Company of Heroes 3
The legendary strategy franchise is back! Company of Heroes 3 is the ultimate package of action, tactics and strategy. Take charge in the heat of real-time battle, then command as a General guiding the overall campaign where every decision matters.
Overwhelm your opponents with new and familiar factions, units, and international Battlegroups. Command ground, air and naval forces and build supply lines to crush enemy advances on the new Dynamic Campaign Map – no two playthroughs are ever alike! Play at your own pace across campaign and skirmish modes before diving into blistering multiplayer action. Discover the untold stories of a stunning Mediterranean theatre, featuring next generation destructible environments, all powered by Relic’s proprietary Essence Engine.
Award-winning Tactical Gameplay
Company of Heroes 3 delivers the next generation of acclaimed tactical gameplay. Beloved combat mechanics collide with authentic new gameplay features, making for the deepest tactical experience to date.
Make use of daring flanking moves to expose enemy side armor, experience all new infantry breaching mechanics allowing you to flush enemy units from their garrisons, and master elevation to enhance your line of sight and gain the upper hand.A Stunning New Theatre
Welcome to the Mediterranean – a breathtaking new theatre filled with untold stories of war. Engage ferocious enemy forces across Italian mountain passes, breathtaking coastal vistas and the sweeping deserts of N Africa. Stunning visuals deliver authentic and highly diverse environments designed to keep you on your toes.
Mountainous maps will require uniquely different strategies from coastal towns, with verticality now greatly affecting units’ line of sight (True Sight). Desert plains will call for careful reconnaissance and daring armored maneuvers. On this new frontline, intelligence trumps speed and clever use of local terrain will let you bewilder your opponents and rout them from the field.
New Layers Of Strategy
Experience the biggest single player campaign in franchise history. The new Dynamic Campaign Map delivers full ‘sandbox-style’ gameplay, allowing players to command the overall war effort and experience an unprecedented level of strategic choice.
Establish vital supply lines before deploying rear guard defenses to secure your advance. Launch air and naval strikes to weaken and scatter enemy forces or liberate a nearby town to develop a Partisan spy network. Choose your forces and upgrade your veteran companies to match your playstyle. Meanwhile, the optional Full Tactical Pause feature allows players total control over the pacing of single-player action. Plan your attacks, then effortlessly queue up lethal precision plays that will give you the edge in battle.
Diverse Factions & Units
Company of Heroes 3 promises to delight even the most ardent WW2 enthusiasts thanks to the largest number of launch factions in the series to date.
New army customization mechanics will allow you to call in the help of a varied cast of specialist units. Take up the fight with new elite squads including the American-Canadian Special Service Forces, the revered Gurkhas from the Commonwealth and many more.
From devastating tank destroyers to clandestine recon vehicles, Company of Heroes 3 features the largest roster in the series to date. The super light Weasel, the armor sniping Nashorn, and the Chaffee Light Tank are just a few of the units making their debut. Also, let’s not forget revamped classics like the M3 Recovery Vehicle Halftrack, which can now be used to repair and steal abandoned enemy vehicles!
Cinematic Action
Feel the blistering impact of every mortar shell and naval bombardment with Relic’s state-of-the-art Essence Engine. In Company of Heroes 3, every location becomes a fully destructible sandbox, opening up limitless tactical gameplay options for you or your enemy to exploit.
Bring fortified buildings crashing down onto enemy squads, then witness enhanced destruction mechanics at play as soldiers exploit fresh ruins as dynamic cover. Stunning new rendering and particle FX technology depicts fire, sand and smoke like never before. Brilliant new soldier animations combine with enhanced A.I, delivering realistic squad reactions to the battlefield. Optimized for DirectX 12 and multi-core CPUs, Relic’s new engine technology will deliver cinematic action to rival any Hollywood blockbuster.
Game Discussion
Steam User 189
The latest update was a turning point for CoH3. Before then, it was like a moba game with vivid colours and stuff.
Now, it feels like the Company of Heroes we miss. Shaders, graphics, effects and everything has changed drastically.
I wouldn't recommend the game back then, now I recommend it 100%
Steam User 87
After playing this game for over 400+ hours and experiencing countless updates, I’m happy to say it’s a solid RTS that is both fun and well-balanced. I hope the developers continue their work to make it even better. Don’t get me wrong—when it was first released, the game was far from balanced. However, after a lot of effort, it’s now close to perfect. I don't write a lot of reviews, but when I do, it really means something to me.
Steam User 134
As a somewhat a COH veteran (I've been playing the franchise since the first one in 2006), I can recommend this game now. The first 6 months after release were tough and chaotic, but now the overall state of game is fine and it's getting better and better.
Don't believe the doomsayers and other negativity you see and hear. Balance has been always a problem in this game, since initiation of this brand in far 2006. Allies infantry blobs, German indestructible tanks and etc - it's just part of the game asymmetrical balance. Love it or hate it, but that's the way it is.
But for real, the game is in ready for launch state finally (as it should have been from the start a year ago, but here we are). You no longer will experience the horrors of after launch numerous bugs and abilities now working properly. Definitely give it a try, if you were sitting on a bench. It's one of the kind RTS and there's nothing else on the market with same combination of gameplay, graphics and combat dynamics.
Steam User 121
On it's release, it was one of my biggest letdowns of 2023, nowadays? It's pretty fun. The developers have been tirelessly working on the game, even offering some of the DLC's completely for free.
