With such a variety of video games releasing every single year, there are always a few that don’t fit with your specific tastes. I want to play everything though, and hate when I have a genre I don’t click with. I’m always looking for games that help me fall in love with those remaining blind spots, so that when a big new release pops up I’m not missing out. Real time strategy games are definitely one of the genres I struggle with most, and I might have found the solution to this. Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand is a Roguelike twist on the tactical war combat fans know and love, and the smaller scale makes it a perfect entry point for newcomers.
Final Stand is a standalone game, but if you are a Company of Heroes 3 owner it’ll integrate into the base game. Your goal in this mode is to defend your headquarters from waves of attacks, by making various units and using them effectively. There are four different armies to choose from, all with different units with their own strengths and weaknesses. If you can survive twelve waves of enemies you’ll beat a stage, but there’s also an endless mode for those who just want to keep blowing up tanks.
There are loads of different units in Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand, which I think is mainly because there are loads in the main game. One squad of soldiers might be good at repairing your tanks, another can bring a rocket launcher for when enemy vehicles start coming in. I loved positioning snipers in well covered spots and picking off infantry, and if you’re clever you’ll use cover and buildings to make the most of each unit giving their life for the cause.
Unlike most RTS games, Final Stand doesn’t require you to gather materials to create new units. Instead you’ll constantly gain the supplies needed to manage an army over time, and just need to worry about positioning and choosing the right tanks for the job. You can use your supplies to upgrade units too, like giving mortars to your infantry so they can hide behind a wall and blow up far more powerful units with ease.
You’ll start each run of Final Stand with only a couple of units, but between waves you’ll be offered a choice of two new ones alongside some other exciting things. Passive abilities can be picked to give you the edge in specific ways, like making calling in reinforcements cheaper or tanks more nimble. Active abilities are also offered, which are ridiculously helpful. I almost always just picked as many airstrikes as possible to deal with foes that were overwhelming the ground team, but there are also scout planes that reveal what’s hiding in the fog of war and buffs you can apply to your units to give them a boost in a pinch. These are on cooldowns with no cost to use, so you’re encouraged to really spam these for maximum effect.
The Roguelike elements of Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand mean all the units you take on and upgrades you are offered are random, but for those wanting some more permanent buffs that’s available between runs. For doing well against the enemy you’ll gain perk points for each specific army, which can be redeemed in a skill tree for various stat boosts to certain unit types. It’s a nice way to reward you for doing well, and is especially helpful when you decide to have a bash at higher difficulties.
I had a lot of fun for a good few hours with Final Stand, but it didn’t take long for things to start to feel a bit repetitive. There isn’t really much of a variety in the skills and units you’re offered in each run, and each of the five maps you can play feel functionally the same. As a bonus mode in a fully fleshed out RTS game it’d be a fine addition, but with a sizable standalone price tag (£25 or your regional equivalent) it’s likely not going to have the juice be worth it for a lot of people.
Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand gave me an opportunity to experience all the fun of an RTS without making my brain explode, and has made me intrigued enough to download the main game. As a standalone mode though it is undeniably lacking, and gets repetitive pretty quickly. Still if you’re looking for a tactical defence game with a solid foundation you won’t go wrong with Final Stand, just don’t expect to spend your hours seeing new stuff and having wildly different runs.
