The second-sequel to the cult classic Soldiers: Heroes of World War II launched last week, and it looks like it’s going to be one of those games that comes and goes without attracting a big audience. Which would be terrible shame. Like King’s Bounty or Sins of a Solar Empire, this is a game that’s pure PC – something only possible on this proud platform, but without being wilfully obtuse about it. Or at least that’s the idea behind this freeform strategy/squad shooter/roleplaying game – allow me to judge whether it’s the case or not…
I am a guerrilla haberdasher. In the midst of battle, as mortar bombs fall around me, as Panzers rumble ominously across the hillsides towards me, I have just one thing on my mind – what’s on my head. Tin helmet? Well, it’s okay, but… ooh! That hat’s got googles. Goggles! And it’s in khaki! Mine. Bullets zip past my ears as I rotate and zoom the camera to admire my newly-clad noggin. My poor soldier is probably going to die for this – but at least I’ll leave a beautiful corpse.
Stealing hats from corpses might seem entirely inappropriate to the spirit of this brutal, enormously challenging action-strategy game, but as well as revealing quite how sickeningly disrespectful I am to the trials of our forefathers, it’s also a deft statement of why Men at War is so spectacular. This is an organic strategy game, where others are artificial. In other words, everything you need is on the battlefield, as a pre-existent, genuine element rather than a magic power-up crate, a weapon upgrade that blinks into existence out of nowhere, or a capture point with an ethereal timer floating above it. If you want a hat, you take it from someone. The same goes for guns, ammo, grenades, health kits… All taken from the battlefield itself (usually from your enemies’ cold, dead hands) and managed, stockpiled and replaced via a per-soldier inventory. Even reinforcements exist only if they visibly already exist in the level – if your team is low on men, borrow an extra pair of hands from a passing friendly squad.
There’s something startling complete about this approach. It’d be no surprise from a smaller-scale, more prescribed squad game – something like Commandos – but here it’s part of a vast, often free-form real-time strategy game. So Dawn of War II thought it was pairing strategy with roleplaying? Nah – it’s fun, but it’s so obviously compromised, so obviously mechanical. Men of War’s is a fully-functional world.
I am also a guerrilla mechanic. In keeping with an underlying ethos that nothing should be wasted, it’s often the case that a vehicle isn’t wiped out when it’s wiped out. Take a look – maybe it’s just its tracks, its engine or its turret that’s damage. Whip out the spanner, dodge the bullets and… there we go. Good as new, boss. At times, it’s a thrilling war movie moment – can you get ‘er up and running again before the enemy arrives? When you do, when you retreat your guys to safety or let loose that deadly turret just as a Nazi-filled APC screeches on the scene, it feels impossibly good: a thousand times more exciting and heroic than the blandly blank game name would ever have suggested.
This can even unexpectedly turn the tide of battle. A couple of times, I was all out of armour even as another wave of Germans approached. I reached to quit – and then I spotted the smouldering Panzer nearby. Dare I dream….? Yep – just a spot of track damage. The war’s back on, lads.
None of this is dry but invisible actions you only know are happening via blinking icons or scrolling text boxes. Again, this is a palpably alive world. True, the war-men’s faces may look cuboid and depressingly throwback if you zoom in close, but the beauty is in the animations – a vast, battle-torn world constantly spasming with tiny hints of life. It’s attention to detail in the broadest sense – exaggerations in the name of instantly-recognisable information. You know he’s fixing the tank because you can see him doing it. You know he’s in trouble because he’s lying on the ground with his hands over his head. You know he’s in real trouble because you see his helmet ping off his head. You know he’s going to be easy to sneak by because he’s sat down, staring at the floor. Dozens of tiny, characterful vignettes, and they’re all important information to boot. If you’re still in need of proof that World War II isn’t inherently a played-out theme, look no further. Men of War coolly proves there is still scope to do incredible things with the setting. Stealing hats, for instance.
None of this will come as much surprise to anyone who’s played forerunner games Soldiers: Heroes of World War II or Faces of War (the Russian Ukranian devs ritually fail to give their games decent names, it seems), but this is certainly the slickest, strongest attempt at it yet. It’s not held back by Soldiers’ wantonly bizarre interface, nor does it have the stodginess of Faces of War. It’s modern, smart and explosive.
Unfortunately, there are some painfully rough edges. The voice-acting is flat-out disastrous, the cutscenes tedious and pointless. It’d be a better game without them: each level just opening up on another of the sprawling, astonishingly destructible battlefields with a message reading simply, “win.” It’s World War II. You know full well why you’re there. The AI, too, has some awful stumbles. Some lacklustre pathfinding can see your all-too-frail infantry charge into a pack of enemies rather than edge along the wall you were expecting him too.
The enemy are no better- when one of my tanks was confronted by a squad of riflemen who’d run out of anti-vehicle grenades, they clustered confusedly around it, vibrating slightly, seemingly aware they were supposed to do something but with no idea what. I felt a twinge of strange shame as I drove over the lot of the helpless goons. You’re not supposed to pity Nazis – but when they’re so dumb that they think they can defeat a tank by hugging it, it’s hard not to feel a little sorry for the goose-stepping cretins.
