Company of Heroes 3
Relic Entertainment · Strategy
Overview
Company of Heroes 3 combines heart-pounding combat with deeper strategic choices in a stunning Mediterranean theatre of war. In Company of Heroes 3, every battle tells a story...what's yours?
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Company of Heroes 3 brings the series' acclaimed authentic and tactical gameplay to a stunning new setting. Immerse yourself in two epic campaigns, four unique multiplayer & co-op factions, and a breathtaking new theatre spanning from the sweeping deserts of North Africa to the rolling hills of Italy. Join the Fight with new features such as Full Tactical Pause and our Dynamic Campaign Map, which enable you to take complete control of the battlefield.
The legendary strategy franchise is back! Company of Heroes 3 is the ultimate package of action, tactics and strategy. Take charge in the heat of real-time battle, then command as a General guiding the overall campaign where every decision matters.
Overwhelm your opponents with four unique factions and all-new international Battlegroups. Command ground, air and naval forces and build supply lines to crush enemy advances on the new Dynamic Campaign Map - no two playthroughs are ever alike! Play at your own pace across campaign and skirmish modes before diving into blistering multiplayer action. Discover the untold stories of a stunning Mediterranean theatre featuring next-generation destructible environments, all powered by Relic's proprietary Essence Engine.
Company of Heroes 3 delivers the next generation of acclaimed tactical gameplay. Beloved combat mechanics collide with authentic new gameplay features, making for the deepest tactical experience to date.
Make use of daring flanking moves to expose enemy side armor, experience all new infantry breaching mechanics allowing you to flush enemy units from their garrisons, and master elevation to enhance your line of sight and gain the upper hand.
Welcome to the Mediterranean - a breathtaking new theatre filled with untold stories of war. Engage ferocious enemy forces across Italian mountain passes, breathtaking coastal vistas and the sweeping deserts of N Africa. Stunning visuals deliver authentic and highly diverse environments designed to keep you on your toes.
Mountainous maps will require uniquely different strategies from coastal towns, with verticality now greatly affecting units’ line of sight (True Sight). Desert plains will call for careful reconnaissance and daring armored maneuvers. On this new frontline, intelligence trumps speed and clever use of local terrain will let you bewilder your opponents and route them from the field.
Experience the biggest single-player campaign in franchise history. The new Dynamic Campaign Map delivers full ‘sandbox-style’ gameplay, allowing players to command the overall war effort and experience an unprecedented level of strategic choice.
Establish vital supply lines before deploying rear guard defenses to secure your advance. Launch air and naval strikes to weaken and scatter enemy forces or liberate a nearby town to develop a Partisan spy network. Choose your forces and upgrade your veteran companies to match your playstyle. Meanwhile, the optional Full Tactical Pause feature allows players total control over the pacing of single-player action. Plan your attacks, then effortlessly queue up lethal precision plays that will give you the edge in battle.
Company of Heroes 3 promises to delight even the most ardent WW2 enthusiasts thanks to the largest number of launch factions in the series to date.
New army customization mechanics will allow you to call in the help of a varied cast of specialist units. Take up the fight with new elite squads including the American-Canadian Special Service Forces, the revered Gurkhas from the Commonwealth and many more.
From devastating tank destroyers to clandestine recon vehicles, Company of Heroes 3 features the largest roster in the series to date. The super-light Weasel, the armor-sniping Nashorn, and the Chaffee Light Tank are just a few of the units making their debut. Also, let's not forget revamped classics like the M3 Recovery Vehicle Halftrack, which can now be used to repair and steal abandoned enemy vehicles!
Feel the blistering impact of every mortar shell and naval bombardment with Relic's state-of-the-art Essence Engine. In Company of Heroes 3, every location becomes a fully destructible sandbox, opening up limitless tactical gameplay options for you or your enemy to exploit.
