Platforms: PC (PS5 and Xbox Series X sometime later in 2023)
Genre: Real-Time Strategy (RTS), Turn-Based Strategy, Strategy, War, Military

It’s been a decade since 2013’s Company Of Heroes 2, but the major RTS franchises have been making sort of a comeback in recent years, such as the recent Age Of Empires 4 and the increasing popularity of Creative Assembly’s Total War titles. Now it’s Relic Entertainment’s turn to make a mark in the current era of gaming and their latest entry, Company Of Heroes 3, is definitely an excellent sequel that is worth the long wait.

New Frontiers

While I can boast of having experienced thousands of hours in Total War titles, I can’t say the same for the Company Of Heroes franchise. However, after spending many hours with Company Of Heroes 3, I can see that the developers at Relic Entertainment have borrowed a lot of elements from Total War, and my suspicions were confirmed when I spotted that Creative Assembly is one of the studios that contributed to Company Of Heroes 3 when the game’s credits rolled. It’s nice to see a collaborative effort between these developers, which isn’t surprising considering that they’re both under publishers, SEGA, but I digress, let’s dig into the game.

There are two campaigns in Company Of Heroes 3, both of which are set in the Mediterranean theatre of World War 2. That setting is rarely explored in games, especially when compared to the Western, Eastern and Pacific fronts, so as a history buff, I was elated. One of the campaigns is the brand new Dynamic Italian Campaign, an expansive single-player experience featuring a brand new mechanic called the Dynamic Campaign Map. The Dynamic Campaign Map allows the player to command the entire war effort in Italy by managing a variety of ground, sea, and air forces with turn-based gameplay on a big map.

This is where those aforementioned Total War design influences come into play. It plays a lot like the Total War franchise’s grand campaign, where you micromanage settlements/towns/cities and armies on a massive map. Maintaining supply lines, manoeuvring your forces, upgrading your army, and establishing intelligence networks are some of the strategic choices players must take. However, this is Relic Entertainment’s take on similar mechanics, so it’s still very much Company Of Heroes all the way and not a Total War clone.

The narrative in the Italian Campaign’s Dynamic Campaign Map is delivered through dilemma-like interactions with three key sub-commanders, including General Buckram of the US forces, General Norton from the UK and Valenti of the Italian Partisan rebels. Ultimately the same major missions will be available to the player, but the narrative you craft will differ based on the decisions you make by choosing whose advice to take. This ensures that the story campaign feels less linear and more dynamic, hence the name of the new mode. Plus, following the advice of these sub-commanders will yield loyalty points, and accumulating enough loyalty points will result in permanent perks and benefits for the campaign. What’s fun, however, is that following the advice of one sub-commander might result in increasing loyalty points for that particular individual, but it might annoy another sub-commander, which will then decrease my loyalty points with that individual. Simply put, appeasing General Norton could make General Buckram angry, so you get points with one and lose points with the other. As such, it’s all a balancing act that you have to maintain your relationships with these three individuals for the entirety of the campaign.

Of course, the franchise’s classic RTS gameplay is still a key part of the experience. From the Campaign Map, the player can engage in a bunch of RTS missions, from major set-piece battles to dynamically triggered pop-up missions, defend missions, and skirmishes. You will control both the American and British armies, as well as other forces. If you’ve ever played Total War Shogun 2, you’d know that you can bombard settlements or the battlefield (during battle) with your naval forces and ships. You can do the same in Company Of Heroes 3. Not only are World War 2 ships much more devastating than 19th-century ships, but World War 2 also has aircraft. Yes, you can use planes to recon the map or bomb enemy settlements/forces.

If you want a more linear and focused classic Company Of Heroes campaign, there’s the North African Operation, in which players will command the infamous Deutsches Afrikakorps (yes, the Nazis), and receive instruction from the Desert Fox, Feldmarschall Erwin Rommel in the RTS missions themselves, as the DAK makes its push across North Africa in 1942. This is the traditional story campaign for old-school Company Of Heroes fans. In this campaign, you’ll just watch cutscenes and play through missions, so you don’t have to engage in the micromanagement of a massive map or any turn-based mechanics.

