Company of Heroes

I have to admit; I'm a sucker for WWII games. The gritty, chaotic environments, explosions everywhere and no so much as a laser gun in sight. Don't take it the wrong way though, its not as if I condone war of any kind. And WWII is probably one of the bloodiest conflicts this world has had. Which makes it all the more attractive in a gamer's point-of-view.

The game starts off with the initial landing for the invasion of Normandy... where else but the all famous Omaha Beach. You take control of Able Company, one of many infantry divisions and try to storm up the beaches of Omaha while under machine-gun fire. If you've ever played Medal of Honor or Call of Duty, I'm sure you'll know what it was like in first-person. Now though you have to do it RTS style. The game follows on with a company of paratroopers, deployed within enemy lines to disrupt German forces and to seize control of the roads linking the two beaches where the landings take place. The game then follows some of the major battles that the paratroopers and infantry face to capture Normandy, like the battle at Carentan and the closing of the Fallaise Pocket.

Immediately we're introduced to the very important concept of cover; cover is what keeps your units alive in the game. Lack of cover usually spells 10 seconds of life expectancy for your troops. You can use almost anything for cover; fallen trees, sandbags, low walls, ditches, etc. Buildings play a large part in defending a sector as it provides a major cover bonus for troops within.

Units in the game can be categorized into 3 types: infantry, light vehicles and tanks. With infantry you have snipers, engineers, riflemen, paratroopers and the like. Light vehicles consist of armored cars and anti-tank guns. Tanks offer the use of Shermans, Tank Destroyers, Tigers, etc. In terms of units, the game balances itself out nicely. Infantry are cheaper and strong in numbers, but lose out easily to snipers. Snipers lose out to light vehicles like jeeps. Jeeps are weak to almost everything else though. Tanks are easily the strongest units in the game, but lose out to superior positioning of anti-tank guns or flanking tactics from infantry with bazookas.

You also get to choose the kind of commander you want to be. You get to choose between being an infantry, paratrooper or tank commander. Infantry people want to... defend a lot for some reason. So you get loads of defense and cheap, quick reinforcements. Paratroopers get planes and the ability to put troops where their needed fast. Tank commanders focus more on using vehicles to gain the upper hand. I've tried for days and days now to prove infantry commanders are of some use but... I've failed. Paratroopers or tank commanders are way, way better. If anyone has a decent use for the infantry commander skill tree, please let me know.

I would rank this above C&C3 which came out around the same time. The detail put into the graphics, the tactics and strategies you need to employ on the go, the fast-paced action and split-second decisions that make or break your game make me believe that Company of Heroes is one of the best RTS games I've seen for a long, long time.