By Jim Rossignol on March 6th, 2009 at 10:26 am.
Men Of War, seriously, look past the name. This is a game that is at least as interesting for real-time strategy lovers as Dawn Of War 2. If you ignored the demo, please go play it, and understand that even that undersells the immense battlefield missions with hundreds of units, not to mention to vast scale of a game that has three full sized campaigns. Campaigns whose maps are also playable in co-op. I’m posting the videos after the jump with a sense of futility, because I know they don’t and won’t sell it to many people. Nevertheless Men Of War is second only to Empire in awesomeness for games I’ve played so far in 2009. It really is a fine thing. I recommend you take a look. The game is out now in Europe and will be out on the 17th in North America.
Update: you can steal the hats of your fallen enemies. Yes!
Only played it a little, but i must say that Men of War is one of the best RTS games I have played for a while, much better than anything in the C&C series that is for sure. Looking forward to playing more of it after the initial Empire love
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I want to play it, I really do, but I can’t. I feel genuinely bad for passing on what will no doubt be an outstanding gaming experience (based on the number and degree of positive reactions I’ve encountered), particuarly as it’s a game in danger of being overlooked, due to the other, excellent, more widely known RTS’s being released at the same time.
I even have a great deal of interest in the time period (I’m clearly not alone, or even unique in that), and reguarly read some of the more interesting commentary and other factual writings on the subject.
That all doesn’t matter though. I just…can’t. Not another WW2 game.
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This series can’t have worse luck choosing release dates. Faces of War came out the same week as Company of Heroes, and Men of War comes out at the same time as Dawn of War II and Empire: Total War. Men of War is seriously good, though.
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Unfortunately my company’s internet access solution isn’t equiped to handle anything as modern and technological as moving images. Is this the one with the really terrible (to the point of becoming comical) voice acting?
I suppose I could download the demo to see how my cutting edge (in 2004) machine handles it, but I probably won’t. Sadly RTS is one of those genres that have left me so far behind that I can’t see me getting back into them.
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Mmm, destructible terrain + Soviet artillery = joygasm.
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Not enough has been made of the fact you can steal a dead enemies hat.
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“I want to play it, I really do, but I can’t. I feel genuinely bad for passing on what will no doubt be an outstanding gaming experience (based on the number and degree of positive reactions I’ve encountered), particuarly as it’s a game in danger of being overlooked, due to the other, excellent, more widely known RTS’s being released at the same time.
I even have a great deal of interest in the time period (I’m clearly not alone, or even unique in that), and reguarly read some of the more interesting commentary and other factual writings on the subject.
That all doesn’t matter though. I just…can’t. Not another WW2 game.”
lol @ the internet
People won’t play a game because of its genre but will still complain about it vocally.
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@much2much
Isn’t that what the internet is for? :)
I was coming here to say much the same thing. WWII got old about 20 years ago for me – I think the original Commandos was the last time I dabbled in the genre (Or was it MoH?). And I think the fact that a genre has been done to DEATH, no matter how wondrous the gameplay or spectacle, is a perfectly valid comment for anyone to make. Shame on you for belittling free expression. Tsk.
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@dartt that is true, equipping all your troops with the helmets of the enemy is great fun :D
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I’m afraid I have to agree with the “meh WWII” crowd. But then, I tend to be drawn to RTS’ more for their story than how they actually play, since as a whole I don’t tend to find them *that* fun (mostly due to my own sucking).
It is for these reasons that I have never played a Total War game.
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I was going to try it, but I’m bored of games that include people. Give me goo balls or falling collumns of bricks any day of the week, but a game featuring people? Running around shooting!?… no thank you. Not for me. I’m sorry, I know, I know… but I just can’t bring myself to play another game featuring people.
I thought you might like to know.
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You’ve perplexed me a tad there ‘much2much’. Why would me willingness to play a game based on its setting affect my ability to comment on its choice of setting? If I were to comment on its features, or something that requires explicit experience with the gaming experience, you’d have a point, but otherwise I can’t see the connection.
I comment on it, because if they took this no doubt excellent game, and did it in a different setting, I would be far more interested. My individual interest may well be of no importance to the developers, I entirely conceed.
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I was a huge fan of of the first two games in the series, and I’m a big fan of RTS games that have a lack of base building, I just already have a huge backlog of this genre right now. I’ll pick it up eventually, though.
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Cigol, frankly, give me an RTS with goo balls running (Secreting? Oozing?) around a battlefield, and I’m near enough sold already.
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Words can not describe. Play the demo – you will either like it, or love it. Or at least find the concept interesting and interactive environment drool-worthy.
