Skip To...
When I think about RTS games, I always remember what made me addicted to them as a teenager. The large-scale battles, units that grow progressively stronger, the feeling of breaking through an enemy’s camp while riding a tank. In a sense, Men of War 2 gave me all of these things. However, it was extremely confusing for someone who’s been away from real-time strategy games for a while and returned to this. Its cluttered UI, lack of explanation, and janky systems hold down what could’ve been the revival of the RTS genre.
Men of War 2 Review
Men of War 2 feels like a dichotomy. On the one hand, you have extremely immersive campaigns with in-depth missions ranging from sabotage to stealth and survival. On the other hand, you have an extremely confusing UI, cluttered action bars for units, and a direct control option that could’ve been great if it wasn’t so janky when using it. What could’ve been an addictive game had me step away from my PC after a single match because it was hard to understand everything thrown at me. Yes, even after the two-hour-long tutorial.
Story: Once More Into WWII
By now, the WWII setting in games and other media is extremely saturated. Still, it is one the audience doesn’t mind revisiting. For world history savvy, Men of War 2 has many things that are great. You have Operation Overlord, Operation Bagration, and many more events that any fan of this tumultuous period might love. If you don’t know about history, don’t fret, as it isn’t a requirement.
In Men of War 2, you play three of the major factions involved during the conflict: Russia, the USA, and Germany. Each nation has its campaign consisting of six missions, each for a total of 18. Furthermore, you have other single-player modes, such as historical operations, with a total of 20 missions. There’s Conquest mode, which seems like a turn-based campaign against the AI, but I didn’t delve too much into it as I found it confusing. And finally, Raids, which I liked a lot. They are ever-changing campaigns with and against AI, with many stages that change every run.
Overall, the story of Men of War 2 isn’t a focus and isn’t mindblowing either, unless you’re into world history. What was great about these campaigns was the depth of the missions. For example, playing as the URSS, one mission turned into survival mode where I had to gather weapons, avoid enemy patrols, and reach an allied camp. As the USA, I had to infiltrate enemy territory at night, sabotage camps, and call in reinforcements. For me, this was fantastic, at least on paper and while traversing the map, but once the gameplay part hit, it was too overwhelming.
Gameplay: A Hail of Systems
Speaking of gameplay, let me start with this: RTS fans aren’t strangers to a bombardment of systems. Let’s take Age of Empires as an example; you must build your town, assemble an army, and unlock technologies. I wonder, then, why, if Men of War 2 doesn’t rely on base-building and its technologies are unlocked outside matches, why was it so confusing? Well, its UI and the fact that hovering over certain things explains absolutely nothing, making understanding this game harder than seeing through the fog of war.
Let’s start with the basics: assembling your army. Since you don’t unlock units through buildings, you begin a match with a set of premade soldiers and vehicles. To put them on the battlefield, you use command points, which are capped at first and increase as the match progresses. If a unit dies, you get those points back. Most units you get are premade for story missions. For modes like raid, you get your nation’s currency and can use it to buy soldiers and vehicles and edit your regiments.
Overall, I found assembling an army tedious. In story missions, I understand having a premade regiment is fine. However, in other game modes, I didn’t want to bother assembling one, and believe me, I tried. While some things are easy to understand, like certain stats, others are confusing. Battle rank, for example. You hover over it, and it says battle rank. Nothing else. I assumed the lower the rank, the weaker the unit, so I went with that. With so many soldiers and vehicles to pick from, I rarely felt any was more necessary than another, but then again, I stuck to single-player and played on normal difficulty. I imagine a multiplayer match will have more depth regarding unit choices.
Combat: Like Toy Soldiers
The combat in Men of War 2 is visually stunning. It reaches the gore and realism of movies like Fury, which I loved. However, the actual part of controlling an army isn’t that great. On paper, Men of War 2 offers intricate platoons with soldiers of different roles and even a direct control option. In practice, it wasn’t that engaging.
For example, in one sabotage mission that had me extremely excited, I began with paratroopers. The game threw a wall of text at me saying they have sabotage capabilities, infiltration options, and anything you imagine to wreak havoc. I went, “Sweet, I like that!” As I expected the game to give me a hands-on explanation of how to sabotage and infiltrate, it didn’t happen. Instead, I had to hover around every action bar option to see what I could do, and then, when I tried to throw a grenade or stealth kill someone, I was sabotaging my unit faster than any enemy encampment.
Let’s move on to large-scale battles. Again, the visuals are fantastic. The fog surrounding your base or the snow fields covered with blood and ashes is a marvel to see. Men of War 2 sets an epic stage, but when you get behind the tank’s wheel, it all turns janky. For instance, when I took direct control of a tank, I felt powerful. I could destroy bags of sand and fences just by moving over them. But God forbid I hit a stone because it makes my tank stop as if it had hit a landmine.
Frankly, it is sad that the direct control feature, which was the one I was most excited about, feels unreliable. On the other hand, and credit where’s due, the AI is great. When selecting my units or a specific soldier, I could send them whenever I wanted and give them a specific task. However, with so many movement options and actions on the hotbar, I would’ve loved to have campaigns that taught me how to use each. At the end of each match, I needed to take a break because I felt I was mindlessly clicking on everything, hoping to defeat enemies with no strategy at all.
Graphics & Audio: A Blast From the Past
Moving on to the visuals, there’s nothing bad about them. Men of War 2 tries to bring realism to every map, giving jaw-dropping landscapes in many campaigns. Whether it is the lush forest that hides enemies behind its branches or the beaches full of trenches, they were all fantastic to look at. Men of War 2 doesn’t shy away from gore moments during combat. Whether you see the extremities of a soldier flying away or a tank exploding, these are very realistic visuals for an isometric RTS game.
On the other hand, the audio is rough. Not the music, as it fits the war setting. But the voice acting, oh boy, it isn’t great. I understand getting actors with the proper accent is hard, but everything sounded like it came from an AI voice bank. You might not notice this too much during certain missions. However, those focused on story campaigns might twitch after hearing certain dialogues. Speaking of which, some don’t even match the subtitles.
Conclusion: A Lost Front
Men of War 2 has interesting ideas, many of which come from its long-standing franchise. However, it doesn’t bring a lot for a modern RTS game. While the two-hour tutorial might help people understand the basics, so many systems will confuse even veterans. Furthermore, the lack of explanation for certain units paired with a cluttered UI doesn’t make things easier. And if that wasn’t enough, the “innovative” direct control feature feels janky regardless of what unit you control.
With a bit more polish, Men of War 2 could be an interesting experience because it has many strong points. It has fantastic visuals, excellent mission design, and dynamic campaigns. However, once you start controlling everything around these things, you realize that it is too confusing to allow you to enjoy any of the good parts this game has.
Men of War 2 (PC Reviewed)
Men of War 2 brings many ideas to the table and other interesting concepts that fall short due to lack of explanation, cluttered UI, and a poor onboarding process for newcomers.
Pros
- Stunning visuals.
- Dynamic and deep campaign missions.
Cons
- Cluttered UI design.
- Most features lack a clear explanation.
- Not friendly for RTS newcomers.
