Company of Heroes 3 Review – by Fletch (Xbox Nation)

Written by Fletch (Xbox Nation)

It’s been almost ten years since Company of Heroes 2 first launched and it was one of my favourite RTS games of all time! In a genre that has somewhat had a resurgence recently I could not wait to dive into the third instalment. Since the last release a whole generation ago, Relic’s RTS has gone on to become one of the most successful and beloved WWII strategy games of all time after a slightly patchy start, with thousands of dedicated fans playing at any time even now. Company of Heroes 3 has a lot to live up to, with many different fans wanting very different things from a decade of anticipation. So how does Relic’s newest, more colourful and expansive entry fare?

It’s difficult to say that Company of Heroes 3 revolutionises the genre, but those who were absorbed by the constant risk/reward pull of the original games and the scale of conflict will find plenty to adore here, though the game isn’t without its fair share of flaws.

So what is the story you may be asking and where will I be spending most of my hours playing the game?

The headlining addition for Company of Heroes 3 is its Italian campaign, an epic hard fought battle in all senses. From a hectic and deadly beach landing on the shores of the country, you must slowly take back Italy piece by piece, bolstering your forces and cultivating relationships so that you can make a final break for the final line of German defence and take back Rome. It sounds rather simple on paper, but there are so many ways of marching on the capital that no two playthroughs will ever be the same.

Much of your time in Italy will be spent clearing territories, establishing defences, adding new units, and taking part in battles both large and small. The tactile feel of the map is very similar to others game in the strategy genre like Civilization and Ara: History Untold. These are turn based encounters where you will have to make decisions on how your army progresses, what battles to take and how to distribute supplies.

When battling as mentioned there are 2 types you will come across throughout your playthroughs. Skirmishes are quicker battles that shouldn’t take too long to complete but  then there are more cinematic, narrative-based encounters that feel like absolute blockbusters. There are many moments where it’s hard not to feel overawed at how much is going on and you will be mumbling tactics to yourself and demanding reinforcements so much that you may as well start dressing up for the occasion and slip into a uniform. When Company of Heroes 3 is at its best, it’s so immersive that almost nothing else matters and I spent absolutely hours engrossed in these conflicts.

The battles are so good, in fact, that you won’t mind doing them over and over again across the substantial Italy campaign. It took me approximately 30 or so hours to get past German defence. The ability to sit down, slap the pause button, and painstakingly plan out several moves in advance make you feel like the ultimate commander. It is such an in depth experience and really brings out my love for the strategy genre.

Away from the actual conflict, the majority of your Italian adventure is spent progressing across the map and completing secondary objectives to grow relationships with your other generals and Italian rebel forces. There is an integrated loyalty system with these generals where you have to make choices that will affect said relationships. If you work well with them, you will gain their loyalty, unlocking new units and abilities that will really help you out the deeper into Italy you go. 

What makes it so fascinating in Company of Heroes 3, though, is that your allies don’t always share the same ideas on how to go about things, meaning that you may actually lose loyalty with one person after gaining it with another. General Buckram, the most impatient man who’s ever lived, seems to want you to march on Rome with whatever you have in your pockets, while General Norton would prefer you to help out across the country. Eleonora Valenti, the leader of the Italian resistance, hates almost any bombings of her country, but it makes your job so much easier to be able to use sea artillery and attacks from the skies. It’s not easy keeping everyone happy.

However, there is one issue with this campaign: it’s far too easy overall on the default difficulty, to the point where veteran players will probably want to crank the difficulty dial right up. There’s not much sense of jeopardy and resource management never became much of an issue. It seemed as though I was always at max capacity for pretty much the whole time and never once lost a battle even ones that I could simulate without having to first hand fight myself. The real difficulty I had was trying to not get frustrated with what can sometimes feel like incremental movement across the board between turns, and a restrictive population cap. You are so limited with the units that you get and spend alot of time just marching across the map to get somewhere. This can really take you out of the immersion at times as you get bored just waiting for the next fight.

For those who want a more straightforward affair, the North African Operation is the way to go, and it’s significantly more of a challenge from the off. You play as the German Afrika Korps, a feared tank division under the influence of the infamous Erwin Rommel. There is some incredible narrative design that makes you question the harsh reality of war and really invokes the pain and suffering seen by many during these times. It’s not quite the level of emotional manipulation you may see in games like Spec Ops the line, but it does make you think about how you go about completing your missions.

