Men of War II storms the beaches of Normandy with a blend of RTS and action gameplay
The Men of War series has always been the plucky Eastern European answer to the relatively big-budget Company of Heroes games, but it's more than that too: Over the years, Men of War has found enormous popularity among RTS fans thanks to its thriving modding scene and broader range of settings. With Company of Heroes 3’s launch earlier this year, I’ve been eager to see how the upcoming Men of War II stacks up against Sega’s heavy hitter, which I found to be a decidedly mixed bag.
While there’s still some time before the full game launches, Men of War II recently held an open beta, during which I played a few of its single-player missions. From the looks of things, Men of War II is making some smart updates on the established formula, which has always had a strong core concept but has suffered from its own dedication to fine detail.
That fine detail is why someone would pick a Men of War game over a Company of Heroes game, though. Where Company of Heroes has always kept things simple by restricting the number of options players have at any given time to the bare essentials, Men of War has always offered more. These are games that count each soldier’s remaining rounds and track who’s carrying which grenades; tank subsystems can be damaged and repaired independently; and if you don’t like the way a gunner is performing, you can look down his iron sights and shoot for him.
It’s a lot to handle in the thick of battle, which I suppose is the point. The streamlined Company of Heroes format has some advantages here: In those games, you’re playing the overall commander of one side in a conflict, which means you don't have time to be fussing over each GI’s ammo loadout and the distribution of first aid kits.
Playing the open beta for Men of War II, it feels as though developer Best Way has split the difference a bit, sliding a few notches over toward this sleeker approach. The detail is still here, but it feels tucked away a bit better now, and missions went smoothly enough without me needing to dig into some of Men of War’s more obsessive details.
The first mission I played featured a US Army tank platoon linking up with an artillery position in France that had gone radio silent. In another, I led a crack team of Soviet commandos on a daring rescue mission into a German POW camp. The third mission was all about setting up a German army ambush.
While the gameplay has shifted somewhat towards the more user-friendly feeling of Company of Heroes, Men of War II is still not messing around when it comes to difficulty. These missions were demanding, and mistakes were punished severely. If I placed my snipers in the wrong positions, they were spotted by German patrols and shot dead before I could react. A poorly aimed smoke grenade led to an entire assault force getting cut down in seconds. Company of Heroes usually allows me some time to react if a plan isn't going the way I had hoped, but Men of War is ready to rap my knuckles with the ruler if I’m not careful about following instructions to the letter.
Visually speaking, Men of War II isn’t on the same level as Company of Heroes 3, but it still is a nice step up from the decade-old Assault Squad 2. Terrain in particular looks much more lifelike than ever before, although the maps do have a sterile Arma-esque quality to them that’s always set Men of War apart from the more Spielbergian backdrops of Company of Heroes.
In terms of multiplayer, Men of War II will feature the classic one-on-one skirmishes, as well as co-op team “combined arms” battles and a single-player vs AI skirmish mode. There’s an impressive army builder that allows for customization of battle groups based on a points system, but I’ll have to wait until the next test period to dig into that some more.
Or I could just wait for the swiftly approaching full launch. Men of War II is currently set to arrive on PC on September 20. Although I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to devote to it that I have with some of the older games in the series, it seems to have everything fans could want, and I’ll definitely be checking back in for the launch.
💬 Have you played any of the Men of War II beta tests, or are you waiting for launch before diving in? Let me know in the comments.
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