Company of Heroes is one of the best RTS releases in the genre's history.
We live in an era that warrants eye-rolling whenever a software publisher announces yet another World War II-based game. We have seen more than our fair share of such projects, some of which have been good (e.g. EA's Battlefield 1942, which many consider the catalyst) and some of which have been exceedingly horrible (e.g. Codemasters' Soldiers: Heroes of World War II -- a game that never should have been released, IMHO).
After several years and with a great deal of experience in the form of its Warhammer 40,000 series, Relic has made an addition to the WWII establishment that rivals and perhaps outright surpasses everything that came before it. Also, beyond just historical war games, the RTS genre in general can learn a thing or two from Company of Heroes.
What "makes" the game, even before you have time to familiarize yourself with the mechanics and strategy, is the quality of the production. The sound alone is absolutely amazing. When a German AT gun unloads on your Sherman, you feel it, and likewise when a mortar explodes near an infantry squad. Men will scream in panic when a firefight turns against them, and they will proudly announce when they demolish the other guys. The dialogue for units is a mixture of serious and humorous, with none of the ridiculous camp that was notorious in Command & Conquer: Generals.
The graphics in Company of Heroes are gorgeous, and the environments appear to be completely destructible -- no invincible buildings! The burned shells of destroyed vehicles will remain on screen and can be used as cover for infantry. Dust that looks real will spray into the air when a shell lands or stir behind a tank as it rumbles down the road. Units move with extreme levels of realism, whether they're running, crawling or rolling.
The detail of the textures is unbeatable. Most RTS games look okay from a distance, but things become blocky and blurry as you zoom in. With Company of Heroes, you can zoom all the way to ground level, and everything remains clear and sharp. This is demonstrated well in cut-scenes, which are integrated seamlessly into the missions.
Gameplay is implemented very well and is easy to figure out. What is not easy is actually playing. The AI ruined me the first couple of times I played a full mission. There's so much going on at once, and you have to cover so much ground (you conquer territory by gaining control of sectors on the map), that it can be a challenging experience to simply defend your base and hold a fuel point or two. Fortunately, it becomes easier after you've done it a few times. When you finally get past the point of being overwhelmed, the hectic campaign is quite enjoyable to play through.
Of course, nothing is perfect. The only real problem with the game itself is an occasional pathfinding issue or two. Sometimes men will become bunched around a capture point and run in place, usually when you have several groups together or if they are compacted around a vehicle. This is, thankfully, not a big deal and can be ignored or remedied by moving them. Tanks are a little strange, too, as they will at times roll into battle backward, despite Relic's realistic emphasis on armor placement (i.e. you don't want your tank shot in the rear, which becomes a problem when it rolls into the fight rear-first).
From a performance perspective, you will need a decent system. I run an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ with 2 GB of RAM and a 512 MB GeForce 6600 PCI-e, and my performance is acceptable on medium settings. If the screen gets really busy, I do experience some brief lag from time to time, so having a 7000-series GeForce or comparable Radeon will not be in vain.
Bottom line? If you are a gamer, buy Company of Heroes. I firmly believe it will go down as one of the all-time classic PC games.