The Company of Heroes franchise dates back nearly seventeen years, yet has only seen two releases. This beloved World War 2 real-time strategy franchise has always had its large core audience due to its big changes to gameplay that weren't seen in the genre at its initial release. Relic Entertainment took on the franchise with Company of Heroes 3 and went with heavy community input on the direction of the game. The core ideas are the same for the gameplay as capturing victory points in matches for resources is what is needed to develop and expand one's base. While there's a certain dated-feeling aspect to the latest iteration, there's plenty here to keep players busy with deeper gameplay and subtle touches that'll be appreciated by the community.

There aren't many (if any) real-time strategy games that offer two separate campaigns in the way that Relic has introduced with Company of Heroes 3. The game focuses on two areas of battle during World War II: Italy and North Africa. The North African Operation is a traditional-style campaign with linear missions, but Relic has included a narrative with this campaign. The story being in early 1942 as players will participate in historical battle moments that includes Aldabiya, Gazala and Tobruk. These are desert environments that will benefit more vehicles as opposed to infantry. This focuses on the Axis-side of the war with two different factions: Deutsches Afrika Korps and the Wehrmacht. The authored narrative that's portrayed through cutscenes is solid to get the idea of the perspective of war. If this had been the only single-player campaign included, it would have been disappointing, but it's the other campaign that truly stands out.

While I understand wanting to keep a classic and linear campaign that's traditional to RTS games to cater to those that prefer it, this method is dated. It is nice to have as an additional option and is a way to learn the tech and the units of both of those factions for online and skirmish modes. The Italian Campaign is simply one of the best single-player RTS campaigns ever introduced to the genre. The baseline format combines real-time gameplay with a board game, which is essentially RISK. While I understand series like Civilization and Total War have this territory capture option, it just works so well in Company of Heroes 3 that it should be an option for individual games rather than just the campaign.

What Relic has done here is introduce dynamic maps that not only takes the strategy element to a higher level, but has introduced longevity into a campaign mode that will keep players coming back for more. Set in Italy, players will need to take over port towns to expand their influence and their army. Some towns will require a skirmish battle while others will just need to be reached to take over. Each town offers more resources when captured while others are required for the main campaign missions. There are three different commanders that also need to appeased based on decision making as the more they are satisfied, they'll unlock additional perks for you. This is all turn-based, so it completely feels like a board game as players will need to delegate resources to land, sea and air. Managing infantry and units fatigue and more is required on the map while avoiding enemy defense weapons and eventually building your own support. I can see why this wouldn't be relegated to its own mode because the idea of playing an entire game of RISK could take weeks (see Kramer and Newman's game in Seinfeld).

The learning curve for the Italian Campaign felt steep, though. I felt I got strayed in the wrong direction and it took time to rebound once I understood the dynamics of the mode. The most aggravating portion of the Italian Campaign is the spy planes that are used for every single turn the AI takes. There are certain units that I expected to do something (such as a plane defending an area because that's what the description said) and it simply didn't do what I assumed it would. There were times where I thought I had an extra step or turn to take and clicking on enemy units did nothing. The idea of starting over is also daunting if the player doesn't like the direction things are going. Once everything clicks in the campaign and a steady of supplies start making their way in, it's encapsulating.

While the mode offers cutscenes to describe the main battles along the way, I actually enjoy the enemy propaganda that comes across between missions. The enemy simply trying to trick the player into believing there's no chance and a lot of the trash talk that comes with this is enjoyable. This actually ties in to the overall chatter that is heard on the battlefield. There's great and vulgar trash talking that will have players laughing and it's not that redundant. Outside of the battlefield narrator, which simply does not fit the mood at all, the dialogue is entertaining. Relic wanted this mode to be a long-term play while adding replayability and it accomplishes these feats.

