Men of War is back with the up-and-coming Men Of War II, developed by Best Way and published by Fulqrum Publishing, and it’s a Real-Time Strategy Game based during World War II. Are you ready to take on the enemies of the Western and Eastern Fronts?

When we first load into Men Of War II, we’re given multiple choices of what we want to do. Wanting to prove who is the best at Real-Time Strategy? Jump into multiplayer and see who is the best of all time. Or, if you’re feeling more like a relaxed gaming session, you can play against the AI which still gives you a challenge if you’re playing on a harder difficulty. If you’re first getting into Men Of War and have never played before, you can try one of the multiple tutorials that are available to play.

There is a tutorial for most of the things one would be confused about in an RTS title. If you don’t know how supply works, you can figure it out in a quick 5-minute tutorial. No idea how to spawn troops? You can do the same! I have to give credit where it’s due – most of the RTS titles I’ve played in the past haven’t had a tutorial system like this, and when I first tried Men Of War II, I didn’t really understand how to play. You’d expect a boring 20-minute tutorial, but you can choose which one you want to play at that given time.

There are a number of missions you can complete, though during the playtest, there were only three missions available, but the missions were filled with a good amount of gameplay, and completing the missions and the tutorials offers a variety of rewards – sometimes you’re given supply, and at other times, you’re given new units to be able to use in either multiplayer or against the AI. Even if I failed at the mission I was trying to complete, I’d learn a lot more about the scenario and I was able to use that information to utterly crush the enemy. Multiplayer in Men of War II has a variety of modes to choose from, including PvP, Classic, Mission, and Combined Arms

I really enjoyed the gameplay as it brought me back to the time when I would primarily play RTS titles and it got me back into the mindset of playing them. The loading times are a bit slow, but there are a lot of things that the game requires to load for us to play, which isn’t unexpected with RTS games. The environment of the missions is great, with some being burned and destroyed while others are muddy and wet. It’s exactly what you’d expect for an area of battle in WWII.

Regardless of whether you play against AI or real players, you can select which battalion group you want to be a part of, with the choices being Germany, USSR (Russia), or the USA. Each battalion group has multiple regiments that you can select, though some do need to be unlocked to be used.

Unlocking them can be easy, which is done by just playing with the starting regiments you have, and some can be unlocked via the completion of battalion objectives. The choice of which regiments to use can be difficult as each regiment has different advantages and disadvantages, and some will come with different modifiers that can affect the game.

After loading into a mission, the audio makes things even better. The music and the sounds of the trucks and tanks make you feel like you’re actually a commander commanding forces into battle, and it’s brilliant when an RTS game can make you feel like this. During my time on the playtest I never once disabled my music, as it gives the game an extra push in the right direction and it just makes it feel whole.

I often play RTS games. They can be really enjoyable and that is what Men Of War II is. It brings most of the features you’d expect from any RTS title but then adds its own flair to the gameplay, complete with a bird’s eye view, commanding your forces into scenarios, and of course, fighting the enemy! I’m glad that there were tutorials of this caliber in Men of War II, as I don’t think I was going to ever fully learn how to play without an amazing tutorial like we have in this game.

Written by: Mitchell Batchelor