Company of Heroes - Page 2

Bombs Over Berlin
In watching an early, playable version of the single-player campaign, it seemed like Relic's goal was to recreate the most action-packed moments of Saving Private Ryan. The fighting was urgent and intense, with Allied and Axis troops clashing in rubble-strewn German streets.

Company of Heroes puts a solid focus on realism, but not to the point of crippling obsession. Rifle bullets, for instance, don't faze tanks--instead, you'll want to take out a tread or the turret with an armor-penetrating bazooka round. Luckily, your troops are aware of this fact, and will re-prioritize their firepower on-the-fly. But the realistic approach doesn't extend to micro-management. You won't need to hold your soldier's hand for every little skirmish and situation; as long as you've set up a solid strategy, your troops are smart enough to do their own dirty work.

The advanced A.I. also adds to the general mood and atmosphere. During one offensive, we saw overwhelmed squads of German troops scramble into nearby buildings like cockroaches scurrying away from a kitchen light. Impressive!


Company of Heroes' environments can be shaped by bullets and bombs, opening up new strategic avenues.

Shell Shocked
During the demonstration, we were struck by how Relic's "living battlefield" concept played out in a live gameplay scenario. Company of Heroes takes the concept of destructible environments to a whole new level, as air strikes and artillery fire radically transform the surrounding terrain.

When we say "destructable environments," we're not talking about a few swappable damage states and bullet holes--we mean a paradigm-shifting approach to RTS strategy. Artillery shells leave charred, gaping craters in the earth, in which your troops can hide. Tanks can crunch through stone walls and domiciles as if they were made out of cheap Styrofoam and particle board. We saw one Sherman tank plow right through a building, which sent flaming wreckage gushing into the narrow city streets.

Other small visual details also rang true. Gut-shot soldiers twisted and writhed on the ground while curtains of smoke billowed from nearby houses. Soldiers even reacted to their situation by flinching and writing as bullets struck near them. The result was an impressive, moving, and emotionally riveting sight. We can't wait to see how the final version looks!

Though the graphics looked phenomenal, Relic made great pains to clarify that the game will be scaleable across a wide variety of systems, not just the latest line of bleeding-edge video cards.

A Whole New War
Judging by the pre-alpha content we saw, Relic is intent on making an RTS game that will appeal to both diehard strategy fiends and armchair generals. The interface

Though we're still as much as a year away from the game's official release, it's obvious that Company of Heroes is shaping up to be one of the can't-miss PC games of the year. The only bad news we heard was that the game is tentatively being planned for an unspecified release in late 2006.


An exclusive look at a previously unseen nighttime mission, which sees the Allies launch a night-time ambush against a German convoy.

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