Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Feb 24, 2023

  Yikes. This has the bare bones of a good game, but it feels more like early access than a finished product. The score is incredible; definitely a candidate for best soundtrack. The addition of the campaign map is nice, but the unit animations are still rough around the edges. I'm seeing units low-crawling at super-speed, commanders doing the funky chicken in their tank turret, C-47 Skytrains defying the laws of physics, and tanks being hit in the front while reporting hits in the rear. I understand this may all sound over-critical, but with the pedigree of this franchise, for the budget this project had, and for the amount of money dumped into advertising it I expected something at least on par with CoH2. I want a functional product; not CoH3 branded 5.11 gear. I'd wait for a few bug passes before picking this up; especially at this price point.
• Rykuta

  Feb 24, 2023

  Telling people to ignore negative critique is normally a tad condescending but in this particular case I have to say that I genuinely do not understand what exactly people are expecting when they complain about certain things. TL;DR: The game is, honestly quite excellent. Its a bit rough around the edges here and there; but the core game loop is better than all previous entries in the series and the performance is also far better than most released games in the past decade or so. EDIT: Max review length hit already, check comments for additional updates. ==================================================================== The points I have been seeing: The graphics are bad: Are they? How so? They seem fine to me. The textures look at or near the quality in the screenshots on the store page; maybe there's some more bugs on specific hardware? If so I'd probably report that as it seems unintentional. Is there a desire for more god rays? More fancy shadows? More bloom? Motion Blur? I really don't know what the ask is here. What I did notice is that the performance seems to be far better than any previous entry. 144 FPS without any dips or drops is a pretty rare and cool thing to see. Maybe the graphics don't look like Atomic Hearts but I can't say I care much when the game runs smooth like butter. The game lacks features: What features? This is usually done in comparison to COH2, but as I recall, COH2 launched with only 2 factions and only a single campaign with just minor little missions for the other faction. They then trickled in other modes and factions as dlc for 10-20 bucks a pop. There are also more maps than the launch of COH2 as well; What exactly is missing here? Most posts seem to neglect mentioning anything. I suppose the only things I'd say that I actually noticed were a page for profile edits and some minor quality of life aspects such as game recordings or player names. There's also no progression system but, again, I'm not really sure why these are so important that they ruin the entire experience, these all seem, extra to me. The sound design is bad: The sound design is "realistic" (at least according to the devs) which means that its not going to sound like a movie. Its going to sound real, its going to pop and crackle, and it isn't going to have the oomph (except the stukas apparently). Which, yeah, I enjoy the more boom boom pow than the crackle, but I don't really see how that warrants a negative review. I know there have been some people whose sound quality was defaulting to "low" and making the game sound like tin can pasta; but apparently that's an easy fix so /shrug. I wouldn't mind a more hollywood sounding experience, I like the extra big thundering boom noises and massive over the top explosions a bit more than the realistic sort of vibe they seem to be going for here; but I can't say that should warrant a negative review, seems petty. The UI is bad: This seems subjective to me. If you want to cram the entire set of menu buttons onto a tiny window that takes up less screen space than a steam notification I mean, I guess? It seems perfectly servicable to me. I think the thing to really look at is UX and besides the kind of fuggly social menu, the number of clicks required to perform certain tasks is properly minimized and the only thing I can't seem to find is a profile editor. You can click twice and get into a game and the in-game UI is straight out of COH2 but with more open space to see the actual game so, huh? There are definitely UX improvements to be made (The way to cancel constructions wasn't immediately obvious to me, likewise upgrades (in a few instances I struggled to find it until it was literally too late to cancel)); additionally map pings don't seem to be particularly noticable (very hard to spot and hear) but maybe this will wind up being better after I play with it more, who can say. The game is buggy: I can't speak to this one. In my time in the betas and alphas as well as at full release I have not experienced much if any noticable bugs, the only time I saw anything break would be vehicles bouncing like its a gmod corpse. But honestly, I find those sorts of things funny so I don't really know if they're worth complaining about. IF your game crashes or has weird issues, just report a bug and the devs will probably get back to you on it. The game seems about as stable if not more stable than coh1 and coh2 so, again, might just be my machine. ====================================================================== If you notice, there seems to be one particular thing lacking from most of the negative reviews. And that's actually discussing the gameplay. You can probably guess why. I've been around the COH franchise long enough to remember all of the design faults and issues with both balancing and design and the gameplay critiques from both of the oldies. And I am beyond impressed with the way that COH3 seems to have taken all of that feedback into account in their design. One good example is that of COH2's vehicle balancing. The design choices of the game meant that light vehicles had far less effectiveness in the long term due to the larger amounts of heavy armored units. Leaving early games fairly vehicle dry and late games front-loaded with armor. COH3 solves this by making light and medium units king and giving access to them almost immediately with the efficiency to actually stick around in conflicts and not just get torn apart as soon as the game enters mid. Another great example would be pacing, COH1 and COH2 were always slow to get started and basically had a lot of players who would just try to sit and turtle for 8 minutes. COH3's map design and pacing are much, much quicker, making for snappier combat encounters and more emphasis on using everything in your tool kit just to hold positions and cover ground; the game feels better for it. There are other things, but I'm not exactly amazing at describing them, suffice to say the experience feels like an improved upon version of everything that game before and targeting of the exact pain points you might have had. All of the factions also play and feel particularly unique (unlike in COH2 where the two starting factions basically played identically). There is an absolute gem of a game here and it saddens me to see so many people railing on it for, honestly petty reasons. Oh, also, workshop support day1 is pretty neat too. The only real thing I can critique here is the price, 60 bucks feels a tad too steep; somewhere around the 40-45 mark would probably fit better. But then again I don't really know what sort of game I'd describe as worth 60 dollars anyways, so that might also just be a nitpick. ======================================================================= There's definitely polish points to be made, certain things like player names would be nice to have and I wouldn't mind some progression paths; but this lack of polish doesn't really hinder the experience. The game runs amazing, the game plays amazing, I wouldn't give it an A+ but I definitely wouldn't give it an F either. I think a B- is probably fair in the game's current state. If the game did not receive any additional updates, I would probably still recommend it, which is why I just, do not understand the negativity. It seems entirely fickle. But I suppose I also don't put a ton of emphasis on presentation when I decide if a game is good or not. How it looks or how it sounds doesn't matter as much as the core experience to me. And that core experience here is something I think anyone who is a fan of RTS games can get behind.
• [EL] Brother Captain Specmarine

