Men of War II review

There’s something incredibly raw and unforgiving about playing World War RTS titles. They have an unrelenting realness to them that every choice you make could be your last, feeling like you’re either sending you soldiers to their imminent death, or to steal victory from the jaws of defeat. Men of War II does all of the above and then some, offering some of the most intense moment-to-moment gameplay I’ve ever seen in the genre, and the seriousness of war has never been as present as it is in Best Way’s clever and exciting sequel to the 2009 original.

Men of War II feels so much more personal with every decision you have to make in the heat of battle. Emergent moments spawn all the time, whether you decide to send a single troop to take out a nearby tank with an explosive or risk it all and send a handful of soldiers on a Hail Mary to clear out a sniper nest while a full-scale battle takes place around you. You have so many tactical opportunities while controlling your tanks and infantry that these smaller moments or choices to make use of singular heroes to do something remarkable can be ignored. However, when you do use them, they present some of the most exhilarating successes you’re likely to have.

When you’re teasing the beginning of engagement with the enemy, knowing exactly what to do and how to adapt on the fly is paramount because things can go south very quickly. Knowing what all the icons mean can still be confusing even after the tutorial, and it is only through playing over and over that things start to make more sense. You’ve got a lot at your disposal, but one thing Men of War II does well is not allow you to simply spawn all the time. It keeps things somewhat restrictive, adding to that deeper strategy of less is more and planning with less resources for a bigger impact.

Most battles are controlled well due to the wealth of tactical options you have on maps, such as a variety of choke points and tunnels to concentrate your fire on. High ground isn’t necessarily a factor, but there are plenty of buildings that can be taken advantage of, though at the same time they can be blown up to cause massive damage. Another cool factor is the line that highlights where the enemy is capable of controlling. If you don’t walk that line carefully, you can end up getting decimated too soon. Control the battlefield, be smart, and manage your patience before going in guns blazing.

AI on both sides is clever more often than not. I rarely found my troops doing anything stupid like wandering into enemy territory without my go-ahead. As for the enemy, they can be devious little bastards. A few times I’d missed them sneaking through the trees and flanking my soldiers before it was too late, but I feel this might have been due partly to the camera angles that sometimes don’t sit right on certain maps. Regardless, the AI makes battles much more exciting, and despite things getting pretty intense and dying more often than I’d have liked, I loved how the enemy reacted to the decisions I made.

The tutorial introduces you to the basics, and the single player campaign does a good job of giving you a taste of what to expect when taking your forces online, but the multiplayer is where you’re going to be testing yourself to the limit. There are a lot of good tacticians around the world ready to be the victor, so getting as much experience as possible is a necessity if you have any hope in hell of beating real-world players. Thanks to a wide range of modes online, you’ll likely find something to stick to, but there’s nothing quite like huge battles across massive multiplayer maps where you have to risk so much to get any chance of success. It’s about as real as it gets.

Men of War II is a wonderfully crafted RTS with battles going a number of ways depending on the decisions you make. You have a wide range of artillery to choose from, and despite having these options you can’t simply spawn all the time which leads to a level of strategy you don’t get in a lot of similar titles. It’s a fantastic looking game. The environments have been intricately designed, and when warfare is in full swing, it’s hard not to admire what you’re looking at. It’s clearly been designed for online, and while there are single player campaigns focusing on Russian, US, and German soldiers, multiplayer is where it is at.