men of war

[Hooahguy]

i got this game today. im as of now on the 2nd mission and it is safe to say that i think this blows the pants off of company of heroes.
this game is so tactical, so amazing, even when the end of school bell rang i still stayed ten minutes to play. so intense, so strategical, so.... LEGENDARY.

ok end of raving.
let me go over the good and bad points of this game:

the good
1) very, very tactical- you cannot win without tactics. blobbing will get you killed faster than than it takes a chainsaw to cut through a twig. unlike in CoH, running your men into the line of sights of an enemy machine gun, or for that matter, any enemy gun, means almost instant death. MGs are deadly like they were in real life, and need to be avoided. in this game, men are killed by them, not just pinned down like in CoH. tanks are also as deadly. men are pinned down much less, are killed more often. the direct control feature gives you a part of the battle that i find makes the game more interesting, like aiming for fuel tankers to do massive damage, or aiming for tank tracks to immobilize them.

2) very detailed- from vehicles having fuel limits and limited ammo to the fact that your men need to constantly scrounge for supplies off of dead bodies makes this game very realistic and enjoyable.

3) hard, but enjoyable- enemies use tactics, even on easy, and it took me seven tries to beat the first mission and im barely hanging on in the second as i fend off dozens of waves of tanks and infantry as they try to flank and out-maneuver me.

4) great visuals- blood, bullet spatters, great explosions, the foliage, destructible environments all make a great game to watch.

5) animations- some of the best in any RTS ive ever seen. from leaning/looking around corners, diving for cover, throwing back grenades, hand to hand combat animations, climbing in/out of vehicles, applying medical bandages and more just makes the realistic immersion so great.

the bad
1) awful, awful voice acting- it is really bad, in fact, laughingly bad. but the epicness of the gameplay makes up for it.

2) very steep learning curve- for a while it is trial and error as you learn the ropes, for there is no tutorial. but once you get it, the game becomes more fluid.

3) confusing controls- at first the controls are very confusing. heck, even i still dont get them all yet, but after a while you get the hang of it.


so that pretty much sums up my thoughts on Men of War. now i realize that a lot of people dont like this game, but thats only because its so realistic and confusing for new people.
i urge you, if you havent already, to try the demo.

EDIT: i forgot to mention one of the best points of this game is that missions are varied, from stealth to preventing the capture of civilians to helping partisans.

[rajpoot]

You play video games at school?

On the game though, I'd bought it when I thought I knew my way around CoH, and needed more challenge. This game though actually presented too much challenge. After I survived through the first mission, and heard the briefing about the second one, I lost heart and uninstalled it.

[Hooahguy]

yea, its really hard. speaking of the second mission, i just narrowly lost it. i had only 3 percent until the train would leave and i would win.

and yes, i do play video games at school, but only if im bored, which happens frequently in the last 2 weeks.

[rajpoot]

Well, when I was a kid of 8, I used to love playing Mario. Once I started the game during computer class. The teacher realised what I was doing about 10 minutes later. She took me to the principal's office and he called my parents and got into a heap of trouble (the reason I remember this incident actually). That was the first time I understood what a unreasonable viewpoint the preceding generation had about video games.....

Edit:
Gamershell Link to demo of MoW if anyone wants to try it.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

If I remember correctly then the game started out as a modification to "Faces of War" game. I have FoW and know exactly how good it is(I also. Most of the tactics you speak of is just heavy scripting. AI without scripts is quite dumb.

[Hooahguy]

well clearly its different now.
while the movement of mass troops is, of course, scripted, but after the initial push the AI is quite adaptive. for instance, in the second mission, after an AI push towards the pumping station was halted, they wheeled right to shatter my forces at the warehouse. when pressure was applied, they withdrew, regrouped, then pushed back towards the pumping station where my forces were getting re-organized. i was barely able to stop them.

if it really is just scripting then its just some pretty damned good scripting.

[A Nerd]

It souds too difficult. In CoH there was a mission where you had to stop 10 German tanks with some infantry and crappy armor. I couldn't do it so gave up. I did so alittle begrudgingly because up to that point it was fun. The sandbox mode against an easy AI was also too much to manage. I guess I'm just getting old and video games are surpassing me. :(

[Hooahguy]

the expansion, Red Tide, is also epic, highly recommend!

[Raz]

I saw this in store a month or two ago but thought it was just another WW2 RTS/RTT. There isn't any "base-building" is there (in any sense of the term)? Anyway, just from your review, you really have got me interested. I'm definitely going to try this. I love at least semi-realistic strategy games.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But I don't think anything compares to Steel Panthers (exact armour thickness in mm and precise angles of armour and penetration, now that's realism!).

[Ibn-Khaldun]

No, there isn't any base building. You have to finish the mission whit what you have at the start of it. You can however loot fallen soldiers and vehicles to get better weapons. Really fun game. I suggest you buy it.

[Hooahguy]

But I don't think anything compares to Steel Panthers (exact armour thickness in mm and precise angles of armour and penetration, now that's realism!).

well if it makes you feel any better, MoW also uses precise calculations when it comes to armor penetration, like Steel Panthers.

also, about base building, Ibn is mostly correct. but there are some missions where reinforcements are available, and in most missions a reinforcing squad comes under your command, but not after a long, long time.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Btw, if you want to know how the game works(scripting, mapmaking etc.) then I suggest you to try out the GEM editor. It allows you to create new maps and missions. I only wish that CA could make an editor like that to the TW games!

[Azathoth]

But I don't think anything compares to Steel Panthers (exact armour thickness in mm and precise angles of armour and penetration, now that's realism!).

Combat Mission?

[Hooahguy]

speaking of new missions, someone did a free Faces of War mission pack mod for MoW, so ill probably give that a whirl.

[Fragony]

This sounds absolutely great, never heard of it. I like it when a game is hard but fair and thinking gets you through.

[Hooahguy]

oh yea Frag, i remember a while ago you complained that modern "stealth" missions werent really stealth, i think you will be happy to know that MoW has the kind i think you want, which is impressive for a RTS.

[Hooahguy]

for those who are interested and have MOW, vehonex and i are hosting regular matches via LAN as many nights as we can, so if you are interested please tell me or vehonex.