Relic Entertainment is building an amazing body of work in the genre of real-time strategy gaming– from Homeworld and Dawn of War, and its two expansions, to Company of Heroes, a game that takes the most overused backdrop, World War II, and spins it into something fresh, new, and wildly entertaining. Relic may not be the best PC game developer in the business, but they are clearly invited to the party.
Before getting into the game proper, it should be noted that the folks at both Relic and THQ continue to do something that is becoming comically rare in this industry: they are making it easy on fans of their games to have a good time. Multiplayer battles in Company of Heroes are a blast – arguably the best way in which to play the game; it's even better on a LAN when you can play against your buddies in the same room. Company of Heroes requires one disc per LAN session. Even when playing the single player portion of the game, be it the lengthy 15 –mission campaign or a skirmish game, you don't even need the disc in tray to play. It's like having a 1990s flashback.
Company of Heroes takes you back to good old World War II, specifically from the D-Day invasion to the days leading up to the fall of Berlin. It focuses on the American force and its battles against the German army; there are no Brits, Italians, or other forces in the game. Even though it's is set in a painfully familiar setting, the game manages to breathe new life into battles we have virtually fought for many, many years.
Relic manages to pull this off because of the base game design, stellar AI, roaring sound, vivid graphics, and its use of the Havok physics engine. Add it all up and you have, arguably, the best real-time strategy game of the past decade. It's that good.
The design borrows many ideas from Relic's Dawn of War franchise. The concept of capturing strategic points as a resource is pretty much right out of the Warhammer 40K game. However, in addition to these points, your forces must capture ammo dumps and fuel depots to keep your army chugging along, and with the inclusion of extra large campaign maps, you need to keep these resources "in supply" in order to use them by controlling adjacent sectors. An ammo dump, for example, if isolated doesn't do you any good. You need to have a line of supply.
You shouldn't consider the design to be "Dawn of War but in 1944." It's much deeper than that, actually. There's so much more you can do with your troops in Company of Heroes that if you play Dawn of War (a fantastic game in its own right) you might wish that a few Company of Heroes features made their way into that game – like being able to take over a large house to use as a base of operations, the ability to issue a mass retreat command, or the fact that your troops will (usually) use cover when they can find it. For a fast paced real time strategy game, Company of Heroes doesn't require a lot of babysitting; your troops are perfectly capable of defending themselves without you telling them to shoot back. Most infantry units are recruited as squads and not individual soldiers, so controlling a large force is made easier because you don't need to issue commands to each individual – the game tries to make things as easy to do as possible.
There's a lot to experience here – from playing online or in a skirmish game to the well-crafted campaign. (Although a German campaign would have been nice, as well.) Skirmish and online games get interesting due to the various doctrines you can choose during a fight. During a skirmish, you earn points that allow you to go down specific research paths which can dramatically alter the way a battle plays out. It also adds needed variety to the Axis and Allies from Axis V1 Rockets to the Allies ability to drop paratroopers anywhere on the game map.
Company of Heroes is a joy to play – but it's also easy on the eyes. The art direction is amazing. Its level of detail is staggering. You'll need a beefy machine in order to show off all it can do and part of this is attributed to the notion that nearly everything in the game is a target. If a Tiger tank comes rolling in, buildings are going to explode, wires are going to fall, trees are going to turn into toothpicks and fences are no longer going to play much of a factor. The terrain is a living, breathing, part of each battle – and no game has ever done this better than Company of Heroes.
The graphics and destructible environments are only part of the aesthetics, though. Company of Heroes makes use of sound better than most first-person shooters. It sounds like you are watching a big budget Hollywood movie, from the roar of an anti-aircraft gun, to the explosion when an armored car gets taken out by a tank. It's an assault on the senses. Even the usual base sound that you hear when clicking on a unit sounds better in this game – if you click on a rifleman squad during a firefight, don't expect a simple, "yes, sir" in response, these soldiers may very well throw an F-bomb at you. Hey, the game is rated M for "Mature" and this is definitely part of the reason why. But it fits.
While the game gives the genre of World War II strategy games a needed shot of adrenaline, you should be aware that it's not intended as a grognard wargame. Yes, you do need to target a tank in its weak spots, and most of the weaponry and vehicles are authentic, but this is a game first and foremost and not meant as a true recreation of mid 20th century warfare. Any game that allows you instant reinforcements via airdrops, on command, can't be considered a hardcore wargame. That's not always a bad thing, though. This is a well-designed, fast paced rush of a strategy game that happens to use World War II as its canvas.