The Art Of War

The meat of the game is certainly more in the Dynamic Italian Campaign rather than the North African Operation. The linear North African Campaign is only around five hours long with a total of only eight missions. Meanwhile, the Dynamic Italian Campaign can be as long as a Total War campaign. What that means is that you can take your time and take as many turns as you want, which makes for a potentially long game time. It took me more than 20 hours in the Dynamic Italian Campaign to reach the end in my first playthrough, since the main objective of the whole campaign is to capture Rome and you begin the campaign near the southernmost part of Italy.

One of the best new mechanics in Company Of Heroes 3 is the Full Tactical Pause, which allows players to pause and stop the action simply by pressing the spacebar, as well as issue multiple orders simultaneously and queue them. This new mechanic is a welcome addition and it can be a big help for newcomers to get used to the fast-paced RTS gameplay in Company Of Heroes 3. Positioning of attacks is also important (a common theme in RTS games), where attacking tanks or vehicles at the rear or sides will result in increased penetration and damage. Plus, the Full Tactical Pause is clearly another element the Relic Entertainment devs took from Creative Assembly since it’s practically in almost every Total War game ever released.

I did face a few issues, especially when I was playing on the Dynamic Italian Campaign map. I encountered one game-breaking bug caused by one mission that automatically triggered as part of General Norton’s loyalty line. When I first completed the mission, the next turn suddenly took me back to the beginning of the campaign at turn one. I then reloaded an earlier save and restarted the mission. However, I then encountered a new issue as I couldn’t even complete the mission because the NPC allies refused to move towards the objective. The only way around this problem was to turn down the mission when it was presented to me, which caused my loyalty points with General Norton to decrease. Thankfully, there were no other lasting effects, though the narrative implications left a bad taste in my mouth and made me frustrated.

In addition, I also want to point out that I was pleasantly surprised by how stable the game is compared to the previous preview builds, and that’s even before a day-one patch. Considering how many previous previews and betas there were, as well as the delay, the developers must have fully utilized the additional time to polish the game. Creative Assembly has also been doing the same for their Total War titles in recent years, so it’s great to see that Relic Entertainment has also followed in their footsteps and taken the best lessons. SEGA’s PC RTS titles are really becoming a tour de force. It’s also probably why the devs look confident enough to previously announce that they will be porting the game to consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S) in the same year (later in 2023) that the PC version is releasing.

It’s easy enough to understand and play with a quick tutorial that’s not a chore to play at all, which is much appreciated. This makes it less of a hassle for newer players, especially since in the past, RTS games have been notorious for having a steep learning curve. Kudos to Relic Entertainment for bucking the trend. Last but not least, Company Of Heroes 3 is a visual and audible treat. The graphics and sound effects really make the game feel more epic and satisfying, and that’s certainly what you’d want in a war game.

Band Of Brothers

With all the new features and improvements, Company Of Heroes 3 looks like it’ll be a great jumping point for beginners and also an amazing title for veterans of the franchise to sink their teeth into. Relic Entertainment’s latest title is a must-play for fans of the RTS genre and to my fellow Total War players, this might be the closest thing to a Total War World War 2 game we’re ever going to get for now. Thank heavens it’s actually an amazing one.

PROS

• Dynamic Italian Campaign provides a phenomenal Total War-like experience.
• More Total War-inspired improvements like Full Tactical Pause and a great tutorial make the game more accessible to new players.
• North African Campaign is still there for fans looking for a traditional Company Of Heroes experience.
• Dynamic Italian Campaign offers countless hours with its non-linear experience.
• RTS battles are frantic, epic and satisfying.
• Surprisingly polished and stable.

CONS

• Still a few issues and bugs.

FINAL SCORE: 90/100

Company Of Heroes 3 was reviewed on PC based on a review copy provided by Sega. It is slated to launch for PC on 24 February 2023, with console versions on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S sometime later in 2023.