People of War 2 doesn’t do anything half-hearted, as I discovered during a recent struggle with its online multiplayer modes. While Relic was released recently Company of Heroes 3 will allow you to choose from four broad faction types in World War II RTS battles, Men Of War 2 takes a much more detailed look, offering 14-15 different types of units for each of the three playable countries. It’s a wide range of infantry, tank and artillery battalions to choose from, and that’s before you take into account all the nuances of the Soviet, US, and German military types. Throw in seven game modes across a number of different maps, and it’s a real party of strategy to stuff your face in.
However, it’s important that everyone has access to some kind of tank, let’s face it, will always be the MVP of any WW2 strategy gameand probably the only reason we’re here in the first place. As Men Of War 2 begins its first open multiplayer test on Steam today (running until March 27), here’s my full report on failed multiplayer tank adventures. my slight defeat in the Battle, Frontline, and Invasion modes.
Whatever battalion you choose in Men Of War 2, you will always get a combination of different units. These will be primarily based on the specific unit type you choose, but as the game progresses you’ll also unlock two more ranks in that battalion to give you access to more powerful units – more units. some of which take the form of tanks or support air attacks in addition to boots for ground soldiers. Of course, you still need to make sure you have enough command points to put them on the battlefield, but the added variety plays a big part in the escalation of each match. After all, more units not only opens up the number of strategic paths available to you as a player, but the arrival of larger, more powerful units on the opposing side also makes battles worse. The battle gets heated as each team adapts and resists what plunges into the front lines.
However, even with three ranks per battalion, you’ll only be able to command a handful at any given time. Most units require a large amount of command points in Men Of War 2, and I’ve probably only had two or three units on the field simultaneously in each of the three modes I’ve played. With such a small group at your disposal, communicating with your teammates becomes absolutely essential, as it’s a game that really relies on coordinated attacks and strategy to get the most out of it. your limited units.
Admittedly, I’m not very good at actually articulating the vague plans that were forming in my head in the heat of the moment, and (with deep apologies to my patient teammate on the publishing team) Men Of War 2) it quickly became clear that simplifying the units in an issue wouldn’t really solve the problem. I look forward to digging deeper into the strengths and weaknesses of each battalion once the game comes out in full later this year, but yes, I can also say it will require a lot of trial and error even Now.
Michal & Ccaronoch, marketing director of Fulqrum Publishing, told me: “There is no one final unit. “A tank can be a complete monster that is very difficult to take down – it can be heavily punished and of course it is also destroyed – but it will have a very narrow field of view, so if it’s not supported by infantry or other infantry escort, it’s easy to sneak up on it, shoot it or throw grenades at it from behind. You always have to react to the situation and prepare a plan.”
Those plans are also likely to become sizable and multiplayer, with Men Of War 2 offering up to 5v5 multiplayer matches. You can set the mode, team size, max troop level, eligible troops and battalions, and difficulty level in the Settings menu, and there are also two additional Spectator slots that anyone can join. family. Once you’ve chosen your team, it’s time to choose your pieces. As you’d expect, you can have any combination of battalions and nations on your team – although it’s always useful to combine so you can cover more ground.
Having said that, our first match – Classic Combat – was a full-blown festival of German tanks. Each side has a 1st German Tank Regiment, home to some of the heaviest tanks in the entire game, Černoch told me, and an accompanying support unit – artillery for us and infantry for team B. Černoch describes Combat as your “basic team deathmatch mode”. Victory is awarded to eliminating enemy forces, and each side is aided by AI-driven defenses who help defend your front lines. There’s also a short prep period before each match begins in earnest, giving you the crucial few seconds to call in your first units and observe the battlefield.
The map we played on was the Borovaya River, a heavily forested arena with the famous river crisscrossing its flat, muddy fields. Coverage here is sparse, but there is enough altitude in the surrounding terrain to establish a good defensive position on a hill overlooking a shallow fortress. It was a place that in a few minutes would be completely covered with exploding tanks and burning machine guns as we set up our respective lines, but a gradual march first. on the map, and yes, Černoch wasn’t kidding about my tank’s very small visibility – a long but very narrow wedge right in front of its cannon. Meanwhile, artillery broke through the fog of war with large, circular observation points, as well as light armored support vehicles accompanying them.
