Game Play:
Men of War is not your classic arcade RTS. You will notice this immediately due to the lack of base building. Now the frontline action RTS genre has really grown a bit in the past years so this isn't the first time we've seen this, no. What really makes this game different from a classic arcade RTS, in fact different from ANY RTS is the fact that you don't produce units or manage an economy. The game play completely revolves around giving you total control of small squads of soldiers and using them to complete objectives in missions. This would seem like a stupid idea given most gamers existing mindset of RTS units. That is you point and click, your units attack, then die. Units in Men of War are not like this. Digitalmindsoft has built their game around a completely new concept and have single-handedly redefined the meaning of the unit. The few soldiers you're often given to complete missions in the game are smart. They not only know when to shoot or even to take cover. They know how to throw grenades when enemies are behind cover, throw grenades back at enemies, change stances to better hit or evade the enemy, switch weapons depending on how far the enemy is, approach armored vehicles with anti tank grenades, heal themselves with bandages when critically wounded, swim, drive tanks, drive cars, drive motorcycles... The list goes on. The fact is, units in Men of War are not units, they are not even NPCs, each and every man in the game has a full AI that rivals a bots. Each man has their own inventory, can hold and shoot any weapon provided they have ammo for that weapon in their inventory, throw any grenade, or use any object. Even vehicles such as tanks or cars are not units, they are objects controlled by the men you place inside them. A tank can be operated by one man, but then this man can't drive and shoot at the same time. If you want the tank to move, the man inside it will drive it, if you want the tank to shoot, the man inside must switch positions to the turret, load the gun, turn the turret, then fire. If you have more men inside the tank then driving and shooting can occur simultaneously because there are enough men in the tank to operate each system.
The smart men in Men of War live in a similarly smart environment. Men of War features fully interactive and destructive environments which hold fully interactive objects. A building in a map cannot be click selected and attacked or garrisoned in the classic sense. Your men can enter a building through the door, or by jumping through a window or a broken wall. Once inside, the roof of the building becomes transparent allowing you to see where your men are inside. From there you can direct them to take cover or shoot out windows or even plant a stick of dynamite, if your men have one, if you want to take down the whole building. The buildings, walls, and rock formations are all extensions of the map and thus can be destroyed realistically bet it with explosives or running a tank through them. The physics engine in Men of War is so spectacular that buildings even feature individual parts and will collapse differently depending on how they are damaged. For example the whole front face a building can be torn down leaving the rest of the building standing but the roof section held up by the front wall would obviously collapse. Even the debris pieces that break off the building are objects that remain on the ground and can be freely kicked around by tanks. A particularly interesting thing players might notice is that when moving heavy objects over ice, of which particular maps have, their is a chance the object, like a tank, will break through the ice and be lost to the depths.
Well there was my rant on how amazing this game's engine is. Now I'm sure you're ready to here how the game actually plays. As I said earlier, Men of War revolves around you controlling few squads of men on missions. There are three separation campaigns in the game: Russian with nine missions, German with five missions, and American with five missions. There are an additional set of five bonus missions unrelated to the campaigns bringing the total mission count to 24. This is a lot of levels for a single player game. They're not short levels either, most levels will take upwards of 30 to 45 minutes to complete while some will stretch on for hours on end. The mission variety and map design is excellent. Some missions will have very Commandos feel with you controlling only four men in an enemy infested town which forces you to make use of stealth. Others will arm you with a full brigade of troops as you try to defend against waves and waves of enemy attackers. These missions are, without any doubt, the most epic game moments I've ever seen with hundreds of enemies charging your lines while air planes fly above dropping bombs. There are mixed missions as well which may start as a covert mission but evolve into a full on assault on a heavily fortified enemy position. The campaigns mix these three mission types very well and you won't ever find yourself playing three commandos missions in a row. Unfortunately, I believe most players who haven't played Men of War's predecessor, will find these campaigns excessively difficult. This is because every mission pits you against overwhelming odds. It will be common case for you to face against an army of 100 or more men with only four men. Of course such missions will not require you to eliminate the enemy though, thus using stealth to complete your objectives is natural in these cases. However the loss of even one man in these missions will likely cause you to fail. Also you will never find yourself bogged down by having to micro your men in huge hectic battles where you control fifty or more men as such missions rarely require you to control units individually. In these epic battles, the loss of even dozens of men are not likely to jeopardize your chances of success. Additionally, the phenomenal AI of your units allow them to hold their own without you having to babysit them. The game is hyper realistic though so don't expect your men to survive very many hits. They can heal if they have bandages but if your men ever come face to face with a tank, don't expect them to last very long. All weapons and vehicles in game are true to life as well so in many cases, if you don't have the appropriate weapon, you have to hide and improvise or die. Many a times I've pushed my luck by running a light tank into enemy lines only to have the instantly destroyed by an enemy anti tank weapon or shot repeatedly at heavier tanks with weapons having no chance at all to penetrate their armor. The developers did not sweat any details with this game so the player seriously needs to make use of real life tactics. How do you take down a tank without a bazooka? You draw its fire with one guy, sneak another guy around the tank, plant a dynamite beside the tank, then run for you life and hope that tank doesn't move away.