But these are teething problems, very likely patchable and never game-breaking. Perhaps a more serious impediment is that it’s a brutally hard game at times, require constant attention, reaction and awareness of what’s in your inventories as well as what’s in your line of sight. That’s why something like Dawn of War is so prescribed – the ancillary stuff is spoonfed to you so you can concentrate on simply fighting. This is vastly more satisfying, though – when you conquer a level, you know you’ve conquered so damned much, and genuinely triumphed against impossible odds. Again, it’s Hollyood war movie as war game, and yet retaining the traditional anonymity of strategy units rather than mawkishly heroising specific characters.
Right now, I’m dreaming of Dawn of War III. And all I want it to be is Men of War reskinned and with better voice-acting. This is a real war.
[Men Of War is out now. Demo here.]
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The only problem is the amount of defence missions. The level designers seem to have got it into their head that giving you a crapload of men and then throwing wave after wave at you is fun. It is, but not ever other mission, this series of games is always at its best when it uses the scalpel and not the sledgehammer.
I agree with EBass, if only because, and correct me if I’m wrong here, but wasn’t it the RUSSIANS throwing soldiers at the GERMANS?
Erlam: the Germans were just a guilty of throwing away their men ….later war. No retreat! orders and Hitler Youth generation replacements.
oh and love the game!! fantastic after the disappointnent of currently ‘broken’ Empire:TW
just started the second bonus mission, best sound bite ever ‘they sit playing the harmonica and eating pork’ hahahaha the voice acting and writing has had me laughing out loud often, it can be an infuriatingly niggly game, but fun when it comes together, hate the sneaky missions though
Brilliant game. But the worst cut sequences and voice acting ever seen or heard in a game. Obviously no budget so the devs did it themselves with a few mates who spoke a bit of English. Why bother? Just concentrate on your strengths and don’t try to be CoD.
Positives: the game makes actual strategy possible by giving you a battlefield full of hidden options. There’s so much junk lying around you can invent your way out of all kinds of tight spots: find a repair kit, a panzerfaust, some antitank shells, whatever. A very satisfying way to blow shit up when the odds are stacked against you.
@erlam
Instead of doing all that to repair you vehicle, i suggest you just man the tank, and then click the tanks repair icon. One crew member will jump out with the repair kit, repair the vehicle, and jump back in. Or, more likely get shot by a sniper.
Positives: the game makes actual strategy possible by giving you a battlefield full of hidden options. There’s so much junk lying around you can invent your way out of all kinds of tight spots
So you’re saying that the game plays like an episode of the A-Team? I’ll have to try the demo with the A-Team theme looping in the background.
I have a question, one that will decide if I buy the game or not. Do you get direct control of tanks and soliders like in the first game?
For those of you who have not played the first game the American levels start off with you dropping on D-Day into a field at night with a knife ! THAT’S ALL. Then 4 seconds latter a half track comes up with 3 or 4 germans in it and you have to evade it by sneaking away or, do as I do and throw the knife at the machine gunner and steal the fing thing ^_^ I’ve NEVER played a game like that before and I had no idea they were making sequals.
Anyone else ever captured the german rocket artillery and destroyed the train station? wood and bodies and other stuff just goes flying all over the place it is the most amazing thing ever.
Also the ability to tank broken down tanks was great in that game as well, it could spell the difference between victory and defeat. It gives you a REAL feeling for what it was like in WW2. you don’t just drive you tank around in the open and hope for the best, you have to use cover and tactics and put your tanks strengths to the best use possible. If you know you can’t beat any enemy tank you shot its tracks out, go around behind it through the streets and shoot the back armor where it is weaker! Can’t do that kind of thing in World in Conflict.
Well I got an answer to my question from their offical website (duh) you can still control the units directly, I’m not sure why this wasn’t mentioned above since to me it was one of the best parts of the game.
Hi, just a quick update….as to mods. Someone has added a ‘native’ language mod, so now you can hear the Russians in Russian, subtitles on the way too apparently. for the cutscenes. Some of the other mods added are great too.. ie Campaign generator, extra vehicles/skins, oh and the realism for body part gibbage is err ‘nice’ too.
Tigershuffle, do you have a link for that language mod? I can find all the others.
I can’t find the campaign generator, the link from this site doesen’t work.
Their forums are down.
just bought it, i feel as if RPS are making me spend all my money
Here’s the campaign generator:
http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&p=39225#p39225
Tried out two levels yesterday. Kept my tank as backup and when needed ordered it to ride to the battlefield. I didn’t see it arrive however so I looked where the damn thing was. It drove 5 meters and tried to go up a stair to the roof of a building. Why I have no idea. Then it rolled over and was useless… Trying to use the tractor to pull it over didn’t seem to work.
I’m not impressed with the AI so far… Or well, I’ll go and download the patch.
This seems true of many studios these days. I find it’s usually a sorry replacement for a decently designed, story-driven campaign.
“Oh, and then your dudes had to defend this thing. Just like the last time. And the time before that. Only now the bad guys are coming from the bridge and not the forest! Hurrr”