When you start to play the game you’ll be amazed at the level of the AI in
the game. Your soldiers behave realistically, among many other things going
prone or seeking cover when under fire, cursing at the approach of a tank, or
providing covering fire for their squadmate who is trying to toss a satchel
charge into a building. You’re free to concentrate on giving out orders rather
than seeing that they are carried out or wasting time baysitting units that are
too dumb to jump behind a wall when an MG42 opens up on them. Company of Heroes
is a strategy game in which not only strategy matters but tactics as well. Your
units are not going to last very long if you throw them headlong into a fight
and a squad of soldiers can’t go toe to toe with a tank and win. You’ll need to
constantly work to flank enemy positions, suppress enemies with mortar fire
before advancing, and maneuver a bazooka to a firing position behind an enemy
tank. On defense you’ll need to strategically place barbed wire, mines, and
sandbags to funnel enemy troops into your well-placed machine gun nest fire
arcs. This is not a strategy game for players that rely solely on fast-clicking
fingers.
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| A battle rages in the streets. |
The attention to detail in the game is impressive. The structures on the maps
are fully destructible, so villages really do look like warzones once you get
through with them. You can catch a sniper taking aim from a window and then
ducking back, and then watch as he comes down with the building’s façade after
you manage to get a satchel charge at the base of wall. You can use grenades to
knock down a wall and create an opening for your squad to flank an enemy
position. Mortar rounds will send bodies into the air on impact and leave
craters behind, tanks will throw twisted metal around when they are hit, and the
rubble from buildings will pile up in the streets. This attention to detail
extends to the audio portion of the game as well. You’ll be able to tell what
arms a squad is equipped with just by listening to the reports of their weapons.
Explosions sound appropriately destructive as do the cascades of rubble. You’ll
even be able to pick up on what is going on on the ground by listening to your
soldiers as they’ll yell to each other when they encounter enemy troops,
positions, and weapons.
The 15 mission campaign is challenging enough to give veteran strategy gamers
a run for their money, but when the dust settles and you emerge victorious you
have the skirmish and multiplayer modes awaiting you. In these modes you’ll also
be able to command the German forces and you’ll find that they play a little
differently than the Americans. The Germans rely more on heavier and entrenched
weaponry as opposed to the fast-moving Americans who try to use their mobility
to their advantage. The skirmish games take a different approach than your
typical “annihilate the enemy” RTS battle. Strategic victory points are added to
the maps in addition to the resource points. Each side begins with a set number
of tickets like in some first person shooters and you’ll begin to lose your
tickets if the enemy holds more strategic points than you do. The more strategic
points that you hold, the faster your enemy’s tickets are subtracted. The game
ends when on side runs out of tickets.
Multiplayer games are run through Relic’s own matchmaking system and you can
select from two player duels to team battles between Axis and Allied forces. If
you thought the Ai presented you with a challenge in the game, wait until you go
up against other players. The game design makes for some exciting and
unpredictable play against other gamers and the multiplayer game will have you
coming back to Company of Heroes for a long time after you’ve finished the
campaign.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
96%. World War II finally gets the epic strategy game it deserves.
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