Company of Heroes 3: Fire & Steel Review (Complex Strategy)
CoH3 with it's 2.0 Anniversary update has delivered an excellent update that continues to improve on the core game with the Fire and Steel pack representing a large influx of new and interesting content to the multiplayer scene.
Focused around heavy armor with various themes such as the British becoming pyromaniacs, DAK shifting to a more defensive role with minefields galore and heavy AT options, the US balancing enhanced team weapons with high mobility armored options, and Wehr focusing on trying to force the enemy to be suppressed or retreat and then benefiting off that. Each of the Battlegroups feels distinct and high quality breathing another breath of fresh air into each faction.
Price wise the DLC works out to about $6.25 per battlegroup which for CoH veterans will notice falls fairly similar in price to commanders from Coh2. Of course there can only be purchased where as you could in theory grind out coh2 commanders over a long period of time. However, the sheer quality and scope of new content makes these Battlegroups far superior to Coh2 commanders in every way possible. Several feel like they redefine how a faction can play or at least expands on the core roster in a meaningful and interesting way.
I've seen some complaints about this being purely purchasable with cash and thus being "pay to win" which I think is a large exaggeration. There are and will be balance issues going forward but so far within these first couple days the content has shown to be strong but not all horrifically broken. Before everything came out people worried heavily the King Tiger and other heavy tanks would be braindead broken and unkillable yet very clearly relic has tried to find good middle grounds. The King Tiger has actually come out maybe a bit undertuned compared to the regular tiger which I think goes a long way to show that Relic is not trying to make a quick buck here. They simply are making new quality content that they sell to generate income to continue working on the game. I think they have succeeded very well in this regard and much prefer paiod DLCs like this that are meaningful then Relic locking this stuff behind harsh grinds and trying to jam overpriced cosmetics down my throat. It's nice to just have a single purchase of quality content that I enjoy for a game I already play.
I think the single real criticism is the inability to purchase individual Battlegroups meaning if you only want 1-2 of them you don't have any recourse. I hope in the future this is changed but outside of that I actually struggle to find much else negative to say about this DLC. If you enjoy coh3 and are looking for some new Multiplayer content I give this a high recommendation.