Company of Heroes (PC)
Manufacturer: THQ Inc. Part number: 49225
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- Editors' review
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- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
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Gamespot editors' review
Company of Heroes (PC) price range: $15.79
- Reviewed by: Greg Kasavin
- Reviewed on: 09/11/2006
- Updated on:09/13/2006
- Released on: 09/13/2006
Company of Heroes is a visually stunning real-time strategy game that depicts all the violent chaos of World War II with uncommon intensity. Set during the invasion of Normandy toward the end of the war, Company of Heroes takes its cues from Saving Private Ryan, by portraying both the sheer brutality of the war as well as the humanity of its combatants. Many other recent WWII games have also drawn influence from Steven Spielberg's landmark film, but Company of Heroes is even more graphic. This and the game's highly authentic-looking presentation are its distinguishing features, and it boasts some frantic, well-designed strategic and tactical combat to match. Company of Heroes trades a wide breadth of content for an extremely detailed look at WWII-era ground combat, and its action is so fast paced that it's best suited for the reflexes of an experienced RTS player. So if you're unfazed by any of that, you'll find that this latest real-time strategy game from the developers of Homeworld and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is one of the best, most dramatic and exciting examples in years.
The frenzied combat of World War II is translated believably into Relic's lavishly produced, fast-paced real-time strategy game.
Provided you have a powerful-enough system and graphics card to fully appreciate the visuals in Company of Heroes, you'll quickly be struck by the level of detail depicted in the game. Infantry move in teams, darting from cover to cover. They may be ordered to occupy any building on the map, and you'll see them shutter the doors and take aim out the windows. Vehicles are shown to scale, so tanks and other armored vehicles look big and imposing, and, indeed, they are. Infantry seem almost helpless against tanks, and you'll hear the men screaming as tank shells explode around them, sending bodies flying, while lucky survivors dive out of the way. Yet by attacking a tank's vulnerable sides and rear armor with explosives, it's possible to turn the tables on these lumbering threats...turning one of the most basic confrontations in Company of Heroes into a thrilling cat-and-mouse game, much more than a typical clash between a couple of RTS units. What's more, the battlefields themselves have at least as much character to them as the various infantry squads and vehicles as your disposal. The quaint French towns that are the set pieces of many of the game's skirmishes truly look as if a war was waged there once the battle is done, since buildings will catch fire and collapse, telephone lines will topple, blackened craters will appear in the wake of artillery blasts, and more. These changes aren't just cosmetic, either. Those blast craters provide cover for your infantry, while the ruined husks of blown-up tanks might interfere with a machine gunner's line of fire.
The game focuses on the Allies' invasion of German-occupied Normandy in 1944, specifically on close-quarters skirmishes between infantry and armor. Company of Heroes presents a number of novel twists to real-time strategy conventions, but at heart this game works like other RTS games do, by putting you in charge of base construction, resource gathering, and tactical command of various military forces in an effort to defeat the opposition. The game includes a good-sized single-player campaign spanning more than a dozen missions, in which Able Company lands on Omaha Beach on D-Day, liberates a number of key towns and strategic points, disrupts German supply lines and secret weapons, and finally helps crush the remnants of the Nazi war machine in France. It's an exciting campaign, tied together with cutscenes and mission briefings coming from a variety of voices, which creates a few threads that help tie the missions together. In addition to the campaign, you can play skirmish matches with up to seven computer-controlled players on a series of different maps, and you can also jump online into the proprietary Relic Online service to challenge other players in ranked and unranked matches. The Relic Online service is a cut above most similar offerings, and lets you easily find a ranked match against players of similar skill or host a match with your own custom settings.
Brief but compelling story sequences move the campaign along, which focuses on Able Company's attack against German-occupied Normandy.
Because of its limited scope of the Second World War, Company of Heroes has only the two playable factions, which it calls the Allies and the Axis--but really they're the Americans and the Germans. In the campaign, you always play as forces from Able Company and you're always fighting the Germans. There isn't a separate campaign from the German perspective, though the Axis faction is fully playable in skirmish matches and online, and turns out to be fairly different from the Allies despite the basic similarities between the two sides' weaponry. In fact, in a strange departure from similar games, Company of Heroes always forces you to play Allies versus Axis, even in multiplayer matches. Matches with more than two players are always team-based, with one side as the Allies and the other as the Axis, and so forth. While the game's units and battlefields are unusually detailed, it's hard not to wish for additional playable factions and a greater variety of settings, especially given how well Company of Heroes handles the American and German sides.
