CoH3 is where it's at. I've been playing CoH since CoH1 on a physical disc and really got into the multiplayer with CoH2. CoH3 takes the best from CoH1 and CoH2, then adds a healthy amount of its own uniqueness and cooks it all up into a fantastic entry into the franchise. This review is based primarily on the multiplayer experience.

To be clear, CoH3 did not have a good launch. It was released too early. Everyone can agree with that. Now, however, the game is in a fantastic state. Here are some key points that makes CoH3 the best game in the franchise.

- Every faction is unique, but all are equally competitive (obviously the current state of the game with balance patches can affect this to some degree)

- Every Battlegroup for each faction is completely unique and each faction will soon have 5 different ones to choose from. CoH1 had this uniqueness, but only 3 to choose from for each faction. CoH2 had the same abilities present amongst various different commanders which made many commanders not wholly unique.

- Every faction has multiple viable builds. For example, you might see a USF generic Rifle build, or they might go heavy support center. From there you might see a single greyhound, or you might see a chaffee or two. Maybe the USF player relies on halftracks more instead and maybe even skips motor pool entirely. Each game just feels very different because so many different builds are viable. It's a nice breath of fresh air from the CoH2 repetition of build 3-4 inf squads then rush light vic into ATG into medium armor. In CoH3 you have some games where medium armor never hits the field and it's all light vehicles all game. Or there are no light vehicles and it's a straight rush to medium armor. You even see top level players sometimes spending fuel on healing before their first light vehicle. The viability of different builds is one of the primary reasons this game is better than CoH1 and 2. In CoH2 a USF player that builds 3 Stuarts in a game and never techs T4 is memeing. In CoH3, a USF player that builds a Greyhound into 3 Chaffees might actually be doing the best thing for themselves in their situation.

- Faction design is amazing.
-- UKF is mostly your generic COH faction, but even they have fun choices to be made throughout the game. Do you go early Dingo? Double Engineer or Vickers? Or neither and go all Rifle Sections? Maybe get out some Aussie Squads? All early game choices that are all viable in different situations.
-- Wehr is somewhat similar to CoH2 Soviets, but still with great MGs. Here, opening builds still vary a lot. Some go double pio, some go kettenkrad. Then is it 3-4 Grens? or 2 grens and an MG? Sometimes you see double MG. Then do you go Luftwaffe or Panzergrenadier HQ for your T2 building? I absolutely love all of the choices again here and how they all fit into different situations and approaches to the game
-- USF seemed the most one-dimensional at first, until the power of the WSC was discovered. Now you see some straight WSC openers with only support weapons and scouts/engineers. Of course, you still see many generic Rifleman builds. You also see a lot of mixed builds now too with riflemen and maybe a bazooka squad or two. Then you might see some halftrack play, or you'll see some motor pool. Again, very fun choices to be amde.
-- Then there's DAK. For any COH1 vets out htere, DAK is if Panzer Elite was made the right way. They are very light vehicle and mechanized focused, but they are not broken. The variety in viable builds is probably greatest with DAK and is one of the most interesting factions to play for that reason imo.

- The game is still receiving balance patches and DLC. 4 new Battlegroups are set to release this month. New maps are added once or twice a year. Balance is tweaked regularly, but not so often that you can't learn and adapt your builds.

If you're still on the other side of the fence about this, just auto-vault over and give it a try. The gameplay is fun and the decision making is so compelling that I can honestly never go back to the other games in the franchise. I truly believe Relic have hit their mark with this game and I cannot recommend it enough.

Excellent game! well designed, and one of the best RTS's out at the moment.

Unfortunately players are put in at 1000 elo to start their ranking mission, which means being faced with early loses online. However if you can get through the first games you will enjoy the very dynamic and fun game.

There are lots of different teams and maps and a very high skill ceiling. If you have a group I highly recommend as 3 v 3/ 4 v 4 game modes is very good for teamwork.

The single player is enjoyable too, however I'm mostly a multiplayer gamer.

Need fixing. alot of it