Company of Heroes (PC)

Company of heroes is an action strategy game developed by the award winning Relic Entertainment that brings to life the epic story of a US Army company during their fight to win the war. Set in World War Two you will fight in missions ranging from the D-Day invasions through to some of the most pivotal battles of the war, all in a very clever cinematic style.

I bought CoH for a change of game play since my ever-increasing shelf of ...
...campaign mode you control Able Company headed by Sergeant Conti (the main character) through a huge range of missions. You start of (like most WWII games) on the sands of Omaha beach with your first task of getting 25 men ashore, not exactly an army's worth of men but hey! From then on you are tasks with specific objectives such as to destroy enemy Flak emplacements or to destroy the bunker. You are also given 1 or 2 secondary objectives for which ... more

Company of heroes is an action strategy game developed by the award winning Relic Entertainment that brings to life the epic story of a US Army company during their fight to win the war. Set in World War Two you will fight in missions ranging from the D-Day invasions through to some of the most pivotal battles of the war, all in a very clever cinematic style.

I bought CoH for a change of game play since my ever-increasing shelf of first person shooters was beginning to get rather repetitive, and believe me it was a great addition! I had always been deterred from playing RTS games due to the relatively poor graphics and crappy game play I normally associated with them (some may disagree). It was only really due to my friend saying I should buy it that I actually did.
The minute I installed the game I could tell it was something special right from its loading screen. The graphics looked intense, there appeared to be a great storyline and overall the game looked pretty damn amazing!

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Ok, so what great features does this game actually have?

* For starters Relic have now added their new "essence" game engine which pushes the graphics and game play to the maximum, something never seen before in an RTS.

* Real-time physics engine along with destructible buildings and terrain. You can also commandeer buildings to deny them from your enemy, or use high church towers as an advantage point for your sniper/troops. Engineers can also construct base buildings and defences whenever they are ordered to.

* Superb AI who effectively use their terrain to automatically find and use the nearest cover to avoid potentially deadly enemy fire. They also use advanced squad tactics to successfully destroy opposition all by themselves! Obviously you can control your squad, but left to their own free will they will automatically do this.

* You have access to a whole new arsenal of weaponry, vehicles and troops ranging from mortar teams to Sherman tanks equipped with mine-destroying flails.

* Multiplayer mode which allows you test your squad tactics and commander skills to the limits versus some of the most veteran players on the internet. The further you progress the better online rank you achieve which can be seen on a public leader board

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Gameplay
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In terms of game play I find CoH second to none, it's simply amazing and very addictive once you get playing. I spent around 2 hours trying to complete one mission, this being a great example of how the real-time side of things can come into play (literally!).
In single player campaign mode you control Able Company headed by Sergeant Conti (the main character) through a huge range of missions. You start of (like most WWII games) on the sands of Omaha beach with your first task of getting 25 men ashore, not exactly an army's worth of men but hey! From then on you are tasks with specific objectives such as to destroy enemy Flak emplacements or to destroy the bunker. You are also given 1 or 2 secondary objectives for which a medal may be awarded if you meet the criteria, giving you a little aim when playing the game although probably not as exciting as the real thing.
As you progress through the game the missions get more complex and require a lot more thinking through than you would first anticipate, which I personally found frustrating yet great at the same time. The reason I say this is because it can get annoying when you aren't very tactically-minded as myself, and always find yourself running into a hoard of enemy MG42 emplacements and getting slaughtered. On the other hand it really makes you think about the destructible terrain around you and makes you learn to adapt quickly and effectively to carry out the task in hand.
However CoH does have its new effective cover within the game which allows players to move troops into different areas of cover from fire. Your squad has a little shield above them showing how exposed they are, this being one of my favourite features and becomes very handy during fierce fire fights. Cover in the game ranges from brick walls to sandbags, tank traps to upturned tables on the road. It is all there for you to use, but watch out a tank doesn't use the physics engine to obliterate your position!

