Sometimes you don’t want to get your hands dirty fighting for every inch on some godforsaken battlefield in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes you want to step back, put on your pips and command how things unfold. Company of Heroes 3 is a title that lets you do just that. Allowing gaming chair general to lead both Allied and Axis forces through epic campaigns of Italian and North African theatres of World War II.

Company of Heroes 3 was, for a time, a title that only PC gamers could enjoy. The series had never left its mouse and keyboard kingdom. That is until now, as Company of Heroes 3 – Console Edition has just dropped.

Console Command

Canadian studio Relic Entertainment who are no strangers to the world of real-time strategy games. The crew already has the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series, Age of Empires IV and two previous Company of Heroes games under their belt. Plus they are the team behind my beloved Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, another game crying for a HD remaster.

Company of Heroes 3 is split into two campaigns. However, before you get to choose which one you want to tackle, you have to complete a deep and lengthy tutorial where you have to defend an airfield from invading forces.

This will teach you the core controls as well as a portion of game mechanics, so you can hit the ground running. It’s a bold move in ways to drop the tutorial front and centre. But it is worth your time for the dividends it will pay later down the line.

Operation Slapstick

After you complete your basic training you can choose the Italian campaign, which sees you commanding the Allies as they take back Italy one village at a time. Although brace yourself as this march to Rome is a beefy one and will take a fair bit of time. Or you could jump into the African campaign where you lead the Axis forces, which is a much shorter offering than the Allies.

This is interesting as there aren’t many game that let you fill the boots of the Axis in this way. That said, Company of Heroes 3 doesn’t coat them in glory.

Throughout this campaign a tale is told of a North African Jewish family and the plot sees the family is pulled apart by invading forces.

It’s a bit of a jarring addition, though. As on one hand you have an emotional and touching tale of loss and sacrifice. But then the next you’re leading Rommel’s armoured division, blowing up anything that moves and there is no connection between them as actions in one don’t affect the other.

Thinking on Your Feet

The story is also a dynamic affair. Your interactions with the game’s various commanders will affect the overall ending. This is an interesting feature as, technically, no two games are the same.

Gameplay comes in two flavours that you’ll bounce between. Firstly, you are given an overview of the whole conflict zone. Here is where you can pick what battles to fight as well as move troops and supplies. You can also position systems and items, like battleships, which can come into play more when you’re in the battle phase.

Secondly, you lead, command and, hopefully, conquer in the heat of battle. Playing this phase sees you tackle a number of objectives beyond the core goal with some emerging in play as the battle progresses.

Fields of Italy WW2 games strategy games

And depending on how you move units during the overview phase, you may have extra options in battle. For example, a mission may call for you to cut off the enemy supply lines by destroying a number of bridges.

You could send in a crack team to plant charges and blow the whole thing sky high. Or if you have a battleship in the bay you can just order it to bombard the bridge to rubble, saving putting troops at risk.

This just hints at the levels of strategy at play here and how there is more ways than one to get the job done based on your choices along the way.

Other Theatres

Beyond the campaign there is a host of battle options to get stuck into. From having epic skirmishes with AI forces, to living your Eisenhower and Montgomery dreams and facing the best in arm chair generals online – this is where the real brass will be found.

As for negatives there are a few performance issues at times, that sees the quality drop just a little on the visual front and the AI can make a few odd choices at times and can be a bit questionable. The UI can get a bit busy at times, especially on the later missions.

However, a large deal of this is caused by the conversion to console. And the devs deserve a lot of credit in bringing such a dense and complex title to limited inputs of a controller.

The Art of War

Company of Heroes 3 is packed with visual detail. You can zoom in and see every unit in glorious battle-worn detail. And this attention to detail bleeds into all areas of the game. From its scarred open fields to the narrow winding urban streets, the artistic and technical mastery is laudable.

The audio of Company of Heroes 3 is full of pomp and brass. Epic is the ruling tone and the voice acting is solid across the board. The vocal performances also add a gritty edge to things in battle.

Company of Heroes 3 – Console Edition is a deep, complex title that will test your understanding of conflict and strategy. But if you’re looking to lose hours across epic campaigns while testing your tactical nous, this is the one for you.