You play as the German Afrika Korps, a feared tank division under the guiding hand of the infamous Erwin Rommel. You’re just given units for completing certain objectives, which limits the units that you yourself can choose, as well as the detachments that can be placed on the map and used to help you out in battle.įor those who want a more straightforward time, the North African Operation is the way to go, and it’s significantly more of a challenge from the off. The only real difficulty I had was trying to not get too frustrated with what can sometimes feels like incremental movement across the board between turns, and a restrictive population cap. There’s not much sense of jeopardy and resource management never became much of an issue - I felt like I was at max capacity for pretty much the whole time and never once lost a battle. However, there is one issue with this campaign: it’s far too easy overall on the default difficulty, to the point where veteran players will probably want to crank the difficulty dial right up. Eleonora Valenti, the leader of the Italian resistance, hates almost any bombings of her country, but it makes your job so much easier to be able to use sea artillery and attacks from the skies. General Buckram, the most impatient man who’s ever lived, seems to want you to march on Rome with whatever you have in your pockets, while General Norton would prefer you to help out across the country. What makes it so fascinating in Company of Heroes 3, though, is that your allies don’t always share the same ideas on how to go about things, meaning that you may actually lose loyalty with one person after gaining it with another. Those who played the supremely underrated Marvel’s Midnight Suns might remember a similar system. If you work well with them, you will gain their loyalty, unlocking new units and abilities that will really help you out the deeper into Italy you go. The ability to sit down, slap the pause button, and painstakingly plan out several moves in advance make you feel like the Dio Brando of strategy when it all comes together after unpausing.Īway from the actual conflict, the brunt of your Italian adventure is spent progressing across the map and completing secondary objectives to grow relationships with your peers, including Italian rebels. It took me around 30 or so hours to get past German defences (to, it must be said, quite the anti-climax, though it’s understandable considering actual history), and I relished throwing my forces at any random enemy squad that came my way almost every single time. The battles are so good, in fact, that you won’t mind doing them over and over again across the substantial Italy campaign. When Company of Heroes 3 is at its best, it’s so immersive that almost nothing else matters. There are many moments where it’s hard not to feel overawed at just how much is going on to an almost Spielbergian degree - you will be mumbling tactics to yourself and demanding reinforcements so much that you may as well start dressing up for the occasion and slip into a uniform. Skirmishes are quicker battles that shouldn’t take too long to complete, but there are more cinematic, narrative-based encounters that feel like absolute blockbusters. Much of your time in Italy will be spent clearing territories, establishing defenses, adding new units, and taking part in battles both large and small. It sounds simple on paper, but there are so many ways of marching on the capital that no two playthroughs will likely be the same. From a humbling, hectic beach landing on the shores of the country, you must slowly take back Italy piece by piece, bolstering your forces and cultivating relationships so that you can make a final break for the final line of German defence and take back Rome. The headlining addition for Company of Heroes 3 is its Italy campaign, an epic in all senses of the word. It’s difficult to say that Company of Heroes 3 revolutionises the genre, but those who were absorbed by the constant risk/reward pull of the original games and the scale of conflict will find plenty to adore here, though the game isn’t without its fair share of flaws. So how does Relic’s newest, more colourful entry fare? Company of Heroes 3 has a lot to live up to, with many different fans wanting very different things from a decade of anticipation. In that time, Relic’s RTS has gone on to become one of the most renowned, beloved WWII strategy games of all time after a slightly patchy start, with thousands of dedicated fans playing at any time even now. It’s been almost ten years since Company of Heroes 2 first launched, a whole generation of gaming ago.
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