degrees cone of action. They can move, but it takes a while for them to pack up and set it down again, so under heavy attack be sure to position them wisely, otherwise the fast moving troops (riflemen for example) can easily exit their cone of action. Jeeps, Halftracks and Armored Cars are very good in hunting down enemy infantry troops due to their fast speed.

As expected the ruling weapons of the game are tanks. My favorite, the M4 Sherman can be used either to attack or to defend. It can be upgraded to blow up mines and to repair itself on the battlefield. If you ask me it would be a pity to use it as defense: it doesn't move very fast (it's a tank afterall), but it has a gunner in addition to it's main gun allowing you to do heavy damage even to fast moving enemy troops, the main gun is powerful enough to do massive damage to buildings and troops hiding in there, it's range of fire slightly outmatches infantry's range and it's armor is hard enough to stand against them anyway. A remarkably idea of Relic Entertainment was to make the tank vulnerable to rear attacks, taking into consideration that normally it's only the front and sides of the tank that are reinforced (another well deserved point for them concerning the level of details). Unfortunately you cannot really control how the tank advances to the desired location (front first or rear first) and there may be times when you find yourself "facing" enemies with your rear side and taking heavy damage. There's nothing to do in this case but to change the direction of your aiming although it will cost you valuable time. Be sure not to panic when your tank is under fire: take small "steps" backwards (or consider the alternatives), maybe call in a few engineer teams to keep it in good shape. Another interesting feature is that you can kill infantries by driving over them. The funny part is succeeding in chasing them down as they are trying to avoid you. Well, try it! I had some good fun doing that. While commanding the tank you can also take advantage of the fully destructible environment. Take down walls, crush into buildings, and destroy defenses, all to take your enemy by surprise.

Although there is a cap population limit, this can be increased by taking control of new strategic points. This is equivalent to conquering a new sector (or widening your influential area). There are some logical advantages to controlling certain sectors of the map.

An interesting innovation comes from the resources point of view. You no longer have to gather them (you're in a war, it's natural that you don't have the time or the men to spare for this kind of things), instead you can take control of certain resource supply points. What's more is that you have to be in control of the territory lying between your HQ and the resource to take advantage of it. I guess they thought of everything (almost)!

Gameplay I'm sure most of you are familiar with the controls in a strategy game. Nevertheless I have to say that the tutorial (which is optional) was rather helpful and it feels like the training at home base or the military academy before setting off to war. The most useful commands and unit abilities are explained to you quickly and you can carry on with your campaign.

Welcome to the past! You get into the atmosphere of World War II with an impressive first video illustrating the harsh conditions and powerful defenses the allied forces had to face on D-Day. At a certain moment the video turns slowly into game mode and you start your new military career. This is the point to begin being amazed of the game you are playing, as it strikes you as a well done mind challenging eye pleasing game.

The difficulty of the missions increases as you advance through the game. First two missions are of course to get familiar with the game. By the time you're done with that you'll already love it. Hours pass by as you capture strategic points and resource supplies, battle the forces of the Axis, pushing the battlefield further into enemy territory. You capture enemy occupied cities and defend them against counterattacks, hold sites for several minutes until reinforcements arrive, defend roads and protect allied convoys passing through, even rescue other allied companies and destroy enemy defenses and eradicate their troops.

The story flows naturally as you progress through the game. The missions are neither too easy nor impossible, but they do keep in mind that you should have gained a little more experience and they increase in difficulty just enough to get your attention.

I'm sorry to say that the loading times before every mission are a little too long, but at least that is only at the beginning of the entire mission and I must admit they're worth it. Maybe Relic kept in mind that we should all take short brakes every now and then.

Your wonderful gameplay may be hindered (and probably will be the first times you are to command several troops - especially tanks) by the deficitary pathfinding. The player has to be extremely careful when sending several troops to the same location as they will act like children pushing each other to be the first to arrive at destination and sometimes they just trip one another. Troops still need a few fair play lessons, but the situation can be handled with patience: just take the time to arrange your troops so that they cannot stumble on each other. Don't worry, they will find the best way to get where you want and they will take cover if needed, even respond with fire, just don't live the fair play to them.

Due to the fact that infantry is made out of teams of several soldiers, it can be rather difficult to command them into taking cover as some of the troops would still be standing in open field. Fortunately they will position themselves as best as they can when under fire.

Some missions offer secondary objectives, such as to clear a certain area, destroy certain sites or capture strategic points. Taking advantage of the destructible environment, the buildings on the map, different applicable strategies, units abilities you can replay the same mission over and over again and the battle would never be just the same.

Video Here, in the graphics section, is where the game unexpectedly impresses the most. Not very long ago we were all extremely satisfied with 2D real time strategies. The zooming wasn't even taken into consideration really, maybe just to see a little more of the map. We were just dreaming of the day when you could look the enemy straight in the eyes or wonder around on the map enjoying the building structures or just taking a walk through the battlefield. Well my friends, dreams do come true sooner or later.

The standard view is the one you are used to from every other RTS. The trick is that you can rotate the map freely (no, you can't see your enemies upside-down, don't push it, left, right, up and down will do just fine). Allow yourself to be amazed by the zoom level and the detailed features of units and buildings. You are able to zoom in to a level where you are really seeing the desired unit face to face (well, he's not seeing you of course). And wait, that's not all. If you look closely, you'll notice that there is a wide diversity of features among your troops: check out their faces.

