If you like RTS games, then this might be the game for you. The Company of Heroes franchise is in a league of its own in the RTS genre: it focuses on combat and territory control (as opposed to resource gathering/management and base building, though these elements do exist in the game) which makes for fast-paced, action-packed gameplay with no dull or quiet moments. Company of Heroes 3 offers the best of this type of gameplay.

It offers two separate single player campaigns. The largest campaign is set in Italy and features the US and British as playable armies. The Italian campaign features two layers, the dynamic, turn-based campaign layer which plays similar to a Total War game. You move several "armies" across Italy and attack strategic locations to move the frontline forwards. When you attack a location in the campaign layer, you move into the strategic layer where the actual Company of Heroes gameplay occurs. Here you will fight man to man against an opponent in structured story missions to accomplish tactical objectives and win the day. Succeeding in such a mission will progress your campaign layer.
The second campaign takes place in North Africa where you will play exclusively as the Deutsches Afrikakorp. The African campaign is completely linear and you will go from mission to mission until the campaign ends. In between missions, there is a story about the African people and their suffering. Honestly, this part of the story is a complete miss. You can easily skip these sections though and just play the actual missions which feature none of that.

Post campaigns, you can dive into a few things. There are the player versus player modes which feature an ELO and ranking system (you will have to play 10 placement matches per faction per game mode before you are given a rank...the first few games can feel a bit rough as the match maker figures out what rank you are). There is also co-op versus AI which has the same format as PvP but you play against bots which is a nice way to ease into the multiplayer scene. Lastly, there are custom games in which you can essentially do as you please and allows you to play on the vast suite of community made maps and gameplay altering mods available on the steam workshop.

For the non-singleplayer modes, there are four unique factions: the British Forces and the US Forces on the allied side and the Wehrmacht and Deutsches Afrikakorp on the axis side. Each of these factions is completely unique featuring distinct units and tanks, different tech paths and completely different playstyles. The British have the most linear tech paths and so are easier for new players looking to learn the game (note, they are a force to be reckoned with. Do not think that they are a "noob" faction). Each faction has 3 battlegroups to start with (battlegroups are game altering additions to each faction which offer new units and abilities and thus new ways of playing) as well as 1 battlegroup for purchase in the store (HOWEVER, the British and Deutsches Afrikakorp expansion battlegroups are free to keep forever, you just need to claim them from the store).

The multiplayer modes are extremely fun and bombastic. Gameplay is fluid and smooth, units are responsive, and the game does a good job of keeping the player informed about important battlefield information. The game looks stunning and clear in my opinion. The sound effects are probably the weakest part of the game at the moment; it is still very functional it is just not as punchy as the previous titles, a problem I suspect will be solved in time.

One thing must be addressed: there is an unfortunate political landscape amongst the hardcore players of this franchise. There is a group of die hard Company of Heroes 2 players that is seemingly hell bent on slandering Company of Heroes 3 whenever they can. At CoH3s launch, many criticisms of the game were valid because the game released in a very poor state. The game's developer, Relic, has done fantastic work at addressing these concerns (the only outstanding concern is the sound as mentioned previously) yet this group of angry individuals continue to dump on the game which is currently in a fantastic state. Unfortunately, this group of individuals is doing tremendous damage to the game's reputation through continuous slander and unjust negative reviews (have a look and you will see negative reviews here from people with literally half an hours play time which is barely enough time to finish the tutorial mission). So please, just be careful of hateful negative reviews... look for logical arguments and fleshed-out thoughts if someone has marked the game as not recommended and make an informed decision from there.

In summary, I highly recommend this game. There are many hours of fun to be had here and I wish you all the best as you journey through the campaigns and the online ranks!

If you like RTS games, then this might be the game for you. The Company of Heroes franchise is in a league of its own in the RTS genre: it focuses on combat and territory control (as opposed to resource gathering/management and base building, though these elements do exist in the game) which makes for fast-paced, action-packed gameplay with no dull or quiet moments. Company of Heroes 3 offers the best of this type of gameplay. It offers two separate single player campaigns. The largest campaign is set in Italy and features the US and British as playable armies. The Italian campaign features two layers, the dynamic, turn-based campaign layer which plays similar to a Total War game. You move several "armies" across Italy and attack strategic locations to move the frontline forwards. When you attack a location in the campaign layer, you move into the strategic layer where the actual Company of Heroes gameplay occurs. Here you will fight man to man against an opponent in structured story missions to accomplish tactical objectives and win the day. Succeeding in such a mission will progress your campaign layer. The second campaign takes place in North Africa where you will play exclusively as the Deutsches Afrikakorp. The African campaign is completely linear and you will go from mission to mission until the campaign ends. In between missions, there is a story about the African people and their suffering. Honestly, this part of the story is a complete miss. You can easily skip these sections though and just play the actual missions which feature none of that. Post campaigns, you can dive into a few things. There are the player versus player modes which feature an ELO and ranking system (you will have to play 10 placement matches per faction per game mode before you are given a rank...the first few games can feel a bit rough as the match maker figures out what rank you are). There is also co-op versus AI which has the same format as PvP but you play against bots which is a nice way to ease into the multiplayer scene. Lastly, there are custom games in which you can essentially do as you please and allows you to play on the vast suite of community made maps and gameplay altering mods available on the steam workshop. For the non-singleplayer modes, there are four unique factions: the British Forces and the US Forces on the allied side and the Wehrmacht and Deutsches Afrikakorp on the axis side. Each of these factions is completely unique featuring distinct units and tanks, different tech paths and completely different playstyles. The British have the most linear tech paths and so are easier for new players looking to learn the game (note, they are a force to be reckoned with. Do not think that they are a "noob" faction). Each faction has 3 battlegroups to start with (battlegroups are game altering additions to each faction which offer new units and abilities and thus new ways of playing) as well as 1 battlegroup for purchase in the store (HOWEVER, the British and Deutsches Afrikakorp expansion battlegroups are free to keep forever, you just need to claim them from the store). The multiplayer modes are extremely fun and bombastic. Gameplay is fluid and smooth, units are responsive, and the game does a good job of keeping the player informed about important battlefield information. The game looks stunning and clear in my opinion. The sound effects are probably the weakest part of the game at the moment; it is still very functional it is just not as punchy as the previous titles, a problem I suspect will be solved in time. One thing must be addressed: there is an unfortunate political landscape amongst the hardcore players of this franchise. There is a group of die hard Company of Heroes 2 players that is seemingly hell bent on slandering Company of Heroes 3 whenever they can. At CoH3s launch, many criticisms of the game were valid because the game released in a very poor state. The game's developer, Relic, has done fantastic work at addressing these concerns (the only outstanding concern is the sound as mentioned previously) yet this group of angry individuals continue to dump on the game which is currently in a fantastic state. Unfortunately, this group of individuals is doing tremendous damage to the game's reputation through continuous slander and unjust negative reviews (have a look and you will see negative reviews here from people with literally half an hours play time which is barely enough time to finish the tutorial mission). So please, just be careful of hateful negative reviews... look for logical arguments and fleshed-out thoughts if someone has marked the game as not recommended and make an informed decision from there. In summary, I highly recommend this game. There are many hours of fun to be had here and I wish you all the best as you journey through the campaigns and the online ranks!