The gameplay in Company of Heroes is all about frontline combat, and forces you to quickly explore the map. You typically start out with a headquarters and a squad of engineers, who can build structures and setup defenses. Maps are divided up into territories that all have a resource point in them, and the resources you'll need are manpower, munitions, and fuel. Infantry may capture neutral or enemy resource points, causing them to indefinitely contribute a flow of the given resource to your military efforts while also increasing the total number of units you can have in your army. However, all your territories must be connected for the resource flow to continue unabated; if an enemy takes a key territory, this may cut off your supply lines. All resources are used for building more-advanced structures and vehicles, but you only need manpower for basic infantry, who may use special abilities like hand grenades or armor-piercing machine gun rounds for a one-time cost of munitions. Munitions may also be spent to upgrade individual squads with special weapons, like recoilless rifles useful against enemy armor, or Browning automatic rifles that can suppress opposing squads. Your infantry squads are highly resourceful, acting as single units that can be effective down to the last man. They'll last much longer when attacking from behind cover, such as a row of sandbags or the bell tower of an abandoned church.
As much as there is to do on a strategic level in Company of Heroes, just managing the tactics of typical firefight can be really intense.
If you've played Relic's last real-time strategy game, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, you'll note that many of these conventions were derived and extended from that game. However, Company of Heroes still plays quite differently from Dawn of War because of the nature of its densely packed battlefields and its even greater focus on unit tactics. You have some very interesting options to consider, such as how, when faced with an antitank gun manned by a squad of three, you may attempt to destroy the thing altogether with heavy weapons, or flank the gun and kill its squad, taking the artillery piece for your own. Heavy machine guns and other special weapons work much the same way. One of the great things about Company of Heroes is that, in spite of its somewhat glamorized portrayal of World War II, the game looks and behaves realistically, in how the sorts of tactical maneuvers that are central to the gameplay feel intuitive in practice. For example, you'll naturally want to avoid making your infantry rush a machine gun nest head-on, especially since the withering fire from a German MG42 will force your squad to drop prone, pinned down.
User reviews
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outstanding rts game!!
by makatron on September 25, 2006
Pros: excellent gameplay
Cons: map loading times are too long
Summary: i downloaded the demo of the game like 2 weeks ago and it was jawdroping moment when i saw the infantry actually getting inside of the buildings and opening the ...
Summary: i downloaded the demo of the game like 2 weeks ago and it was jawdroping moment when i saw the infantry actually getting inside of the buildings and opening the windows to shoot
so i purchased the game
the installation was longer than the standard, took almost 20 minutes to complete the installation in my AMD4800+ with 1.5gb of ram, im sure they can improve that in some way
inside of the game it was what i was waiting for, standard main menu, multiplayer lacks to connect to direct IP wich makes more difficult in some networks to actually start a LAN multiplayer session
i found the "performance test" very useful, it takes just a minute to set your video settings to make it running smooth and with decent ammount of fps to let you enjoy the game
the gameplay is the best rts game i ever played, and i have been playing real time strategy games since Dune 2000 and the first command and conquer
i found the the detail of the maps are wonderful, the explosions, fire and even the water look with a realism never seen before
my copy came into a dvd which makes the installation less stressful, some of the actual games that comes in more than 2 cd's needs you to be there in order to insert the new cd, but dvd versions is just "click next" ones, just leave the installation and go do something else because this game needed about 20 mins to install in my computer
some people complain about the priCe, but 50 bucks isnt big deal for new release games these days
for those of you guys whom love RTS games this is a MUST HAVE3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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this game is great! a must have for any RTS players out there
by boris534 on August 8, 2007
Pros: there are so many Pros to this game, the graphics blow you mind out, with everything else that goes with it
Cons: the only Con that i have had is that you need a roughly a good PC to run the game
Summary: in my opinion this is a awsome game which if you buy you will not be dissapointed one bit. the detail the game goes in is spectacular.
i find in ...Summary: in my opinion this is a awsome game which if you buy you will not be dissapointed one bit. the detail the game goes in is spectacular.
i find in some other RTS games the units will always hit the enermy which is not a realistic thing whislt in CoH the units do miss and it makes the game more smother. you could have a fire fight thats lasts a long time as the units don't always hit. the detail the damage does is great when an explosion goes of dirt flys in the air and then leaves a huge crator which your infantry can use for the advantage.
these are only a few Pros to the game this game will entertain you for a long long time well worth the money and free game DoW -
BEST RTS GAME OF ALL TIMES!
by hsenthil on May 5, 2007
Pros: Excellent Graphics and Game play
Cons: Hardly could think of any.
Summary: This is one of best RTS games I have ever played. This beats Command and Conquer 3, Rise of Legends and even Age of Kings hands down! Really looking forward ...
Summary: This is one of best RTS games I have ever played. This beats Command and Conquer 3, Rise of Legends and even Age of Kings hands down! Really looking forward to the expansion.
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Company of heroes is a great RTS game with long lasting campaign and skirmish modes.
by dougie446 on April 2, 2007
Pros: online play, skirmish mode, great graphics, lot's of strategy & no two games are the same
Cons: low population limits, the need for a top of the line pc and very complex
Summary: Company of heroes is the best RTS game i've ever played, the variety of different troops and vehicles are amazing, the amount of strategy required makes it a long ...
