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.
Steam User 165
CoH-1 = Terminator-1
CoH-2 = Terminator-2
CoH-3 = spanish shame
Steam User 154
Verdict: MIXED
Take this filthy casuals opinion.
We're not going to be able to relive the perfection that was Company of Heroes, or the glorious climb to excellency that became company of heroes 2.
Instead what we have here is an tragically under cooked game who's primary suffering is awful presentation. Re-Used Assets, Static and lifeless presentation to greet, and one severely pissed off fan-base.
There is only one catch though.
I'm actually enjoying the game.
Disregarding the noise, and the fact that purchasing this product continues to fuel the trend of push it out the door busted, and patch it later, there IS a compelling experience and future to be had here, some genuine surface level quality improvements and welcome updates to the engine. (Albeit, suffering form some questionable model quality problems) It's still undoubtedly Company of Heroes.
This installment was never meant to re-invent the genre. It's fair to have high expectations for something so groundbreaking and enjoyable as COH, especially in the climate that RTS has been under for years now. Still, I can't seem to advocate for the brutal negative feedback.
COH 3 Is truly mixed, and if I had the option of selecting that as an option I would.
This recommendation is based on very surface level subjects and limited involvement in the community, as well as truthful ignorance to the complex and statistical mechanisms of the game. (See opening statement) I don't expect the rest of the player-base to agree so take that as you will. As RTS players, we NEED To admit that Migration is difficult, it's an experience based on learning, practice and muscle memory. Deviation from habit is not easy, and it's possible this is a contributing factor to some of the hateful feedback.
First off, battle groups is the right step forward. I never found the commanders in COH2 to be a compelling way of introducing abilities, much less with the inclusion of single digit stat adjustments. The battle groups system is a welcome and enjoyable simplification that I find to be enjoyably more thematic and easier to follow for new players.
Secondly, I appreciate the visual language of the new theater and the map design logic. This is highly preferential, but I find the map design to be slightly more organic than previous installments, however I can accept that this might have functional trade off for most people.
Finally, are some other quality of life mechanics changes, flamethrowers really punch, you can now retreat from buildings which is a relieving feature, alongside squads auto-replenishing at base. Despite less than perfect sound design, the artillery impacts harder than ever.
Now, for the elephant in the room.
COH 2 featured five factions, and a functioning environmental mechanic for weather / cold.
This game removes said mechanic, without any interactive replacement. And is now a four faction experience.
I understand it does not fit the setting, but there is so much I feel is intended to be "Left Behind" for this sequel that it's difficult to advertise or recommend on a level of sheer content. COH3 could have been a tremendous opportunity to combine theaters and push the franchise (And even the genre) forward. It's a wasted chance to reconstruct hype, and perhaps even introduce the Pacific and japan as a playable faction.
Coh2 was slightly more complex, had more factions, more features, and in some cases more micro-detailing.
Still.
Ladies and Gentlemen, This is NOT the bad ending.
Company of Heroes is not dead, and while the relic layoffs definitely don't indicate anything good for the development side, they could have cut their losses at this point if they wanted to. I can't say for sure if COH3 will live up to its predecessors, but It's not the absolute dumpster-fire it's being made out to be.
Bear in mind, this is strictly speaking playing against friends, doing a few online matches.
I did not enjoy what little time I spent in the campaign. (Especially in comparison to COH 1's compelling story)
I also did not try the grand strategy inspired mode as this did not interest me. ( The effort is noticed though )
It's a risk, but I would hate for fans of the franchise to miss out on the future of COH entirely because they felt bitter about how this game released. If you are skeptical or unwilling, keep playing COH2 or COH1 for now and keep checking back in.
It's my hope they make efforts to combine what they have had for a more complete and robust experience. An ultimate COH if you will, but for now. This is what we have, a torn fan-base and a more than likely apprehensive development team.
Steam User 220
Game is so good that people are playing CoH2 again.
