Thirteen years after its original release, classic strategy game Company of Heroes is coming to iPad.
Prolific Unix, iOS, and Android port maker Feral Interactive has announced that they will be bringing Company of Heroes to iPad. Company of Heroes was originally developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. The game is a real-time strategy (RTS) game set in World War II. As the name implies, Company of Heroes tells the tale of several American infantry companies, beginning with the D-Day invasion and transitioning from unit to unit throughout the war. Gameplay takes place at the squad and company levels with players commanding anywhere between a handful to a little over a dozen units in battles that take place in real-time.
When it was released in 2006, Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes was met with critical acclaim, winning several Game of the Year awards. The game also shifted the conversation about what an RTS could be. At that time, most RTS games were chasing the competitive multiplayer-focused model pioneered by StarCraft and its expansion Brood War. By focusing on a relatively small squad of soldiers in World War II, Company of Heroes created a single-player-friendly RTS that didn’t necessarily require the incredibly high skill level that was necessitated in games like StarCraft. An emphasis on using terrain and buildings for cover also helped to set Company of Heroes apart from other games in the genre.
This focus on single-player and a relatively slow pace, for an RTS, are probably the only reasons Company of Heroes could even work as a mobile game on the iPad. Another factor that makes the game a candidate for tablets is the relative size of units in Company of Heroes compared to other RTS games. Company of Heroes favors larger-than-average character models, compared to most RTS games, which should make commanding those characters with a touch interface easier than the 10-pixel tall models of other games.
Company of Heroes will be available on iPad fall of this year. No specific release date has been revealed as part of the announcement, though now that an iPad version is coming, there could very well be a Switch rendition heading our way in the future.