Company of Heroes

aka: CoH, Company of Heroes (Legacy Edition), Company of Heroes (New Steam Version), Company of Heroes: Game of the Year, Company of Heroes: Kompania Braci
Moby ID: 24117
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Description official descriptions

Company of Heroes, from the developers of Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, is a real-time strategy game that drops you into the fray of World War II Europe. From the bloody beaches of Omaha to the deadly firefights of the Bocage, you attempt to lead your troops to victory one battle at a time. The game comes with three modes of play -- single-player campaign, single-player skirmish and online multiplayer. All the missions in the single-player campaign take place during the Battle of Normandy (codename Operation Overlord) and are played from the perspective of the American Able Company (part of the 29th Infantry Division) and Fox Company (101st Airborne Division). More varied maps are available in the skirmish and multiplayer modes, including many added through patches.

What really sets Company of Heroes apart from other real-time strategy games, much like Relic Entertainment's previous entry, is that you no longer train and control individual troops. Instead you deploy squads of soldiers. Players must train a balanced assortment of units in order to obtain victory over their adversaries. Most units can be upgraded and equipped with special accessories that are either more powerful or suited for specific tasks. For example, the M4 "Crocodile" Sherman can smash through hedgerows when equipped with the Bulldozer upgrade. This is normally impossible for tanks in the game. Allied units can also advance through a progression system that awards XP for killing enemies and destroying hostile structures, while Axis units gain veterancy at the Kampfkraft Center through research. In both cases they become more effective in combat.

There's also a progression system for the players themselves, called Company Commander. It rewards XP for successful attacks and controlling territory sectors, which can then be invested in a two-branched ability tree. Each faction has three ability trees. The Allied forces trees include Infantry Company, Airborne Company and Armor Company, while the Axis has the Defensive Doctrine, Blitzkrieg Doctrine and Terror Doctrine. The nature of the abilities are diverse. Some may be used to call airborne support, including bombardment, while others can call in special units such as paratroopers, the King Tiger or the Calliope Rocket Launcher. At the same time, there are others which can give temporary bonuses to existing troops or capabilities to units that normally can't perform them. This way, riflemen can be used to construct defensive structures (tank traps, sandbags etc.), for example.

Resource gathering has gone in a different direction from that of other RTS games. Players must attempt to capture and control strategic points which bring in the much needed resources of manpower, munitions and fuel to build and train new units. At the same time it's necessary to have the right base buildings to deploy units on the battlefield, such as a tank depot to create tanks, barracks for riflemen, and motor pools for light armored vehicles. Only the Allied engineers and the Axis pioneers can raise new buildings, but some missions may start with a full or partial base already up and running. The Allies and the Axis generally have different types of base structures and combat units.

The game's Essence engine brings a level of depth to RTS games with deformable terrain and completely destructible environments. Units will take cover in burnt out craters and tanks can decimate buildings suspected of containing snipers.

Spellings

  • θ‹±ι›„ι€£ιšŠ - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

373 People (369 developers, 4 thanks) · View all

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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 93% (based on 78 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 65 ratings with 4 reviews)

Company of Heroes is no RTS Relic

The Good
The graphics in Company of Heroes are cutting edge for the Real-Time Strategy genre and it's so good that Relic use it for their in-game cutscenes with even up-close-and-personal shots of the game's protagonists. Along with fitting era music by acclaimed game composer Jeremy Soule and the yells and cursing of the troops while in firefights, the game is a truly immersive WWII experience and is heavily reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.

The gameplay in Company of Heroes is similar to most RTSes except for a few key differences. Firstly you do not harvest resources, instead you gain them by capturing and controlling resource sectors across the map. An open supply route back to your HQ is crucial in this since if any of your sectors get cut off then it will no longer contribute any resources. Secondly the game is more tactical and takes into account line of fire. Sometimes units will miss due to terrain. Sometimes a tank shell will just deflect off armour (and you are rewarded in this game for targeting the rear or sides of tanks where just like in real-life, the armour is generally weakest). Taking advantage of terrain and also learning how to use your troops and tanks effectively will be decisive in your ability to secure a victory.

You are also given the ability to follow down three skill trees which will offer you special abilities like artillery strikes and bombing runs, quite similar to the system employed in Command and Conquer Generals. You gain these abilities by earning experience points on the battlefield, either through killing enemies or building new structures.

Multiplayer is good fun too and gives you an opportunity to play with your friends as an allied company or against them. I was unable to test on Relic Online however, but that's discussed in "The Bad" section.

