Overall Incredible, but a few A.I problems

User Rating: 9.6 | Company of Heroes PC
I bought this game to play on my new system, and I was amazed by the graphics. The first campaign level, D-Day, looked just amazing. My troops were frantically huddled behind cover as MG-42's fired down from the cliffs. Smoke rose from burning objects, craters formed in the sand when artillery and mortars hit. Explosions are so detailed in this game that it feels like watching a movie. Artillery cause great hunks of dirt and rocks to erupt upwards, then rain back down alongside the limbs of any unfortunate infantry. I find myself watching slow-motion replays of my games so i can see the incredible detail that goes in to a bridge being demolished, or a jeep exploding, etc. These replays do feel very much like movies, especially with "Cinematic Mode", which follows different units with movie like camera angles. Unfortunately, it does not work very well, and will often give you camera views through buildings.

The sound in this game was also very well done. The sound of artillery falling is very realistic, with the shell impacting first, then hearing the whistling and the massive boom. As well, units all have unique speech based on their status. Troops and vehicles will sound panicked if under fire or heavily damaged. if you upgrade and engineers with a flamethrower, they will make comments about burning the enemy.

The game play is also lots of fun, and the sides are, imo, very well balanced. The game is based around capturing resource points to provide manpower, munitions, and fuel. Manpower is used to build every unit, munitions is used to buy weapons and use abilities, and fuel is used to build certain units and structures. The game also has a very interesting commander system, in which you choose one of three branches, and then get to choose abilities with points. You gain points by accomplishing tasks during the battle. This does not carry over between games.

The only problem with this game is the sometimes awful A.I. This includes both unit A.I and CPU A.I. Units will often doe very stupid and pointless things, For example, my rifle squad was cornered by a tank. i gave them orders to retreat, which they could have done by running away from the tank. Instead, they ran one by one in to it until they were all dead (a six man squad...) As well, Allied CPU players always seem to build huge amounts of jeeps, a weak unit, and not tech at all. They also constantly order their units to get in and out of buildings so they are just running around near the door. Also, they sometimes retreat units when they have an advantage (e.g engineers vs. rifleman, the rifleman are told to retreat).

But, AI aside, this game is completely fantastic, and anyone with a decent computer should own it just for the cinematic experience.