Company of Heroes

By Jason Waldrop

Tales of Valor is the second and latest stand-alone expansion for Company of Heroes from developer Relic Entertainment. Company of Heroes was given high praise for its excellent graphics, unique resource management, solid tactical gameplay and fun multiplayer component. Opposing Fronts was the first stand-alone expansion to be released, and it truly expanded Company of Heroes by adding two new playable armies along with two very long, albeit extremely difficult, campaigns. This time Relic has decided to go in a new direction with Tales of Valor, much like they did with Dawn of War II, but the results are less than impressive.

Core Gameplay

Long time fans will be happy to know that the core gameplay has remained relatively unchanged and is still as solid and fresh as it was back in 2006. The player begins each mission with a predefined amount of resources – manpower, munitions and fuel – along with some units. In order to build new units and expand your base you must capture territories that offer these key resources. Needless to say, the more territory you control the greater number of resources the player will have at their disposal.

There is a strong subset of gaming snobs who don’t play real time strategy games. Too twitchy. Too much clicking. Not enough strategy and not enough tactics. Among RTS die-hards there is group that avoids World War II themed games because the setting is overdone, and rarely well.

Company of Heroes drops into this crowded and disillusioned scene like a paratroop assault – totally unexpected and completely devastating to whatever preconceptions you had going in. This could be the best real time strategy game since Age of Empires.