The Bad
Even though the graphics are great in Company of Heroes this means lower end systems may suffer in performance (so a mid to high-end system is recommended!). Framerates were passable on my machine except whenever a Tiger tank was on the screen, the framerate would plummet to single digits (have no idea why that is the case, but there you go).

As mentioned, multiplayer is a blast but unfortunately I was unable to play online and had to resort to playing over a LAN with friends. This is because it seems the pings Australians get on Relic Online's servers are so high that they don't allow players to connect if they exceed a certain threshold. This problem may be rectified in the future but at the time of this review this is a major hindrance to Australians as there'd only those with fast connections could possibly play (and I have a 1.5Mb connection).

The Bottom Line
Company of Heroes shows the world that even though there are speculations that the RTS genre is dying, it's not, it's just evolving into something new and the proof lies in this game. With an immersive 16-mission single player campaign (that rewards you for getting bonus objectives) and lots of fun to be had on multiplayer, this game offers good replayability and is a must have for WWII fans. It's a bit like Day of Defeat: The RTS.

Windows · by Rambutaan (2767) · 2007

Not so realistic as it claims, but brilliant fun nevertheless!

The Good
It's not every day that we come across a good real time strategy game nowadays. That being because the game concepts and scenarios are well explored and implemented into games that have been already released. And WWII is a setting which has been well explored in most of it's many theaters. The last good releases which I can think of are the Blitzkrieg series and the superb Panzers: Phase One. Looking at Company of Heroes Screenshots prior to buying the game, it wasn't promising anything but good graphics. I kinda like the odd strategy game from time to time, especially when large tanks and other humongous destruction machinery is involved, so I decided to give this title a try. Being stuck on it for most of my weekend I can say that I haven't played such a good WWII real time strategy game since the days of Panzers: Phase One.

Company of Heroes really takes over where the first Panzers left in terms of gameplay, since you are now able to build a base camp (and as many small operation fronts as you wish / are able), seek and conquer resources for building your army, buildings and vehicles. Much like most other strategy games the same concept applies here as well: build a base with what you have, explore the surrounding areas for resources and then build your assault force to clear the area. In comparison to the scenario of the game which is based on true historical facts this is highly unrealistic but nevertheless it offers an enjoying strategy gaming experience.

Talking of the scenario on which Company Of Heroes was based upon, it is about the D-Day invasion of Normandy in northern France. The game will have you fighting to conquer real cities (at least their names are real) based on authentic historical events. The player commands a number of different squads in order to complete missions, not only personnel squads but armored divisions as well. Basically you have 3 types of war dogs: Infantry squads, Airborne units and Armored units. Each of these have their own special abilities and upgrades, for example the airborne units can be equipped with bazookas, the tanks can have mine destroying chains etc. Also all units begin as a base rank unit and progress in ranks according to their battling experience, a task which is not that difficult since the enemy comes in plenty. Finally when a squad has lost some of it's members in action, you can reinforce the squad back to full strength instead of waiting for them to perish. Of course there's a limit of personnel and vehicles the player can deploy, so tactical thinking is needed.

The game field is divided into sectors, so victory comes when the player has conquered all the sectors of the field. Usually one resource point takes up a sector. In order to conquer the sector you have to raise your flag on the resource point's pole, which basically means that you will have to fight for it first. Even after securing a resource point, the Germans can come and invade it again for their benefit. There are three types of resources: Manpower which is constantly generated by your HQ and barracks, Fuel and Munitions. Fuel is the most scarce and the most needed if you're into tank building. So good things come hard in this game and if you want some armor you better get fighting smart. Mind you there are a lot of sectors to conquer on each mission field and the Germans are not known to be easy going chaps! Especially when they wear the iron cross emblem on their suit :)

One of the highlights of the game are the field combat tactics; In order not to send your squad to suicide, you have to use cover from enemy fire by hiding behind walls, rocks, trees, car wrecks etc. That way you stand a fair chance of surviving even when being slightly outgunned. Also the option to retreat is vital, as when retreating the squad sprints back to the HQ, where you can reinforce the lost members and send them back to battle. This is also good for armored units as they can race back to the HQ for repairs, although this is not necessary as engineer teams can be deployed and repair vehicles anywhere on the field, this will prove useful if you are just one step from exploding to metal parts. Also, heavy machine guns come in two flavors, either as a manned mobile squad or as stationary and more robust bunker.

