Thinking of crawling back to CoH3 like a toxic ex. Has it changed or still lying to me?

[Bot #414658]

I bought Company of Heroes 3 at launch, got hit with the red flags early, and walked away. Something felt off. The pacing was strange, the unit movement felt clunky, and the multiplayer had this frantic, awkward energy. And of course, all the bugs. So I left it alone.

Came back about six months later, hoping it had settled. What I walked into felt like a spammy circus. Same vehicles over and over, flying across the map, shooting from bizarre ranges. No weight, no structure, no rhythm. It felt more like a mobile distraction than a proper RTS. I uninstalled and moved on.

What I always appreciated about CoH2 was the atmosphere. The sound design, the pacing, the weight of your choices. You could actually feel the impact of your decisions. The tanks had presence. The whole thing felt grounded and strategic.

Multiplayer is all I care about. If CoH3 is still just speed and spam with no real tactics, I'm not interested. But if it's seen serious updates that made it feel like an actual strategy game again, I'm open to coming back.

Anyone still playing or recently returned, what's the verdict? Honest answers appreciated.

Thanks.

[Harris]

What saved CoH 3 for me was the compstomp. Once I realized there is a mode where my teammates don't leave (and even when they do - it's no big deal) I never looked back. Expert AI is so good (read - spammy) that about 10% of games it actually wins... which, again, is mostly due to clueless teammates who throw tantrums and refuse to cooperate. Fun fact is everything I've just listed is not up to Relic to fix, you can't fix human nature.

The game surely has got more of a grounded feel to it ever since ignoring cover become punished with harsh incoming damage. Infantry is squishy and largely useless in the late game because of manpower bleed, as such a while ago the game de-facto embraced CoH 2-esque balance where it's all about rushing tanks, infantry is a necessary evil, and light vehicles are largely skippable.

Tactics? Well, there's a different meta in compstomp, what works against humans is ineffective against AI, and vice versa. In particular, AI doesn't stay in one place nor builds sim cities, so artillery plays and aoe abilities are ineffective; on the other hand, defenses are more useful as AI has hard time countering those.

Coming from CoH 2, multiplayer is surely gonna feel frantic as games' pacing is twice as fast, that's a big one. On the other hand, back in CoH 2 by 1 hour mark my blood pressure would go up and my apm would go out of the window, and I'd low key beg for a game to finally end. So this is the kind of change I welcome.

Overall, CoH 3 grew on me, and I learned to appreciate it for what it has as opposed to hating it for what it has not. You can tow guns around, how cool is that. You can restore tank wrecks with repair vehicles, how amazing is that. Most vehicle upgrades get a visual representation on said vehicle.

Sure, there's bit of a problem with updates in that Relic is insisting on making battlegroups while most people want new factions and said battlegroups are not without flaws as a concept and not without issues on an individual level (with derivative and ill-conceived being some of the common criticisms). But, again, this is about appreciating the game for what it is as opposed to what it could be.

[Hakapik]

Originally posted by Stop! Stop! He's Already Dead!:

I bought Company of Heroes 3 at launch, got hit with the red flags early, and walked away. Something felt off. The pacing was strange, the unit movement felt clunky, and the multiplayer had this frantic, awkward energy. And of course, all the bugs. So I left it alone.

Came back about six months later, hoping it had settled. What I walked into felt like a spammy circus. Same vehicles over and over, flying across the map, shooting from bizarre ranges. No weight, no structure, no rhythm. It felt more like a mobile distraction than a proper RTS. I uninstalled and moved on.

What I always appreciated about CoH2 was the atmosphere. The sound design, the pacing, the weight of your choices. You could actually feel the impact of your decisions. The tanks had presence. The whole thing felt grounded and strategic.

Multiplayer is all I care about. If CoH3 is still just speed and spam with no real tactics, I'm not interested. But if it's seen serious updates that made it feel like an actual strategy game again, I'm open to coming back.

Anyone still playing or recently returned, what's the verdict? Honest answers appreciated.

Thanks.

Long story short: It's still bad.

CoH3 demands more micro than ever, especially in the form of microing your scout units (pathfinder, krads, motos), keep them alive, spotting your enemy's movements, and counter your enemy's scout to deny them intel.

it's like building sniper becomes a MUST in CoH 1 and 2, only they became cheaper and is available to everyone.

