Men of War

 PC
  • Publisher: Aspyr
  • Release Date: Mar 16, 2009
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 172 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 131 out of 172
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 172
  3. Negative: 15 out of 172
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  1. Flash_Over
    Sep 21, 2011
    5
    A very good game in every way that takes WW2 RTS to a really realism level that some people crave. But, what really lets this game down is the ammunition and supply system. I can understand tanks and other vehicles, but trying to pass out bullets to each individual soldier while there is a battle to fight really takes away from this game by this micro managing system. I simply found toA very good game in every way that takes WW2 RTS to a really realism level that some people crave. But, what really lets this game down is the ammunition and supply system. I can understand tanks and other vehicles, but trying to pass out bullets to each individual soldier while there is a battle to fight really takes away from this game by this micro managing system. I simply found to easier to kill my troops and call in more then resupply them with ammunition that by default carry so few when they first appear on the field.… Expand
  2. QuarkNuggets
    Aug 19, 2011
    7
    In games like Modern Warfare 2, the other players spoil the game for you while the CPU plays perfectly fairly. In this game, however, I found that it was the other way around. If anyone's played the campaign, even on easy mode, you'll know what I mean. It's not that the AI is unfairly skilled, just that they're unrealistically good at killing you. (When they're not confusedly taking coverIn games like Modern Warfare 2, the other players spoil the game for you while the CPU plays perfectly fairly. In this game, however, I found that it was the other way around. If anyone's played the campaign, even on easy mode, you'll know what I mean. It's not that the AI is unfairly skilled, just that they're unrealistically good at killing you. (When they're not confusedly taking cover behind your tank while at the same time trying to blow it up) In several missions the game hands you a well-equipped tank and crew, expecting you to go through the enemies like a hot knife through butter. I found myself hesitant, however, to do anything other than stay back and shoot, because the moment you try to charge through their defenses, they'll lob AT grenades at you like you've activated the "Catch" skull on Halo 3. Even if you're three feet away, and doing so will kill the thrower. Furthermore I found that the decision making skills are lacking, with my allies not returning fire with the enemy tank about to pound us into scrap metal, but instead continuing to shoot another German tank, one that was completely disabled and posed no threat to us whatsoever. Of course, with the "realism" factor, their shells just bounced off and made it that much more embarrassing. Which brings me to my next point. Realism is fine, but Best Way went overboard with it. It might be "realistic" that one in five of my anti tank emplacements' shells just bounce off of the advancing German armor, but it sure as hell isn't fair. Especially when that armor can cripple any of the emplacements with one hit. Well, I think that's enough negativity. Men of War does have some saving graces, and those would be the fully destructible environments, great cover system and the editor, which allows you to make your own mission and map. (I won't go into detail about a terribly pathetic campaign runthrough involving a nuke, editor explosions, hundreds of Spetsnaz troops and an infinite German spawner that was there by default for some reason.) So, there you go. In my opinion, Assault Squad is considerably better, but still needs improvement. If you're thinking of buying this game, don't expect anything great. In the words of Rob Talbert of Machinima.com, this game is a rent. PROS
    Editor mode
    Fully destructible environment
    Great cover system
    Historically accurate units
    Realistic

    CONS
    Terrible AI
    Bad mission design
    Realistic    … Expand
  3. PhilippeR
    Mar 27, 2009
    5
    This is basically the same game as soldiers: heroes of WW2. The AI is still as dumb. It might be funny for 12years old who like to kill tons of stupid enemies but don't waste your money if you want something more challenging. The engine is pretty good (cover, damage and stuff) but the AI makes it worthless as a SP game.
  4. Grim13
    Apr 7, 2011
    5
    First off: I was looking for an experience more realistic than CoH and I have definitely found it with MoW. Problem is: I want to like MoW a lot more than I actually like it. It's so close to being a good game that it physically pains me that it almost gets there and yet just falls short. It's the small details that have let me down... 1) Micromanagement: Why are my soldiers soFirst off: I was looking for an experience more realistic than CoH and I have definitely found it with MoW. Problem is: I want to like MoW a lot more than I actually like it. It's so close to being a good game that it physically pains me that it almost gets there and yet just falls short. It's the small details that have let me down... 1) Micromanagement: Why are my soldiers so incompetent? With the scales of the battles in this game you would figure they'd allow for your units to handle certain functions, like moving to new cover after their current cover had been destroyed , by themselves, when your attention was elsewhere! Units refuse to pick up ammo on their own! Constantly forcing you to lose ground while trying to discover who's run out... and then micromanaging each unit into searching for it! I'm not against micromanaging units... but when is enough, ENOUGH!? Scrolling back across the map from reloading your soldier's ammo supply on the far side, only to discover all of your units dead because they refused to find new cover after an enemy tank had destroyed the wall they were standing behind, is beyond micromanagement... it's TEDIUM! This level of minutiae belongs in a Turn Based Strategy game, NOT an RTS. There just is not enough time to handle all of the details AND keep the battles immersive. Most of the loss of life in this game comes from this and it dampens the games flow. (Plus, if you're going to make me loot enemy bodies for equipment, why can't I don their uniforms during stealth missions?) 2) AI issues: The AI in this game is totally schizophrenic! Not only are your own soldiers helpless babies, but the enemy soldiers threat detection occillates between deaf/dumb/blind and omniscient overlord! In one particular stealth mission I had an enemy soldier run ACROSS the entire map, straight to the back of a cluster of thick bushes, to discover the body I'd just hidden, and sound the alarm... while not 20 minutes earlier, same mission, one of my soldiers accidentally let a grenade fly, killed 2 enemies, UNNOTICED by the 3 guards not 20 feet away!!! WHA!?! It makes no sense... Not to mention units that have ammo, no damage to them, glitching into uselessness! It's frustrating trying to hold off enemy tanks with artillery only to have the unit in question stop targeting... Damage? No... Proper number of soldiers manning equipment? Yep... Ammo? Check... Line of sight? Yes... Hmmm... WTF! It was JUST %$#*#$ WORKING! I can practically hear the hardcore strategy enthusiasts: "You just don't understand strategy games", "You're obviously not skilled enough", "Leave it to the big dawgs"... and all of that BS. Truth is: I AM a Strategy Enthusiast! The positives here just DO NOT make up for all of the faults. I can see what 1C was aiming for here... but, IMO they missed (I genuinely hope they'll be able to polish the experience off in future iterations... I look forward to it...). And, although, I have ample patience for strategy titles, I just do not have enough patience for poor execution... .… Expand
  5. RamonI.
    Jun 8, 2009
    7
    The gameplay is good when you start out. And then it gets repetitive afterwards. I've tried multiplayer on it. And it's really not as good as playing single player (which is really supposed to be the other way around). The voice acting of the game is really bad and the cut scenes are choppy. One sound effect that I really don't like is the dropping anvil sound that I The gameplay is good when you start out. And then it gets repetitive afterwards. I've tried multiplayer on it. And it's really not as good as playing single player (which is really supposed to be the other way around). The voice acting of the game is really bad and the cut scenes are choppy. One sound effect that I really don't like is the dropping anvil sound that I remember from Wile E. Coyote cartoons. It makes me laugh whenever I hear it. Now the graphics, they're actually pretty good, considering I'm running it on a 6600GT (probably ancient by now).… Expand
  6. AnonymousMC
    Sep 16, 2009
    6
    This game is by far the most infuriating thing i have ever played.