Delving more deeply into the game play you will get to see the different things involved in controlling you individual squads. Each squad consists of approximately 8 men, each armed with their relevant weapons respectively (i.e. MG Team with an MG, Sniper with sniper, mortar team with mortar etc.) and can be controlled by simply clicking on them. In the bottom right of your GUI you have your control panel which lists all the different functions you can do with your squad once they are selected. From here you can produce weapon upgrades, control whether the squad should fire at will etc. There are also tactical things such as the ability to throw a satchel charge into a bunker/building or to "attack move". The attack move option basically allows you to assign your squad (or company) to move to a specific location however, if they come under enemy fire they must attack their way through. Normally if you tell a squad to go somewhere, they generally run straight past enemy positions and try to avoid fire, however if the heat gets to much or your squad gets pinned down by fire, you can simply hit the retreat button in your control panel to get them out.

As I said earlier you're not just restricted to one type of player in the game. You can either play for the Allies or the Axis (multiplayer only). Each army comes equipped with different vehicles, soldiers and battlefield commander options. Each army has the following (although the Axis team has an equivalent of a different name):

Engineers - These build defences, structures, HQ's etc. and can be tasked to plant explosives on bridges or buildings. They are the backbone of your company and provide all the logistics.

Riflemen infantry - These are your main fighting force and come equipped with standard issue army rifles (either M1 Garand or the Karabiner 98).

Ranger Squad - Equipped with bazookas and thompsons they are the perfect assault group of the game who finish off already weakened enemy troops or vehicles.

Paratroopers - Same as the infantry squad except they can be dropped behind enemy lines and reinforced with new paratroopers if any are KIA.

Machine Gun Squad - They lay down a high rate of fire, enough to usually rip apart most infantry squads (or a least suppress them).

Mortar Team - These are tasked with destroying dug-in enemy units all from a safe distance, however these are prone to attack and are best supported with an infantry squad at all times.

Sniper - This unit works by himself and can be camouflaged from enemy sight. The sniper is the most accurate fighter on the battlefield, however he is limited to only one kill per shot so avoid throwing him into a hoard of enemy and getting him killed resulting in a huge loss of resources.

Other units include a large array of tanks, jeeps, half-tracks all with their respective upgrades. However, units and buildings cannot be created for free within CoH since you need to use resources.
Resources are generated whenever you capture relevant control points on a map, and to increase production you can build an observation post on top. The three types of resources available in the game are manpower (for troops and vehicles), ammunition (for anything that requires ammo such as vehicles, units etc.) and finally fuel which is used for creating vehicles.
Basically, if you control the majority of the control points on the map then you can create the more powerful forces required to destroy your opponent, otherwise the tables can be turned onto yourself causing you to be pushed back to your HQ and finally destroyed.

Multiplayer is generally the same as single player apart from the fact you are playing against a real opponent without any real specific objectives like the missions. However you must still control resource locations as well as "victory points" to reduce your enemy's tickets. Coupled with single player I find that multiplayer adds a different side to the game making it very enjoyable to play, as well as a difficult thing to master. However, it's all a part of the fun!

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Graphics
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The graphics in CoH is simply stunning, particularly for an RTS. In my opinion it is the graphics and animations in this game which really do it for me. Although at closer inspections of models etc the graphics appear poor (i.e. during cinematic videos) you can't fault it since the game is meant to be played from third person view (from a distance). My only suggestion to get an idea of how great the game is for graphics and animation is to look at some videos or screenshots on the internet since I cannot possibly explain them apart from how amazing they are. I have provided some screenshots with the review, so check them out!

Note: They can be a bit intense and would require a fairly high-end computer to be able to play it to its full capabilities. (It also now supports direct x 10 for even better performance!)

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Obviously I can't cover everything in the game simply because it's so vast, however I hope I have enlightened you all on some features etc of the game which make it simply amazing! I would seriously recommend users buy this game if they are after something new and exciting. Top notch game! 

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