Speaking about units, pretty impressive was also the way your troops acted on the battlefield. They don't just stand there, they check out the surroundings, they cover their ears when launching a heavy artillery projectile, they get really confused when they are pinned down under rapid fire, the engineers put on their protection masks when building or repairing, they take the firing position whether they are on the field or hiding inside a building, they collapse artistically when dying. Also they never seem to be just taking a walk in the street, they do pay attention to the surface they are walking on. For example if a tank is to go over a small hill then it will actually climb it and lean on the side. In short, they move and act rather naturally.

The maps are nicely realized, with small hills, forests (some indestructible ones too), plenty of buildings, water sections, bridges and non-military vehicles (very good to blow up). Each of these is considered destructible and can be used as an advantage in achieving your objectives. The lighting is well accounted for as some battles take place during the day and some occur at sundown.

Of course the "fog of war" couldn't miss from a strategy game, but unlike in most of the cases, where your entire map is covered in black until you send troops to explore it, in Company of Heroes you can see any structures on the map. The fog of war only covers enemy troops' location, as long as destroying a certain unit is not one of your objectives. In that case you will clearly view your target's position. I'd consider this a plus as it is highly probable that during wars the invading forces would take pictures (or at least draw maps) of the sites they were invading.

As in any game that aspires to enchant your eye, you'll notice that everything on the battlefield is well proportioned: the buildings occupy the largest space on your screen just as they should, your tanks are much bigger then your infantry soldiers and the defensive structures are slightly in-between in height.

The visual effects are also stunning. There's a shadow for everything and the colors are very appropriate, creating a realistic image. I mentioned the completely destructible environment earlier. The explosions look pleasing, parts of buildings and bodies flying everywhere. I was most impressed by the physics of the engine as buildings collapse - brilliantly realized. This is a scene you have to see, bomb away and enjoy the show.

While taking short brakes, be sure to take a look at the in-engine made videos that show up in the beginning and the end of the mission and, sometimes, during the mission once the objective has changed. The introductory video has the purpose of sharing basic information about the new map. It usually concludes with a schematic, revealing primary objectives and some of the possible strategies of achieving them. Following the story closely they also offer details about the reason for which the mission needs to succeed. The final video of the mission, just as you expect, summarizes the result of your action, offering you a pleasant feeling that you did the right thing.

It's true that the game asks for lots of resources in terms of hardware, but I say it is worth it. The engine is scalable enough so it may run smoothly even if you don't have the latest hardware components. If you are the lucky possessor of top performance components than you will truly be amazed by the level of details in Company of Heroes.

Sound Although there is a pleasant military aspiring music in the background, you'll probably hardly notice it as you're getting into the atmosphere of the war, with grenades and mortar projectiles exploding all around you, gun fire somewhere close, team leaders ordering their squads just as you commanded. You're on the battlefield, you can only appreciate the music if you're paying attention to it.

The voice acting is very good though. A well chose strong voice, demanding respect briefs you on your missions, while equally impressive voices give orders to your troops and inform you on new events. Units ask for help once they are attacked and proudly report back to you once they killed enemy troops or completed their tasks.

Multiplayer As thrilling as the single campaign may be, the multiplayer games are the ones that really challenge the player's mind. In Company of Heroes you have two options: play on the side of the allied forces (just like in the campaign) or play as part of the Axis (you have the possibility now to be the evil force).

The game offers two multiplayer modes: Annihilation and Victory Point Control. In Annihilation mode you simply have to wipe out every building your enemy has (you probably figured this one out by yourself too), not including observation posts. In Victory Point Control there are several statues around the center of the map which you need to take control of, just like any other strategic point. When one of the players holds more victory point controls the enemy's points drop. If a player loses all his points he loses the battle. Also, if a player destroys all enemy buildings he automatically wins.

There can be up to 8 players on the map, but they are bound to play in 2 teams. You can only be on the side of the Allied forces or the Axis. Don't hope to be able to choose the color of your company - you are blue, that's it. It is also a little frustrating that you see all your allies in yellow. Not knowing which of your friends is under attack can be tricky at times. In spite all this, the game is still fascinating.

You may have some minor trouble when first playing on the side of the Axis as there is no tutorial for this, but you can figure out quickly what needs to be done. Although there are differences between the two forces, the basics are much the same: infantry, vehicles and tanks. You just need to discover for yourself the special abilities for each unit. Patience, my friend, the Axis has very interesting units and some useful building's upgrades and default abilities (in example every building has a battle station attached). If you're more of a defensive player then the Axis will probably suit you best. Don't worry, you have capable offensive units as well, just try them before deciding on which side you want to play.

Conclusion If you ever wanted to take a leap through time into the past, if you ever wanted to feel part of history, this is the game you have to play. Despite minor setbacks to the gameplay due to the problematic pathfinding system and the tricky control of numerous soldier teams, Company of Heroes strikes as an undoubtedly exceptional game. It scores best with its' 3D cutting-edge graphics that bring into the light a complex and well structured storyline. The atmosphere is completed with wonderful sound. Small new ideas integrated in the concept, based mainly on details, make it a unique RTS.

Although the single player campaign reaches a high level of complexity, getting the maximum out of all the positive aspects of the game, the multiplayer has good advantages too. Maybe the most important one is the choice between the two forces: the Allied and the Axis.

Maybe, just maybe, a little more diversity would have been most welcomed. Nevertheless it's one of the best games ever to hit the market in terms of gameplay and storyline as well as graphical realization. Well, good luck on your military career! I'm sure you will probably like it.