Company of Heroes 3 is a real-time strategy game made by Relic Entertainment and released by Sega. It is the next game in the Company of Heroes series after Company of Heroes 2. The game includes new ways to play and features events from the Italian and North African parts of World War II.

Gameplay

In Company of Heroes 3, players can choose to control Allied Forces during the invasion of Italy or Axis forces in North Africa. The game introduces new features, such as the Tactical Pause system, which lets players pause the battle and plan commands to be carried out later. It also includes an improved destruction system that allows for more detailed destruction, such as individual tiles and bricks falling off buildings. Italian Partisans are allied characters that can be placed on the map or summoned during battles. The story changes based on how players interact with different commanders, which can influence how the story ends.

Development

Relic Entertainment was responsible for creating the game. The team selected the Mediterranean setting because it allowed the inclusion of many different environments, a feature that players of older games often requested. The team also mentioned that the Italian areas in the game provided "more options for how players interact with the environment," and players could use the height of the maps to plan their movements and attacks.

At the start of development, the studio brought together modders and competitive players to form a player council. This group worked with Relic during the early stages of the project to decide what the game’s mechanics should focus on and where the game would take place. The executive producer explained the choice of setting: "We all agreed we wanted a new theatre. We did not want to revisit the Western Front or the Eastern Front. The only two remaining options were the Mediterranean and Pacific. We compared both, and the decision was 10-0 in favor of the Mediterranean." Player testing for Company of Heroes 3 began before the official announcement through Amplitude’s Games2Gether program. A limited-time demo of the game was made available shortly after the announcement.

The game was officially announced for Windows by Relic and publisher Sega in July 2021. It was originally scheduled to release on November 17, 2022, but the release date was later changed to February 23, 2023. Versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S were announced during The Game Awards 2022.

In August 2022, the Polish toy company Cobi announced it had received a license from Relic Entertainment to produce brick sets themed around North Africa and Italy. On April 13, 2023, it was announced that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game would be released on May 30, 2023.

Reception

Company of Heroes 3 received "generally favorable" reviews on PC and Xbox Series X, according to Metacritic. The PlayStation 5 version received "mixed or average" reviews. The game was nominated for "Best Sim / Strategy Game" at The Game Awards 2023.

PC Gamer reported that the Italian campaign had major issues, with AI that was not aggressive enough and subcommanders that were confusing. PCGamesN noted that while the gameplay did not introduce new ideas, it met expectations from earlier games, saying the story missions were enjoyable even if they did not change much from Company of Heroes 2. Eurogamer had mixed feelings about how the North African campaign portrayed Erwin Rommel but praised the game's exciting action, stating that the ability to destroy everything fit well with a campaign focused on tank battles.

IGN appreciated the set piece battles in the Italian campaign but criticized the overall experience, saying decisions in the campaign felt unimportant. Polygon praised the new active pause system, which made the game easier to play. Rock Paper Shotgun mentioned that while some parts of the game were not fully polished, the Italian campaign’s large scale was impressive for a first attempt at this style of war gaming. Kotaku said the game’s new setting allowed for interesting tactical challenges, especially in Italy.

TouchArcade noted that visuals on small screens were inconsistent, but gameplay remained strong, adding that the game works well on Steam Deck with recent updates. NPR criticized the repetition in the Italian campaign but liked the fast-paced, intense multiplayer co-op mode.