A lot of your time in the North African campaign will actually be spent on defence and this is a welcome change from the Italian campaign. You will progress across the battlefield where mines and mortars are absolutely everywhere, with you having to flex all of your tactical muscles to constantly beat the odds. Resources are finite, so every vehicle always has to be well looked after and there’s no sending your tanks in blindly and hoping for the best here. It is incredibly tactical and I think fans of this genre will be more at home especially as you have to keep your thinking cap on at all times.

You may be thinking how do the controls fair on console especially across the campaign offering and into multiplayer and I have to say they are very well designed but do come with some flaws. Controlling units and deciding where to attack is a very seamless experience and I at times forgot that this wasn’t the PC version of the series. The implementation of the tactical menu is a great addition especially for controller players as this lets you pause the game mid battle at any point in single player and means you can easily navigate the field and decide which route you want to take your forces. It means there is no panicking about units and worrying about poor inputs clouding your judgement however I can see this being an issue in multiplayer when the tactical pause does not exist.

There are negatives unfortunately to the design of the controller support and I came across a lot of input issues you don’t want when diving into an RTS experience. There were many times that I wanted to select a unit quickly due to a hasty retreat or to flank my enemies but due to my units bunching up it selected all of them and subsequently caused all of them to move instead. It’s so frustrating especially mid battle and this will definitely cause a lot of rage with multiplayer first gamers. Alongside this the Tactical Map is essentially useless to console players. The map cannot be darted across quickly as you can do on PC with a click of the mouse but instead requires you to bring up this behemoth of a map which blocks all your view, you cannot click to move quickly and can sometimes spend precious seconds scrolling across like you’re stuck in glue. This area needs refining fast especially for seasons RTS Fans like myself as we will become irritated and put the game down.

Away from the story-focused offerings, Company of Heroes 3 will likely live or die by just how much the community takes to its multiplayer offerings. Playing with and against others is like a whole other game. There were many times where I came up against what seemed to be an incredible seasoned veteran of the game and even on console the moves they were pulling blew my mind. This mode really consists of you capturing command posts and resource centres, building your military might and using tactics to ultimately win against your opponent. It really feels like a tug of war and one wrong move can screw up your entire game.

However, PVP does highlight what may be the biggest flaw in the game for the more dedicated and competitively-minded players and that is the pathfinding and general AI and the lack of awareness. I have to say that I have never seen such stupid AI and the way they make their way through the battlefield can be downright frustrating especially as controller isnt the most accurate way of controlling them. So many times I would send units to take cover or scout an area and instead of going through a small alley they would go right down the main road and die to mines left by an enemy opponent. Its frustrating when your trying to juggle every unit on the field and gives you headaches trying to fix the AI’s most blatant errors.

One issue that will also arise where it does not on PC is the tactical map. It is accessible but its very slow, bulky and can sometimes glitch out on you. Where on PC you can click an area of the map and your instantly there, this cannot be done on console so maintaining a whole army of multiple units can become a chore if they are spread out over the map. There is no way of counteracting this issue at present and it really shows the limitations on consoles especially with multiplayer. 

Luckily, there is the option to play with others against bots so you can get more accustomed to actual real-time real-time strategy, but the onboarding process still feels pretty lacking. For instance, the Co-Op vs AI option doesn’t allow you to change AI difficulty and is stuck on the equivalent of hard by default. This seems like a very big oversight especially when alot of new players are coming into the franchise for the first time. There needs to be a significant overhaul on how this game introduces new players. Jumping in as a newcomer will feel like a very poor experience and I could certainly see many not playing multiplayer due to this issue.

It really does feel that my criticism of Company of Heroes 3 are really mounting, however don’t let me undersell just how invigorating, thrilling and exciting the moment-to-moment gameplay is. I lost afternoons and evenings before I even knew what the time was. While the animations and AI can at times be frustrating, the spectacle of war as body parts go flying and buildings collapse really is quite impressive, even more so when backed by the phenomenal soundtrack. It’s easy to get tunnel vision and create your own little narrative threads as you grow attached to particular units. 

So with that in mind today I will be giving Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition a 80 out of 100. Company of Heroes 3 loves to make you feel like you’re on Cloud 9; fighting the war to end all wars without a care in the world but certain aspects really do drag you back down to earth with its clunky controls and poor AI but that’s offset by an RTS experience that hasn’t been experienced on console to date. If Relic can iron out some of the controller issues and improve certain aspects of the campaign I am sure that this will be one of the best RTS Games ever released on console.