A multiplayer component is also present in the game. It features several game types such as point control, death match, assault, front line assault, and even campaign co-op. A great variety but all standard affair here. All but front line assault and campaign co-op occur on a huge list of shared maps however. I haven't counted but the total number I think is above 25. Each map is just as detailed as the campaign maps.
Control Scheme:
If my writeup of the game play seems overly patronizing, my writeup of the control scheme will not. Men of War does not have a very good control scheme. The menu doesn't take up an excessive amount of space and is quite lean. There's a standard unit control panel to the bottom right, a smaller unit status panel on the bottom left, and a long shortcut bar spanning the bottom of the screen. The design is not innately bad, its just very cluttered due to the sheer number of functions available. The unit control panel has buttons for reloading, unloading, holstering, arming, planting bombs, switching weapons, changing stances, changing movement pattern, changing firing commands, etc. When each unit even has a player manageable inventory that can hold any number of things, it gets confusing very fast. The game's lack of tutorial makes this all the more worse and I can see many players buying this game and giving up before they even start due to the interface. Obvious features such as being able to select specific men from a group of selected ones using the interface are annoyingly missing too. On the bright side, some pretty nifty features like being able to move the minimap, inventory, and objectives panels freely to allow you some measure of interface customization are included.
Graphics:
Men of War's engine is, frankly, outdated as it is only a highly improved version of its predecessor's engine now over five years old. This is not a derogatory statement against Men of War, but a testament to how great the original engine was programmed. The graphics certainly can't keep up with the likes of modern RTS like Dawn of War 2 or World in Conflict but are certainly not low detailed. Though it lacks advanced shader model support, Direct X 10, advanced water modeling, or advanced particle effects, it more than makes up with sheer graphical detail. Object models of tanks and buildings exceed most existing RTS games and the huge number of plants, vegetation, buildings, and wreckage in maps mean no scene is ever boring to see. Zooming in close to units does reveal slightly low resolution skins though. Explosions and effects aren't as flashy as they are in World in Conflict but seem more realistic due to the decreased amount of Hollywood fire and increased amount of explosion debris.
Sound:
There is nothing advanced about Men of War's sound system. The game does not support surround sound, Creative, Dolby, or DTS enhancements. In stereo audio though, the game's sound effects are fairly impressive. Explosions pack a fair amount of oomph and weapons sound are fitting, especially tanks. There is not a large enough variety of weapon sound effects however so not every weapon sounds like their real life counterpart. A particular aspect many players have already highlighted however, is the absolutely atrocious voice acting for the English version of the game. The voice acting is more often than not, laughable with some of the most horrible attempts to sound fitting ever.
Bugs:
Men of War's predecessor suffered horribly from excessive bugs. Many players found it unplayable. Men of War however, I can safely say, is almost bug free. Of all the times I've played it, it has never crashed. I have also seldom encountered bugs in game. Occasionally soldiers have become stuck in geometry or objects been thrown to stupid lengths by disproportionate explosions but none are game breaking bugs.
Pros:
- No other WWII experiance like it
- Incredible map and model detail
- Engaging game play that actually requires thinking and real tactics
- Lengthy, quality campaign
- Absolutely amazing AI
- Exceptional Realism
- Punishingly difficult
- Absolutely horrid voice acting
- Dated graphics
- Confusing and cluttered interface
- No tutorial
4.5 out of 5 Stars: Made of WIN!
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