Company Of Heroes 3 starts a multiplayer test tomorrow
A few days to try the multiplayer
While Company Of Heroes 3 isn't due out until next year, this week we'll all be invited to try a slice of the WW2 real-time strategy game's multiplayer. Relic Entertainment today announced a "multiplayer pre-alpha" will start on Tuesday, with several modes and maps to give a taste of battling across Italy for a few days. It'll be free, everyone is invited, and you can start pre-loading the client today.
Relic say pre-alphaneers "can experience four Italian maps in a variety of game modes, including co-op vs AI opponents, competitive PvP and Skirmish vs AI, while trying out familiar and brand-new features like Full Tactical Pause in skirmish mode, vehicle side armour, Verticality, Battlegroups, and Veterancy". That's with two of the factions, the US and Wehrmacht.
Relic already held a pre-alpha preview with a slice of the story campaign earlier in the year. At that point, Nate had a play and talked with some of the devs too. Talk turned distinctly Nate-y:
"I think the Brits have perhaps the wildest heavy tank", says [lead mission designer Sacha Narine], "but I'm not sure we’re allowed to talk about it right now." I wanted to probe more as to what this wild tank could be, but we accidentally spent ten minutes discussing the pure horror of the "crocodile" variant of the Churchill tank, which could project torrents of hellish burning fuel more than 100 metres. Genuinely terrifying.
The multiplayer pre-alpha starts on Tuesday, the 30th of November at 5pm GMT (9am Pacific) then will run until Thursday the 7th of December at 4am (that's 8pm Pacific on the 6th). If you played the first pre-alpha, you should be able to simply load up your Steam library and start preloading the multiplayer pre-alpha now. Other folks will need to sign up for the COH-Development Program and link their Steam account before they can join in tomorrow.
Company Of Heroes 3 is due to launch on Steam sometime in 2022.