COH3 is a sad story. I still have "fond" memories of participating in the "COH-development" and playing an alpha build a few years ago. I wrote lots of feedback back in the day. I told them they shouldn't spread themselves thin by releasing on consoles. I told them a "Total War killer" turn-based campaign is a mistake and trying to attract the "wider audience" will inevitably result in pleasing noone in particular. I also told them about every issue COH 2 had based on my 1300+ hours with that game, and the community manager guy assured me they're on top of everything, from balance to matchmaking to quality of life. Even though he knew perfectly well he was lying to my face and the game was only given a small budget, so it would release a year later in about the same state as the alpha slice did.

The reason I finally decided to get it after 1.5 years after release was the fact the publisher ditched the dev, unwilling to own up to its own ridiculous business decisions. Oh, and the 56% off during the Summer Sale also helped. So it was either buying it to show Relic support and demand, or have the studio become yet another casualty in the spree of closures and layoffs. Even though I chose the former, I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anyone. At least at full price.

Nobody really gets this for campaigns, so let's get through it quick and dirty. There is the main Italian one, which is pretty much Ardennes Assault from COH 2 made to cosplay Total War. You produce armies, move them around, use some abilities. It's a very different game from what you'd expect from COH, but it's not even the biggest problem. It's a clunky, tedious and unfun moving of pieces around the board which is rewarded with occassional skirmishes. Ultimately you are still fighting the AI that's unable to pose any real challenge, so you can play it once for some achievements, and that's about it. Second "campaign" is the African one for the Germans, and I put it in brackets because of what it really is - some 6-8 short missions played in order, which serve as an expansion for the tutorial. Add to this some cringy cutscenes that scream "low budget" and some pretentious attempts at dramatic storytelling you know and "love" from COH 2's Soviet campaign - and you get the idea.

Multiplayer is where it's all at, and I'd say its main problem here is the developer aggressively farming money. A pack of skins for your vehicles (not even all of them) will set you back about 25% of the cost of the base game. A DLC with a couple battlegroups and a few skins - about 30%. And of course, that battlegroup is "pay to win" and half of the forums and Reddit posts right now are asking how to counter Rangers that came with that DLC. That aside? Suppresion is basically worthless now - it accumulates much slower, bunkers barely apply it, and most elite infantry has an ability that straight up makes them immune to it. The result is crazy blobbing that's possible from the early game and has little counterplay.

There are things that COH 3 gets right, obviously. But those are all very "playing it safe" decisions from the previous games, copied so thoroughly (to the point of icons) that it reeks of self-plagiarism. You have reskins of your well-known Airborne, Elite Armored, Osttruppen and all the other flavors from COH 2. There is little new abilities or features, let along meaningful ones. You can now Breach an occupied building with certain infantry units, but this only works when your opponent is sleeping.

TL;DR It still needs a few years in the oven before it (maybe) becomes as good as COH 2 was back in its day.

COH3 is a sad story. I still have "fond" memories of participating in the "COH-development" and playing an alpha build a few years ago. I wrote lots of feedback back in the day. I told them they shouldn't spread themselves thin by releasing on consoles. I told them a "Total War killer" turn-based campaign is a mistake and trying to attract the "wider audience" will inevitably result in pleasing noone in particular. I also told them about every issue COH 2 had based on my 1300+ hours with that game, and the community manager guy assured me they're on top of everything, from balance to matchmaking to quality of life. Even though he knew perfectly well he was lying to my face and the game was only given a small budget, so it would release a year later in about the same state as the alpha slice did. The reason I finally decided to get it after 1.5 years after release was the fact the publisher ditched the dev, unwilling to own up to its own ridiculous business decisions. Oh, and the 56% off during the Summer Sale also helped. So it was either buying it to show Relic support and demand, or have the studio become yet another casualty in the spree of closures and layoffs. Even though I chose the former, I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anyone. At least at full price. Nobody really gets this for campaigns, so let's get through it quick and dirty. There is the main Italian one, which is pretty much Ardennes Assault from COH 2 made to cosplay Total War. You produce armies, move them around, use some abilities. It's a very different game from what you'd expect from COH, but it's not even the biggest problem. It's a clunky, tedious and unfun moving of pieces around the board which is rewarded with occassional skirmishes. Ultimately you are still fighting the AI that's unable to pose any real challenge, so you can play it once for some achievements, and that's about it. Second "campaign" is the African one for the Germans, and I put it in brackets because of what it really is - some 6-8 short missions played in order, which serve as an expansion for the tutorial. Add to this some cringy cutscenes that scream "low budget" and some pretentious attempts at dramatic storytelling you know and "love" from COH 2's Soviet campaign - and you get the idea. Multiplayer is where it's all at, and I'd say its main problem here is the developer aggressively farming money. A pack of skins for your vehicles (not even all of them) will set you back about 25% of the cost of the base game. A DLC with a couple battlegroups and a few skins - about 30%. And of course, that battlegroup is "pay to win" and half of the forums and Reddit posts right now are asking how to counter Rangers that came with that DLC. That aside? Suppresion is basically worthless now - it accumulates much slower, bunkers barely apply it, and most elite infantry has an ability that straight up makes them immune to it. The result is crazy blobbing that's possible from the early game and has little counterplay. There are things that COH 3 gets right, obviously. But those are all very "playing it safe" decisions from the previous games, copied so thoroughly (to the point of icons) that it reeks of self-plagiarism. You have reskins of your well-known Airborne, Elite Armored, Osttruppen and all the other flavors from COH 2. There is little new abilities or features, let along meaningful ones. You can now Breach an occupied building with certain infantry units, but this only works when your opponent is sleeping. TL;DR It still needs a few years in the oven before it (maybe) becomes as good as COH 2 was back in its day.