Men of War: Condemned Heroes review

iWriteBoutStuff · 06-01-2012, 14:00

Released back in April, [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]is the fifth in a series of strategy war games. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], this game is really not worth your money, unless you’re already a fan of the series or the action-strategy genre.

Let’s start with the gameplay. This game is like a Frankenstein’s Monster mashup of a first person shooter and an RTS game. The player is given control of a minimal amount of units, while having no control over the many others on-screen, and given an inventory and a set of weapons/items to use. You can take “direct control” over your selected hero, which allows you to aim with the mouse (much like Nation Red) and move with.. The arrow keys? Yes, that’s right, the arrow keys. I don’t think I’ve seen movement via arrow keys in a PC game in about 10 years. The controls are clunky and awkward, and you have to move the map by pushing the mouse cursor against the edges, like in most RTS games. Unlike most RTS games, though, this is the only way I found to move the camera around the map. The control system is generally impractical and uncomfortable, and adds to the already very difficult gameplay.

Graphically, the game leaves a lot to be desired. It looks like they slightly tweaked a graphics engine from a Playstation 2 game and threw some new textures onto it. It serves its purpose, I’m sure, but this certainly isn’t the kind of game that you’d buy for dazzling visuals and special effects.

The story, history and lore in the game is actually quite well done. Despite a few possible typos, the historical background section available from the main menu is relatively informative, and the story does genuinely make an interesting premise for a game. The story is based around Russian penal squads in World War II. These were squads filled with deserters, self-mutilators and other soldiers who failed to fully perform their duties. The penal units were sent out to do the grittiest, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs that could be left to semi-competent soldiers, and at least some of the ingame campaigns are supposedly based on genuine events from first-hand storytelling.

But in the end, I cannot say that this is a good game. At least not for me. If you’re into war-based strategy games, or are already a fan of the series, you may love it! I don’t want to deny the possibility of it being the top of its genre, but I think I can safely say that it is not a game that your average player will enjoy. The game's considerable learning curve will see to that.

The "Historical Reference" section, giving detailed information on the historical background of the game.

The game still continues after I've died, even though I have no characters left.

This tank was seriously annoying. I lacked any obvious ability to move it, and the weapons were slow and inacurate. It may be a bit more realistic, but man was it irritating.

This is the "direct control" function, in the tank it allowed me to choose where I wanted to aim, but I still couldn't move, even with the lovely arrow keys.

It's entirely likely that, given the lack of tutorials and the massive learning curve in this game, I was simply doing it wrong. Here's a short gameplay video of the start of the game to give you an idea of how it's done, and how it might be more fun if you know what you're doing.