"After a less-than-illustrious start, Company of Heroes 3 has become everything it set out to be and more, at least as far as the PC version is concerned."
Singleplayer.
Co-op Multiplayer.
PvP Multiplayer.
As of 2025, on PC, Company of Heroes 3 is one of the best WW2 era strategy games money can buy.
It is well-made and fun to play with, with robust multi-player and single-player options.
I must admit that playing it was one of the first things I thought about this morning, and I even managed to sneak in a few turns before breakfast.
While it had issues at launch and deserved most (but not all) of the negative reviews it received, the developers did not leave their latest title to die in mixed ratings.
Instead, they continued to improve upon almost every aspect of the game until it was as close to perfect as you can reasonably expect any game to be.
Unfortunately, they only did so on PC; the console edition exited development before the release of version 2.0, which not only improved upon almost every aspect of the game but also made Company of Heroes 3 one of the best, if not the best, titles in the franchise’s almost 20-year history.
Don’t get me wrong—the console edition is pretty good and was in a better state at launch than the PC port. Still, it feels unfair that console edition owners cannot access the 2.0 update while paying the same or more than PC players did for the game.
At launch, Company of Heroes 3 had some serious performance issues on PC (less so on console).
However, PC performance issues should be expected to a certain degree due to the thousands of possible hardware combinations involved with PC gaming, which makes optimizing for every possible scenario more difficult than with a console.
However, as of 2.0, PC performance is rock solid. I maintain a rock-solid 60FPS running at maxed visuals/1080P on my 7700 XT build, which is more than enough for a game of this type.
While I opted to cap FPS at 60, when uncapped, I reached the low 80s without issue when using the same settings.
At launch, the single-player map was rather repetitive. However, subsequent updates have added more depth and variety to the campaign, and I must admit, as a huge fan of narrative campaigns, I am enjoying it.
While I have seen the same town map/battle used more than once for different locations, the narrative missions are fun.
While some of the mission types are less enjoyable, I am enjoying the campaign and will likely spend at least a dozen more hours on it before moving on to other games in my collection.
Relic Entertainment has made some of the most iconic strategy games in the history of the strategy genre.
Because of that reputation people expect far too much from each new release, every release is held to impossible high standards, as while the older games were indeed excellent, they are often viewed through nostalgia goggles, making any new entry, or attempt to inovate suffer often needless scrutiny, despite many titles launching in a state that is close to, it not superior to that of its predecessor at launch.
Relic Entertainment‘s games get better with time, and that is something many people forget when comparing new releases to older titles by the esteemed developer.
Instead of comparing the launch version of Company of Heroes 3 to the launch version of Company of Heroes 2, they compare it to how Company of Heroes 2 was after multiple rounds of feedback and dozens of paid and free updates.
Excessive player expectation is a problem that Civilization games have faced for nearly three decades. With the single exception of Civilization 7, which was demonstrably worse than Civilization 6 at launch, most titles in the series have not only equaled the launch version of their predecessor but, in many ways, surpassed it.
One issue faced by Relic is that many of their franchises release around once a decade or less. Company of Heroes is no exception, with Company of Heroes releasing in 2006 (2000s), Company of Heroes 2 releasing in 2013 (2010s), and Company of Heroes 3 releasing in 2023 (2020s).
Each decade has brought realities and expectations that make releasing a new title in an established series very difficult, especially if it will be a once-in-a-decade affair.
Their potential customers come from two main camps, so making everyone happy is challenging and occasionally impossible.
Veteran Players want Company of Heroes games to be like the first version they played, and any attempt to introduce modern elements such as microtransactions or crossplay will face resistance.
Conversely, current-gen players expect crossplay and cross-progression as a minimum, with many even wanting access to all their purchases on all platforms.
While this may seem demanding, it is not asking a lot in 2025, in which many developers have started to embrace cross-platform purchases due to the success of titles such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty Warzone, to name just a few.
While veteran players may recoil at the prospect of microtransactions (especially Pay-2-win battlegroups), they would recoil even further at a $120 retail price for the base game alone, which is pretty close to what would need to happen for a title like Company of Heroes 3 to enjoy long-term support without microtransactions and DLC.
While no one likes to pay more for things, inflation is real.
Developers and publishers deserve compensation for their time and investment. If prices did not go up, publishers could not afford to fund games, and developers would be forced to find other work.
As a result, fewer new games would be released, and often, those games would only be the safe bets, such as Call of Duty, which always sells millions of copies and is a sure return on investment due to its scale and wide market appeal.
We should treat developers and publishers as we would like to be treated. If we were forced to spend more time and money making a product, we would expect to be paid for it, and they are not evil or greedy to have similar expectations.
However, with rumours of Xbox trying to bridge the gap between console and PC games and the next generation being less than four years away, it’s possible that in that scenario, Sega may consider bringing its more PC-centric games to any potential PC/Console hybrid that makes its way to market.
Until then, I guess we will have to make do with Sega’s other franchises and look with anticipation to the day when PC-centric Sega franchises such as Total War and a potential Company of Heroes can be enjoyed by a wider audience across a wider variety of platforms.
Company of Heroes 3 is a real time tactics video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sega, it was released on 23 February 2023 and retails for $59.99+.
Company of Heroes 3 is available on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Company of Heroes 3 does not support cross-platform multiplayer.
Company of Heroes 3 offers the following matchmaking options:
The Company of Heroes 3 in-game store sells:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Company of Heroes 3 is rated PEGI 18+ and contains:
Company of Heroes 3 is a near-perfect game on PC after the release of the 2.0 anniversary edition.
The console edition is fantastic and in a much better place than the PC version was before the release of 2.0 (all things considered). Sega made a mistake by discontinuing development of the console edition before the release of version 2.0.
While it’s unlikely that Sega will allow Relic to resume console support, assuming Relic has the means and motivation to do so, with robust crossplay support and feature parity between all platforms, Company of Heroes 3 would have the potential to rival some of the best RTS games that the genre has to offer.
As it stands, I fully recommend Company of Heroes 3 on PC, even at full price, which is saying a lot for a game over two years old.
While the console edition is in a decent place for a console RTS, I suggest waiting for a sale, console development has ended., as console players do not have access to the latest updates (such as the 2.0 anniversary update) which has made Company of Heroes 3 one of the greatest RTS of all time.
We found Company of Heroes 3 to be a masterpiece of a game, meaning it is a must-play for almost every gamer, due to its near-perfect gameplay experience.
