But I still enjoyed it-the ambition, the spectacle, the chaos. This climactic confrontation gives you different companies to control during different phases, and then lets you switch between them at will, and honestly it's just a big bloody mess, like a co-op battle where you're both players. Narrow roads surrounded by tall buildings, hiding snipers and machine gun teams winding countryside paths, where anti-tank guns hide behind every corner the terrifying expanse of an airfield runway, where cover is a luxury and death seems perpetually imminent-even the memories of these encounters is enough to get my heart thudding like an artillery strike.Įach of the main missions is pure magic-even the overly ambitious final assault on the Winter Line. The Hedgerow Hell and frosty Russian maps of Company of Heroes 1 and 2 remain RTS high points, but Italy has spawned some of my favourite fighting spots. When that "Mission Completed" notification pops up, you celebrate amid the apocalypse. Even the most stalwart cover is fleeting. The terrain reflects the decisions you make as you strategically take out anywhere Nazis might be hiding, as they do the same to you. Once you enter the map, though, that's when you become a proper terraformer, remaking and deconstructing Italy's towns and countryside. And it even gives a glimmer of dynamism to the campaign map, where bombing the shit out of a location before you head into battle transforms it, pitting the ground and destroying buildings-which can have a dramatic impact on the ensuing fight. Here, in the RTS layer, we see real dynamism. Pristine maps turned into hellish, crater-filled nightmares, buildings crumbling, tank husks smouldering, men running around on fire-it's appalling but exciting. So many highs, thrills, and god, the explosions? Impeccable. I was anticipating something grand, something evocative of Total War, and it doesn't remotely live up to this-but what it does is spit out incredible fight after incredible fight. So the Italian campaign is not the slam dunk I was hoping for, but I find myself less disappointed than expected. Win enough fights and Valenti doesn't give a shit how many Italian towns you completely demolish. I got quite a lot of notifications about how I'd lost loyalty with Valenti because I was rather aggressive in my 'liberation' of Italy, but there were no consequences, because simply playing the game ensures that you're constantly impressing them. While it initially seems like the tension between the trio will force you to make tough calls, in reality it seems like you'd really have to work hard not to make all three your BFFs. The bonuses you'll receive are sometimes pretty helpful if not especially flashy, like reduced ability cooldowns, but when it comes to developing the relationships that unlock them, there's a serious lack of friction. The British General Norton, US General Buckram and Italian partisan leader Valenti each have their own goals and personalities, and by agreeing with them in occasional conversations, performing missions for them, or simply acting in a way they like, you fill up their loyalty bar and unlock their bonuses. Again, we have a list of unlockable bonuses, but this time it's loyalty, not experience, that unlocks them. Subcommanders only add to the messiness by introducing one more progression system-another interesting idea that doesn't quite land. Together these give you a tonne of options for how to approach every assault. Capturing ports, meanwhile, increases your population cap and gives you more ships, which can strike at enemy targets from the sea. Capture an airfield and you can start sending out reconnaissance planes to remove the fog of war, or bombers to prepare targets for a ground assault. So there are a lot of targets to destroy, but also lots of opportunities to build.Īlong with the emplacements you can pointlessly cover Italy in, conquest provides yet more things to spend your resources on. The Indian Artillery Company, for instance, can bombard enemy positions, softening up towns, removing emplacements, blowing up bridges and weakening enemy companies. The Italian campaign, then, is fundamentally broken.Įach company you requisition is a powerful toolkit that contains not just a distinct selection of units you'll field in the RTS scraps, but also a range of abilities that help on the campaign map. And even in this seemingly unfinished state, good ideas bubble to the surface, if you can push past the very rough UI and impotent opponent. This is especially frustrating when it's clear how great it could have been. The Italian campaign, then, is fundamentally broken.
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