If the prospect of slogging through yet another World War II themed RTS is enough to send you into some kind of psychopathic rage, do us a favor and stay far away from our office.  That’s because we’ll be too busy playing the excellent Company of Heroes.

Oh God… not D-Day again!

Yeah, yeah, it’s true.  We used to be like you. You know, making the pact to never again touch an RTS that takes place during WWII (let along one that starts with yet another interpretation of D-Day… yawn).  But credit must be given where credit is due.  Relic Entertainment has managed to breathe life into a very dead horse.  And after messing around with Company of Heroes a great deal, it’s easy to see how they did it.

Relic has taken a lot of the RTS groundwork laid for the Warhammer: Dawn of War games and expertly applied it to the WWII setting.  The result is a Real-Time Strategy games that relies on established conventions, so it’s easy to pick up and play.  Yet the game pleasantly diverges into its own peculiar territory.

Down and Dirty

Initially, players will be taken aback by the state of the art visual presentation.  Company of Heroes seamlessly transitions from gameplay to in-game generated cutscenes.  Gone are the static characters prattling on and on while a short “talking” animation loops.  Instead, players are treated to exciting cutscenes worthy of the very best other genres (like FPS) have to offer.

The single-player campaign is excellent, which is a welcome change from what we traditionally expect from the RTS genre.  It also eases you into the central focus of the gameplay.  The beauty of a game like Company of Heroes is that is places emphasis on the kinds of interactions we should expect from a WWII themed strategy game. As you move your units around, you need to be mindful of things like cover and facing.  As you advance into enemy territory the game becomes about capturing key strategic points on the map and defending them.  Merely lassoing your entire army and marching them to your perceived objective will generally get you killed.

The best offense…

It’s a lot to think about, but despite how demanding this game is of your attention, it’s never overwhelming.  Unit AI is smart enough to use defensive cover and fight back when necessary.  And there’s a clear emphasis on using buildings and terrain to channel combat and create kill zones.  It’s a hands-on game that plays a lot like a hands-off one.

It’s also tough as nails.  The campaign isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination.  But it’s a fair kind of tough. The enemy AI is pretty good at sneaking around and capturing undefended strategic points (resulting in a resource lose for your side).  If that’s happening a lot, chances are you didn’t set up adequate defenses.  It’s really rather refreshing to have an RTS game that rewards a proper balance of offensive and defensive play.

Take that hill!!!

The emphasis on capturing and holding key areas of the map makes skirmish and multiplay more frantic than you might expect.  Our first couple of matches resulted in devastating defeat because we clearly weren’t aggressive enough.  But again, it’s a tricky balance.  Go offensive too soon and you run the risk of your opponent poking through your soft defenses.  Company of Heroes demands a solid amount of strategic thinking.

But it’s still obviously cut from the classic RTS cloth.  You’ll still build up a base and generate units from barracks and motor pool.  Thankfully, the emphasis isn’t so much on base building as it is setting up proper paths of troop advancement and defenses.  And since your resources are tied to how much territory you control, you can’t hang around at your base.  You’ve got to advance.

Heroic Victory 

And this is why we really like Company of Heroes. It takes the WWII setting and applies it to the kinds of game-related stuff we want to see and do.  It’s a game about superior use of tactics and terrain, not overwhelming firepower.  In short, it’s an excellent strategy game.

Article by: Greg Bemis
Video produced by: Tim Jennings