Company of Heroes 3 Review (InvolvingSjma)
Wow... just wow. I normally don't leave reviews, regardless of whether I like or dislike a game, but I'll make an exception for this. I'm a big fan of the franchise ever since I first played a demo of the original Company of Heroes at Gamescom. I love RTS games, and this was the wet dream of all players. Of course, it had its limitations, but they were manageable. I convinced all my friends to buy the game so we could play together, and we spent a lot of hours enjoying it.
Then Company of Heroes 2 dropped – a new setting, more complex tactics, and, most of all, more different units and compositions to style your game. At launch, it had a lot of problems, so after buying the game, I uninstalled it to play Company of Heroes 1 again. But after a year, the game played like a charm, and although different commanders were locked and easier to obtain through paying with real money, they were also unlockable through in-game currency.
Then Company of Heroes 3 was announced, and I was excited! So much that my friends, the same ones I convinced to buy the other two games, created a fake hard case of the game with pictures of me on it. Inside was a Steam gift card with which I pre-ordered the game. When it finally released, I played and played and played it. The gameplay was smooth for me, but the lack of basic things like multiple commanders and a new setting, which were present in the previous entries, disappointed me a little. I had hoped the game would finally visit the Japanese theater and include all previous factions in multiplayer for the ultimate Company of Heroes experience. Instead, we got an unrefined game even after one year of release, and the first big update that should include multiple commander choice/customization is a DLC? It feels like a joke. I don't work in the game industry, so I don't know if there are hidden reasons behind these paywalls and unfinished games coming out in the last couple of years. Or maybe it's because I'm getting older, and my standards are changing, but this doesn't feel like the game studio I convinced many of my friends to buy multiple games from so we could play together.
Company of Heroes is one of the games I always have installed on my PC. It's my go-to relax game after a hard day. I guess I'll have to go back to Company of Heroes 2.
It pains me to say, but if you haven't bought the game yet, I suggest you're better of investing the money to buy Company of Heroes 2 and its DLC. Then you have a more complete game than when you get this one...