    It's always nice to see game balance, AT guns out ranged by tanks.. who knew! Individual unit control is cool, along with ammo and the likes, but it would be nice if the damn useless AI picked up guns and ammo on the way, instead of having to make every God damn one pick up ammo. Voice acting is rather... odd.    This game is by far the most infuriating thing i have ever played.

    It's always nice to see game balance, AT guns out ranged by tanks.. who knew!

    Individual unit control is cool, along with ammo and the likes, but it would be nice if the damn useless AI picked up guns and ammo on the way, instead of having to make every God damn one pick up ammo.

    Voice acting is rather... odd.

    There is far to much micromanaging involved to be considered a good RTS.

    The game is good when you consider the price, but if they had spent more time fixing the problems and a few things then it could of been a great game.    … Expand
  7. Minty13
    Apr 18, 2012
    6
    Got this game as part of the 1c box (41 items for $100). Enjoy the lack of base building and ease with which you can move around the battlefield and go from focusing on one unit to many. Look forward to playing the rest of the series. Something overlooked by those who claim the game is very realistic is how a unit can go from 10% health to full health with the use of a bandage but anyway.
  8. Motcritic
    Feb 22, 2014
    6
    Men of War had everything to be one of the best Real Time Tactics games, but failed at it because of many details, all summed up make the game annoying and frustrating.

    I love strategy games, the more detail the better, but when a game asks me to take care of a large battle and manage 100 soldiers with such detail that I have to search enemy bodies for ammo for every single one of my    Men of War had everything to be one of the best Real Time Tactics games, but failed at it because of many details, all summed up make the game annoying and frustrating.

    I love strategy games, the more detail the better, but when a game asks me to take care of a large battle and manage 100 soldiers with such detail that I have to search enemy bodies for ammo for every single one of my soldiers... sorry there's something wrong here.

    The AI is a mix of amazing and frustration, but I give a thumbs up here, the AI behaved fairly decently most of the time, but even then you better save often because while you micromanage some soldiers in the right, your only tank in the left might decide to move forward for whatever reason and die miserably.

    The Camera is very bad, you have to constantly micromanage the angle of vision because it doesn't allow the player to zoom out enough, not even near enough, creates a feeling that vehicle battles are just random stupidity. For Infantry the camera is good enough.

    Graphically the game looks very poorly optimized, I have a decent computer, in some battles I had to turn everything off or to low settings and even then it was bad, I've played far heavier games without half of the slow down. This creates a huge problem with unit selection and deselection, units lost constantly because the same button to deselect also allows to make a move order, come on... why in hell!?

    But not all is bad, small battles where there's not a ton of troops everywhere can be very fun, specially when there's a low amount of tanks involved, infantry vs infantry fighting is very good and dynamic. In the end I had some fun playing this game, but just as much frustration.

    For RTT aficionados I would recommend this game, other than that I don't recommend it, and make sure you have a pretty good computer to run this properly.    … Expand
  9. Razark9
    Sep 21, 2013
    5
    Buggy, boring and overdone. It is playable for people who find the cold war interesting. My friend bought me this game and I tried to like it, but it was OKAY.

Awards & Rankings

39
#39 Best PC Game of 2009
44
#44 Most Discussed PC Game of 2009
65
#65 Most Shared PC Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. Eurogamer
    90
    This might be the most gripping tactics title I've played in getting on for a decade.
    Read full review
  2. PC Zone UK
    76
    As a strategy game, very few titles reach the epic scale and excitement of Men of War's biggest battles. [Apr 2009, p.68]
  3. PC Format
    84
    It's a hard game, but that challenge and scope will be what keeps you coming back after your arse is handed to you. Again.
    Read full review
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