[KlugE]

In resume : Its quite a moba playstyle , too much units, heavy artilery avaliable after 5 min pounding everywere, ability triggering non stop. It's a real circus....and balance is really awful in team games.

[The MidgetCrusader69]

too much ARTY and allies still way too cheese

[76561199834697822]

Why 500-1000 elo newbies the most vocal?
Learn to play the game instead of complaining about something you have zero clue about.

Finding it quite impressive how someone that straight up does not know how to play the game can type down a wall of text its almost like yall playing a whole diferent game.

If only yall put that much effort into learning the game instead of making stuff up.

[CODGUY]

Not a huge fan of the latest rel-AXIS patch. It was good to get new BGs and units though.

[KlugE]

Originally posted by CAPTAIN STRONG:

Why 500-1000 elo newbies the most vocal?
Learn to play the game instead of complaining about something you have zero clue about.

Finding it quite impressive how someone that straight up does not know how to play the game can type down a wall of text its almost like yall playing a whole diferent game.

If only yall put that much effort into learning the game instead of making stuff up.

I dont see any problem here Mr Expert. He just stated how the game really is for him , but also maybe for many of us.

The description he gave about the game when he played is one of the most accurate i've seen.

[Nerevarin]

The game is low budget online oriented kinda clone of CoH 1 with all the features followed: no idle animations, absence of weight and density in units models (paper tanks moving through one another), primitive comparing to CoH2 ballistic effects, absolutely AWFUL voice acting (units just annoyingly barking and yelling) and sound effects. No story-driving campaign and on-engine movies.

Without Fire & Steel DLC buying the game is pointless because all classic heavy tanks hidden in this DLC lol

So, yeah it's pretty bad. Looks like chineese forgery of famous brand.

[Ocelot]

Damn some of these responses are scathing...but I think there's a bit more gold here than they suggest

[Crakzor]

I think it's fun. It's the only game like it. Real immersive super hard strategy game. The only thing that compares is probably coh 2 and coh1. But if you want more content, then COH3 is for you. I liked coh2 and coh1, have 1000s of hours but after a while, i want more stuff. So COH 3 does that for me. I do want more maps. They added a lot of new maps, but I need maps to be on full blast. Love new maps. Getting to understand them, attempting new flank tactics. It's a joy. And some of them just look super cool. So more maps plz! MP maps that is.

[Hakapik]

Originally posted by Nerevarin:

The game is low budget online oriented kinda clone of CoH 1 with all the features followed: no idle animations, absence of weight and density in units models (paper tanks moving through one another), primitive comparing to CoH2 ballistic effects, absolutely AWFUL voice acting (units just annoyingly barking and yelling) and sound effects. No story-driving campaign and on-engine movies.

Without Fire & Steel DLC buying the game is pointless because all classic heavy tanks hidden in this DLC lol

So, yeah it's pretty bad. Looks like chineese forgery of famous brand.

Speak of heavy tanks, I think its stupid to include Pershing and Black Prince in CoH3, given the game's timeline was locked before Normandy.

[Ocelot]

its like alternate history

[grand high siegemaster]

I pre ordered it and since it was pretty bad at launch I didn't play more than 1 hour, would rather wait for updates than grow sour on it. I think it's really fun right now. There's a lot of people to play with at the 900-1000 ELO range and I feel like I'm learning every match.

This game has replaced most other RTS games AND mobas for me for it's fast and satisfying gameplay so take that for what you will

[Cinders]

It's fun in compstomp, but AI will drop 3 off-maps on you in the exact same spot and time. They will spam units well beyond normal. AI reads your mouse clicks, has no fog of war, and will always dodge mortars and nades (read: mouseclicks). It will also stand .001 inch behind mgun arcs and run for blindspots. So you are stuck playing with only half the game as only certain units work on AI and normal (read: against a human) tactics are null.
Don't bother with arti or indirect fire. Do bother with mguns as "zones where AI will not go". Most AI units are AT, so .... light vehicles are a hazard as AI has no fog of war, so it does not need vision.

[Rinky]

It is still bad unless you find fun in beating 4 AIs