Few gaming studios can boast the talent and resources necessary to launch games that set the bar higher for the competition. Relic Entertainment is one of those studios. Especially since their first title - Homeworld - gathered critical acclaim and numerous “Game of the Year” awards. Unfortunately, Homeworld 2 and Impossible Creatures didn’t quite live up to the hype (especially the latter) but Relic managed to get over it and release an RTS which is at least as addictive as the legendary Starcraft: Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War. And now, right before the launch of the second expansion for Warhammer 40.000, Company of Heroes is released, to raise the bar for real time higher than ever.

    It’s probably safe to assume that a lot of folks out there weren’t too pleased when they heard that the latest game from Relic was going to be a WW2 RTS. Truth be told, I can’t blame them. We’ve had so many WW2 strategies during these last years that you go nuts only when you hear that another one is going to be released. Fortunately, Company of Heroes isn’t your standard RTS fare. It may have taken some gameplay elements from Dawn of War, but the frantic pace and the speed with which the action develops will surely remind you of Z (RTS veterans are probably smiling right about now, counting all those sleepless nights lost with the legendary game from The Bitmap Brothers). That’s because you won’t even have time to breathe in Company of Heroes, whether it’s the single-player campaign or a skirmish / multiplayer game. There will always be another strategic point to capture, a bunker to destroy, an anti-tank gun which needs to be carefully placed or an enemy sniper which is decimating your troops from a safe distance.

    Those who have already played Warhammer 40.000 will be instantly familiar with the core ideas and the resource gathering system. In Company of Heroes, infantry units are actually squads, made up of two or more soldiers (snipers are the exception), fact which will spare you from a lot of unnecessary unit micromanagement, while opening up a lot of strategic and tactical options. For instance, a Heavy Machinegun Squad, which sports an MG42 machine gun, is still effective even if it loses two out of the three soldiers from the squad. Therefore, you won’t have to continually produce units to replace you losses, since squads can function even when they’ve taken casualties and they can be reinforced on the spot or near an HQ or barracks.