6/26/2023 0 Comments Will there be company of heroes 3![]() Every game has issues with balance, especially out of the gate. However, this is where balance issues reared their ugly head. A real human person will always be a better opponent than a computer in an RTS. After all this cover system in Multiplayer should be amazing. So I went into Multiplayer with expectations. Singleplayer had some bumps, but I enjoyed it way more than I anticipated. This I also found engaging, adjusting my gameplay strategy to try and keep everyone happy. Bonuses you can lose if your reputation with them drops. As you earn more reputation with them, you earn substantial gameplay bonuses. As you progress through the campaign, you have to balance out your reputation with the leaders of the US, British, and Italian Revolution forces. The other progression system is the reputation/diplomacy mechanic. I loved this so much, and thought it was the most fleshed out part of the whole mode. And each one has a unique skill tree, unit selections to expand and customize, and a special battle ability. Themes range from US Special Forces to British Armored Divisions. Whenever you hire one, you chose a theme for it. First there’s the armies, known as companies. There’s two forms of progression here, both of which I liked. The British General is prim and proper and the US General is all Yee-Haw, 100% historically accurate. Battles were just regular maps, and there wasn’t a large variety of them either. There were also no Siege battles, with most cities being captured via map actions with little fan fare. There was nothing dynamic feeling about it. The enemy didn’t feel like an enemy, just obstacles standing on the map. Things got boring way quicker than any Total War campaign I’ve ever played. The push and pull of the world map gameplay is what makes Total War so exciting, having to expand while also defending your own. It doesn’t help that enemy armies were sporadic and unaggressive, further decreasing the excitement of the map. Maps like this are defined by the small details that flesh it out, and this one is lacking. It portrays Italy well enough, but looks boring. The map for starters feels lifeless and static. The problem is nothing feels fleshed out or interesting enough to stand on its own. There’s even a pseudo Diplomacy system, though it feels more like an RPG reputation system. Battles can be fought in real time or auto resolved. You interact with enemy armies and cities on the map. Just like Total War, you raise armies and move them across a World Map. But this feels like an Early Access version of a new mode, not the finished product. ![]() They aimed high for sure, and ambition should always be celebrated. And Company of Heroes 3 falls well short. But the masterpiece that is Total War: Warhammer III is a tough act to chase. A full sandbox campaign, combining a 4X map with real time battles. This game’s big selling point was a brand new Total War inspired mode. Your first Company choice seems important, but they’re ultimately the same as any you recruit later. It was the other campaign that had issues. A lot of strategy games have been getting away with having even less. I had no issues with it, and felt the game would have honestly been fine launching with just that. ![]() ![]() The former was a textbook example of great RTS map design, and really highlighted how fantastic the cover system is. The other one is the highly publicized Total Waresque campaign set in Italy. One of them is a traditional mission based campaign set in North Africa. I found both to be compelling and unpolished by the same measure, but for different reasons. There’s the Singleplayer campaigns, and Multiplayer skirmishes. Like most strategy games, there’s two halves to Company of Heroes 3. It makes for very strategic gameplay, where careful use of the environment matters and deathball rushes are suicide. It reminds me of older Battlefield games, where the map could change at the drop of a grenade. All in all, it’s a very fun system that sets it far apart from games like StarCraft. Buildings can be leveled and tanks killed and used to advance. Cover is dynamic as well, meaning it will be created and destroyed during combat. Any object, be it a bush or a building, provides some kind of cover for soldiers to use. It’s very similar to XCOM’s, but plays in real time. Company of Heroes is a real time strategy franchise set during World War II.
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