The graphics are superb! If you found Panzers: Phase one to be a graphical masterpiece, then wait to see this one. The buildings, soldiers, vehicles and surroundings all modeled masterfully giving wonderful visuals. The special effects and explosions are simply unbelievable! You should watch the mayhem from artillery cannons strike which combined with the excellent sounds will have you stunned at first and then when the smoke clears leaving only rampaged debris, it only makes you think of the devastation of a true war. Shocking really, but I guess some lessons are best to be learned from games rather than reality. The view camera can be adjusted to any angle that you desire; you can even lower it and have your squad in about 4 meters in front of you. However that is largely impractical in combat, but it is a rather nice gimmick when you have cleared the enemy and only a few routine tasks are left for you to complete the mission. You can actually watch the action very closely. Finally the cut scenes are a real beauty! Not all of them very detailed, as they are being rendered in real time using the game's 3D engine, but they fit very well within the graphic pace of the game.

The Bad
Talking about the superb graphics and detailed modeling of this game reminds me of the old saying "you can't have everything without a cost". And that cost is going to be paid by your graphics card, as this game drains a hell of a lot resources from your system. I'm playing Company Of Heroes on a Core Duo 6600 at 2.4, with 2GB RAM and a Geforce 7950 GX2 and it still gives me average frame rates, which is especially annoying when you try to scroll your view field from one hotspot to another in order to have things under control. There are a lot of options for cycling through your squads, but in the heat of the battle it's really confusing to seek the right button to reach the right squad and you're going the old way 'click on the map to get there', or by scrolling which proves a hard task for your machine with all this 3D detailed population in the game's terrain.

Maybe it is my idea, but I really think that the developers are trying to take the mickey out of the (then) Germans. First of all, the word Germans is never heard in the game, nor the word Americans. Instead of Germans, they are being called "Axxis Forces" on the formal cut scenes (as they were mostly called in WWI) and in game they are being called 'Jerrys' or 'Krauts'. Is this some kind of a joke or another American propaganda? Most serious strategists know a basic rule in war and that is never underestimate your enemy. And hell, Germans were definitely not to be underestimated back then, as they gave the world a real hard time, whether you like it or not. So what is this Kraut and Jerry rubbish for?

Talking about the game's Germans, I'd rather be playing on their side, as they have the coolest looking panzers and base buildings. But the game offers no option to play the campaign on the German side of things. At least so far it doesn't, I haven't completed the game yet.

The Bottom Line
Overall this is a superb real time strategy game. Although it offers an authentic sequence of historical facts, the game mechanics core is like any other 'build your army and conquer' game you've played, with some more neatly thought about combat tactics, which can work at your benefit after all.

Graphically exceptional you should invest on this game only if you've got enough firepower on your machine, otherwise I suspect that it would be a rather annoying gaming experience.

Judging from the length of the first 4 missions which I have completed during the weekend, taking me about 3-4 hours on average to complete each mission, and considering the skirmish scenarios, it surely promises to be a long lasting venture on my HDD.

Windows · by SifouNaS (1309) · 2007

Trick or Treat?

The Good

  • The graphics and all those effects
  • A full destructible scenery
  • Somewhat realistic action in limited extend
  • Strong language when the situation becomes dire


