Company of Heroes is the latest release from Relic Entertainment who have released landmark RTS games such as the excellent Warhammer: Dawn of War and Homeworld series. CoH (Company of Heroes) is set in the year 1944 just after the allied invasion of France and follows the Able Company storming the beaches pushing right up into the heart of Germany.

One of the main differences CoH has compared to other RTS games is the way in which you gather resources. The resources are split into three different sections: manpower, munitions and fuel. The amount of resources you gather depends on the amount of sectors you hold on the map (your units have to capture certain points on the map). Your troops also gain experience when they are fighting and there are a total of three ranks (above the default) each allowing your units to fire faster and last longer in battle. Once veterans you can then use them again in following missions giving you a nice handy advantage.

As well as the troops gaining experience for killing, you personally get experience for researching the tech tree which gives you such powers as dropping paratroops or firing off artillery barrages. The special powers you receive are chosen by one of the 3 options that are available for you to pick. This discourages the usual RTS tactic of barricading yourself in and amassing a huge army before base-rushing the enemy as to unlock the full potential of your army you will need to gain experience for the special powers.

Because of this protecting your troops is vital and thankfully Relic have provided an excellent cover system for your troops. Once you select a squad of men you are presented with a number of dots, the colour of the dot shows how well protected your men will be in this cover. You can also place men in buildings for added protection and the troops react almost as if they would in real life, opening windows and sticking their rifles out to attempt to take out any enemies in the vicinity.

You can view all this right down to ground level in stunning detail with a roll of the mouse wheel. From this viewpoint you can see the amount of detail that Relic has put into the game, your men look around anxiously for any sign of the enemy when all is silent, yet when the action kicks off they dart around finding cover and shouting orders to each other.

The combat in the game is immense, no game has every bought me closer to real warfare than CoH, and most of that is to do with the sound, in 7.1 you can hear the tanks rattling around and every explosion shakes the room.

CoHs multiplayer is just as amazing as the single-player, you can either team up with some mates and go head to head with the computer or face off one on one (or 4 vs. 4). When teaming with friends you can have some laughs by barricading parts of the map which the computer will constantly use allowing yourself easy XP whilst you build your army, take a peek at the screenshot to the right at the defences me and a friend built.

Overall CoH is a total revamp of the RTS genre, and hopefully we'll see further changes to the RTS with the expansion due out later this year.

Favourite Moment : One particular mission is to capture a town, once captured you then need to hold it for 5 minutes until re-enforcements come to your aid, nerve racking stuff whilst your small band of men are being massacred while the clock is slowly ticking down

Graphics : Stunning amount of detail when zoomed in

Sound: Amazing when played loud, explosions and bullets sound like they're coming from your garden!

Gameplay: Intuitive interface with easy to pick up gameplay

Final Score: 9/10