Reviewed by: Koorah
Developer: Relic
Publisher: THQ

Reviewing 'Company of Heroes' has been a difficult job. The reason? Because I'm trying to find something to put in the "Cons" box at the bottom of my review, and I'm really struggling.

Ok, lets start from the basics. Company of Heroes is a World War II RTS. Yes, World War II. Again. (Hmm. Note to self, possible "Con"...).

You command Able Company, from their bloody assault on Omaha beach through occupied France and beyond. The single player campaign consists of 15 meaty and varied missions, book-ended by well designed, high quality cutscenes and detailed briefings. The cutscenes use Manga-style animated 2D composites - similar to those of the Homeworld series – and fill their exposition role with elegant, self-restrained, efficiency.

Company of Heroes sports what is probably the most powerful RTS engine out there today, combining cutting edge graphics with an accurate physics model, and it is deeply impressive. For a start, the soldiers of CoH are all individuals and display a level of detail and diversity in both model and animation that is quite frankly unprecedented. If you are so inclined (and I was) you can zoom right in and see the grain of the wood in the snipers rifle. That’s what I call impressive scaling.

The battlefields are all exquisitely modelled war-torn landscapes, and the detail is often astonishing. From shelled houses, to rubble strewn streets, to marshy flooded fields, the Essence engine effortlessly handles any environment with stunning aplomb and renders it with the utmost respect, authenticity and historical fidelity

Then, it lets you destroy it in by means at your disposal.

Just about everything goes ‘bang’, ‘boom’ or ‘crump’. A Satchel charge through a window explodes and collapses most of the house; tanks can drive through and demolish walls; and should you catch a platoon of Axis grenadiers in an artillery barrage, limbs and body parts will fly out in all directions and bounce in a disturbingly accurate manner. Ah the horror of maths.

All this high quality imagery and number crunching comes at a price though. You’ll need a high-end machine to run CoH in its full cinematic glory – and gloriously cinematic it truly is – and still retain a decent frame rate. Mid-range rigs may struggle some during the heaviest firefights, but everything is scaleable and even on medium settings the game still looks a corker.

But since when have I been impressed by graphics alone? Never! So lets see if the actual gameplay loves up to the hype, eh?

There were no resource farming/mining/fishing peons in Operation Overlord. Therefore Relic have borrowed the Dawn of War resource model - capturing strategic points dotted across the map - which they used so successfully to create a fast and aggressive game.

There are three types of resource nodes to capture, Manpower, Munitions and Fuel. Once a node is captured, that nodes sector falls under your command and as long as there is a chain of conquered sectors between it and your HQ, you start raking in that sectors resource points which are spent on new units, vehicles buildings and upgrades. This evolution from the Dawn of War’s original concept leads to new tactical options, as by attacking nodes in sectors midway between the front line and the foes HQ you can effectively cut their supply line and starve the enemy of resources. In addition, any troops in that sector are also cut off from reinforcement until supply lines are restored. Again Relic have created a wonderfully balanced dynamic and by using three different types of resource applied extra depth to your overall strategic planning. If there’s only 2 ammo resource nodes you better make sure you don’t lose them otherwise you may be trying to defeat the enemy with harsh language.

Of which, by the way, there is plenty. The first time I heard “F*ck you Jerry” in a thick New York accent, I was somewhat taken aback, but again its an example of how Relic have pulled no punches in their drive for authenticity. Overall the voice acting is above and beyond what you would expect in an RTS. No cheesy “at once my lord” type replies here. Refreshingly, you get genuinely useful information on what is happening on the battlefield, enabling you to react quicky to changing developments. This is assisted by an intuitive interface that again, Dawn of War players will be instantly familiar with. My only complaint would be that friendly units on the minimap are the same colour as friendly sectors, making it difficult to pick them out at times.

One nice touch is that voice feedback from action off-screen is heard through a radio but as you pan the camera to where that action is happening the voice is heard clearly, as if the squads sergeant is screaming in your ear. This is useful because the action is frantic and you’ll be flying around the map like a bluebottle on speed. Thankfully the AI is good enough so that you don’t need to micromanage their every step. Your troops will go where you tell them to and sensibly use any cover they can on route without being instructed to do so. That said, if you leave them out in the open they will suffer and you’ll only have yourself to blame. Where ever you move the pointer, coloured dots will appear telling you if the spot you’re about to send your units supplies hard cover, light cover or no cover at all, so there’s no excuse for leaving your guys exposed.

The only gripes I have about pathfinding, is that vehicles do seem to have a few more problems when mixed up with infantry. It can be a little frustrating to have to micro them out of a traffic jam. Still, the infantry have no real issues to impinge on your enjoyment of the game, and this is a very good thing.

Thanks to the genuinely smart AI removing the need for handholding around the battlefield, you can concentrate on the tactical side of engagements. This is where Company of Heroes truly shines, because it’s the best example yet of Relics combined arms dynamic that they’ve been perfecting since Homeworld 2. Relic took a long hard look at real WW2 tactics, and implemented them smoothly. For example, machine guns suppress the enemy, keeping them pinned in one spot while your rifle infantry flank them for a coup de gras. Meanwhile your AT infantry needs to be laying in wait for the inbound Panzers but you’ll need some regulars to defend against the tanks supporting infantry who are hunting your AT units. I support you, you support him, he supports me. It works beautifully and, despite the barbarity of the combat the gameplay has a real elegance to it. You just can’t draw a big box around all your troops and issue a charge command. Well you can, but they will all die, brutally, screaming for help and pleading for mercy, which they won’t get. You will feel bad. Fact.

You’ll also need to decide on a path to follow each battle, either Infantry, Airborne or Armoured. These paths allow you to spend the command points that you accrue for taking objectives on unlocking special abilities, units and bonuses, such as artillery strikes, strafing runs or parachute assaults deep behind enemy lines. This really comes into its own in team multiplayer games where the right combination of command specialisations can be the difference between glorious victory or crushing defeat.

The Allied and Axis teams are superbly balanced, but its much more subtle than the basic paper/scissors/stone ethos. Their play styles are very different. For example, instead of the the Axis team have a great doctrine called Terror which allows them to reduce the fighting spirit of the Allied foe and call in veteran tank units to strike, well, terror into the hearts of the Amerikana scum.

“The Statue of Liberty is kaput!” That sort of thing.

More than once I’ve used the word ‘authentic’, and if I had to use a single word to describe CoH that would probably be it. Relic have created a fast, thrilling battle experience that never lets you forget that war is actually quite a nasty business. Mastering the tactics rather than the interface will be your biggest challenge as Relic have made the control system feel almost effortless, and in doing so served up a game that is near faultless.

Buy 'Company of Heroes' from GAME and help support the Alfies!

Minimum Spec	Reviewed on
Intel P4 (or equivalent) 2.0GHz 512Mb RAM 64 MB video card with Pixel Shader 1.1 DirectX(R) 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card	Pentium IV 3.06GHz ATI X800 XT Graphics Card Full Install