Company of Heroes – Sharpening the minds of gamers?

Normally I avoid World War II games, as I got sick of them due to the seemingly never ending stream of World War II themed games released over the years, but through a series of events I acquired Company of Heroes. First I read the glowing review of Company of Heroes in my October issue of PCGamer and became aware of its ubiquitous high ratings. Must be an outstanding game I thought, but nah, it was about the hackneyed topic World War II again. Then I saw the game on sale at Futureshop for $39.99 CDN, $10 off the regular price. An excellent game recently released at a discount? Very tempting, and I was on the verge of deciding to purchase it. The final persuasion came in the form of my friends. They have the game and also spoke well of it and casually suggested I should get the game too. And that light little comment tipped me over the edge. Thus I drove myself to my local Futureshop store and grabbed my copy of Company of Heroes.
After a few hours, working through the tutorial and two missions, I join the overwhelming consensus: it’s a great game. The graphics and sound are visceral. It may not be evident in my screen captures, so forgive me since I possess a senile computer of over three years old that could only handle the game smoothly at a maximum detail of one setting at medium, and the rest low. Anyways, I think the main enjoyment of the game comes from the satisfaction of overcoming strategic problems. For example, early in the game one has to capture a key point on the side of a road, but there is constant regular enemy vehicle patrol rolling by. All one has is infantry. How would you tackle this situation? Do you use brute force and charge your way to the point with all the men you got and hope they’ll take the point? Or do you send a squad or two further up the road to lay some mines? The mines will destroy a few rounds of cars, buying enough time for another squad to capture the point. Or do you seek some heavier weaponry for your riflemen so they can put more than a dent into cars? Such as upgrading your troops to have the 57mm recoiless rifle, or failing that, hunting down an enemy squad that does possess heavier weaponry and stealing their panzershrecks, or you notice that last outpost you’ve captured has two 50mm anti-tank guns laying around that might be put to better use in your infantry’s hands. I wonder about the real commanders or soldiers in decades past with their lives on the line, not mere time and “resources” in a game, that had to be cleverly resourceful and creative to overcome their obstacles to complete their missions and/or survive. It is games like these that give credit to the argument that people who play games regularly throughout their lives translates into an advantage in the real world, because these games hone their problem-solving skills to a higher level over non-gamers. I have read articles saying there are managers and employers who regard gaming as a positive trait due to this reasoning, and would hire a gamer over a non-gamer with comparative qualities. If so, then that’s good news for all us gamers, and we have games like Company of Heroes to thank. So what are you waiting for? Buy it, play it, and put it on your résumé.