Bring fortified buildings crashing down onto enemy squads, then witness enhanced destruction mechanics at play as soldiers exploit fresh ruins as dynamic cover. Stunning new rendering and particle FX technology depicts fire, sand and smoke like never before. Brilliant new soldier animations combine with enhanced AI, delivering realistic squad reactions to the battlefield. Optimized for DirectX 12 and multi-core CPUs, Relic's new engine technology will deliver cinematic action to rival any Hollywood blockbuster.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,999 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Company of Heroes 3 splits its players close to the middle, and much of the argument is about what surrounds the battles. Inside a match, reviewers enjoy the series' cover, flanking and combined-arms play, along with newer conveniences such as auto-reinforce, towing guns, infantry riding on tanks and a tactical pause in single player. 10% of the longer reviews say patches have turned the game around since its February 2023 launch, often in an edit to an older negative review. Against that sits a long list of complaints: paid battlegroups and expansions that reviewers put at roughly $15 to $25 and some call pay to win, a skin store with a slow merit grind, multiplayer balance that each side says favours the other, team-game matchmaking with leavers, and campaign bugs that freeze the end of a turn or leave an enemy company invincible.
Company of Heroes 2 comes up in 42% of the longer reviews. Among reviewers who state a preference, those calling the older game better outnumber those who rank this one higher about three to one. The Italian dynamic campaign divides people as well: some love its Total War-style map, while others call it a slog of repeated skirmish maps with an ending that stops short of Rome. Price is the other running thread. 26% of the longer reviews talk about price or discounts, and reviewers who like the game and reviewers who don't both tell readers to wait for a sale.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Tactical battles built on cover, flanking and combined armsHigh
Reviewers who stay with the game point to the battles themselves: directional cover, line of sight, height advantage, side armour on tanks, and a pace where light vehicles stay useful well past the opening minutes. "The game teaches you to use cover, flank the enemy and make smart tactical decisions," one writes. Multiplayer players, 1v1 especially, say this is where the game is at its best, and several call it the best RTS they can find right now because positioning and decisions count for more than clicking speed. Critics answer that infantry blobs and spammable units flatten the tactics in large team games, and some veterans find infantry fights too slow or too fast depending on the patch.
Better than it was at launchHigh
Some reviewers rewrote an earlier negative review to say the game launched unfinished and has since been patched into something they enjoy. "Rocky start but has been a solid enjoyable game since," one writes, and another says "It has taken some time, but this is now a very enjoyable WW2 RTS." They name the patches they credit: Coral Viper for free battlegroups, new maps and single-player challenges, Onyx Shark for better visuals, sound and responsiveness, and the anniversary update reviewers call 2.0 for a wider overhaul. Not everyone agrees the fixing is done. 8% of the longer reviews still call the game unfinished, a beta or early access, and some reviewers who came back after an update found the same bugs they had left with.
Quality-of-life additionsMedium
Veterans of the series list conveniences the earlier games lacked: squads that reinforce themselves at base, auto-vaulting over walls, towing anti-tank guns, infantry riding tanks, breaching garrisoned buildings, rebindable keys and the single-player tactical pause. 8% of the longer reviews bring these up. "i can't go back from the auto-reinforce to manual for example," one veteran writes, and another says the pause works "by allowing you to stop and think, it allows you to focus on tactics rather than APM." A few long-time players complain that they had to relearn their hotkeys under the new grid layout.
Where players are split
The shadow of Company of Heroes 2High
The comparison with Company of Heroes 2 runs both ways. 7% of the longer reviews call the older game better and 2% rank this one higher. The case for CoH2 rests on its larger roster of commanders, the Soviet faction, grittier visuals, heavier sound and a decade of content: "Fails to live up to COH2. Instead of trying to re-invent the game, they should have just remastered COH2 and added more content." The other side points to smoother performance, better pathing, quality-of-life features, an Elo ladder and four factions from day one, and asks people to judge the game on its own terms: "Stop comparing this game to COH 2 and you'll be much happier in your life." Some fans of the original Company of Heroes welcome this game as closer to that first entry in pacing and battlegroup design.
The Italian dynamic campaignHigh
The turn-based map of Italy comes up in 15% of the longer reviews. Admirers like moving companies around, calling in naval and air support, upgrading units and choosing their own path: "Fun campaign that had me one-more-turning, and good AI on skirmishes to keep me coming back." Critics say most fights are short victory-point skirmishes on a handful of recycled maps, "you have to play the same three skirmish missions a billion times to complete the campaign," with auto-resolved battles, surprise objectives on impossible timers and an opaque loyalty system for the three commanders. A smaller group objects to the ending, because the campaign builds toward Rome and then stops after the Winter Line: "I break the winter line and the game ends???" Reviewers describe a patch that removed most field skirmishes from the map, which pleased some players and annoyed others who liked fighting those battles themselves, and a later mission-select option that lets players skip the map entirely.
