Company of Heroes 3: The Final Preview
Having been there since the public announcement, I've had lots of chances to put Company of Heroes 3 through its paces. We even did a whole month of exclusive IGN First coverage on it. And chances are, with how open the development has been, you've played a slice or two yourself already. But all of that felt like running my fingers along various gears and armor plates that hadn't been assembled into a full tank yet. And now that I've gotten to see both the Italian and North African campaigns in something closer to a finished state, the bigger picture is starting to come together.
What was missing from all the earlier builds, more than anything, was a sense of cohesion and storytelling. Both campaigns are now introduced with the sort of personal narrative framing this series is known for. You're thrust into a moment in time, and get a sense of the various characters – from individual grunts all the way up to the top brass – as more than just a face on a menu. I feel like I understand what kind of people the allied commanders, the hot-headed American Buckram and his rival, the stoic Brit, Norton, are meant to be and how they play off each other. All of this framing puts me in the mindset of the time period, adding much-needed context to the trials ahead.
The linear North African campaign seems to really be leaning into the idea of presenting the war in terms of the impact it had on the local noncombatants, which is probably about as responsible a retelling as you could hope for in a real-time strategy game with playable Axis forces. I can't show any of the cutscenes that set this up since they were still being worked on, but I was impressed with the level of nuance and spotlighting of an aspect of World War 2 most games like
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