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Just so y’all know, the ‘Men of War’ title was decided by the US/EU publisher, and for some reason they decided to be inconsistent between games.
The titles of the original Russian releases are:
Outfront
Outfront 2
Outfront 2 – Expansion A
Outfront 2 – Expansion B
What we called Soldiers: Heros of WW2 was Outfront. Faces of War was Outfront 2. Men of War is actually the two expansions for O2 bundled into a single standalone game.
Why the publisher decided to make things so horrendously confusing, I have no idea. Maybe they don’t want it to sell?
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Add another voice to the ‘not another WWII game’ crowd. I played the demo and like it, but another setting would have been nice.
As an aside, why does WWI get overlooked so often? Not ALL the fighting took place in the land between trenches.
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It should clearly have been called Brothers Tankozov: Moscow Ultrabiff.
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Seniath: “It is for these reasons that I have never played a Total War game.”
Heh. I’ve played a couple but can’t play any more ‘cos I’m shit at them. Computer wipes the floor with me even during the tutorials. Don’t know what it is but my brain just doesn’t seem built for these games. By contrast – I pwn at DoW.
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The game is fun as all hell, but don’t expect to play it through all the way in coop. About 50% of the time, my brother and I end up breaking the objectives in some manner, rendering the mission unfinishable. Maybe we accidentally drop a welding torch off the side of a sub, maybe we kill all the enemies and the rest of our convoy refuses to spawn, maybe the enemy battleship gets stuck on a downed boat and won’t get in range of our arty. We’ve come to accept that missions are over when everything red on the map is dead and we’ve grown weary of driving tanks through every house we can find.
Surprisingly, this isn’t as big of a condemnation as it sounds. It’s an RTS where every single unit has its own diablo-style inventory with full-on physics and building destruction. Making our characters fistfight for the right to wear a captured red beret and taking bets on which tanks can drive off a waterfall without flipping is easily worth the price of admission with a good coop buddy.
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I concur.
But what to? Nobody knows.
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I do intend to get round to this, but being the bastard I am I’m waiting for a price drop due to its limited popularity.
Cynical i know.
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I’m also going to get to this eventually, just need to complete DoW2, Empire and Drakensang first….a game with this much detail in it leaves me drooling. Too bad they used that most overdone of settings. They didn’t do themselves any favours with the english voiceovers either…
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So… Many… RTS… Games…
So… Little… Money…
Flagrant… Ellipsis… Abuse…
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I’ve cunningly avoided playing every single game ever made that was based on WW2, so this still seems like something fresh to me. I actually heard bad things about it, but obviously I was looking in the wrong places. I’m much more interested now.
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Drakensang? Whats the word on that? I’ve seen it in charts but i cant get a feel for its design, is ther a demo?
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i picked this up off the strength of the eurogamer review and so far i’m enjoying it but by jeebs hairy bottom the voice acting is abysmal
i’m fairly sure they just joined random voice comms servers and asked people who cant speak english to “repeat the following”
still, tanks r fun!
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Best game I’ve played on the PC in a long long time. It’s essentially a realtime Combat Mission with Company of Heroes visuals. Crazy amounth of depth and eye-popping carnage. I got totally fed up wasting time ‘builden and gadderer’ in RTS’s and thankfully this is just pure tactics. Co-op is always a winner, although some of the battles are so massively manic you need a decent rig and fast connection to keep it smooth.
I hope the developer does really well out of this…it should be on Steam for maximum exposure.
As for the voiceovers – comedy gold. It actually helps to ease the tension of the challenging difficulty! I’m convinced they’ve used a speech synthesizer to listen to english pronunciation as some of it is Hawkin-hilarious…
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I think it’s worth noting that in addition to being one of the best RTS games I have ever played, it is a horrifyingly difficult experience. Missions in which you’re outnumbered ten to one are commonplace and should be considered a brief respite between bouts of frantically managing your base defenses and getting your head kicked in by millions of enemy tanks.
Rockin’ game, though.
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It may be the 2nd coming of Jesus and I still most probably won’t play it. I’m also just too sick of WW2 games. I just can’t enjoy them anymore. Just, can’t. :
So I’m going to stick with Empire: Total War (which is waiting for me on the post today) and with Supreme Commander (I picked it up a bit late, but better late than never) for my Strategy fix.
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A couple of the designers have been playing this at the studio. It’s got some very inventive ideas… things like direct control, where the game effectively becomes a third person shooter, but it meshes perfectly with the top down strategy type stuff.
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Damn their Twin Peaks references and my sudden need for pie and coffee.
