A supreme strategy game!

“Company of Heroes” takes place during D-Day and the invasion of Normandy, where you follow several companies through their courage and bravery in the war. There is not much new to mention about the story in this game, as it takes place during the second World War after all, which has been covered plenty of times in other games.

But this game raises the bar one step higher. It uses cutting-edge graphics and immerses the player in a cinematic and intensive experience. The landscape is very detailed and especially the soldiers look great, they have good animations and even lip-synching.

The sound is just as much cutting-edge as the graphics. When units are off your screen, you hear them calling in on the radio instead of talking directly to you. The voices can vary depending on the conditions on the map, if it is night-time you can hear them whisper, if they are under attack they will scream. Effects from gunfire, tank shells, explosions and other things really sound realistic and will make your sound-system happy. You really get the feel of a battle going on. The game also has some top quality music going for it during the missions and cutscenes.

In the single player campaign you start at D-Day and work your way through Normandy. Before, after, and between each mission you get to see some nice cinematics and in-game cutscenes. The real-time physics and completely destructible environment make each mission interesting and fun to play, as you can destroy just about anything you can see on the map. You can use the buildings and the terrain to your advantage, but on the other hand you might be surprised by the enemy blowing up the building you are hiding in. The artifical intelligence brings your soldiers to life as they interact with the changing environment and take cover. The artificial intelligence is not quite perfect though, as you still have to micromanage things and tell them what to do. They will rarely throw grenades and sticky bombs at enemy troops and tanks at their own will for instance, and sometimes soldiers can have a hard time navigating through narrow spaces if a vehicle is driving next to them.

The multiplayer part of the game can be fun for a while, but it rapidly becomes old news, as the game only have two similar game modes, around ten maps, and no map editor.