Company of heroes game of the year edition review

By Dan Adams Updated: 8 Oct pm. Company of Heroes is an excellent RTS. Focusing on company level combat has allowed for lots of attention to detail, adaptable play, and fast action. Completely destructible environments are used to enhance gameplay and create some of the most satisfyingly war torn landscapes seen in video games. A fulfilling campaign, addictive gameplay, detailed visuals, and powerful use of sound make up a complete experience with very few problems.

Real-time strategy fans would do well to pay attention to this game and, if they're not already, to the development house at Relic. The developers have simply improved on and adapted the rules of the previous game to fit the subject matter. Instead of simply grabbing generic resource points and constructing power generators, players will capture points to raise their population cap and rate that manpower pours in , gather ammunition, and boost fuel supplies.

Those three resources are what keep an army functioning. What's interesting is that the three resources can have pretty different applications: manpower is used in all unit and building construction, fuel is necessary to raise structures and purchase new vehicles, and ammunition is generally used to equip units with special weapons or activate special abilities on individual units like grenades or command tree abilities like air strikes.

Maps often have larger amounts of certain types of resources making the way a mission progresses pretty unique. Having three different capture points, all governing territories that are different shapes, creates a new level of strategy in all forms of the game. In order for one of these points to generate resources, it must be captured and connected back to the HQ territory via other friendly territories. If not, that resource is cut off and all benefits are denied. This gameplay mechanic comes into play more in skirmish and multiplayer, but does come into play in a few of the single player campaign missions.

Fighting will take players from open roads and farming communities to the dangerous hedgerows of Hill and tight city quarters of Cherbourg and St. Campaign missions are prefaced by excellent briefings that give a tiny history lesson and explain the situation using animatics and maps of France.

Some striking in-engine cutscenes serve as bookends to most scenarios. The occasional mid-mission cut adds in extra detail.

While usually unimportant to actual gameplay, they serve as exciting and rewarding intermissions mid-action. Out of the 15 missions which can take longer than you would imagine there was only one I didn't particularly care for. Most of the missions are excellent and include objectives beyond the typical seek and destroy you find in so many RTS titles. Some missions will ask to capture and hold a road for a convoy while others charge with setting defenses against a German counterattack.

Others still assign the duty of crushing lines of retreating Axis forces. Often times missions will begin with smaller objectives such as the capture of a forward base after which a mid-mission briefing will set up the action for the remainder of the scenario. Maps are interesting, create real challenges for players especially before tanks are available , and provide an amazing experience from start to finish.

The difficulty of missions ramps up as some of the more complex gameplay mechanics are introduced piece by piece. Side objectives that aren't necessary to finish a mission also help to push the action forward by providing timed challenges or to kill a certain number of enemies sometimes in a certain method.

Completing these side missions provides medals that testify to your extreme bravery -- and your ability to use a keyboard and mouse effectively. By the end of the campaign, players should be ready to try their luck at some skirmish and multiplayer games. Fans of multiplayer games will find Company of Heroes to be an exhilarating experience.

The pace can be ruthless when battling against an aggressive opponent. Those interested in turtling behind stalwart defenses will soon have to consider other options. While defensive players aren't left behind, the style of defense is pretty different. Both the multiplayer and skirmish are all about fluidity and adaptability. While defensive play is an option, the idea of simply hunkering down and waiting out the storm just doesn't work. Resources are gathered by capturing points and are generally scarce enough towards the beginning of a game that stationary defenses only come late in the game when the attack really begins to push forward and some extra resources have been gathered to take advantage of that tactic.

Instead, powerful mobile defenses such as anti-tank guns and heavy machine gun squads allow for fairly quick reaction to the ever-changing landscape of a Company of Heroes battle. There's a couple of nice trade-offs to the high power of these mobile defense units. First, they have limited firing arcs so flanking maneuvers can be their undoing. This came with the mouse and when I tried to install it the CD Key came up as invalid.

I told Customer Service who told me it was out of stock. I waited 2 days and it was back in stock. I contacted customer service and they sent me a new one. It arrived today and it ad the same exact problem. This is ridiculous that they are shipping games with invalid CD Keys. Pros: Amazing graphics for an RTS game, good realistic dialogue, though repetitive, lots of content, solid online play.

Cons: Eventually when it comes right down to it, the only strategy in this game is when you're forced to go without Sherman tanks, they annihilate anything in their path, they can go toe to toe with tanks without barely being scathed if you know how to move them around, and infantry can literally shoot at it for hours as long as they don't have a rocket launcher, and the Sherman will not go down, it's a ridiculously overpowered destructive force.

Overall Review: I've heard that getting the expansion pack prevents you from scenario play if you don't have an internet connection, though I haven't tried it myself.

Pros: It's an innovative game. Command point system is good too. Cons: Its good, but there's much better. I'm referring to World in Conflict. This is good to but its just not stellar.

The gameplay is longer, the story is not told as well. Get both and play this one first, to save the best for last, or just get WIC. Sold by: Newegg Shipped by Newegg. This item is currently out of stock and it may or may not be restocked. Out of Stock. Add To Wish List. Are you an E-Blast Insider? Take command of your company and lead your men to victory through the war-torn fields of France.

Company of Heroes is the award-winning real-time combat simulation game that puts you in command of American or German company-sized units from D-Day through the Falaise Pocket.

Battle through the Normandy hedgerows and across the farmland into the villages and cities. The environment has been crafted to take damage appropriate to the weapons and the units' AI is smart enough to seek cover, or take advantage of a newly created hole in a building. Take cover in an abandoned house, or destroy it around your enemy's troops with cannon fire or satchel charges. Take control of specific points on the map to acquire resources. January February March April May June July August September October November December 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Enter.

Company of Heroes Official Movie 3. Critic Reviews. Score distribution:. Positive: 55 out of Mixed: 0 out of Negative: 0 out of In Company of Heroes, destruction is a component of the game in a way that we haven't seen since "X-Com" let us root out sectoids by bringing down entire farmhouses. All this publication's reviews Read full review. Times Online. Game Chronicles. Building upon the impressive Warhammer engine and tweaking it for historic warfare, Company of Heroes is easily the best strategy game of and sets the bar extremely high for future RTS titles.

There's just the right amount of micromanagement to start without feeling like you're "fixing" bad AI by controlling every single movement. PC Zone UK. There have been lots of World War II RTS games, but this is the one that finally gives the subject matter its due - it's nothing short of brilliant. The gameplay is widely addictive and chaotic in Company of Heroes, and that's something you don't see very often in RTS titles these days.

Relic continues to redefine themselves as a top RTS developer, and with two solid franchises under their belt, they're up there with Blizzard as the masters of the genre. Not surprisingly, some liberties were taken to reconcile logistics with gameplay.

Call in the airborne and your paratroopers arrive immediately, with no need to plan the air drop in advance. But that is where the suspension of disbelief ends. User Reviews. Write a Review. Positive: out of Mixed: 38 out of Negative: 20 out of Still playing it in Still playing it in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pure and simple, if you like gaming, add this to your shelf. I would like to point out that WHAM! I mean cmon, way to F up guys. Who rags on a game with a rating of 75, when 20 or more bigger critics give the game a 90 - there were like ten 's!!!

Dude, you guys are the laughing stock of the gaming world; I should have your jobs u SOB's Game revolution, i didn't expect that kind of idiocy from you. I actually installed Windows again I'm a crazy Linux nut just for this game.