The Men of War series is one of those game series that is what it is and isn’t really going to change. In this case, it’s about brutal World War II Real Time Strategy combat and that’s what it’s always been about. Men of War 2 has some…let’s say controversial changes, like making it always online. And boy, does it feel like an always online, free-to-play mobile infrastructure bolted on a decent-to-good World War 2 real-time strategy game.
Men of War II
Developer: Best Way
Price: $45
Platform: PC (reviewed)
MonsterVine was supplied with a Steam code for review
Let’s get right to the point: Men of War 2 is so clearly intended for multiplayer that the very first thing you see on login isn’t the tutorial or campaigns, it’s MULTIPLAYER. Don’t you want to play MULTIPLAYER? Don’t you want to play RANKED MULTIPLAYER or PVP or PVE MULTIPLAYER? We got MULTIPLAYER GALORE! Even the tutorial has unlockable multiplayer rewards and bonuses for completing the various missions…the whole experience shoves you towards multiplayer with all the subtlety of a bulldozer.
This is odd considering there is an awful lot of single player content in the game. Like there are story campaigns for the USSR, USA, and Germany with 6 missions each; historical campaigns for the USSR and USA with 7 missions each and a Bonus Missions campaign with 6 missions; Conquest modes on a strategic map covering the Eastern Front for the USSR and Germany and the Western Front for the USA and Germany; and Raid gameplay with 16 missions each covering the Western Front for the USA and Germany and the Eastern Front for the USSR and Germany. And all of these have 5 levels of difficulty. The missions themselves aren’t great but there are a lot of them, many of them of the classic RTS-flavored “yeah you have to clear the entire map and sometimes that means you have to run around looking for those two dudes in the upper right corner you didn’t kill.” Nothing new, but nothing soul-destroying.
But they still really want you to play online all the time, to the point that even the tutorial missions require spinning up and connecting to a server to play them, which can actually take a little bit of time, making the whole thing a bit of a slog. It also ruins the momentum of your campaign missions when it takes some time for the various servers to spin up and you realize, I could be doing something else right now.
That in itself is a shame because the game is pretty decent if you’re not sick to death of the World War 2 RTS as a genre. Men of War 2 is less about micromanagement and more about overall management. Your units are reasonably capable on their own, so managing reinforcements, giving general orders, even handling logistics, and ordering medics around is your first priority. Reinforcements arrive in “echelons” of stronger and stronger troops. Still, there’s a limited logistical capacity to how many and what troops can arrive when. There’s always the push and pull of strategic command, where you may want to focus on one area. Still, there are always ten different priorities and the battlefield is a fluid, living situation that changes every second.
The fun part is: that sometimes that micromanagement is needed and instead of furiously clicking and swearing you can, say it with me, ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL. When your dudes absolutely, positively need your expertise, you can, actually, get down in the muck and drive that tank to where it needs to be and shoot what needs to be shot with the big gun or order your dudes around or otherwise make sure things go right. Or you get owned, such is the way of battle.
Multiplayer is an enjoyably chaotic affair that depends entirely on your ability to order dudes around and the quality of your teammates as well as your ability to coordinate. I get the push for it since it can be fun, but lord, they really do make it feel like a crappy free-to-play mobile game with log-in bonuses and multiplayer rewards for completing missions and dailies and that kind of thing in addition to the always online thing. It is a very weird combination of vibes to log into a reasonably beefy and violent World War 2 RTS and be notified your daily supply drop (or whatever) refreshed. Or to do a tutorial mission to learn where to click and have to wait for a server to connect. What a weird combo.
The Final Word
A decent-to-good WW2 RTS with a puzzling always online requirement.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