  Feb 24, 2023

  It is I once more Relic, after the disaster that was DOW III which greatly disappointed me we now arrive once more into the trenches in the latest installment of Company of Heroes. First thing to note, I must give my details. 3.7k hours in coh2 and ranked 48 in the world in teams of 4. Played since the near release of coh2 and dabbled in coh1. Hence I am more aware of mechanics and balance of the game. To quell the hesitation this is far from a bad game, but nor is it a perfect game. But compared to Relics last title this is far better as you can feel the passion and care they put into the game. So for a TLDR I recommend this game. Now onto a more detailed review starting with positives: The new mechanics for coh3 is simply much better than its incarnation will the much appreciated side armor being introduced it now rewards players for flanking enemy tanks and no longer forced to drive head first just to go behind rear armor just to penetrate armor of enemy tanks. Along with some quality of life changes like auto vaulting and the breech(Although not quite usable depending on the skill of the enemy is nonetheless handy for specific situations like flushing out MG's in houses and outright killing the whole gun.) Among no longer losing whole squads due to unlucky 'RNG' when hit by a single mortar hit. As for game play it is your simple fare, with 4 factions to start off with all mechanics for each faction are decently balanced well with no overpowering factions skewed on one side or the other(but there are notable 'unbalanced' options that exist on both allies and axis. But otherwise does not quite detract in the experiance. And some older tatcics that was annoying to face are now much more tame in this one allowing less stressful game play when fighting 'cheese' type of players(Looking at you mg34 coh2 suppressing just as soon as it shoots) As for graphics, I have no gripes with it. Sure it may look a bit more colorful than 2 but it does fit the Mediterranean feel, the battle scarring on vehicles are really nice and animations are solid enough on most units. However we get to the negatives: Balance on certain battle groups, units and the like. Now Relic has a rather interesting history with balance. Some notable unbalanced things that you can see in this game are notably DAK with the capacity to drop a 11 minute tiger for 800 manpower, planes from both British and Whermacht that can utterly kill full health tanks near instantly, AA so powerful on both sides that can virtually render planes dead in nanoseconds before they can drop air dropped units in your own base, battlegroup choices that are outright better than other choices in the same line, and some questionable skill choices for American units(SF commandos with a small close ranged 'snipe' ability to kill a single model instantly vs a time demo charge that can blow up bunkers and other hardy structures that are far more valuable) and the black Prince being a one time call in while Tigers can be replaced willy nilly when they die. Some quality of life changes that need to be implemented as well, unique colors should not give your allies a 'red' type of color which really screws with many people as 'red' colors dictate 'enemy' players. The friend/social system still acting off even after the beta test not being able to invite players despite them being friended and online by everyone in the lobby. Minor gripes Some minor bugs are still a bit annoying, units getting stuck in terrain, units taking too long to follow a retreat command, certain abilities not informing you of drawbacks(Or being outright bugged Special operations battleground with the infantry buff preventing retreat on all infantry effected by it.) And audio bugs. Final Conclusion: Despite the negatives, Company of Heroes 3 is not a step back but instead a good step forward. However Relic does have a good bit of work ahead to polish the game in the coming months to rectify from glaring issues and top up some balance. But compared to their last title this has great potential to become a great RTS like Relic is known for. At the moment there are a lot of negative reviews, some mainly griping on super minor issues and others with valid concerns like myself. However I believe the positives outweigh the negatives so if your on the fence reading the reviews you should honestly give the game a shot and give it a go. Give the game your own shot and let your experience determine if you should stick with the game or pass. And a personal note for relic, remember to keep team games in mind for balance as well. But all in all well done Relic for not crushing my hopes a second time.
• ~ Moni ~

