COMPANY OF HEROES

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Relic Entertainment

Publisher : THQ

Engine : Essence Engine with Havok Physics Engine

Genre : Real-Time Strategy

Release Date : September 13 , 2006

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 Processor / AMD Athlon X2 3800+

Memory (RAM) : 2 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 128 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 7900 Series
ATI : Radeon X1900 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 6.5 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Company of Heroes is a visually stunning real-time strategy game that depicts all the violent chaos of World War II with uncommon intensity. Set during the invasion of Normandy toward the end of the war, Company of Heroes takes its cues from Saving Private Ryan, by portraying both the sheer brutality of the war as well as the humanity of its combatants. Many other recent WWII games have also drawn influence from Steven Spielberg's landmark film, but Company of Heroes is even more graphic. The game focuses on the Allies' invasion of German-occupied Normandy in 1944, specifically on close-quarters skirmishes between infantry and armor. Company of Heroes presents a number of novel twists to real-time strategy conventions, but at heart this game works like other real-time strategy games do, by putting you in charge of base construction, resource gathering, and tactical command of various military forces in an effort to defeat the opposition. The game includes a good-sized single-player campaign spanning more than a dozen missions, in which Able Company lands on Omaha Beach on D-Day, liberates a number of key towns and strategic points, disrupts German supply lines and secret weapons, and finally helps crush the remnants of the Nazi war machine in France. Because of its limited scope of the Second World War, Company of Heroes has only the two playable factions, which it calls the Allies and the Axis--but really they're the Americans and the Germans. In the campaign, you always play as forces from Able Company and you're always fighting the Germans. There isn't a separate campaign from the German perspective, though the Axis faction is fully playable in skirmish matches and online, and turns out to be fairly different from the Allies despite the basic similarities between the two sides' weaponry.

One of the great things about Company of Heroes is that, in spite of its somewhat glamorized portrayal of World War II, the game looks and behaves realistically, in how the sorts of tactical maneuvers that are central to the gameplay feel intuitive in practice. For example, you'll naturally want to avoid making your infantry rush a machine gun nest head-on, especially since the withering fire from a German MG42 will force your squad to drop prone, pinned down. Relic's games have always featured clear step-by-step tutorials introducing you to many aspects of play, and Company of Heroes is no exception. Company of Heroes has some other interesting nuances, such as the company commander system, which lets you choose one of three different upgrade paths that reinforce your faction's core strengths. For example, the Allies' airborne path lets you send in paratroopers and call for support from P47 thunderbolt fighters high in the sky, while the Axis' blitzkrieg doctrine lets you deploy the Nazi army's fearsome storm troopers and devastating Tiger tanks. On top of all this, the typical match in Company of Heroes isn't all about simply blowing up the enemy's base, though "annihilation" victory conditions are an option for skirmish and multiplayer matches. However, the default option puts you in a tug-of-war battle to capture and hold a set of victory points. The game also includes some surprisingly gory displays on occasion; an artillery shell, for instance, can tear men into pieces. However, there isn't nearly as much blood and gore as in something like Saving Private Ryan, so the game's M for Mature rating seems more fitting due to infantry's liberal use of profanity during combat. Unfortunately for those preferring and accustomed to a tamer version of World War II, you can't simply toggle off the strong language.

The audio in Company of Heroes is fantastic, and just about the only less-than-perfect thing about it is how units will cut themselves off repeatedly while trying to acknowledge your orders as you rapidly click around, micromanaging their movement in battle. Company of Heroes is technically remarkable and features some novel twists that make it unique among real-time strategy games. Yet while it's easy to get into, it's not just difficult to master but also rather difficult to manage, partly because the game does such a good job of evoking the sheer chaos of frontline WWII battles. In spite of these issues, remarkably, Company of Heroes still stands out from the glut of WWII-themed games released over the years, as well as the glut of real-time strategy games.

GAME REVIEW :-

9/10

Company Of Heroes Trailer :-