If anyone is looking for an awesome RTS game check out "Company of Heroes". I had abandoned the genre after a few great years with "Age of Empires II" (which I personally think is one of the best and most balanced RTS games ever created). From that point forward I tried others like "C&C Generals", "Warcraft III", and "Age of Empires III". Each brought to it something new and different, yet each failed to captivate me as a timeless classic and were promptly abandoned by me. Dejected, I had lost faith that the genre would ever be able to up the anti in a compelling way.
Enter "Company of Heroes". They have successfully and forever changed the genre and raised the bar on what an RTS should be. I won't go into too many details because there are reviews out there already but I will summarize some of the highlights.
+ Deformable Terrain - That's right! Everything is destructible. Got a sniper hiding in a building, bring in the armor to take it down.
+ Upgraded units that perish on the battlefield leave their weapons behind to be pillaged by others and used against you.
+ Cover, concealment, and exposure. Where you place your men will alter their success in battle. This is all handled by a very intuitive interface that highlights your cursor in one of three colors (Green, Yellow, Red) depending on where you intend to place your men.
+ Resource collection has been abandoned for a more intuitive and contemporary control point system. The map is divided into about a dozen zones. Each zone can be controlled "Battlefield" style. Control the zone, and you get the resource that area provides. You must however keep your zones linked (i.e. control adjacent zones) to keep them "in supply". This means that if someone takes a zone behind enemy lines and disconnects adjacent zones you control, you do not get the benefits of the zones that are no longer "in supply" or disconnected.
+ Units gain experience and are thus more valuable in combat. They can be forced to retreat and reinforced at a fraction of the cost of fresh recruits.
+ As a general you also gain experience during the course of the game that can be applied to one of three technology trees depending on what your strategy is for a particular map. The trees are "infantry", "paratrooper", and "armor". Each tree opens up a list of upgrades you can earn and use during a battle to give you the edge you need to defeat the opposition.
+ Lastly, graphics are phenomenal. I prefer function over form but this one has both.
Anywho, I give the game a 90% out of 100% only because I haven't played it enough to see if it will stand the test of time. All indications are positive however. Perhaps I will update my comment some time from now after the honeymoon is over.
As a point of reference I give "Age of Empires II - The Conquerors" a 96% out of 100%. It stood the test of time for me, was as timeless as chess, well balanced, and graphically appealing for that time.
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