Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7809 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: THQ
• Released on: 2006-09-29
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Windows XP

Customer Reviews

Fantastic RTS
I dont play that many RTS games but I have enjoyed playing this game. The graphics are very detailed. This is not a game where you can just sit back and build a large army then charge at the other teams base. You have go on the offensive and gain groups of territory where you can increase your ammunition, fuel etc supplies. The levels are great and there is always a surprise, just when you think you are doing well. It is a challenging game that will keep you coming back for more. My spec P4 3.6 Ghz, 2GB Ram, X850 XT GFX card. Nearly can play on full settings at 1280x1024 resolution. It's a great looking game and the playability is there too so buy it!

Amazing
This game looks amazing. The graphics are awesome, and so are all the historically accurate French towns. This game excels in many areas. First being the fact that everything in the map is completely destructible. Second is the sound, which is quite truly, amazing, which brings the battlefield to life. The game play is also very inventive, which gives the player a ton of things to do. You basically start on the frontline, and have to base your attack on a mixture of gaining resources, with pushing the enemy back. The online multiplayer adds even more game play to the game, which is also extremely nice.

The bad: Well it has to be the long loading times (which can be justified in comparison to the amazing graphics and massive maps). A powerful machine really is a must have for this game, to play it well, and to fully appreciate the amazing graphics. Also, you can only play as either the Americans or the Germans. Being a true brit, it would have been nice to see our contribution to the war.

However, from the innovative game play, and the quite amazing graphics, this is the best RTS (real time strategy) around and is a great buy (for a powerful computer though). The first time you play it, you really will be blown away by the sheer detail in the maps and the explosions.

Superb WWII Strategy Action
Company of Heroes is a real time strategy game that puts you in charge of Able and Fox companies, units within the US Army. Your mission is to guide them from the beaches of Normandy on D-Day right up to the routing of the German army at the Falaise pocket.

This game is excellent. The presentation, the graphics, sound, gameplay, controls, all of these elements are put together superbly and well polished. The pace begins gently with primarily infantry-based engagements, but by the end of the game you are controlling tanks, artillery, infantry, air strikes, engineers, the works. Environments range from the Normandy beaches, to marshland, open fields, bombed and ruined towns, Nazi bases and vital bridges which must be seized and/or held at all costs.

Controlling your forces is simple and the game dispenses with overly elaborate base building and slow build-up of forces by enforcing a population cap. This means you can only have so many units and must capture and hold resource points in order to keep your cap at its maximum and also secure ammunition and fuel supply lines in order to keep your troops moving.

The cap is a good idea which makes you work with what you have and come up with sound tactics rather than building a huge tank army and rolling over the enemy. It is also frustrating when you are occasionally forced into sacrificing units so that you can then bring in different ones to deal with the enemy you are facing. Also, any stationary field guns you capture count towards the cap - you can't abandon them. But overall the cap forces the gameplay dynamic well and the pressure to take and hold resource points makes you think fast.

The game can be played at a slow pace, but some missions barely allow it and a mobile offensive is usually a must. The enemy AI can be aggressive and will often make you fight hard for every square inch of land. Fortunately, you have a wide range of forces at your disposal: tanks, jeeps, half-tracks, anti-tank guns, howitzers and infantry (regulars, paratroopers and rangers). Your units gain rank as they become more experienced and can be equipped with extra weapons (for example, a Sherman tank can have a turret-mounted machine gun added to it for dealing with enemy infantry).

You accrue command points as you move through a mission which can be spent on off-map assistance such as artillery, air strikes, paratrooper drops and the like. These use up ammo and fule points, so you need to make sure you are always controlling enough resource points to use them.

Graphically the game is great, all of the units are well animated and gunfire, explosions and the like in the middle of a firefight look great. Sound is also impressive, your units even get stressed in battle and tell you so (as such, the language can get rather fruity). You ideally need a reasonably powerful PC to get the best out of the game, but it can be scaled to run on most PCs OK.

If you enjoy real time strategy and haven't tired of World War II games yet, Company of Heroes is an essential purchase. It is simply one of the best examples of its genre.