{tag [PC]} {tag [Review]}  

It's been awhile since I've played a PC RTS game that I truly enjoyed. I played Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth and although I had fun - I liked the look and feel of the game - the gameplay left me feeling a bit empty. So, like I said, its been awhile since I truly enjoyed playing an RTS. Until last night...
Let me say, I was a bit wary of a 1.76GB demo. Seems huge to me, especially just for a demo. When I installed, that footprint grew to over 3GB. I began to think that I had downloaded a giant load of code, that was going to be too big to deliver. To understand what I mean, think of a glacier...mammoth, crushing power and energy...but it creeps along so slowly, its movement is imperceivable to the human eye, and its power is unusable. Much like a program overloaded with code...lots of power, but so over powering to anything but the most current hardware, that it's literally unplayable. I've seen it so many time before.

Company of Heroes is not that kind of game.

Every bit of code in place in this demo is there for a reason. And why such a large install? Because the ENTIRE game is here! The only thing missing are the missions (you are limited to one). All the menus! All the controls! All the training missions! The entire game engine! All the customization! Exactly what a demonstration should be: a representation of the full product.

Video - 93%
The graphics in CoH are good for any game, let alone an RTS game. Anyone who has played any number of RTS games, understands what I'm saying. You get that "polygon syndrome" after staring at RTS characters for a few minutes. Pretty soon, everything looks like its made of polygons...even the real world. But these soldiers don't look half bad, and the vehicles look very nice. The environments absolutely excel, with destructible objects and buildings that are ALL beautifully rendered. Though, there was a problem when setting shadows to the "Low" setting. I also think that on a lower end machine, it wouldn't be quite so pretty.

{google}9097486402489648458{/google} 

Audio - 95%
The audio in Company of Heroes is excellent. The in-battle chatter is realistically reproduced, and feels like I'm watching a WWII modern classic (e.g. Saving Private Ryan). They don't "spare the rod" either when it comes to adult language. I heard a few "F-bombs" and a slew of other colorful phrases during gameplay.

Controls/Interface - 92%
The controls are customizable, but otherwise the usual RTS control set and interface - mini-map: lower left, commands: lower right, etc. I didn't notice if keyboard panning of the landscape is possible, but it wasn't presented in the tutorials.

Gameplay - 90%
Gameplay was your standard RTS fare...with a twist. Yes, the "annihilate your enemy" mode was still present, but a "Battlefield-esque" mode of control points is also now available. This was an interesting, albeit borrowed, idea, yet proved to be fun. The inclusion of tutorials in a demo was rare, and quite helpful. The lessons themselves were interesting, and not too slow, as far as tutorials go.

Summary - 93%
This is a great RTS game, hands down. The controls are solid, graphics are great, the audio is intense, and gameplay is what it should be. If the demo is anything like the final product, which I'm sure it will be, this will be a great addition to anyone's game library.