Like the 2009 original Men Of War, troops can stand, kneel or crawl to try to escape the oncoming fire, and they can also build their own barricades by building sandbags and barbed wire. , lay mines, and in quiet moments, even craft some of the more heavily fortified nest guns yourself. You can also place them in hiding individually or in groups – indicated by a white shadow on the screen to show you exactly where your troops will position behind trees, fences and rock walls , etc – and you can use the mouse wheel to move or tighten these shapes as you see fit. However, the big difference for this 2023 sequel is that you can also take direct control of each unit, move them with the WASD keys, and even zoom right in on first person to shoot and aim – like detailed in widely reported when Men Of War 2 was first revealed.
With tanks, this allows you to zoom right in on its firing range, and shortcuts let you switch between different ammo types to more effectively break enemy armor. Mouse targeting also makes it easier to target individual elements, and I think what you lose in overall battle perception will be offset by a better degree of control at the time. this point. However, that loss of peripheral vision can be pretty devastating, as I can usually only get a shot or two before getting angry warning signs saying my own tank is under attack. and my driver died in the ensuing explosion. Oi. You’ll therefore need to strike your own balance between direct and traditional RTS controls, but based on my limited time with it so far, there’s sure to be a lot of fun. when you find them all.
Alas, we didn’t beat our riverside tanks, but we got much closer in the next mode I tried: Frontline. Here, your individual territory lines show up on the map, showing how far you’ve conquered relative to the other side. Your AI reserves can help propel this forward, but they have their own boundaries – and only by pushing forward together can you win. Furthermore, you can only capture territory using infantry in this mode, so having one of those battalions on your side is essential. There’s no full-blown tank festival here, alas.
Another cool thing about Front Line, however, is that often your army commander will also set you additional objectives in this mode, such as capturing flags and attacking key points. other on the map. Push (and hold) line has always been one of my favorite mode types in RTS Multiplayer game (thanks for many years of The Supreme Commander’s Lunchtime Battles for that), but these special goals are just the extra spice that the match needs to sustain the sporadic 30 minutes of tanks and infantry jostling furiously.
The map we’re playing on, The Winter March, also has a lot of big chokepoints and hard-to-conquer stretches of terrain, with ridges, hills, and fragile canopy providing plenty of high ground to try. shoot at soldiers digging tunnels. trenches in the basins below. There were plenty of places to hide, but look closely and you could see the footprints of soldiers’ boots creeping across the snowy plains. Likewise, machine gun fire left large, melted holes in the ground, and trees were uprooted on either side where they were leveled by tanks. And like the Borovaya River, the picture only becomes denser with carnage as the match progresses, telling a layered and messy story of bad decisions and strategic dead ends. And it was absolutely brilliant fun.
The last match we played was Invasion on the map called The Coast, where one team attacked to capture as many points on the map as possible while minimizing casualties, while the defending team had to keep the point that as much as possible, lose 200 points for each lost position. Here, territory can be occupied by infantry as well as some field guns and armored vehicles, and again both sides have AI-driven forces as a useful backup.
We almost had an all-out war with this tank – we had one tank and one cannon compared to the other’s twin-tank complex – and the drama couldn’t even be described. The sandy beaches and rural farmland were completely destroyed in our fight, but we were also completely brooded in the face of Team B’s fierce Tiger and Konigstiger twin tanks, two of the heaviest and most durable metal guys in the entire game, Černoch told me. Even with my own heavy tanks on the battlefield, they still need a few shots (and more tanks, air strikes, and grenades) to take them down, but it’s pretty thrilling nonetheless. In fact, entering live control and hovering over those giant tank guys helped me analyze their strengths and weaknesses in a small tooltip – not that I necessarily do much of that, but it’s a welcome concession in the heat of the moment to have that information in front of me so that I can, if I have the right units, try a more effective strategy against this almighty giant.
However, even though I’ve only tested less than half of the multiplayer modes in Men Of War 2, these three modes alone are ample proof that Best Way’s WW2 RTS is taking shape. to fight fit for final deployment later this year. If its single-player campaign is half as compelling as these multiplayer modes, then Company Of Heroes 3 will almost certainly have some hot competition for the best WW2 strategy game of the year. now. To see the game in action for yourself, visit Steam to join Men Of War 2’s multiplayer tech test now.
