Company of Heroes for Windows

Obviously you are reading this review because you MUST like RTS games and therefore are wondering if this RTS with only 2 sides is worth buying.

In one word, yes.

Mainly because it has elements that no other RTS has ever had. What it lacks in other areas it makes up for in others.

For example....it lacks alot of research trees, alot of civs, tons of units fighting at once.

However, it has maps that are completely destructable and both civs are completely different except for only a few units, like Snipers and anti-tank guns, but the allies AT gun is better.

The game is completely 3D and you can even move the camera around anywhere you want.

Germans(AXIS) vs Allies(USA) is basically what the game is centered around during the final days in World War 2.

The single-player campaign is very tough even on normal and you can only play as the Allies.....you might think that's bad, but would it really be rewarding to really fight as the Nazi's? Against another opponent sure, it's fun to be the Germans(and I actually prefer them myself), but in the storyline....I can see why it was ommited. Basically you are fighting as Paratroopers forcing the Germans out of towns and destroying AA guns so they can air drop in more Paratroopers. You also set up bases on certain maps as you do in multiplayer. They also give you a little insight into history which is a bonus. You actually learn something.

Mulitplayer is setup via online through Relic's own server system. You need a CD key that's unique or you can't even sign in, but you can play LAN games without signing up to anything. If you don't have a real LAN system setup, you can play using something called Hamachi, basically a virtual private LAN system that sets up a LAN using the internet. This does work well enough to play with friends, but you won't get ranked this way. You can only gain rank in Relic's servers.

Now that I've covered most of the basics I want to quickly say why the game differs from most RTS games.

Basically there's not a direct counter to units like every other RTS game has because situations can vary game to game. For example.....Not much can beat a team of MG squads when they garrison in a building. It even pins squads down so you can move in with something else to pick them off. However, some buildings aren't faced the right way and another team of MG squads might fire at you, but you can't fire at them.....learned the hard way in the beta online. Snipers are very dangerous but expensive and their only counter is either German motor bikes or Amercian jeeps, but if your sniper is near your own MG squad, they will see your sniper but get quickly eaten up by those MG's. Snipers are very important, yet not always needed. It's taking a risk to make one because he doesn't have much life but can take many single soldiers lives very easily but he's very expensive and you might want to save for armor.

The only money in the game is fuel, ammo, and land points you need to capture, MP (manpower is generated freely).

You can go heavy infantry and try to make non-stop advances or nap a few early fuel points and go early armor and take the rest of the map by force.....it's all up to you and what you think your opponent is doing.

Victory conditions are Victory Points (Big stars labelled on the map) or annihilation (Self-explanatory).