Company of Heroes 3 has launched and is now available on Steam.
The latest in Relic Entertainments World War II themed real time strategy game has officially launched on Windows via Steam for now. It will be available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on a later date.
For this third game, Relic has combined two lesser celebrated but no less important theatres of the war. The North African campaign puts you in charge of the Dutch forces as you take on Rommel. No, not fighting the Desert Fox. You play Erwin Rommel himself, managing the campaign.
While playing the enemy is not unusual for military themed video games, even those based on real wars, this was a risky decision to make for Relic. As Eurogamer’s reviewer observes in his playthrough of Company of Heroes 3, Relic took pains not to make it seem like this was a glorification of war. Much of the game’s cutscenes and narrative is focused not on the soldiers, but the people on the sidelines, the civilians who lost their homes.
A more conventional gamefeel can be found in the Italy campaign. This time you are on the side of the Allies, as your troops engage in the 1943 invasion of Sicily, that would eventually lead to the downfall of Mussolini. Italian partisans join your campaign as NPCs that will assist you with recon and even joining in the battle.
Both campaigns feature varied terrains, but Italy will likely be the more popular of the two. The mountainous ranges of Italy mean this particular battlefield will have a lot of verticality, which plays very well to Relic’s new game design making use of that verticality.
On top of this, Relic has come up with some new gameplay features that enhance the experience, simultaneously making it easier for new players, while giving more advanced players even more effective tools.
Tactical Pause allows players to pause the game completely, to queue up a series of complex commands to be executed after said pause.
Company of Heroes 3 will also have a new destruction system. This allows for more gradual levels of destruction around you, such as bricks individually falling off of buildings.
As it is, Company of Heroes 3 might not quite be ready for consoles yet, but that is likely the reason that Relic scheduled that release for later this year.
You can watch the trailer for Company of Heroes 3 below and get it on Steam here.
