Company of Heroes 3 review: real-time strategy evolves once again

In 2021, after an early hands-on demo, Company of Heroes 3, we spoke with Executive Producer David Littman about the ongoing development of a real-time strategy game. He said one of the developer’s governing principles for Relic is the “rule of thirds,” which outlines his philosophy for designing sequels. After playing for dozens of hours, Company of Heroes 3, you can see how each of these three pillars manifested themselves in the upcoming game of one of the most acclaimed strategy series ever. The result is an imposing structure, albeit with some visible cracks.

I wasn’t surprised to learn that the aforementioned doctrine actually came from Sid Meier, co-founder of Microprose and Firaxis Games. Pirate!, Alpha Centauriand civilization, to name a few.All these game effects are over Company of Heroes 3especially regarding the “completely new” third of its design philosophy.

on the other hand Company of Heroes Distinct series focused on World War II squad tactics, Company of Heroes 2 built-in weather effects, Company of Heroes 3 Introduces a turn-based overworld map in the Italian campaign. In this map, you’ll pilot individual squadrons, build defensive installations, send aircraft on reconnaissance missions, bombard outposts with naval vessels, and control numerous cities across Italy. Capturing airfields expands your ability to dominate the skies, and capturing ports allows you to land more companies on the peninsula, each with their own strengths and playstyles. As your company clashes with a Wehrmacht company, the game dives into real-time battles on farms, beaches, and cramped streets. It’s a bit like Total War, except it has more terrain influence. If combat isn’t automated, it’s civilization.

The main events of the war in Italy remain intact, but otherwise free to cross the peninsula, such as raiding the monastery of Monte Cassino, capturing major cities along the Po River, and capturing Rome. can be extended with I think you are suitable. The obligatory historic battles have rigorous objectives and bespoke maps that don’t change from campaign to campaign, but they’ve fought just as many skirmishes in towns that saw no fighting during the actual war. Urgent Encounters takes place on a generic map roster that lacks the intent of the Monte Cassino mission, but still offers a lot of variety and geographic considerations. A single-player campaign that allows you to improvise details in between real events. It’s like a historical novel.

To explain: After securing a foothold on the southwest side of the peninsula, I sent an American airborne company east to link up with another invasion force. As a result, with far more fuel, ammunition, and manpower, I landed an Indian artillery company on the west coast and began pushing north, clearing defensive positions, anti-aircraft guns, and supply depots. . By the time I knocked on Naples’ door, I had secured another port and called in an American Special Forces company. The emphasis on hit-and-run tactics, combined with the off-map barrage capabilities of an artillery battery I had parked nearby, made capturing Naples a foregone conclusion. After taking the city under my control, I raised a British armored company. This proved essential in many historical and improvised battles on the way to Rome.

Image: Relic Entertainment/Sega

As someone who fell in love with the strategy genre, mostly thanks to the original Company of Heroesbut who was drawn grand strategy gameI absolutely adore how Company of Heroes 3 I managed to blend both. Its turn-based overworld layer not only adds replayability to a genre where campaigns are often his one-off events, but also provides compelling context for the action unfolding in real-time combat. increase. By giving me control over the wider narrative, Relic has made the stakes clearer.

It’s worth mentioning that we ran into quite a few technical issues throughout the Italian campaign. Several times my company got stuck in an attack animation while trying to capture a town. Additionally, many of the descriptive text boxes in the UI, which are essential in dense strategy games, often didn’t pop up, making it a guessing game about how abilities would affect the map. and in some cases bottom The spy abilities you unlock when recruiting anti-fascist Italian partisans are poorly explained and we still don’t fully understand what some of them do. Some promised that they could use it to take over a town, but after about 30 hours of using the game, it either didn’t work at all, or was completely misunderstood.

But in the end none of these problems were enough to stop me from playing one more turn every time i had to stop. The Italian campaign is the boldest departure from a series that has made a name for itself in bold departures. As for the “completely new” third, Company of Heroes 3 struck gold

Image: Relic Entertainment/Sega

But what about the other two? The “familiar” and “improved” third that Littman and his team unfolded in the name of a notable sequel?

The former is clear. Company of Heroes 3‘s real-time battles are thrilling at how well they convey the intensity of tactics between squads. Gradually controlling the map’s resource points, spending the earned currency on machine guns, sniper rifles and tanks, and attacking the enemy’s last stronghold from all directions is as satisfying as ever. In addition to the Italian campaign, Company of Heroes 3 Includes the North African campaign. It lacks the overworld tier of the former in favor of a traditional, linear mission structure. Focusing on Erwin Rommel and the british armor tactics against him was exciting enough to have an exciting time, but I found it a bit too easy and upped the difficulty with just a few missions. .

It happened mainly because Company of Heroes 3“Improvement” 3rd. Relic introduced something called Tactical Poses to real-time combat. Although new to the series, the ability to stop action, give stacked orders to individual units, and watch them disperse once action resumes has become a staple of modern real-time strategy games. (they are billions and Total War: Warhammer 3 Take advantage of this mechanism as well. ) Tactical poses make combat easier. starcraft 2 or, more appropriately, Company of Heroes 2 Things come from the fact that things can go south quickly.

Image: Relic Entertainment/Sega

But it makes for a much more approachable game. Company of Heroes 3 Mainly because of how well the tactical pauses work as a learning experience for each faction’s units, and how they interact with the landscape. Being able to stop time, take a breather, and give orders to the entire company at once is a godlike feeling not found in past RTS games.

I’m a sucker for studios that don’t play things safe. IO Interactive continues to tinker with the Hitman formula, Supergiant reinvents itself with each new release, and there’s no genre that Thunderful doesn’t touch.and Company of Heroes 3Relic could have easily taken the safe route — or, in Sid Meier’s words, ignoring the “entirely new” and “improved” pillars of sequel design, leaving the familiar behind. Instead, we looked outside, recognized what drove the best strategy games of our time, and adapted those elements into our own formula. Company of Heroes 3 Yes, a great sequel. But it’s also a great game.

Company of Heroes 3 It will be released on Windows PC on February 23rd. This game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Sega. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.