Look and soundMedium
Weak explosions, an MG42 that "sounds like it shoots peas" and voice acting some find cheesy lead the audio complaints: "A huge explosion that's supposed to obliterate everything sounds like a dull fart." 14% of the longer reviews talk about sound, and complaints about it slightly outnumber praise. A smaller group (6%) calls the visuals cartoonish, toy-like or like a mobile game. Others say later updates fixed much of the audio and lighting, or that the bright palette suits the setting: "Southern Italy during summer is a very beautiful place full of colors and green fields."
The skirmish and campaign AIMedium
Reviewers who discuss the AI (14% of the longer reviews) describe two opposite problems. Some find it passive and easy to cheese, with allied AI teammates that fail to hold their own sectors. Others say harder settings win by cheating, with extra resources, endless unit spam and perfect knowledge of the player's moves. One reviewer has both complaints at once: "the PVE in this game sucks, the AI is laughably bad or blatantly cheating depending on difficulty, however i love the PVP." Several blame the update they call Topaz Rhino (patch 2.3) for an Expert AI that floods the map with infantry, while others say an earlier AI update finally made the campaign push back. Players who mostly fight bots welcomed the later option to pick AI difficulty in co-op matchmaking.
The short North Africa campaignMedium
The Afrika Korps campaign comes up in 6% of the longer reviews. Some players say its linear, hand-built missions feel like the classic Company of Heroes format and call it the better of the two campaigns. The complaints are that it is short and that its story, told in cutscenes about a family in Benghazi, sits apart from the Rommel missions being played: "The linear campaign has a bizarre storyline attached to it that is almost completely unrelated to the missions, raising eyebrows as to its inclusion at all."
Mods and the workshopLow
Players who stick with skirmishes credit workshop maps, zoom mods, advanced AI mods and overhauls such as Spearhead and Wikinger with keeping the game fresh. 7% of the longer reviews mention mods. Others say the modding tools are too limited next to the older games, and that challenges and merit rewards do not count with mods on: "Add better modding support so at LEAST the modders can make your game better if you're not going to."
Final StandLow
The Final Stand wave-defence mode, which reviewers describe as released in late July 2026, drew a small burst of reviews. Some like it as a new way to play ("Final stand is great!"), while others object that it is sold separately and that bugs cost them progress: "its not new content, its a whole new game, which is just a new mode."
What frustrates players
Paid battlegroups, expansions and the storeHigh
Price and power are the two complaints here. 19% of the longer reviews mention DLC or expansions and 10% mention the store, skins or merit. Reviewers put battlegroup packs at roughly $15 to $25 for two to four battlegroups, which they call too much: "Why release a dlc that literally cost half of price of the full game?" A few premium-edition owners were upset that the Fire & Steel expansion was not included, and some reviewers say battlegroups released after it can no longer be bought with merit, the free currency earned from challenges: "Hundreds of hours spent on the merit challenges just to have the main reward silently taken away, mentioned only in one update post." Another accusation is that new battlegroups launch overtuned and get toned down later: "Overpriced DLCs that come with pay to win units, then get nerfed convientently just in time to sell you the next one." Reviewers also object to skin packs they put at around $20 and to merit costs that take weeks of challenges. A minority defends the model, pointing out that earlier battlegroups could be earned with merit and that some were given away.
Multiplayer balanceHigh
"Multiplayer has two modes; Easy mode (Axis) and Hard mode (Allies.)", one recommending reviewer jokes, while another argues that "Allies basically automatically win late game with manpower reductions." Balance comes up in 31% of the longer reviews, and complaints about it outnumber praise nearly three to one (10% against 3% of longer reviews). Rangers, Wehrmacht MG and artillery play, DAK light vehicles, British anti-tank rifles and infantry blobs (4% of longer reviews use the word "blob") all draw fire depending on when the review was written. Reviewers also complain that balance patches arrive months apart and swing the meta, and some 1v1 players counter that most complaints come from large team games.