Company of Heroes 3 offers four different factions to choose from that include the two Axis powers previously listed along with American and British Forces. Each one is distinctly unique and include a new mechanic known as Battlegroups that offer more support on the battlefield. The Afrika Korps offer more vehicles for support including Panzer 3, Flak 88 and the Tiger Tank while the Wehrmacht are defensive and technical as the focus is on building on the tech that's already instilled. British Forces are the more balanced side that will bring Indian Artillery weapons to the field along with its legendary air and navy bombardments. American Forces are catered to the players who are more aggressive and offer the air support and special ops units that it's famous for.

Units during gameplay will make smarter decisions about the routes that are taken to destinations. Cover is key to keeping infantry safe and flanking enemies is key to getting the smaller victories. Relic has updated the user interface to help in better managing the squads, but it's ultimately same. Engineers are no longer needed to assemble buildings, which is a big plus. Engineers typically can be upgraded with flamethrowers and are much better implemented for repairing vehicles on the field. It does take a good bit longer to get these vehicles up to full health, though. Recovery Trucks, when available, can actually capture and restore destroyed vehicles from the field and make them yours.

There are a ton of subtle improvements in the gameplay and that includes the overall AI, but there are still nagging issues. Enemy infantry are aggravating to take down and in Skirmish Mode, even on the standard difficulty, are completely relentless and seem to be infinitely pumped out to the field. There are too many times that I had units in cover only for my tanks to continually shoot a wall and get destroyed. The enemy hits can get in but mine can't get out? The infantry does play smarter; for example a mortar team won't just run up close to combat. They'll stay well spaced at the edge of the fog of war and overall the decision making is better with your units but still has issues.

The visuals are improved from the previous entry, but that chapter was over ten years ago. Terrain is more detailed and so are the actual infantry models, but it won't blow your mind. Unless there's an extremely recent CPU in your system, the framerate will be all over the place. Playing in 4K with a NVIDIA RTX 3080 10GB and an Intel i7-9700 with 32 GB RAM at 4000hz didn't matter. Some maps are better than others, especially if the map has water, but the framerate would max out at 130 and could drop into the teens. Even stranger is that it would start fine, but the longer that the game would be played, the performance would get worse. Obviously RTS titles are CPU-intensive, but for a game that looks dated, that CPU should be fine. It almost seems as if it has something to do with the paging file, but this is running off of a fast hard drive. Other complaints have arose from this online as well, and it doesn't seem to matter if I drop the the visual settings as there aren't many to begin with. It just seems like poor optimization, even though the game plays solid enough to get through.

What stands out about the visuals is the destruction of buildings and the effects of explosives. Buildings topple differently and it's so satisfying to see these things implode. Increased damage to buildings is also witnessed in real time, but the laugh-out-loud moments comes from the ragdoll physics of infantry. This is also a stark reminder of the horrors of war, but the explosion is ridiculous. Strangely, units cannot be run over which would help against the annoying AI infantry.

The sound design remains excellent as it carries over well from the previous game. All of the voice acting is solid outside of the in-game narrator that comments on building structures and units, who feels out of place. There's a good amount of female dialogue as well and all of it does a good job. The dialogue with the units is funny and vulgar. The music properly represents the era and the atmosphere of the title.

One big miss in Company of Heroes 3 comes with online multiplayer. It's worth having friends play with you as matchmaking is non-existent as I've tried for days to find a match. The option to do 1v1 up to 4v4 is available along with a custom lobby that never seems to get populated with games. The matchmaking is on a timer, gives an estimated time, and even waiting ten minutes didn't get a matchup with all options checked for available games, even 1v1. Players can also play cooperatively versus the AI, but outside of having someone you know that has it or being on a Discord server where invitations are sent, the online experience is hampered.

Closing Comments:

Relic has taken everything that makes the first two games great and made sufficient additions to help Company of Heroes 3 succeed in this renaissance of RTS titles. While the visuals are improved and more detailed effects are there, the overall look still feels dated and the lacking performance hampers the experience. Having two campaigns is an awesome direction and while one is more streamlined than the other, the Italian Campaign revolutionizes the way to do a single player campaign for an RTS. The AI in skirmish is downright frustrating and the trouble with online multiplayer is unfortunate. What makes Company of Heroes 3 great is the growth within the actual gameplay and the subtle details experienced along the way.