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Yeah, I love how people on the internet will post saying they’re turned off by the genre or the sub-genre and so won’t buy it, as if it made a difference.
Almost as bad as those who claim DRM is the reason they’re pirating it. Yeah, right.
Me? Oh, the demo won’t run. No sale.
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That destructability video is useless.
Apart from the airstrike at the end, the camera always moves off whatever’s been blown up before the smoke clears, denying us the chance to actually see how it has been damaged.
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This is one I’m looking forward to.
And there’s not enough hat stealing in games these days.
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I bought it instantly after reading about it here and trying the demo. Like the game alot, although the german campaign was a bit short. My other main complaint is that it could do with fewer defend missions. I think anyone should buy this on the KV-2 alone. Seeing that thing hit its target is almost erotic.
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Actually…having now watched the vids this could be a bit of a giggle, WWII creakiness notwithstanding.
I’ll give the demo a whirl, ancient PC permitting. Might be just the thing to cheer me up after losing my job this week.
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Despite waiting nigh on 2 years for both DoW2 and E:TW, MoW has actually stolen the show for me. I am amazed at just how brilliant this game is, so much so that I went back and ordered FoW. I can’t recommend this enough.
I have not however delved too far in E:TW I know its just awaiting its chance to take over my life… DoW2 was just shite, sadly. What I really need is a MoW:40k Mod.
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I loved the first incarnation and i’m desperate to play this one. Unfortunately i can’t find anywhere to buy it. Is it available to download (legally)?
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Aaargh. I really want this game, but what with Empire:TW, I can’t possibly justify it until I’ve at least finished the single player of DoW II.
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This sounds excellent, I have no interest in it.
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Heliocentric – The English demo of Drakensang came out ages ago…The demo and beginning of the game is kind of slow, it gets a lot better later on.
It is a good RPG, in my opinion, certainly refreshing in that it DOESN’t dub itself as an ‘Action-RPG’.
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Now my brain goes broken at RTS’s, so could you describe this as Hidden & Dangerous only bigger? I really liked Hidden & Dangerous.
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@Bluestra; try gamersgate.com
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I’m actually really sad about this, this game looks ace, but I’ve just bought Empire, and I really can’t afford another game, even just purely based on my lack of finishing tons of games I own.
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@Cigol – cheers
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“Look beyond the name”
Yes, and it still fucking Soldiers: HOWWII which I already pay for. Good game but what change in last 3 version?!? Name, publish, supposed engine. AHAHAHAAHAHAH. That joak. Same engine with same bug from SHOWWII. try harder nex time.
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Men of War is a brilliant game, enjoying it more than DOW 2. And it was cheaper
One thing that has put a few people off is no skirmish
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Fine. Bought.
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The voice acting and overall presentation put me off the demo. I can’t remember the last time I had to stomach voice acting like that. Maybe I’m spoiled or something. Does it have an option to play the game with Russian audio? I might give it a chance if it does, and just play with subtitles.
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- Difficult Campaign
- No skirmish AI
- Voice Acting
+ Everything else: realism, unit diversity, direct control, multiplayer (deathmatch, map-control, and assault/defend modes), graphics, interface
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I won’t buy it, becauce im utterly tired of WW2. I can’t stomach it no matter how good the game is. Had it been any other setting I would give it a look.
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I’m tired of WW2 as well. I saw the top screenshot (which is frankly awesome), read the glowing comments, and still can’t muster anything beyond “meh”.
However, here’s a twist: I’m not going to buy it NOT because it’s set in WW2, but because I’m totally skint. Go figure.
If for some reason I come into some money I will most likely buy DoW2, although I’ll admit that “realtime Combat Mission with Company of Heroes graphics” is pretty much the best thing I’ve ever heard, ever.
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this game is better than company of heroes. never thought i would say that, but it is. the scenarios are brilliant.
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i would play only WWII games if i could. all games should be about it. actually, i am sick of games that are not about WWII.
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I was coming here to say much the same thing. WWII got old about 20 years ago for me – I think the original Commandos was the last time I dabbled in the genre
Commandos was the last time you’ve played a WW2 game, 11 years ago mind you, and you’re sick of the genre? Say what?
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No man who has ignored Company of Heroes can call themselves a PC gamer in my book.
Also, this looks great and the demo convinced me but having got DoW2 and Empire I can’t afford this one. I’ll pick it up later in the year.
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The game is RTS, it’s the core conceit that the originators of the genre were thinking of before adding in all those buildings and resources. It’s worth playing if only for the sheer level of mechanical detail.
