I posted this on the Filefront forums but I guess all of you should know it too. It's about a game I've been playing called Men of War...
So I was having a little dialogue with myself the other day while playing Starcraft:
"This is fun, but it's not WWII. Boy it's been a while since I've actually enjoyed a WWII RTS game. Gee when was the last time I played one I liked? Let's see... Company of Heroes? Nah felt gimmicky and shallow. The Blitzkrieg series? Nope, buggy and boring gampeplay. Sudden Strike? Hell no, no strategy and combat goes by too fast. Combat Mission games? Maybe, but the turn based strategy puts it in a different category."
Then it occured to me, the last WWII RTS I really got into and loved were the games in the Close Combat series from years and years ago. These games were really brilliantly designed and were extremely detailed accurate in their portrayl of individual units, the battlefields, and the execution of real tactics in a WWII setting. No game has truly captured the strategy and mindset of being a WWII commander quite as well as those games did.
One game does come close, however, and that game is Men of War. I happened to be looking at Youtube videos a few weeks ago when I stumbled across this game. Thinking, "oh boy another WWII RTS that is going to be completely forgettable" I watched some gameplay videos of the said title. Despite my initial attempts to throw this game into the "generic" bin right off the bat, I was immediately captivated by what I saw. Soon, the demo was released and immediately I knew this was the game for me.
A few days ago I finally bought it and it's some of the best spent gaming money in along time. The game is absolutely fantastic in just about every way. In short, it's what I was dreaming Company of Heroes was going to be like before it was released -- a realistic, strategy heavy game that focuses on the minute details and nitty gritty aspects of combat. If you are one of those nitpicking history buffs (which we all are, on these forums anyway) you will go nuts in this game. The game literally gives you hundreds of different unit types from WWII to choose from... it's a dizzying array of content.
It's hard to exactly pin point what makes the game so fantastic. I think the biggest factor is simply predictability. I don't mean this in the sense that the game is boring or generic. What I mean is, when you're rifleman fires his bullet, you can be confident that it will leave the barrel and travel in a straight line, hitting anything along it's path. It's sounds basic but there are so many RTS's out there that don't work this way.
Look at Company of Heroes, for example. In my example situation, one rifle squad attacks another rifle squad. Both shoot at eachother for what seems like ages. Somehow, magically, the "health" of both squads decreases, and as it does, men in the squad begin to die one at a time. However, it has nothing to do with whether Soldier A actually shoots Soldier B... it's all calculated through a wierd health system that doesn't have any basis in reality.
Now, looking at Men of War, we see a very different story. The game has a really useful and intuitive feature called "Direct Control" (which, incidently that new CoH game is directly copying) which allows you to take over your units aim directly and literally aim it anywhere you want. Thus, when your rifleman, tank, machine gun, or AT gun fires, it literally fires in a straight line that you are aiming it. Thus, in the same situation described earlier, if two rifleman squads of the same number engage eachother, Soldier A really did die because he was shot by Soldier B. It's this level of consistency and grounding in reality that helps describe what makes this game unique.
Another great feature of the game is the sheer amount of detail. Tanks in most WWII RTS's are typically managed in similar ways. You always know that the bigger the tank, the slower it moves, and if you hit it from the side or back, it will do more damage. That's really about it. In Men of War, there are many many many more details that are usually reserved for simulators that you have to consider. When shooting at an enemy tank, you can use Direct Control to aim at specific parts of the vehicle. If you shoot at the main gun and hit it, you'll probably disable the gun. If you aim at a track and hit, you'll knock out that side of the tank's tracks. If you aim at the engine, the tank will stop and maybe catch on fire from the inside. If you aim at the turret, you can destroy it independently, but the rest of the tank will still function. If you fire at a repeated spot on the tank over and over again, it will weaken the armor and the shell might eventually penetrate. All of these things can happen independently of one another -- it's that detailed. This applies to all vehicles and AT guns... with individual components being destroyable.
The same detailed is carried over into unit management. Each individual soldier/unit has its own RPG-style inventory which can be filled with anything the player desires. If your rifleman runs out of ammo, he can pick up a german MP40. If you see an MG42 that none of your men are able to carry right now, then store it in a tank you have for use later on -- the tactical possibilities are endless. Combined with the fact that the AI will use different weapons in its inventory automatically based on the situation adds to the usefulness of this feature.
Also, for the first time in ages, infantry in this game actually don't feel like cannon fodder for tanks. Because each infantryman can become controlled by the player each one can make a big difference in how the game plays out. No longer are the days when you just tell your guys to attack to this location and hope for the best. The game demands that all your units work together. The fact that infantry can so easily take cover is the primary reason this all works out. The cover system is so flexible that basically ANYTHING can be used as cover ... even moving objects. If a tank has stopped, infantry can hide behind it. If a lightpole is blown over, it can be used as cover. If a house blows up, the chunk of the chimney that lands on the ground can be used. If a crater is made, it can be used. This flexibility makes it much easier to keep your infantry alive long enough to be useful.
Well this is getting insanely long but you guys really need to check out the game. The demo is available so you have no reason not to do so. Not everything is perfect of course... be warned the voice acting his AWEFUL, so just try to ignore it. Also, the game gets insanely hard even on easy difficulty. If you can stomach the frustration, though, the game really is brilliant.
I'll post screenshots soon.
