This game is like, super old, and the graphics and gameplay don't hold as well as its successor but f*ck it its fun. As usual let's get stuff out of the way.

Audio:
A masterpiece of sound design, Company of heroes utilize distance based sound technology with them automatically applying a radio sound filter when you zoom away from them. The unis each act out their voicelines jovially as thou its the most kickass job they ever had with Axis and Allies alike screaming in agony when the force composition are against them and bodies starts piling.

This ties into the gameplay with you being able to tell when your units are suppressed, losing men, or knowing when a building is being attacked or resource point being capture or already finished capturing. The British OST for when they are about to win stands out as one of the most epic OST I've ever heard.

Truly one of the best game music and audio cue ever implemented in an RTS game.

Graphics:
This game is old. The original would be in highschool by now that is how old the game is. Yet part of the game still holds on very well at high setting which most computers by now should be able to reach.

Yes the graphics look muddy. Yes the units aren't very detailed. And yes the ground deformation is relatively basic.

But you don't have to zoom in to tell apart a panther from a tiger, from a pak to an 88, from a an american to an axis. The graphic to simply put it: is functional. So long as you don't feel the need to zoom all the way to see the units faces [despite being this old, the units do have muddy detailed faces] it should serve well enough. The map and unit gore effect was considered rather advanced by the standards of 2006.

Gameplay:
The Good:
Eschewing the typical RTS setup of having a static resource field that you mine from, COH utilizes resource node all over the map that also serves to divide it up into territory. Territory by itself is also a form of resources, gatekeeping your population cap and increasing or decreasing as it gets traded between you and the enemy.

Due to this setup the game is very heavily in favour of assault style gameplay. While initially during match start you'll be duking it out with mostly infantry it will soon devolve into a proper combined arms warfare with tanks engaging tanks or support tank spearheading infantry assault as pak guns zoom in on your army while a lone sniper takes aim at its crew that is in turn getting a mortar over its head once it breaks camouflage that is finally being outranged by artillery gleefully marking its position.

Due to this [excepting the DLC faction the brits and Panzer Elite] the game setup the base faction to be very symmetrical to one another EXCEPT at the phase in which they excel at. American faction could very easily win within the first 15 min due to their units getting permanent automatic rifles via barrack upgrades and rushing the early enemy armored car with sticky bombs. As time goes on however Axis forces clearly has the upper hands. They can purchase permanent veterancy for current and future unit, increasing their effectiveness while American players have to be careful to retreat their veterans lest they lose precious EXP in trying to retrain new unit. At the same American faction answer to the Axis heavy tanks are only marginally armored tank destroyers and specialize ability call ranger units that must first be upgraded.

This essentially turns invariably into games where Allies attempt to deny Axis of precious fuel resource point in order to stall their tank roll out, because when it happens they will inevitably be on the defensive. Their tank equivalent the M4 sherman is cheaper to produce but lacks the hitting power and armor of the Axis tanks with the Panther easily outclassing it.

But enough about that, because of that you can easily find either one of the factions to your liking from the way they are to be played. Next up, the game also enviromental cover system, not static cover. Roadside walls, tanks, even artillery shell holes can provide cover to unit. Upgrades are either faction wide affecting resources, productions, unlocking upgrade or they are unit level such as a regular axis infantry getting his hands on the MP40 which substantially increase their firepower against allies infantry. Everything cost resources, even the artillery strike which makes the decision on whether to upgrade units or spend it on more support a much more weighted decisions.

Add to the fact that tanks have armor rating on all 4 sides, you will need to exploit this by having your anti-tank to try and flank the enemy tank to get a shot in its relatively unarmored rear which will do more damage. Or how vehicles have working damage models for its engine and main gun. Occasionally damage may cause a tank to track itself and becoming immobile or a direct shot to a tank turret causes the barrel to be damaged, taking away its ability to fire. Flanking an enemy assault is a must have tactic in order to have any chance of repelling them.

Many units can actually punch further than the line of sight they can see as well, giving another layer of using camouflage sniper or hanging back long range units to exploit their strength.

The Cons:
The game is old. The AI can be relatively brain dead at times with them failing to prioritize the tank destroyer over the regular tank meaning micromanagement is sometimes needed in order to shove your infantry into cover, pop a grenade, ordering your tank to face the right way and repacking your mortar forward.

All of it requiring high amount of CPM so the games can be relatively stressful at times.

But the worst offender for this game that is its ultimate sin, is the pathfinding. Unit pathfinding is premapped for each map and you can easily tell because they will always take the same route every single time depending on which premapped route is closest. Sure you can micromanage your troops to either go here or there but tell em to a hike across the map and watch them split themselves up taking random roads or forming 1 single line of convoy that inevitably have issues traversing some part of the game geography.

Your team AI also has a propensity of bunching up on chokepoint and absolutely f*cking up the pathfinding for everyone else. There's also very few ways to actually force your unit to exit being suppressed other than retreating and using special abilities few units has on them.

Enemies on the hardest difficulty are also still too easy. This is because they have to build everything based on a list not actually making decisions on the fly. If you see an Axis armored car its safe to say that the next one you're gonna see is a panzer IV, or failing that they will deploy a stug first.

DLC:
The game is over 14 years old yet Relic still don't make the regular base game + DLC as the default purchase. It adds more factions, more campaign and a few game mode that's more fun with friends but playable solo.

Do not get the base game only, COH is incomplete without the DLC.

Campaign:
Speaking of campaign, its pretty fun. You don't always build a base in the game plus the cutscenes and game scenario are varied enough that they give a solid introduction to how the game works. It's not an award winning story by any stretch but it does make you swear.

Anyway, that's the gist of it. If you're thinking of getting into RTS COH is a rather forgiving one that you can easily ease into. Great campaign, great graphics, great sound design means hours of fun.

Get it on sale and you won't regret it.