 - From the award winning RTS studio Relic
- Redefines RTS genre, visceral WWII gaming experience, bringing soliders to life
- Proprietary Essence Engine delivers unparalleled graphics, destrutible battlfield using havoc engine and rag doll physics
- 2-8 player multi-player competition via LAN or internet with Clan Support
List Price: $19.99
Lowest Price: $12.25 
Product Description: Company of Heroes takes you back to World War II, where you'll guide Able Company through the deadliest battles in WW2's European theatre, including the D-Day landings at Normandy. Through a rich single player campaign, players experience the cinematic intensity, courage and bravery of ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events.Special DVD edition. Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-05
Best RTS of the decade
I've been playing this game for over a year now and it's pretty much the only one I play. I've been thinking about why exactly it's so good and different, and here's what I came up with:
(1) This is a game where there are NO hard and fast counter units. Unlike in C&C3, for example, where some vehicles are always better than some infantry and some units just demolish air units, Company of Heroes allows you to use tactics to overcome this limitation.
For example. Let's say you have a unit of riflemen and the enemy has a MG gun. The MG gun is designed to cover a decent sized area with fire and suppresses any infantry caught in its path. HOWEVER, this does not mean MG's counter rifleman. A savvy player can use 2 riflemen squads to flank the MG -- one can distract the MG's fire and the other can come from the rear and throw a grenade at it.
Even the Anti-tank gun..which you'd think is a direct counter..really isn't. A tank can avoid the AT gun's fire by shooting from behind a building or encircle the gun from behind (the AT rotates very slowly). Snipers similarly do not really 'auto-counter' anything..they are good at targeting other snipers and shooting at units in buildings, but are very vulnerable while doing so, especially to mortar teams.
In short, the main reason why this is such a great game in multiplayer is that the sides are mostly balanced and leave the game up to TACTICS and not 'who has the best counters.' A game of C&C can be won if you get infantry and your opponent spams APC units. In COH, if you spam infantry, your opponent can shred you with one or two MGs; similarly, you can defeat his MGs if you plan ahead and avoid those buildings or arrange a flanking maneuver.
(2)Atmosphere atmopshere atmosphere. Unit responses are awesome, and they'll even sound like they're on the radio if you're hearing them from across the map. Cool effect. The explosions and graphics are top notch -- and I've run this on everything from a 2 yr old laptop to a brand new desktop. Either way, this is one good looking game. It really feels like you're commanding Call of Duty from an overhead perspective. Or an episode of Band of Brothers. Just awesome.
(3) The only negative I can think of is that single player isn't so great, nor is the skirmish AI. However, this game is just incredible at multiplayer, and Relic online is a superb matchmaking service that issues tons of patches to improve the game play balance even years after release.
(4) Resource management is original. You don't have gatherers..you have strategic points that force you into the action. They come in three varieties -- munitions, fuel, and strategic points -- that you should prioritize based on your strategy. Munitions allows you to modify your units (e.g. add rockets to infantry units) whereas fuel allows you to build tanks and vehicles and some buildings. It's an innovative system and it works well.
Amazing, amazing game. Rating:
Date: 2008-05-19
Great game.
I love this game. I tried the demo and was hooked.
It includes a great tutorial chapter, to get you comfortable with the controls and objectives. I am not an avid Real-Time-Strategy gamer, but can play this game for hours.
The most fun time-killer is the Scrimmage mode, where you set up a map, select a side vs. the computer, and go at it.
A well-balanced game, and well-supported by the developer, with many updates. Rating: 
Date: 2008-05-11
AI cheats in skirmish mode
I've played several RTS games out there - so I had high hopes for this one.
But let me just say this - if you play in skirmish mode (open maps vs. the computer) - you're probably not going to be able to win anything above easy - because the computer cheats.
And even in the easy mode - the computer doesn't seem to have to follow the same resource rules that you do.
Case in point - I had gotten the computer down to one low ammo resource point - yet it was able to have an unending supply of tanks come in from off screen.
And, as somebody else mentioned - when you start the round, and you only have enough resources for a couple of rifle squads, the computer has already gone through the upgrade tree - and has top of the line tanks.
Personally, I think it's just laziness on the part of Relic to have to resort to the computer cheating in order to create levels of difficulty.
And, as others have mentioned - your unit AI isn't exactly that smart either. You order a unit to attack an enemy unit - and half the time, you unit runs right up to the enemy and starts shooting at them - instead of finding a good spot (or even attacking from where they were when you told them to attack).
The rear of the tank is the weak spot - yet I've watched tanks on my team advance on the enemy backwards - with their weaker rear armor exposed - rather than turning around to face them with their better frontal armor. Rating:
Date: 2008-04-17
Great Strategy game
There's an excelent game. Good graphics, sound and cinematic...
It have to be in the collection of every gamer.
It give you hours and hours of fun while you plan your misions, prepared for constant attacks; make different actions and use all the game world. Rating:
Date: 2008-03-10
Wow!!!!
Company of Heroes has the set the bench mark for RTS games. CoH is an even greater leap forward for RTS games than Age of Empires II was. The graphics in this game are unforgetable; it requires a beefy graphic card but the results speak for themselves. The story, the AI, the game engine are all superb.
As mentioned in other reviews this game is not for the novice RTS player, even an experienced player can be utterly swamped by the battlefield in CoH. I would recommend playing a few Command and Conquers before getting into this.
So play if you dare, this game is truly awesome! |
