Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand

At roughly $20 for people who already own the base game, that's a fair price for something that'll keep you engaged for several playthroughs, shortcomings and all. At full price, it's a tougher sell.

Although the Final Stand expansion for Company of Heroes 3 significantly expands the co-op experience, which in the base game was limited to matches against the AI, its new game mode, focused primarily on defensive gameplay, feels like only a minor addition. On top of that, the developers are asking quite a high price for it.

Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand offers a different approach within the franchise and successfully adapts some of the series' strongest elements into a survival-focused experience. Building an effective defense, choosing technologies, and constantly reacting to enemy attacks creates intense moments, especially when stronger enemies appear and every decision starts to matter. However, the biggest issue lies in its limited scope. Final Stand is a much smaller experience than a full Company of Heroes game, functioning almost like a separate mode that is restricted by the amount of available content. Despite having a strong strategic foundation, the lack of variety and some systems that encourage replaying the same battles repeatedly make the sense of discovery disappear faster than it should. The randomness of technologies can also create unfair situations, while the lack of saving options and some camera issues show that there was still room for more improvements. It is an experience with good ideas that can provide enjoyable matches, especially for players who like testing different strategies or playing cooperatively, but it leaves the impression that Final Stand could have gone much further. With more maps, a greater variety of events, deeper progression, and additional quality-of-life improvements, it could have become a much more memorable addition to the franchise.

Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand is, overall, a competent horde survival game that will keep you entertained and coming back. However, variety is a little more lackluster than it might seem at first glance, and the relatively steep price point does not make it an easy recommendation to people who are not already familiar with CoH.

Overall, Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand is a solid RTS title. While the game may be completed in a matter of days, I do like how you can jump in and smash out a few maps without having to dedicate hours to building bases and unlocking technology, as in the main title. It’s a fun, fast-paced version of the main game with enough content to keep you going when you feel the need to test your military strategy against an unpredictable AI.

'COH3: Final Stand' is an ambitious project that combines Relic's signature micro-intensive real-time strategy gameplay with a cooperative horde defense concept. Unfortunately, the final product falls well short of that ambition, delivering a rough and unpolished experience that fails to live up to expectations in terms of fun. Most baffling of all, it's difficult to understand why the developers removed matchmaking—a feature that already exists and functions perfectly well in the base game.

The popular World War II strategy series is attempting a comeback, this time focusing on base defense. "Final Stand" is essentially a traditional, slightly tweaked game mode'devoid of major surprises and carrying an excessively high price tag.

Company of Heroes 3: Final Stand still manages to deliver the tense defensive battles that the series is known for. Every run is a different battlefield story, from desperately fixing damaged outposts to surviving overwhelming armor to holding the line with perfectly timed support abilities.