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One of the best WW2 RTS series is back | First Impressions - Company of Heroes 3

2K View2023-03-07

Company of Heroes 3 sets players in the midst of World War II as they take command of their armies and engage in tactical battles against player and/or AI controlled enemies. While the game's multiplayer and skirmish modes are a major draw for many players, the single-player experience is equally engaging and worth playing.

Company of Heroes 3’s two main campaigns take players through a series of historical battles, with each mission providing unique challenges and objectives like capturing, rescuing, defending, or halting enemies. The campaigns are set in Italy, following the Allied Forces as they push through the country, facing off against the Axis Powers at every turn; and in North Africa, at the perspective of Germans fighting the British Army.

The gameplay mechanics of Company of Heroes 3 allows players to command a wide range of military units, each with their own strengths and weaknesses that is fairly balanced to make you utilize each and every available unit, from infantry, artillery, air support, tanks, and trucks; everything has use.

The terrain and environment also play a significant role in the gameplay, with players needing to carefully navigate the battlefield and use cover to their advantage. The environment is highly destructible, dynamic craters resulting from barrages and explosions that your units can also utilize as cover, enterable buildings that can be destroyed to flush out people taking cover, and bridges to destroy to stop hostile enemies from advancing.

Resources are also integrated to the maps as control points scattered that you need to capture and defend. The more control points you take, the better the resource flow you’ll have. Providing a tactical element when it comes to territory and resources. Leading to some nice back and forth between opposing fronts, as well as naturally giving risks to the player whether to establish a chokepoint, turtle up, or stretch their forces beyond to capture more points.

In addition to the campaign mode, Company of Heroes 3 also includes skirmish mode, where players can battle against player or AI-controlled enemies in custom matches. Skirmish mode provides a sandbox-like experience with traditional RTS building mechanics, allowing players to experiment with different units and strategies without the pressure of a scripted setting or predetermined gameplay conditions. You can even play with friends and pit yourselves against AI enemies in a cooperative fashion, which is a whole other layer of fun on its own.

Aside from the faction and setting, there is a key difference between these two campaigns. Italy has a brand new game mechanic to it, an overworld turn-based mechanic that takes pages from popular grand strategy games like Total War where you take turns moving your different units across a macro-scale campaign map, while the battles are settled in an micro-scale RTS manner. On the other hand, The North African campaign is more of a traditional campaign with linear missions and objectives only.

So far, the experience in Company of Heroes 3 is engaging and rewarding, providing players with a deep and varied gameplay experience. The campaign missions are engaging and provide a historical context for the battles, while the gameplay mechanics and AI provide a challenging and tactical experience.

Full Review will be posted soon here on Taptap! Stay tuned!

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