A new way to play the same old game.

User Rating: 9.6 | Company of Heroes PC
By dennis8 | Review Date:
Company of Heroes is a awesome game with amazing graphics based in a WWII setting but does alot to veer off the cliche' that's been plagueing this line of WWII games so far. For those of you who don't know, CoH is a RTS or real time strategy game that requires you to manage your troops as well as your base and resources and your captured territories (more on that later). The moment I started playing, I went straight to the tutorial, which by far is one of the most simple to learn ever. It teaches you all the basics without the headache and I got playing in no time. And note that I havent played the singleplayer mode yet because all the replay usually comes from multiplayer. But, from my friend's feedback, the singleplayer is lengthy and takes a while to complete even a single mission. I'll try to cover down what you can expect from a skirmish or multiplayer game in as much detail possible for those who are wondering, and from what I played, its pretty sweet gameplay. First off, when you create a game you must choose the map, game mode (two types: capture control points or annihilation), starting resources, and your side. CoH has only 2 factions to play as Axis or Allies (basically America and Germany). Each faction differs in play style like how they advace to create better buildings and such. For this reveiw, I'll use Allies. So you started the game, as soon as the loading screen is finished, you have your HQ and a squad of engineers. Engineers are your basic squad which can create base buildings and field defenses. Field defenses are cool stuff that help bolster defenses of ur base or territories. There are barb wires, tank traps, land mines, machine gun emplacements, and lots more. Another thing to note is the green circle button next to your minimap. Once pressed, it opens up a menu much like Command and Conquer Generals, wherein you must choose a company that you wish to focus on. The Axis and Allies each have 3 different choices. Allies can either choose from Air, Armor, or Infantry companies, while Axis have Defense, Terror, and Blitzkreig doctrines. Each differ with each other and help alot depending on what unit type you choose to focus on, which opens up a variety of playing styles. As soon as you choose your company/doctrine and at least made your barracks, it's time to deploy your infantry and start capturing territories in order to gain more resources. Another feature of CoH is the territories. In CoH you don't mine from gold mines, harvest lumber from trees, or drive supply trucks to collect supplies, you capture territories. On the minimap, you will see small circles and divisions which symbolizes a territory and what resource it supplies. The 3 main resources are manpower (for infantry), munitions (to use special abilities ex. grenades, air strikes), fuel ( for vehicles). By capturing territories, you increase your steady flow of resources, and resources won't run out as long as you have control of the territoy and it is connected with other territories to your base (supplied territories). And to make sure enemies will have a hard time taking your territory, you can bolster your defenses with the field defenses said earlier. And you can secure a territory by making a observation post on it which in turn, will allow more resources to flow and makes it harder for the enemy to capture. Back at the base, the engineers should make all the buildings (there are only a few by the way, but there are alot of varied unit types). Each unit production building offers what you need to win the battle. The barracks allows you to make the standard infatry which can be upgraded with grenades for clusters of infantry, sticky bombs for tanks, and better rifles for suppression fire ability, and can also make the jeep which is good to hunt down snipers. The special weapons center offers mortar teams for long range strikes, machine gun teams for slicing through infantry and light vehicles, and of course the sniper, which can cloak itself and one shot kill enemies. The heavy armor building allows you to make tanks, namely the M4 tank destroyer which has a strong attack but a weak defense, M4 crocodile sherman which has a flamethrower and a upgrade which plows through obstacles, and M4 sherman which is a all around tank. They can be upgraded with machine guns for anti-infantry, mine flails which uproot mines (and slices enemy units to pieces, very gory) and smoke cansiters to deter the accuracy of enemies. During battle, your infantry can be suppressed, meaning they are under fire (yellow), or they can be pinned down under heavy fire (red) and will crouch to avoid taking fire. To avoid this, you can take cover behind obstacles, but if worse comes to worst, you can retreat, which gives your units increased speed and dodge rate and will send them running back to the base. At the base you can fill in empty ranks within the squad with a nifty button that reinforces the squad back to full strenght for redeployment. Aside from all these features, any infantry unit can go into a building to take cover, but any buidling can be destroyed too. But also, you can make any building a forward barracks which allows you to deploy infantry units giving you an advantage if your base is too far from the fighting. Add these features with your chosen company and you can be sending in reinforcements from air, call in a strafing/bombing run, radio for a airstrike, sending in the multi-rocket equipped calliope sherman, or the mighty pershing tank, or allow your engineers to create the mighty Howitzer artillery, a long range artillery which could barrage with other Howitzers to almost a range of half the map. With all the unit types in hand, and all the strategies present, I play over and over searching for newer and more efficient strategies. And to think that was just the Allied side :) the Axis are an equally powerful force with their Volskgrenadiers, rocket barrages, liutenants who can blend in with an infantry squad and call in a mortar barrage, and not to mention the mighty flak cannon, even one flak can hold its ground against an entire army, with tanks. With all that said, CoH offers an experience that can't be missed, and so much more fun when played with friends.

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