Steam User 164
*To start, I will clarify this is my own opinion and may not end up being yours if you buy it.*
I was very hesitant to buy the game as leading up to it and on launch I heard mostly negative things if we don't count people who are paid to make reviews on games. It was on sale so after playing a bunch of coh2 recently, I decided why not and worst case I can likely return if under 2hrs of game time.
This is coming from a direct switch of coh2 to coh3, literally played a few games, hopped off, bought/downloaded, played for a few hours. I think a lot of the negative reviews are centered around it not being a complete game on launch. I think the unfortunate thing is, that's a reality in today's gaming age. A lot of games aren't complete on launch anymore.
I think compared to when coh and coh2 launched, this game has a lot of content. Granted I mainly focus on singleplayer so skirmishes against AI and campaign. 4 factions at the start, loads of units, already lots of community content (including a camera zoom out, a bunch of new modes, maps, etc.). The game play I find is a lot slower than coh2, it's like they've slowed down the unit speed on tanks and infantry, which when I think about it isn't terrible? Makes it a bit easier to try and work out battles and stuff, makes it feel more impactful when your tank finally arrives to the front line. In general, I've really enjoyed my experience so far. I think you genuinely have to try and not look at the game on a comparison level with a game that's 10 years old and has had time to be polished, new content released, etc. I know it's really hard to do as I found myself making comparisons constantly and trying to figure out hey what's new, what's similar, etc.
Now, there are a few things missing that seem like odd omissions that I hope are on the way and it's just a matter of time before they are added. For example, unless I've missed it, you can't force a team weapon that's in building/house to face a certain way, they only do it automatically. The cpu difficulty seems like it might need a bit of adjusting? But I feel like I'd need more playtime to have that argument.. or maybe I'm just a bit better at this one than coh2? Not sure..
I won't bother sitting here and listing stuff it has vs. stuff it doesn't, I'm sure there are plenty of reviews that cover that stuff. I've got my graphics on low, and the game runs pretty well on my store bought pc from 4-6 years ago. In general, I find the game runs well, I've really enjoyed my time. I'll get my moneys worth out of this game and I'm excited to see what's coming next.
Again, my personal opinion, but hopefully this helps shed some light in between the onslaught of negative reviews. I really do think if we stop trying to compare it to coh2, it's a solid game and has lots of promise to get better. Hopefully they do a good job!
**Edit much later on - my opinion still stands. Love this game, still some work to be done but very happy with my purchase. Finally working through the Italian campaign and I really don't get the hate for it. There's so much variety with the mini skirmishes you play against AI... surround their base and hold the points for them to retreat, wave defense, basic VP matches... bit of axis and allies board gameplay.. I still don't really PvP so not much to comment on there... but I still recommend much later on.
Steam User 181
I honestly don't understand why the negativity towards this game exists. Sure, I'll admit I'm probably going to keep playing the original CoH more than I'll play this game, but that's mainly just for nostalgia factor. If we're talking about the more technical side of gameplay, CoH3 has a lot more going on right now:
- Your infantry will automatically vault over obstacles
- True line of sight just like in CoH2
- Dynamic environment where the ruble from destroyed buildings can be used as cover instead of just being there for looks.
- Elevation of terrain matters now when in combat.
- Auto reinforcing which can be toggled if you so desire
And that's just off the top of my head. There's probably several other improvements or novel mechanics that I'm missing mainly but you get the gist of where I'm getting at as far as the technical side of things go.
Also, "unfinished"? You mean to tell me that two full campaigns and four distinct factions is "unfinished"? CoH1 and CoH2 only had 1 campaign and 2 factions when they were first released, and CoH2 had received a lot of hate for a good part of its early existence. So to claim that this game is unfinished when it has double the amount of content vs the first two games *at launch* is incredibly absurd. I could give less of a shit about multiplayer myself since I mostly play with friends instead of randos.
Objectively this game gets a 7 or an 8/10. If you think I'm braindead for giving it that score, sure, we can go with that if it makes you sleep well at night. I'm still going to play this game and enjoy it.
