Company of Heroes 3 – -apkrig

What we expected from the stream of the development studio Relic has happened – the popular strategy series Company of Heroes returns with the third part. Next year, Company of Heroes 3 will take us to the Mediterranean battlefields of Italy and North Africa, where the hostile powers of World War II will compete.

We already know a lot about the game. In addition to the story CGI movie, we immediately got footage from the gameplay, which shows the conquest of the Italian city by American and British forces – even though they come from the pre-alpha version, they look quite spectacular.

Yes, the slowing down of animations and projectiles seems strange to us, but the authors emphasized in the comments below the video that this final product will definitely not look like this, that it was just a concession to the filmmaking of the trailer. Otherwise, however, there is nothing to complain about. On the battlefield, you can notice a huge number of different units, from ordinary infantry to paratroopers to heavy tanks, and their encounter causes houses to collapse and cover poor soldiers with tons of bricks and stones.

One major innovation is evident in the trailer, which is an improved attack on buildings. Groups of soldiers sewn in barracks may have been far too effective in the previous two episodes of Company of Heroes, and you couldn’t handle them without heavy equipment, but the three do it differently. When the attackers get close enough to an occupied house, they can simply walk around the door, pull grenades, and kill everything inside in a matter of seconds. Hiding your men between the four walls can therefore mean a considerable risk.

Otherwise, it looks practically like the good old Company of Heroes – obviously a lot of emphasis is placed on infantry combat and cover, but also on the special abilities of units such as throwing a knife. However, the three have one gigantic ace that makes their sleeves break: a new strategic map in the style of the Total War series.

In previous episodes, you simply progressed from one pre-given mission to another and did not have to think at all about the broader context of warfare. But now you get a distant view of the Mediterranean, after which you will move the icons of soldiers, watch the supply lines, order squadrons and fleets, attack cities, undergo battles.

Then, when there is a collision, the game takes you back to the real-time battle map, where you say it to your opponent for rifles. As in Total War, you will even have an optional active break if the battle is too hectic for you, from which the authors promise a greater degree of accessibility for players who are not experts in the strategic genre.

The developers from the Relic studio have set themselves the goal of listening to the fans during the development. They’ve been meeting players and discussing potential news with them for years, but that’s not all. Everyone can now play the pre-alpha version after registering on the official website. Just beware, the registration process is unusually lengthy, plus 30 GB of download awaits you.

So far, we can’t touch multiplayer, but the single-player game is available with everything, including a new strategic map. It is clear that due to the distant release date, everything can change, but it is still a remarkably generous load of content right after the announcement. Definitely better than meaningless CGI trailers…