**The Bad**
  • The multiplayer
  • The AI of your units
  • Several details that affect realism


**The Bottom Line**
I like strategic games a lot, but I am not a fan of RTS. Company of Heroes achieved over-night notoriety because it was offered as a gift in purchase of a GeForce 8400, a good option by the time the game was launched, and like such games, it offers good graphics and really nice effects. Company of heroes itself is very pleasant to look at, even in the lower settings. In the campaign mode, you must lead a company size (hence the name) unit through 15 missions in the Normandy offensive of the WWII, from the D-day (06/06/44) to the closure of the Falaise Pocket (19/08/44). Although the game describes the armies as allies and axis, they are really Americans (except in the last mission) and Germans. While leading the Americans (only option in the campaign mode), you will have to accomplish a number of objectives, which are all well explained in the briefing before each mission and are close to what someone would expect from WWII action. According to which unit do you lead, you will have a different ability path to follow, there are three "doctrines" in the game, so, if you are in charge of paratroopers, expect the possibility to ask supplies and air support from the skies. If you are in charge of an infantry company, artillery support and rangers are the call, and if you lead an armored platoon, heavy tanks and special logistics will do the trick. The fact you take control of different companies should explain why the odd limit of your units (you are allowed up to 75 soldiers at time, but some troops, like the sniper and the howitzer, counts like more towards that limit than the actual number of soldiers deployed in that squad). Most of the time you will be with an amount of troops close to two platoons or so, therefore only by adding the numbers of soldiers in all companies you lead, it's really a company size unit at the start of an offensive. Talking about numbers, in the game you don't control soldiers, but squads. Any order will be carried by the entire squad, however the squad size is not the same of the adopted in the WWII, but the size of the fire teams of the time, something necessary, given the numbers limitation I already talked about. As the "squads" take losses, they become less effective, but the casualties can be replaced when close to the HQ or a half-track. Healing wounded soldiers is a little bit trickier, since it is a different process to each army. And talking about differences, there are plenty of them. The Germans are available in the skirmish mode, with different infantry (there is no German standard rifleman squad like the Americans), different vehicles (which are also very good in theirs roles) and different tanks (some like the Stug and Stuh are somewhat tricky), the Germans also evolve in a different way, as they have to "buy" experience instead acquiring through combat (the game explain it is a call for veterans from the east front) and phases, which are required for constructing more advanced constructions, units, and unlocking several of the abilities of Germans units. Like the Americans, the Germans have "doctrines" too: defense, blitzkrieg and terror doctrines for the balance in skirmish matches. The graphics, as I said, are marvelous, and the camera allows the player a full vision of the battlefield, with the 360ΒΊ rotation, zoom-in and zoom-out, explosions are great, and affect the gameplay as they form crates that can be used for cover. Everything can be destroyed, as tanks crush walls and barbed wire, and anti-tank guns bring houses down to the floor you will be sure that this game was developed with a lot of attention to the details. The sound is great too. Each unit has a list of sentences to give confirmation of your orders or to tell you about combat, and even tough you will hear the most commons over and over (like the "trick or treat?" in the title, from the sniper), and some of them are inaccurate (like the wrong pronunciation of volksgranadiers, by the homonymous German unit), they are still very nice, and add a felling about what is happening and specially how dire the situation is. The AI is great sometimes and bad in others. The computer can prove itself a real challenge from time to time, and react accordingly to your moves, but the troops often require some micro-management, as they don't think twice before wasting their lives in the worst way possible (imagine a sniper charging an armored car or soldiers rushing toward the flames of an enemy flamethrower. The computer usually don't pick up captured weapons (something you can also do as soon you kill all enemies operating that weapon), but create new troops with a brand new weapon of the same kind, the only exception to this, is the panzerfaust, that I found the computer is always interested in capturing or recovering. One thing I feel the game could have is a grasp of logistics. Of course managing to supply fuel, spare parts and ammo for your man in the heat of the battle would make the game consistently harder and less appealing for the majority of the players out there that are used to the old fashion of "gather resources and buy units". However, on the other hand, the decision to follow the mechanic of conquering strategic points to earn resources was a bad one, making the game much more similar with most of the repetitive RTS in that point. A different path would give a new life to the single player campaign that only manages to escape from being weak due the good presentation of objectives and missions and the early outbreak of interesting skirmishes in the first three levels of the game. The only really bad part comes now: the multiplayer. At time it was good, even with some cheap strategies that exploited some of the game's mechanics. But now, multiplayer is a no-go. As following the release of opposing fronts, Relic decided for full compatibility between this and the original company of heroes, so even after heavy download of patches and such, the player of this game will still have to compete against different armies with overpowered units (comparing to the units available in this edition) which is a hard cut-off. Aside from this and some small problems and quirks, the game is still great and highly recommended.

Windows · by Open_Sights (466) · 2010

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Company of Heroes appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Copy protection

As of September 2006, Company of Heroes is fairly unusual for a retail game of its kind. Unlike hundreds of other games on the store shelves, Company of Heroes does not require the CD-ROM to be present in the drive while playing.

Online servers

The game's online servers which were hosted on Quazal's infrastructure were to shut down in December 2013. They were since moved to Steamworks, in a separate build called the New Steam Version which was granted for free to all previous and future owners of the game.

Retail versions of the game can be redeemed on Steam by entering the serial key.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2006 – #2 Best Strategy Game of the Year
  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2007 - Game of the Year 2006
  • Games for Windows Magazine
    • March 2007 - #2 Game of the Year 2006
  • GameSpy
    • 2006 – #2 Game of the Year
    • 2006 – PC Game of the Year
    • 2006 – #2 Online Multiplayer Game of the Year
    • 2006 – PC Multiplayer Game of the Year
    • 2006 – PC Real-Time Strategy Game of the Year
    • 2006 – PC Real-Time Strategy Game of the Year (Gamers' Vote)
    • 2006 – Best Sound of the Year (PC)
    • 2011 – #4 Top PC Game of the 2000s
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 02/2007 – #3 Best Strategy Game in 2006

Information also contributed by PCGamer77.

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Game added by Anonymous Gamer.

iPad, iPhone added by Cantillon. Android added by Evolyzer.

Additional contributors: UV, Dave Mednick, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Plok, FatherJack.

Game added September 20, 2006. Last modified March 15, 2024.