How many games are there where a character can grenade an AT gun crew, throw a molotov into the bed of a troop transport (incinerating a dozen men), man the AT gun and blow the turret off of an enemy Tiger tank, finish off the escaping tank crew with his SMG as they try to run for it, hop in the driver’s seat of the tank and drive it back to his own defensive lines and then repair the turret and fully crew it to begin wreaking havoc on the germans with their own tank?
I’ve actually done this in the game. Actually you could do it in in the previous 2 games of the series as well. The options available to you at any given moment are as staggering as they are compelling.
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>you could do it in in the previous 2 games of the series as well
That’s because they’re the same thing with a few extra models chucked in.
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I’m quite certain the scenarios and campaigns are not. I don’t know, I’ve never played the prequels.
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It does look pretty good, although I’d prefer more clips with real gameplay. Yet aside from all that it may be, I probably won’t buy it.
The first reason being that I’m actually not that good at strategy which means that although I can enjoy an RTS, I also look for flavour aspects I like.
The second reason being that I don’t generally prefer real wars (real situations taken from history in general, really) as subject of my games. I tend to go for sci-fi or fantasy or maybe mock-realistic things like World in Conflict. There are notable exceptions, like Battlefield 1942, though.
The third reason is that I’m already filled on the RTS genre since my purchase of Dawn of War (sorry, I do keep bringing that up). So even if I’d buy it, it’ll probably be quite some time. And considering that the previous RTS I bought was Starcraft (BroodWar if you want to add expansions), well, suffice to say that I don’t wear out my RTSs easily.
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Mm FYI if you buy it online at GamersGate.com , it’s available everywhere. Now. (it says pre-order… but you get it right now, and they’ll throw in Silent Heroes free $39.99)
Even in the states.
Now..
Go On..
go get it, i’ll wait…
I Picked it up as soon as it was available online and wow, it’s so very nice to enjoy a game where the S in rts is valued.
They really should have let you play the first 20 minutes of the second mission in the demo so you can really see it shine.
Somehow they managed to do what DOW2 tried (and failed) to do.. Once you take control of a unit and he does something super heroic under your divine guiding hand, you can’t help but to care about the lill bugger and want to help them survive.
And since its the Russian front it’s NOT just like all the other wwii games with the same 5 tanks and guns.
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Does anyone else still buy PC games knowing they may not finish them any time soon due to the sheer volume of other unfinished games they own?
Just asking is all; I’m considering quitting my job to clear the backlog. Anachronox here I come!
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*edit fail
On topic though, I’d like to thank the participants of this thread for pointing me toward some seemingly monumentally worthy PC RTS i’d completely missed (including the prequels).
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I find the “WWII is tired” complaint to be entirely overblown.
“Gee. WWII is so overdone! It sounds like a fun game but I can’t get over such a generic setting! Besides, I have a couple Tolkienesque fantasy titles and a game where I control Space Marines to get through!”
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“Does anyone else still buy PC games knowing they may not finish them any time soon due to the sheer volume of other unfinished games they own?”
Yeah, I’m waiting for the next bout of not-too-serious manflu…
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i buy games knowing i will finish none of them. it’s a horrendous habit.
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I’m sorry but I can’t “enthuse” about this game.
I remember trying the last one (Faces of War), the demo for which appeared at the same time as Company of Heroes. It struck me as being less professional and far too fiddly. I had men being killed because of the interface and didn’t really appreciate the need to loot bodies for ammo and grenades.
Two years later and here comes the next version – same fiddly interface, same fiddly looting and the worst voice acting I have heard in a modern game.
I tried the first demo mission and got frustrated with the quirks of the game (which isn’t a good thing on the first mission) – for example, when crewing a tank, the excess soldiers automatically sit on top of it. Great except I couldn’t work out how to get them off the tank again without completely decrewing it, so in any combat they immediately died. I then failed to complete the mission because having crossed the river and started taking out the defenders on the hill, I was trying to repair my tank but the endless procession of troop and fuel trucks ended up depositing enemy troops behind me, so I was surrounded and lost everyone.
Co-op campaign sounds nice but no skirmish sounds rubbish.
I think I’ll pass.
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Apology accepted.
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I just bought thanks to all your recommendations, and am currently downloading it from GamersGate. I’m in the US, too, so it’s looking good for us Yanks.
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Great game guys.If u like RTT games,that`s your game.
Controls are simpler than those of FoW,graphics are excellent,game depth is enormous.
Sadly it does not have skirmish mode.
Voice acting is the worst ever…I mean ever…
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An RTS game with no skirmish? I don’t understand. How do you play multiplayer?
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