Summary: Company of heroes is the best RTS game i've ever played, the variety of different troops and vehicles are amazing, the amount of strategy required makes it a long lasting game and the online mode is fantastic.The differences in the way the allied and the germans operate makes the game a lot more realistic and a thinking game. The graphics are hte best i've ever seen in a RTS, they're beeter than some fps that cost the same. the only problems with this game is that you must have a million-dollar pc to be able to run it properly. to conclude, Compnay of heroes is a great RTS and if you have a good pc it is a must to have.
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Best RTS I've played
by ezippa1 on February 27, 2007
Pros: Graphics, AI intelligence, Missions
Cons: Demanding on PC
Summary: The game is absolutely amazing. Relic did a wonderful job on this game and won Game of the Year for their hard work. Everthing about this game is awsome! I ...
Summary: The game is absolutely amazing. Relic did a wonderful job on this game and won Game of the Year for their hard work. Everthing about this game is awsome! I have a hard time understanding some of these lower ratings from other people, I would like to see a better WW2 RTS game.
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Addiction has a new name and its called "Company Of Heroes"
by GeneralPhatty on February 14, 2007
Pros: Graphics, destructible buildings and everything else, online multi player can have you day and night at the computer screen
Cons: Authentic uniform and flags, and the king tiger is not in the game )=
Summary: This is the first pc game I bought this year and i have to say i do not regret it...the gameplay is down right sweet as hell, capture points ...
Summary: This is the first pc game I bought this year and i have to say i do not regret it...the gameplay is down right sweet as hell, capture points and kill the enemy, there?s many different game types you can choose...i suggest you play online once you get the hang of it....i love this damn game, i just wished it had more authenticity to it, but i guess thats what mods are for right?
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A definate must play, even if it is only the demo
by Sticky\ on December 24, 2006
Pros: Strategy... you don't need to build eco
Cons: price. 24 hrs a day isn't enough
Summary: Price aside, this game is a worthy buy. I just purchased it a few days ago. Being an avid Age of Empires:War Chiefs fan, i found that this ame ...
Summary: Price aside, this game is a worthy buy. I just purchased it a few days ago. Being an avid Age of Empires:War Chiefs fan, i found that this ame requires a lot more strategy then AOE. AOE focusus mainly on building economy and amssing a huge army. Granted the difference between a decent player and a great player is what you do with those units, COH does away with that whole element. Capturing the strategic points in COH is similar but a differently entertaining way to play. The game is beautiful and the single player is engrossing and entertaining. There is really no need for a monster of a computer; it will still look great if you meet the minimum requirements. There are many crappy games out there and this is definately not one of them. I will never give up my AOE but this game is welcome into my collection.
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excellent game but the online server never works
by mattkarwoski on November 29, 2006
Pros: excellent gameplay, graphix, and sound
Cons: only 2 factions!! bummerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Summary: i love this games action packed, in depth strategic battles. it has great graphix, sound and gameplay. the only thing that sucks is that i got tired of playin either ...
Summary: i love this games action packed, in depth strategic battles. it has great graphix, sound and gameplay. the only thing that sucks is that i got tired of playin either the axis or the allies every time. also i have never once been able to connect to a multiplayer game, relic online is extremely unreliable.
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Stunning Graphics
by movin on September 19, 2006
Pros: Stunning Graphics, great game no problems with my 7600gs video card
Cons: None at this time/ Lack of sleep
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Excellent Game All Around
by gplpark92 on October 3, 2006
Pros: Great Graphics, Addictive Gameplay, Performance Flexibility
Cons: Becomes Difficult...
Summary: Excellent game, and it provides a full virtual world, where the player is NOT stuck with a 2-D aerial view. The graphics are wonderful, AND it works with a not-so-good ...
Summary: Excellent game, and it provides a full virtual world, where the player is NOT stuck with a 2-D aerial view. The graphics are wonderful, AND it works with a not-so-good computer, which is hard to find. The gameplay is ridiculously fun, and it is very exciting. The realism is intense, and you will feel it.
After a while though, the game becomes difficult, and levels get extremely challenging, but I guess that's the player's part.
Wonderful Game, it's a MUST buy for 2006.0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: THQ Inc.
- Part number: 49225
Product Basic Spec
- Platform PC
- ESRB rating Mature -
- Genre Strategy
- Number of players 1-8 Players
- Difficulty Variable
- Learning curve About 1 hour
- DirectX version v9.0c
- Operating system Windows XP
- Offline modes Competitive,Team Oriented
- Online modes Competitive,Team Oriented
Manufacturer info
- THQ Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse THQ Inc. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.thq.com/
- Address:
29903 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills, CA 91301 - Phone: 818-871-5000
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