The release date of Relic Entertainment’s planned Company of Heroes 3 has been delayed until 2023, which means real-time strategy aficionados eager to get their teeth into the World War II action will have to wait a little longer to join the battle. The most recent game in the storied series, Company of Heroes 3, has won fans over with its distinctive approach to the RTS subgenre.
The third installment of Company of Heroes, which was released in the summer of 2021, allows players to command a group of troops as they engage in combat in Italy and North Africa. When the original Company of Heroes game was published in 2006 for the PC, it was acclaimed for bringing fresh innovation to a genre that had become stagnant during the 1990s RTS game heyday. Company of Heroes established a winning formula that would continue in the game’s expansions and sequels. It did this by offering fully destructible environments, gameplay where players capture resource points to grow their armies, and a camera system that allowed players to zoom all the way down to battlefield level to view the chaos up close.
Following the success of games like Relic’s own Age of Empires IV and EA’s Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, the real-time strategy genre has seen something of a resurgence in recent years, with both major and small teams giving their own takes on the genre. Some of these games even borrow gameplay mechanics from Company of Heroes, such the forthcoming historical RTS The Valiant from THQ Nordic, which gives players control over a group of crusaders in medieval Europe.
Fans of Company of Heroes will probably be disappointed by today’s announcement, despite the fact that gamers have become accustomed to high-profile games being delayed in recent years. With their track record of producing fun RTS games, Relic Entertainment should be able to release Company of Heroes 3 without any bugs and battle-ready when it does so. 2023 is looking promising for RTS enthusiasts with Company of Heroes 3 and the recently revealed Tempest Rising from THQ Nordic.