The game does feel like it's still a long way from reaching it's full potential, but if the developers believe in their game as much as some of us here do, I can easily see it going like how Operation Health went for Rainbow Six Siege.
That being said, a lot of people are hoping for more playable factions. This game does offer 4 starting ones over Coh2's 2, but a big reason why Coh2 retains more players than the first and third installment isn't solely because it's a better game, Company of Heroes 2 also suffered from an extremely rough development cycle, but it eventually ended up being an amazing game. A big reason people cling to it is solely because of the Eastern Front and the massive replayability of the commanders. Coh3 has battlegroups now, which as somewhat a blend of the ones from Coh1 and Coh2, yet all feel completely unique and offer way more things to try out. So you're pretty much looking at several commanders per battlegroup, Coh2 wise.
There's also army skins that were a massive contention with the community back at release, and probably today as well. My gripes isn't with the fact that the game has paid microtransactions, as I welcome having the ability to support relic ever since they parted ways with SEGA. but my complaint is that if you have any unique battleground units, they've never made any skins that took them into consideration, which is a huge letdown.
If you want relic to see just how much we appreciate the effort they're putting into this game despite everything that transpired, then I highly recommend you buying it. But if you prefer a more complete package, then there's no shame in getting Coh2 and revisiting this game in a year or two!
Steam User 98
Now that Relic is independent the game is looking up. I played the game at launch and put it down for awhile. Been playing recently and Multiplayer feels closer to COH2 more and more in a good way.
Time will tell how this game will turn out but we gotta support relic as the small guy now.
Steam User 119
NOTE: I'm a longtime CoH franchise player - ~2k hours in CoH1 over the different versions AND 4.6k CoH2 hours - which I've mostly played in competitive (ranked) MP mode (where I've been hovering between rank 80 and 300 in different modes, factions etc)...
CoH3 is definitely better than CoH2 by now. There are still some artistic (animations, specifically explosions, colours etc) choices which I believe are worse, but Relic has gone a LONG way to make the gameplay better:
- QoL improvements have been there since day 1 and they make a big difference. Quick base building constructions (Tech is no constructed from the HQ: double click and let the game sort out the position; no longer bring engineers back to base, select a position etc), autoreinforce (units now replenish by themselves unless you deactivate it) and all factions having access in their roster to a halftrack/ambulance are a game changer that are sorely missed whenever I go back to CoH2 (which, after the last "2.0" patch which added the heaviest tanks in the form of an expensive DLC called Fire&Steel: KT, Pershing, Crocodile Churchill and Elefant is pretty much never).
- There is more consistency. Hitting a unit is no longer the COH2 lottery where 1 in 10 shots is a whole unit wipe, 5 shots are low hp hits and the rest are misses. In CoH3 units will deal consistent damage over time; on the retreat/cover less so, but it's still there. It works and feels good for both indirect or direct fire units; which doesn't mean a well-placed artillery isn't devastating. This dynamic reduces frustration due to lucky enemy hits (or unlucky friendly hits) massively.
- Battlegroups (the new "commanders" or "doctrines) give more varied flavour to the factions despite the base roster being sufficiently strong and interesting.
- Any sort of attack feels more satisfying. Please compare the JOKE that the LeIG18 is in the COH2 OKW roster vs the same unit in the COH3 DAK roster.
- Armour feels WAY more satisfying. Armour can be strong (no longer the joke of PTRS consistently penetrating frontal KT armor). Flanking is more important than ever (which is what this game was always about) and positioning has become more important than ever. I can't stress the armour improvements enough: A big change from CoH2 to CoH3 is that the game is designed more around light and medium vehicles. In CoH2 the worst AT would consistently penetrate frontal armour of light vehicles, and put pressure on medium vehicles. In CoH3 your light AT will NOT penetrate the front armour of the late game units.
Balancing is still not perfect (it's not perfect in CoH2 either); some units/abilities feel very strong when playing against, but that doesn't turn the entire roster/battlegroup into "pay to win". I've yet to buy the latest DLC (Fire&Steel) and am able to consistently play and win against the new commanders.
All in all: CoH3 is in a much better place than CoH2 ever was. Whatever improvements are left to be made to CoH3, the minor weaknesses CoH3 has compared to CoH2 are absolutely balanced out by all the strengths CoH3 has over CoH2. I definitely recommend the purchase.
Steam User 153
Coming from Company of Heroes 2 - I only cared about the multiplayer version of this game. Let's be honest, this game was horrendous when it came out. A slap in the face of long time fans.
And what happened? Everyone moved on or went back to Company of Heroes 2 (A f***ing Gem, graphics don't trump game play). Personally, I went back to CoH 2 - I was content and honestly not interested in this game anymore.
I think a year or so had gone by and a friend, who was new to the series, said "let's give it go" - reluctantly, I agreed.
I was pleasantly surprised.
While it is not perfect yet, I can see the light. A lot has changed (getting closer and closer to what CoH2 has, but with a better base to build off).
The main things I would like to see:
1. More variation, more variation. more variation. They have recently been adding more battlegroups, but they got to pump those numbers. Variety is the spice of life.
2. Price is still steep... Literally have friends that won't even try this because of it (+ reviews)
3. Add new teams? Russian, Japan, Oberkommondo West, etc. (Don't limit the game by sticking to the Mediterranean theatre crap, we are all here just to blow sh*t up).