Company of Heroes Collection (Switch) Review

The Switch had become the destination for several big ports in its life. We’ve had Doom (2016), Crysis, and The Witcher 3, and it even has the best version of Alien Isolation. Feral Interactive ported that last one, and they’re also responsible for the great GRID Autosport and The Lara Croft Collection ports as well.

Now, they’re back with another critically acclaimed game, and this time, it’s a real-time strategy game from the PC first released in the mid-2000s, Company of Heroes. It was developed initially by the team at Relic Entertainment. Yeah, it sounds like it could be rough on paper, but what we have here is possibly one of the better-adapted RTS games on console ever.

Company of Heroes throws you into the midst of World War II as you take control of the Allies. The first campaign is the Invasion of Normandy, set in France, ordering Able Company into the thick of it. Later campaigns from the game’s original expansions feature missions from the British and even German sides. It’s all inspired by the actual events of the war.

Before you set off for your tour of duty, you’ll probably want to do what I didn’t do, and that’s the game’s tutorial. There’s a bit of a learning curve to get used to all of the game’s systems and controls. RTS games on consoles have never been as streamlined as a full keyboard and mouse, but Company of Heroes does well enough, and it works well even when you’re under pressure.

Even after the tutorial, you’ll still be learning the controls for a while, but they’ve added a few features from later games here to help you out. Company of Heroes differs from many RTS games, which make you control every unit. Luckily, you only have to control squads of troops, so the micromanaging doesn’t go too far. Despite being a “real-time” strategy game, Company of Heroes can be paused here on the Switch so you can queue up orders to squads; it also pauses when you pull up the Command Wheel so you can take a breather and stop and think.

You can also group your army strategically to move people around more efficiently; however, when you do select a group of different units, their abilities have to be scrolled through with the Command Wheel and set one by one. It can get a bit annoying to figure out which units you have already set to throw a grenade or drop mines, and can end up repeating them. Again, unlike other RTS games, you won’t win here by just sitting back and spamming units. It’s very much a rock-paper-scissors thing. It’s all about being smart with what units you have and using the game’s cover system to ensure you’re best placed on the battlefield with the right type of team.

The more you control the map, the more resources you have to gather to defend what you control. You’ll then need to manage your army to ensure they survive, heal, defend, and move around the map to achieve objectives. Each mission is unique; one mission has you storming the beach at Normandy. The next is pushing the enemy out of Carentan and then defending a now ruined Carentan from the enemy. After that, it’s clearing a path for a friendly convoy and defending it as they move. The game starts you off slowly. At first, you’re just controlling a squad of troops, and then you can take bigger anti-tank weapons on. Eventually, you’ll get vehicles, including tanks and engineers, to defend them. It’s only once a few missions in which you can build structures and produce new units.

The 15 missions mentioned earlier are just the first game’s content, and each mission can take upwards of an hour. Luckily, there are frequent autosaves and the ability to save anytime. The game has 41 missions included, and it’ll take a while to get through everything it offers. Outside the campaigns, there is also a Skirmish mode; these are straight-up battles between two opposing forces in the classic RTS mould. There are multiple options for win conditions. All of the maps from the single-player are here, and you can pick the CPU difficulty. Feral says they’ll add online co-op to the game eventually, but this package is entirely single-player.

For a game released in 2006 and now on the Switch, it’s still quite a looker. While it’s not overly bright and colourful, you know – because of the whole war thing, it is supremely detailed, and the game scales well from pulling back on the camera and seeing the battlefield to showing the soldiers, tanks and vehicles up close. The game also has a native resolution in handheld and docked mode, so it’s super crisp. The game’s UI has been updated from the original PC and matches the same UI the iPad version got a few years ago. Likewise, the game’s voice acting and music hold up, but up close, you’re still getting a game with mid-2000 animation.

Company of Heroes is another one of those Switch ports you probably didn’t expect, nobody asked for, but in the end, you’re happy it’s here. We’ve got this real-time masterpiece on the Switch. It won’t be for everyone, and learning the controls can take a bit, but It looks great and is still fun to play, even without a keyboard and mouse.

Rating: 4.5/5