Bringing back the once seemingly moribund RTS in spectacular style, Company of Heroes 3 is intense, tactical, authentic, meaty and innovative - but not for the faint-hearted or those seeking instant gratification.
A very convincing return for one of Relic's more iconic series that keeps the best features of the previous games while also bringing fresh new ideas that change the way players can play and enjoy Company of Heroes. Will it be the best strategy game of 2023? Only time will tell.
The best instalment of the series, that much is without question. There could be more changes, sure, and the graphics feel dated. But the new turn-based strategic map is a great addition which transforms the traditional singleplayer campaign into a massive operation for many an evening.
Company of Heroes 3 is certainly a solid production, whose path follows the path left by its two predecessors without particular deviations. But it's not a big problem that the gameplay has remained substantially unchanged, because that mixture between classic strategy (in greater doses) and simulation continues to work, offering a delicious depth that never leads to more rigorous complexity. The dynamic campaign is the most welcome novelty, and although it is not comparable in terms of richness of options to other congeners or to the 4X, it is an introduction to be fully appreciated. In short, Relic Entertainment's game will not be the bravest of the RTS, but it offers an experience of undeniable quality.
Although the current Company of Heroes 3 is not perfect, and the designers at Relic Entertainment have had some bad ideas, the fact that this game has made it to the third title, to be honest, is enough for us old fans of the game to cheer and get excited about.
Given the superiority of the previous two games, I wasn't surprised that Company of Heroes 3 captured my imagination again. The new Total War-style campaign layers added some variety, but didn't overwhelm my brain. Even without it, however, the battles are still endlessly fun, chaotic, and challenging. Company of Heroes 3 reminds me that a good RTS can still be a lot of fun and enjoyment.
Pros:
- the gameplay is solid and it is pretty fun
- the graphics look good (they are better than CoH2, idk what people are smoking, the details are better, the particles and the effects are better)
- the performance is pretty good, better than CoH2, that game still lags sometimes
- there is a lot of content at launch, way more than in CoH1 and CoH2 at their launches
Cons:
- some bugs in the italian campaign map
- unfinished assets (some of the portraits are still placeholders and have the CoH2 pictures)
- the announcers are pretty bad (you can barely hear when a grenade is thrown)
- the zooming (in my opinion) should be further away, but this is the fault of the community, as many people did complain that the zoom is too far and that the tanks look small (this complains happened during the test from winter if I remember correctly)
- the pings should be more visible
- some features are missing, but Relic did manage this pretty well as they stated this missing at launch features from the start. They've written an entire blog post with everything that the game will have and not have at launch
Conclusion:
- if you wanna play the campaigns, go for the game, it is pretty fun
- if you wanna have fun with the gameplay, go for it, as there are a lot of broken tactics because the game is new, ofc it won't be very balanced
- if you just wanna play ranked and tryhard, I suggest you to wait as there are no replays (just a work around for them), no real ranked system and so on at launch, but those will be added soon.
I personally can't understand why people are hating so much. The game has a solid foundation and for real, even CoH1 had so many bugs and problems at the beginning (the matchmaking was trash, the people would remove you from lobbies 24/7 because you just started playing or because you have low rank, the community was toxic af and so on) and I remember this because I've played a lot of CoH1 when I as between 11 and 14 years old.
This Game has a nice overlay and i like the feeling of it. Sadly even with the new DLC i still have the feeling that it was puplished with quite a few
possibillities to change your play stile. It feels very repetitive
Coming from almost 500 hours of playtime in Coh2, this felt like a punch in the gut. It seems relic completely forgot about its previous entry, and launched a game in a horrendous state on all fronts.
No name tag on top of units when pressing a key, so you don’t know who controls each unit, a key to collaboration. Team colors were all over the place, confusing an enemy for a teammate because you got a complimentary color in the other team. These two are ridiculous, such a simple thing done wrong which greatly affects gameplay. A legion of UI/UX issues like this, accompanied by horrible balancing and a meta that changes hotfix after hotfix.
From overpowered Guastatoris to a legion of medium british MBTs storming tigers as if they were nothing more than a pile of junk. Practically no progression, worse sound design than Coh2, the addition of an in-game store in one of the first updates with a broken game…
The list is ever-growing, it was a disaster of a launch and a disaster ****. It is sad because I was really looking forward to it, but this was not it. The campaign was cool, even though it suffered from balancing and other problems when I played it.
A sad death for a legend of the genre.
It's quite demanding on the computer's performance , even for its outdated graphics. Monotonous – boredom. The world map entertained me for a while at the beginning, but it needs MUCH more attention. Battles and everything else remain the same, with repetitive dialogues and side tasks in battles. Eventually, I stopped using ships, planes, etc. It seems like someone was in a hurry and didn't finish the game properly. Units often got stuck, and it was impossible to destroy or sell them. The only things I praise are the sounds and the destroyed houses. I didn't understand why Montgomery and Patton were named fictitiously. I played it on default-medium difficulty, and there's actually no need to play tactically or use cover. Later on, it became annoying to constantly build the base , make the same upgrades in real battles, and so on. The company of boredom. The first episode is still the best
SummaryBigger and better than ever, Company of Heroes 3 combines heart-pounding combat with deeper strategic choices in a stunning Mediterranean theatre of war. In Company of Heroes 3, every battle tells a story...what's yours?