Company of Heroes

Company of Heroes is a RTS based in WW2. Taking control of Able company, you are able to command squads of soliders during major battles in WW2. From D-Day on Normandy to the end of the war, this title manages to do what many RTS games have tried and failed. I view this game as a worthy re-visioning of Close Combat, one of the best WW2 themed RTS games ever made.

Graphics:

This game is fucking beautiful, if your rig can manage it. I run a GeForce 7600 with 1gig of ram and I get hic-ups in the frame rate every few minutes for about 5-10 seconds. This happens during in-game video and during game play, though it may be something else going on in my system. With all the up-dates, the slow downs have decreased in length and severity. Point is, the game kicks ass. With the newest patch in effect, the game is able to take advantage of DX 10, which I can not use but the screens look beautiful. Hands down, this is one of the best lookin RTS games on the market. Explosions, soliders, buildings, tanks and water are kick ass.

Gameplay:

The games missions give you a variety of starting conditions. From having a base of operations and the ability to expand your base, to limited amounts of soliders at your control. Despite the various starting conditions, the missions are fairly cut-and-paste. Defeat the germans, secure resource locations and dont lose all your men. While there are various secondary missions that can be done during the game, you are awarded metals for finishing these side missions but they are not core to the game, nor do they seem to unlock anything extra.

You do get a variety of troops during the missions though. Riflemen are your basic grunts, Airborn are slightly better armed and trained and Army Rangers are the cream of the crop. You also get a decent choice of tanks and other vehicles that are able to be produced and they are devestating against infantry. they are not, though, invulnerable. While the German AI does not seem to try all that hard to take out your armor, your troops are easily able to blow up enemy armor with sticky bombs, recoiless rifles, bazookas and other AT weapons.

Your troops will all start fairly basicly, but during missions you are able to secure weapons that the Germans either drop or leave laying around. A Airborn company can sacrifice three soliders to become a MG crew or mortar crew. You are also able to pick up light MGs, bazookas and Panzerwhatsits to give your troops an edge in taking down armor and buildings.

One REALLY cool aspect of the game is that everything is destructable. While your troops may be hiding behind a wall have great cover, a decent sized explosion, or a vehicle, can destroy the cover and leave your men with thier asses in the air. Cars, boxs, rubble, buildings. It can all be destroyed.

As you play out the mission, you are given command points as you gain experience, which is gained by killing enemy troops, taking resource points, building defensive structures and other things. With these command points, you are able to call in air strikes, mortar fire, artillery, ship-based bombardment, special troops, equipment and other things. These "power ups" can be very helpful, though the best ones take alot of command points and take some time to earn them.

I really cant say enough positive things about the game play. Its all REALLY fun. Your squads gain exp for killing enemy units and will become tougher, have higher morale and become more accurate as the mission progresses. You are able to build a building that will have some previous veteran squads avaiable should you want to spend the extra points to pull them up.

Storyline:

Well, its WW2. Its been done to death. I dont know what happens if you lose a mission yet, but I would imagine that you start the mission over. Its standard WW2 fair though, but it doesnt SEEM old.


Controls:

Well the game is almost all mouse based. Its fairly easy to keep track of your troops when things are not going hectic but in the bigger missions, things can become tough to keep track of. A pause feature would be MOST welcome in the game but that would also make it seem way to easy.

Replay:

I havent beaten the game yet but most games do not hold very high replay value to me. There is online play but I have not tried it yet either. I would imagine the on-line aspect of the game is solid after being out for awhile but you never know. I generally dont play any games online unless they are MMOs, so my exp is limited.

Over all:

Game is awesome. Buy it.

9.5/10