Bugs, crashes and campaign soft-locksMedium
12% of the longer reviews mention bugs or glitches and 3% describe crashes or "bugsplat" errors. The worst reports come from the Italian campaign, where 2% of longer reviews (86) describe a run they could not finish: the enemy turn freezing forever, an enemy company that cannot be damaged, troops stuck on a ship, or saves that stop loading after an update, with no cloud saves to fall back on. "Just lost an 11 hour run to the end turn bug," one player writes. Another puts the frustration of liking the game when it runs this way: "It's a shame because when it works, it's a great game." Pathfinding, stuck engineers and invisible gun crews come up less often.
Not enough battlegroups, maps and factionsMedium
Four battlegroups per faction look thin to reviewers who compare them with CoH2's dozens of commanders, and they note how few maps exist for 3v3 and 4v4. 9% of the longer reviews say the game lacks content, and 6% ask for missing factions. The additions they name are the Soviets, Japan and the Pacific, and an Italian faction for a game set in Italy and North Africa: "In this game set in WWII Italy they decided to remove the Italians as a playable faction on either side, only scant Italian units for the Axis."
Camera, interface and controlsMedium
The camera sits too close for some ("FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD PLEASE LET ME ZOOM OUT!"). 10% of the longer reviews mention the camera, interface or menus: the HUD cannot be scaled, unit cards overlap and lead to retreating the wrong squad, and finishing a match drops players back at the main menu. Several reviewers say the menus improved after updates, while others still call them clunky.
Matchmaking, leavers and toxic lobbiesMedium
Reviewers describe team-game queues that mix players several hundred Elo apart, teammates who quit after the first lost engagement, and no way to rejoin after a disconnect, so a dropped connection can still earn a timeout. "If you play 100 games I GUARANTEE your team will leave 99 of them," one reviewer writes. 5% of the longer reviews criticise matchmaking, 4% raise leavers, AFK teammates or leave penalties, and 3% describe toxic players. Others report quick queues and fair 1v1 matches, and some welcomed the later vote-to-surrender and AFK kick features.
Cheaters in online playLow
1% of the longer reviews describe opponents using map hacks or other cheats in ranked play. One reviewer who had gone negative over it switched back after a ban wave, but others say reports go unanswered.
3. The player conversation
The conversation is heated and personal. Some reviews carry dated edits, flipping from negative at launch to positive after a patch, and occasionally back again after a DLC or balance change. One divide runs between Company of Heroes 2 veterans, who measure every feature against the older game, and newcomers or fans of the first game, who often ask readers to drop the comparison. Another separates multiplayer players, who argue about balance, matchmaking and battlegroup prices, from campaign and skirmish players, who argue about the Italian map, the AI and campaign bugs.
Reviews written on free keys during the free weekends were much harsher than paid ones: in May 2024, 28% of free-key reviews were positive, against 70% of paid reviews written that month. Reviews written in 2026 were less positive (54%) than those written in 2024 and 2025 (65% and 66%), though earlier years appear here only in part. The 2026 complaints lean toward battlegroup DLC pricing and the merit change, the AI update reviewers blame for infantry spam, balance swings, and the separately sold Final Stand mode.
4. What the developers could do
- Make new battlegroups earnable with merit again and price DLC per battlegroup. Reviewers object to the price of paid battlegroups, the merit change and skin prices, and a few who paid for a premium edition felt shortchanged when the next expansion was left out.
- Release new battlegroups balanced from day one and hotfix outliers within days. Players on both the Axis and Allied side complain that new units sell as pay to win and get nerfed later, and that balance patches arrive months apart.
- Fix the Italian campaign's soft-locks and add cloud saves. Reviewers describe losing long runs to a frozen enemy turn, an invincible company or a save broken by an update, with no cloud save to go back to.
- Tighten team-game matchmaking and add reconnect. Wide Elo gaps, early leavers and timeouts for disconnects are what reviewers dislike about 3v3 and 4v4.
- Ship more battlegroups, team-game maps and a new faction. Reviewers ask for the Soviets, Japan or an Italian faction, and for more 3v3 and 4v4 maps.
- Vary the Italian campaign's skirmishes and give it a proper finale. Players want fewer repeated victory-point maps, the option to fight field battles themselves, and a final battle that pays off the push toward Rome.
- Allow a wider camera zoom, HUD scaling and punchier combat audio. Reviewers ask for all three, including some who recommend the game.
- Make AI difficulty depend on smarter play rather than extra resources. Reviewers who play against bots describe an AI that is either passive or cheating, and several say an AI update made co-op against Expert bots a slog.
