The prospect of evaluating a contemporary real-time strategy game was intriguing for someone who enjoyed the original Age of Empires. How much of a difference can an experience actually make, after all? However, things are quite different in the case of Men of War 2 and the Men of War series, which made for an experience that I found to be both moderately confusing and tremendously interesting at the same time. Let's examine the features that Men of War 2 provides.
Set aside your knowledge of the genre.
Let me begin by stating that you are in for a crazy trip if, like me, your only exposure to real-time strategy games has been via Age of Empires. Men of War 2 is the kind of game you want to play with a handbook open, going over the basic missions again to make sure you understand them the first time around.
The game is enormous, but not so much because of how much material it has as much as it is because of how unique and intricate the gameplay is. I will state up front that this is the best real-time strategy game available, with a strong focus on strategy. Every choice you make throughout a match counts and affects how every battle turns out.
The map is split into two territories: yours and the enemy's. You will be able to invade and be invaded quickly while attempting to choose the best units in your reserves thanks to a system called Command Points, which will restrict your options for units and prevent you from spamming them to build massive armies to overpower the opposition as you would in any other game. Battalions that are not concerned with making the most of their surroundings may be destroyed by even a small contingent of strategically placed forces.
Carry forth the words, live the fight
Regarding the troops, you will be able to choose your unit structure, the standard way your soldiers engage with the opponents around them, and even the sort of ammunition each of your units is equipped with. Fortifications may be constructed, Build trenches, adopt a different posture, take over enemy vehicles, and do whatever else you can think of. This is a game with crucial decisions that must be made quickly since one shot may and will murder your men in an instant if you're not cautious.
Though they may sometimes be damaged by incoming fire, vehicles are also quite useful in fighting the enemy. Let's imagine you are recklessly driving your tank into enemy territory. It is possible for the adversary to target and destroy your tank's tracks, rendering it immobile. Naturally, one of your repair kits crew members can use it to fix it, but it will take some time, and you will be helpless against enemy troops. After all, you may give instructions to every crew member inside your tank, and they might all be killed by the oncoming fire.
These are only a few of the many facets of battle that you may control with precision, ensuring that your performance determines both your victories and losses. Even if you provide commands to your forces, you may still utilize direct control to take control of a soldier or a vehicle like you would in a shooter game and try to eliminate the enemy on your own. This won't work, of course, but it can be helpful in situations when accuracy is required.
The tragedies and art of war
The graphics of the game are excellent. It seems realistic enough for you to take a step back and enjoy seeing your forces move about like small toy soldiers on one of those intricate playsets you see in action figure ads, even if it doesn't push any limits (why would you expect an RTS to do so?). while I utilized direct control, the immersion was somewhat lost because of the sniping system's and camera angles' lack of depth and detail, which was less obvious while viewing the game from above.
There are various bugs in the UI. The action buttons at the bottom of the screen, the default text that shows up anytime there's an objective to finish, and even the tank and vehicle designs seem a little tiny and not nearly as informative as they need to be so I can make snap judgments in the heat of combat.
is the screenshot.You can't fight a battle by yourself. except from the fact that you can.
That being said, when the game enabled me to, what I liked to play. ) is its copious quantity of single-player content (I'll get to that later). I love historical war games, thus the three distinct campaigns were really thrilling to me.
As the Russian, American, and German armies attempt to repel the approaching Nazi invasion, retake Paris, and escape from defeat, respectively, you get to command them. It was refreshing and realistic to have the game depend on your criteria rather than giving you instructions on particular actions or commands to perform, and it felt very satisfying at first. Although I would have preferred some cinematics over a block of text providing directions, I get that this is the kind of game where the emphasis is intended to be on the action taking place on the map.
In addition, you may play the Historical, Conquest, and Raid modes. In the first, you will simulate actual military actions such as the Red Army's invasion of Byuelorussia or the Normandy Battle. In turn-based battle, Conquest lets you try to take control of the regions on a dynamic map. Similar to a roguelike mode, raid requires you to complete many tasks that are unique each time the game is launched.
The positive and negative aspects of the internet
MultiplayerHowever, was also a highly chaotic and enjoyable experience, offering several modes for all of you to play with and slaughter your buddies on the field. In the 4v4 or 5v5 Battalions mode, you have the option of playing against AI teams or other human players. In this mode, you may completely design your Regiments, or the kind of units you bring to the game. Your Regiments will be split up into Echelons, which will only become available after a certain period of time. This will prevent you from just spamming troops and force you to play more strategically.With fixed regiments and no echelon system, you fight in 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 matches in classic mode. You utilize all of your command points to call any troops you may need for the fight. Lastly, Combined Arms uses the Echelon system and requires you to choose a faction and regiments in order to play a round with more troops and greater Command Points.
Everything about this appeared fantastic, but there's a major red flag: the game is always online when it first launches. You are unable to play the game if your internet connection drops. I ran into serious problems that prevented me from playing the game itself even though they allowed me access the main menu. As one would anticipate, I will be discussing the multiplayer mode. Not at all! The multiplayer functionality was flawless! For a long, I was unable to play any of the single-player stuff because I had to wait for a "Local Server" request, which kept failing. It was finally resolved, but just in case you run into the same problem, it's worth sharing.
Why would you make gamers who are playing a single Campaign task join to a server against their will? It's a bold decision that significantly damages a game that has a lot going for it. To even believe that this was a brilliant concept ultimately comes out as selfish. Even if an offline option is being developed at the time I write this review, you don't want to alienate gamers when the feature is released.
In conclusion
Men of War 2 was a fun game for me, even if it made me sweat a lot and regret all of my poor strategic choices. The fact that it was constantly online really sapped some of the goodwill the game itself managed to engender, but maybe these are problems that will be resolved in due course.
Men of War 2, despite its technical problems, is a good game that will captivate you with its many levels of complexity and leave you in awe of what contemporary real-time strategy games can do. Although there are a lot of things that might be improved, I think—or rather, hope—that the people at Best Way can do better than what they have provided.
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