Rock, Paper, Shotgun

In between leaving pumpkins uncarved and scary masks unworn, I have been playing 1c’s new RTS, Men Of War: Red Tide. The standalone expansion features twenty-three new missions with naval bent, and a small museum of new units. But is it any good? Here’s Wot I Think.
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One of the last bits of video material to turn up from GamesCom is this trailer for Men Of War’s expandalone, Red Tide. This is interesting purely because it’s more Men Of War in the form of twenty-two more missions, but the lashings of new vehicles, sea-based challenges (including six landing assaults) and some unusual combat scenarios mean it’s rather alluring for Men Of War vets. I’ll be particularly keen to see how they handle sea-based fights. The original game was so inventive with the way it brought battlefields to life that I can only assume a similar level of detail will be in evidence here. No release date yet, but we’ve been told that will be confirmed “soon”.
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And cheap on Direct2Drive. And more expensive on GamersGate. It’s also slightly less expensive on Steam. So perhaps you can buy it. Why am I promoting this fiddly war game in such brazen fashion? Well, because I love it. You might love it too. Thanks to Teodor for the tip.

I’ve been playing through a number of the Men Of War levels again for a second time, trying to feel like I’m somehow closer to mastering the game. I wanted to break down how one of the levels plays out to try and explain the game to people who haven’t yet played it. This afternoon my level of choice was an assault on a German hilltop entrenchment, before an attack on a fortified base. It takes about an hour to play through, and my first time around it was one of the most chaotic gaming experiences I have ever known. After perhaps fifty hours of play I should now be a veteran of the game able to breeze through this early challenge quite easily. Right? Wrong.

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This mod for current RPS strategy beau Men of War is a bit good: a dynamic campaign generator [FORUM DOWN AT THE MOMENT, you can use this link but the mod needs loads of stuff that is not detailed there, only on forum thread.], complete with a bunch of map packs. It allows you to build a sequence of battles in the skirmish mode, and populate them for attack or defence scenarios. The install process and required extras is a bit hefty, but I doubt that will be too much challenge for Men Of War enthusiasts. There’s also a realism mod out which is under continued development. There’s also some chatter about a native languages mod for replacing the English with Russian dialogue, but no sign of that at the moment. I’ve posted a video of the announced (but unfinished) Stalker mod after the jump, which is some kind of perfect collision between two games. Man!
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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!

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The Men Of War demo is here (250mb). The demo contains the first level of the game, which is a tutorial sequence in which you patch up a tank, invade a village, and then attack a German convoy. It does not show off all the best features of the game, but certainly encompasses some of the most vital, such as using the inventories on your little men, learning to use cover, and showing off the destructible scenery. It’s worth imagining, as you play this demo, what the escalation of the second (unfeatured) level is like; in which you have dozens of men, several tanks, and face hundreds of German soldiers and armoured vehicles. This is a game that is more than the sum of its demo. I’m certain we’ll be talking about Men Of War a lot more in the coming months, because it’s one of my favourites of the year so far. You should definitely play this demo.

One of the most intense Ukrainian games destined for our hard-drives in 2009 is Men Of War, which I’ve been lucky enough to have some time with over the past couple of weeks. It’s rather similar to previous games Faces of War and Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, but since that’s not exactly the most universal reference point I’ve written some impressions of the new game beyond the jump. They should give you some idea of why this particular RTS is so interesting.

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As I’ve mentioned before, Men Of War is a rather excellent-looking RTS from Russian developers Best Way. It’s incredibly realistic and rather formidable in its attempt to convey the Russian theatre of World War II. Quite what is going on with this latest trailer I don’t know. It’s been scripted up to be… wacky? Quite peculiar indeed.
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Did we use that pun before? Oh nevermind. I do so enjoy it when a random theme emerges from the internet, and today’s theme is: tanks of World War II. The tank you see above is from Men of War, which I shall talk about in a moment. Firstly, the secondary purpose of this post is to pimp out the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, which I implore all who are able to purchase immediately. The reason? Lots of Jim Rossignol words, obviously, but more specifically my feature on the Russian games industry. I went to Moscow and came back laden with delicious information. It’s the the best thing I’ve written for a magazine since my trip to Korea. Anyway… Men Of War – or why a fiddly wargame was one of the best things I saw in Moscow.
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