Company of Heroes

E3 2006 First Look Preview

In many ways this seems to be the year of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. A lot of titles are debuting and you can count Company of Heroes among that list of games hoping to draw attention from fans of the genre.

Company of Heroes is from Relic and THQ and is slated to release in September of this year.  

When Relic was creating the game, it had three tenets as the backbone for Company of Heroes – real soldiers, real battlefields and real war. To that end, the game possesses a high level of detail, either from the isometric view or when you zoom in close to the units and the action. There are thousands of animations used on each unit and everything in the game is destructible.

If you wish to move your units into a town but the way is blocked by a wall, no worries; just roll up a ranged unit, like a tank, and blow a hole in the wall. Access granted.

The camera is fully rotatable, and can zoom in as well. Where many RTS titles bog down in micro-management, Company of Heroes allows players the option of either taking care of it or letting a low-level AI manage the minutia.

Yes, there are some elements that are stock in the genre. You build a headquarters to do research, and then build different structures to manufacture units. You will need to capture key points on the scenario map to have the resources to power your war machine.

Some of the maps are developed around real battlefields, while some are based on the imagination of the dev team. Use of cover will be key, line of sight will also prove to have tactical value and environment will play a key. There are different tactics for each side and the Allies can call in aerial strikes. The tech trees will also be different. Part of the tech tree is the commander tree, which customizes strategy.

In all there are 15 single-player scenarios and about 20 multiplayer maps. The game will feature eight-player multiplayer action over the Internet in team-play design. The game will also ship with a movie tool so players can create their own cutscenes.

The attention to details is wonderful in this title and RTS fans will likely be impressed. The game’s control scheme seemed to be right in line with many other RTS titles, meaning that the learning curve will not be that high for fans of the genre. Company of Heroes is definitely an RTS that will tax the brain and challenge players.

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