World War II has its greatest hits. If you look at games, film, and television, you’ll see the same touchpoints: D-Day, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Britain, the Battle of Midway. World War II was an expansive conflict, but our view of it tends to focus on the European and Pacific theaters. In the past, Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes strategy games stuck to this focus, too. The first game’s campaign involved the Battle of Normandy and the liberation of France. The second entry fleshed out the Eastern Front and Soviet Red Army. In fact, the latter game represented the first time that Relic explored the conflict’s different sides.
Now, Company of Heroes 3 is on the horizon. Relic Entertainment has beefed up the game’s foundations, with improved graphics, new units, a more robust campaign map, and enhanced environmental destruction. More importantly, the game takes the World War II conflict to another theater: the Mediterranean. Company of Heroes 3 is still in development, but Relic gave us an early look at a pre-alpha iteration ahead of the PC game’s 2022 release.
Welcome to Italy
In contrast to Company of Heroes 2’s cold, Russia-based dreariness, the third game immediately hits you with a splash of color. The demo begins in Naples, with the combined forces of the United States and Britain assaulting the German Army.
The Mediterranean setting was a choice made by the Company of Heroes community. For Company of Heroes 3’s development, Relic brought in a community council of veteran players. “We had an initial community council come in, and I interacted with them directly,” explained Company of Heroes 3 lead gameplay designer Matt Philip. “We talked about all the specific options for a theater. It was between the Pacific and the Mediterranean, and in the end, they all unanimously picked the Mediterranean. It’s kind of this niche part of the war in a way; it doesn’t get represented in a lot of other forms of media.”
“We were all geared up to do the Pacific theater potentially,” added lead narrative designer Báirbre Bent. “The boots-on-the-ground gameplay that we have in Company of Heroes suits what was happening in the Mediterranean more so than the Pacific.”
Relic also promises conflict in North Africa, though that wasn’t available in the preview build. The concept art includes desert battles, but the demo itself takes place in Italy’s warm, sunny climate. In a later stage, I marched my troops through an olive grove to help entrenched Italian resistance forces. The primary conflict was in a small Italian town, with cobblestone streets and distinct, red, terracotta tiles roofs. And you can blow most of it up.
Breach and Clear
In a presentation prior to the demo, Relic Entertainment highlighted Company of Heroes 3’s enhanced destruction. You can roll your tanks through enemy cover, or watch buildings shatter due to grenades or mortar fire. When you’re up against German soldiers occupying buildings, you can burn the structures to the ground with a flamethrower.
New to the series is breaching. Certain units can toss a grenade into a building, killing the soldiers inside, but leave much of the structure intact. That lets you take the enemy’s garrison. Not only is it a cool-looking bit of cinematic combat, but it’s also a way to push away from Company of Heroes 2’s more defensive city play.
“It’s there to create a cinematic moment. It’s very similar to a grenade. With breach, what we do is we take it a step further,” says Philip. “We have a history of bogged-down combat in urban maps. It’s pretty much just another tool, which widens that breadth of tools for anti-garrison gameplay. Flamethrowers, mortars, grenades, satchels, and now we have breaching. We’re hoping this will breed some better experiences, specifically on our urban maps.”
Company of Heroes 3 also adds Tactical Pause. Relic Entertainment has improved the soldiers’ pathfinding, but Tactical Pause gives you further control over that. Normally, if you tell a unit to march to a position, it’ll do its best to figure out how to get there. If you pause, though, every movement command goes into a queue, letting you create more complex movement patterns. I used Tactical Pause to send one squad on a long, wandering path, while the brunt of my forces went straight in. It adds an additional strategic layer to Company of Heroes 3’s combat.
Tell Your Own Story
Unlike the previous entries’ linear campaigns, Company of Heroes 3 has a dynamic campaign map. You’ll begin in Naples, but after that, the choices are up to you. You’ll decide whether to liberate towns or capture strategic resources. The map is full of resources to manage, such as airfields, seaports, hospitals, and supply lines. You’ll choose whether you want to immediately march North to hammer at the German frontline or soften up their supply lines first.
Once you land, you’re even given the choice for an initial battle plan. Choosing the American plan means relying more on infantry and offensive combat, while the British plan leans on armored vehicles and more defensive play. There’s also a balanced plan that splits the difference. Relic Entertainment wants to give you options, rather than sticking exactly to the historical record.
“It is one of our pillars to have replayability,” said Bent. “We want to remain true and authentic to history, but we’re still in the framework of historical occurrences. Our missions are based on historical missions. Within every playthrough, we expect the players to be able to talk to each other and hear about other stories that they never encountered.”
For example, I assaulted the airfield at Pignataro Maggiore. The ground battle was a Capture and Hold map, meaning I had to rush to various locations and keep them from German control. I was slow on the move, so I actually lost the encounter. The airfield wasn’t that far from the coast, so I had my battleship hit the location with a naval bombardment. Then I sent a bomber contingent from my other airfield on an incendiary run, which left the airfield as a smoldering crater, but also undefended. Some call that war crimes; I call it tactics.
The Early Days of the War
Company of Heroes 3 is still deep in development, so minimum and recommended PC specs aren’t available. Still, the demo build showcased many excellent features, including a dynamic campaign map, new factions and units, improved environmental destruction, and the strategic Tactical Pause. Relic Entertainment promises solo and co-op skirmish modes, competitive multiplayer, and custom game modes. All that is coming in the game’s nebulous 2022 window.
For now, you can download the pre-alpha preview, and help Relic Entertainment by offering feedback. From what I’ve played, Relic Entertainment is already heading in the right direction with another amazing strategic experience.
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