Addendum: After having completed the Italian campaign, I will say that my thoughts on this game remain effectively the same. The core gameplay is good in my opinion. I can go more than two hours of gameplay without it crashing on me like some Coh1 mods and Coh2 matches tend to do (that being said, I will still play either of those games because nostalgia). If you think I'm stupid for having such an opinion, then that's your problem; if you don't like this game, good for you, go play something else then. At the end of the day it's not going to stop somebody who genuinely doesn't care about PvP from playing this game.
Objective Score: 7/10.
Personal Score: 8.5/10.
Overall Score: 7.7/10.
Steam User 170
I'm an average coh player since 2006. I have played all products of this franchise. So I can also express myself from my experience of the previous coh1 and coh2.
What I like about coh3:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The presence of Italian units.
-Base buildings can be constructed without engaging engineers.
-Being able to report toxic players more easily.
-Being able to recover abandoned weapons with support trucks.
-Units can also retreat directly from inside buildings.
-Some units can raid enemy-occupied buildings.
What I dislike about Coh3:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The north afrika campaign is unexciting when I think back to the coh1 campaigns. In other words I was expecting a North Afrika in a bigger style with great battles and tactics and emotional involvement with the soldiers. Instead each mission are just small skirmishes with horrendous slideshows that tell the hardships of the local populations under the Italo-German occupation.
No in-game cutscenes, no involvement with the historical "spirit" of those battles.
-The menu (currently) is definitely poor, no profile customization and static and depressing background image.
-The shop (currently) is limited to selling skins at crazy prices.
-Absence of custom commanders like coh2.
Many call them "commanders pay to win" but I do not agree at all.
Custom commanders (if properly balanced) allow for a more varied and enjoyable experience.
-At the end of the multiplayer game the lobby is destroyed.
-Matchmaking is dedicated to the victory point game only.
If you want to play annihilation mode you are forced to look into custom games, often dealing with hosts with toxic behavior,annoying, with attitudes of omnipotence, who set up spam style maps and spam style modes with a
central bridge and a game that will be an artillery spam.
Some hosts are permanently afk in the lobby making you wait unnecessarily.
If you create a game and your friends are offline you could wait hours to fill it.
-The quality of the animations compared to coh1&2 is noticeably lower.
What I would like to see implemented:-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Matchmaking that lets you choose between victory points and annilathions
-There should be a tool to close lobbies of inactive hosts.
-There should be a tool for ragequitters to be detected and associated with other ragequitters (as is the case in GTA V), in order to prevent them from ruining games for others. The same goes for toxic players and team killers too.
-There should be a tool to silence annoying players during the game, who spam/abuse pings at you and pretend through various insults to command your units.
-There should be a tool to customize the look of your units (like war thunder) and not sell predefined skins at crazy prices. Sell the "tools" instead of the same finished product for everyone.
-There should be a tool to customize the armaments of your tanks (like Battlefield 5).
-Add more units and commanders(like coh2)...goliaths, king tigers, m26 pershing tank, v1,v2 missles, bunker with mortar etc etc
-Snipers must be able to infiltrate and remain camouflaged without shooting by walking slowly as in coh1 with ample visibility.
This would allow for spying and planning.
And don't just walk at their standard speed to be detected by any enemy.
-The Knight's Cross Holders in the Wehrmacht from coh1.
-The Italian paratroopers of the Folgore in the DAK.
-Other missions involving the Italians and the Wehrmacht such as the Greek campaign.
-Improve the ui... coh2 ui was awesome.
-Ability to occupy neutral buildings and build operational bases there.
Regards
Steam User 120
I just play single player... i dont like online, because of the way you have to play and do everything so quick. I like builing up the defence and then work my way forward.
Therefore, i really really like this game.
Sometimes it is easy to break trough, but a lot of times it isnt.
It also depends on what difficulty i play.
I like how the tactical Map is and how you can progress your squads. i loosed some by wrong management, but i now have one strong one who is helping the weaker ones that are in trouble.
I wished i could do more settings tot the gameplay and set different kind of resource points...and the AI could be somewhat better.
Overall i love playing this game.