  Feb 25, 2023

  These are just my first impressions. I've played both CoH1 and over 2000 hours in CoH2. My first RTS I've ever played was Warcraft 2. Graphics: 7/10 - Good There's something still weird about the graphic art style, but it doesn't bother me that much. It does need some work and fine-tuning though. Audio: 5/10 - OK The audio is underwhelming. I know it's supposed to be more realistic but it doesn't sound as beefy like CoH1-2 audio. Gameplay: 9/10 - Great It's the same gameplay I love with a lot of quality of life improvements such as rebinding the horrid arrow keys to WSAD. I appreciate the strategic aspect and decisions of the campaign too. Story: 6/10 - Decent so far The Italian front is an often overlooked part of WW2 so the new setting is welcome. While I don't like how the story is told (so far), it's serviceable. Starcraft 2 has a much better story with better cutscenes and storytelling. This game looks really indie by comparison. Content - 8/10 Very good There's a lot more content starting out in this game compared to how CoH2 started out. CoH2 started with 2 factions with an underwhelming campaign. It took a while for them to add the Theater of War missions and Ardennes Assault campaigns, which are the real treat. I appreciate that this game starts out with 4 factions that have a large variety of units and has 2 better campaigns. Overall: 7/10 Good I can understand where the negativity is coming from. This game feels unpolished and cheap compared to the last entries, but I also feel as if people are judging this game too harshly off of how finished CoH2 is now and forgetting that CoH2 was really, really barebones when it was released. 2 factions, 1 bad campaign that I still haven't finished to this day, and bad skins on units. This game has a long road ahead of it and a lot of potential. Assuming Relic supports it, it should be worth it in the long run. Is it worth $60? No, unless you don't care about the audio. It's worth more like $40-45 in its current state. Because I had more positive things to say about the game and can see the potential of it, I guess I'll give it a thumbs up.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 25, 2023

  For now I will say to stay far away form this game. The game was clearly rushed out the door without it being done. The campaign UI is so badly done that I would think it's a pre-production UI with placeholders. E.g: They display a number, but it doesn't have enough space to display, so it goes on two lines. Many part of the UI are just a grey/colored boxes with text inside, without any texture, which makes them look so weird and out of context. The units movement on the campaign map just look ridiculous. If you ask your tank to go back, it will instantly start moving to that point while the model is spinning around, making it look like a game school project grade tier of animation. There is a "affections" system with your generals to give you some bonuses, but the system just looks tacked on at the last minute and really badly made. Your two generals just keep annoying you to do this or that and bickers like two children that wants you attention. You look at the terribly made UI for the affection "tree" and it doesn't really explain much about what each reward do. The missions looks super scripted on the campaign map, so even if it's a huge man, your generals will ask you to do this or that. So you end up following predetermined paths with main missions and secondary objectives. Which makes me wonder what is the point of the map. It doesn't seems to give me freedom to do what I want like a Total War game. Right now I just wish I could simply do the older CoH game style of campaign and have some bits of story between missions. But I'm still early in the campaign, so maybe it will change after some time. I just finished a defense mission from the campaign. They ask me to defend three objective points. They already have maximum units deployed on all three points and nicely balance (at-tank, mg crew, engineer, etc) on each point. So I just wait for the attack to start. After the attacker started coming in, I realized after a few minutes that I don't actually need to do anything. The enemy would just walk up to the point and die over and over. I just sat there staring at the screen doing nothing and still won the mission. What a waste of time.
• Pask

