I have always been into real-time strategy (RTS) games from a young age, but not in the traditional sense of playing major titles like StarCraft, Command & Conquer or Homeworld. I remember stumbling into the sale section and seeing Supreme Commander 2 and Stronghold Crusader 2 on the shelves for the taking. I did not really even know the base-building aspects and creating units were even features that defined the RTS genre. Something about RTS games is satisfying and challenging enough to feel like a chess match against AI.
Fans have been waiting for a sequel to the original Men of War game after various spin-off games came out between 2009 and 2019. Ultimately, the developers wanted to create a direct sequel to Men of War (2009). Men of War II continued its story, setting focus on World War II again—but spiced it up with many different stories on each side of the war. Primarily, the single-player campaign and skirmish maps content on the armies of the USSR, the U.S. and Germany.
Men of War II mixed things up by allowing players to experience battles on the Eastern front and Western front—two different styles of Wehrmacht forces. Ukrainian developer Best Way also added in historical campaigns, which were inspired by real operations: Operation Bagration (USSR) and the US Operation Overlord. Like many RTS games, there is also a fully dynamic Conquest campaign. Then, there were Raids where skirmishes could happen at different points—where each playthrough was different. The number of missions and game types held this game together.
“Men of War II mixed things up by allowing players to experience battles on the Eastern front and Western front—two different styles of Wehrmacht forces.”
Some of the pet peeves I had with the game were its slightly long load times—for a game almost 20GB small. In comparison to other larger file-sized titles, I thought it was a little slow at times. More of a me-issue: It was strange that Men of War II did not start with a tutorial. But perhaps the devs expected many of the Men of War players to return to this game with the mechanics already in mind. There is a tutorial section under the main tab, “Learn,” but I thought it was interesting that they did not force the player to play some kind of tutorial before jumping in.
The one thing we were not able to fully test out in this early review was the multiplayer aspects of Men of War II. There was some difficulty setting up matchmaking with a small pool of reviewers, but I explored the custom offline maps and modes to see what the multiplayer elements had in store for its full release. If you play through the single-player/co-op maps, you will kind of get an idea of the terrain for the multiplayer maps.
For those itching for a new PC RTS title and want to switch it up from Company of Heroes 3 or a Command & Conquer game, Men of War II has the capability to entertain at the very least. It did its best to bring more content than the first game. The first game had different theatres of war: the Soviet Union, Greece and North Africa—allowing players to play as the Allies, Germans and Soviets (Japan was later introduced in a multiplayer patch).
Like most RTS games, players control different units : infantry (rifleman, machine gunners, etc.), artillery (various turret style units) and tank units (light, medium and heavy tank units). There are also some instances where air units can be used for strafing runs. Also common in many RTS games, there were over 50 different hotkeys for various actions, rather than pointing-and-clicking on every action for each unit. The two core parts that set Men of War II from other RTS games for me were that individuals in a unit could be controlled separately, and you can check each individual soldiers’ inventory and loot enemy corpses.
I enjoyed the fact that the game reinforces strategy a lot on some missions. Some missions should be played where you have to loot enemy bodies because the players’ given unit is so limited. Other than that, this sequel had a barebones interface that did not clog the screen like its predecessor—a pretty big plus for an RTS game. The cinematics were still lacking some heavy-hitting graphics quality; the game could have used a bigger leap in this department. I could see where some aspects, like the soldiers’ face textures and deaths, were a bit sharper than, say, Men of War: Assault Squad 2. However, the overall graphics were still on the same level as its other games made over 10 years ago.
For a game that took over 10 years to make a direct sequel, this was a major letdown. It was very uninspiring to see it not take a huge graphics leap into the 2020s. Men of War II needs a lot of refinement, and I wished they would let it cook for a bit longer—or use a different engine if they could.
The voice acting throughout the campaigns lacked all kinds of emotions; it almost sounded like an AI voice was reading off of a script. If you are a fan of Men of War, you will have fun playing the new content in Men of War II, but do not expect it to have made a great improvement in its overall visual and audio quality.
I think the developers wanted to keep the core elements of the original game for returning fans, which makes sense. Yes, the game will launch with full mod support. Yes, it will launch with full online/multiplayer capabilities (apparently, it will have offline playability later on, though). But I believe they could have at least brought a more technical advancement, such as even choosing a better text font for damage.
Essentially, Men of War II is a new game with the same old graphics, the same old strategy and the same old mechanics. Nothing more, nothing less.