  Feb 25, 2023

  Alright so this is a review based on what I have seen so far with six hours of game play since it released. Compared to the previous CoH titles, CoH3 really makes a lot of bold strides, some marks it did not hit. But hopefully those will be ironed out with patches. GAMEPLAY: Infantry Combat: Infantry combat feels so much better than the last two titles in the franchise. Positioning and cover have always been a vital factor for your infantry's survivability. But in CoH3 it is so very very much more important in how you position your infantry squads. It feels very gratifying when you position a squad to focus the enemy fire on as you have a squad flank. Breaching: Holy hell this is a really awesome feature they added. Not ALL infantry squads can breach buildings. But this can be a real game changer when you manage to get an infantry squad up to a building occupied by an MG crew. Your infantry have more combat capability than the last two games. Tank Riding: Yup you heard me. Your infantry can ride on the banks of some of your tanks. But do note that when a tank has infantry riding on the back, the fighting capability of the tank goes down significantly. But thankfully when said tank gets engaged, your infantry will usually dismount so you have two units laying down fire. Vehicle Combat: Of course it has the same concept as the last two games, but in this game they added side armor, which is a welcome addition. Doctrine Perks: Reminiscent to the original CoH doctrine perks you could select from. Strategic Campaign: This was a real surprise when I heard they were bringing a strategic element to CoH, but a welcome one to be sure. It gives more weight to the campaign, instead of going from mission to mission, you select the areas in Italy to attack and defend. In addition you can employ artillery, naval barrages, air strikes and a whole bunch more strategic aids to make the difference between victory and utter defeat. Problems: The game has some problems with running, random lag spikes that surprised me since I have a stellar gaming rig. Some AI bugs have been reported, but I have yet to personally see any. A lot of people complain the AI is too easy to beat, well I'll just say those morons probably didn't see the difficulty selections. Overall I really think they have something great here, and can become even greater after some fixes. Don't hinge your decision purely on the ragers in the reviews. Try it out and be blown away by the new CoH game that almost feels like an entirely different game. If it makes you feel any better, I felt comfortable spending the money without a sale. And I am very stingy when it comes to giving anyone my hard earned United States Fun Bucks. 8/10 I would suggest this game.
• Mic

  Feb 25, 2023

  A return in a lot of ways to CoH1, while bringing over the better balance changes and some mechanical functionality from the sequel. Playing it feels like a Company of Heroes game, but made worthwhile over the previous two in a few ways: Removal of DLC commanders from CoH2 Additional mechanics like towing and breaching(the latter of which I have wanted since the first game's release) Actual keybinds and the ability to bind mouse movement to WASD And probably the biggest change, a new Total War style Dynamic Campaign that with future expansion will hopefully lead to infinite replayability While Relic tried to expand their series in a completely different direction with Dawn of War III, Company of Heroes 3 is much more a love letter to the community that this series has cultivated over the years.
• Captain Tank

  Feb 25, 2023

  While there is still some bugs, COH3 is a great entry in the Company of Heroes series. Many reviews here seem to have forgot how far COH2 came over 10+ years of development and updates. It make sense that a product that had that much time to smooth things over and patch bugs would be in a better state then a newly released game. If you are a fan of the series I'd recommend picking up the game.
• Makaan_89

  Feb 25, 2023

  As a long time fan ive got exactly what i wanted: a good mix of COH1 and COH2. In my opinion its the best installment in the series. Game is well optimized and yes, its not perfect, it will need some polish there and there and a few patches to fix occasional animation glitches and so on, but thats it. Easy recommendation not only for fans of COH, but also a very good pick for fans of action packed WW2 RTS games.
• wojer2000

  Feb 25, 2023

  sehr gut