Few against many

Men of War: Red Tide is the sequel of Men of War that was released earlier this year. Like the original, Red Tide will place you in control of vastly outnumbered units going against the German war machine. But instead of the cooperative gameplay possibilities of the original, Red Tide features a single-player campaign of over 20 missions in which the player follows a group of Soviet commando’s called ‘The Black Coats’ during the Black Sea campaigns of World War II.

Collective heroism

Men of War: Red Tide is based on the writings of Alexander Zorich, which is actually a pen-name of two Russian authors Yana Botsman and Dmitry Gordevsky. The two are known for their sci-fi, fantasy and alternate history novels and are regularly asked to create original scripts for games, including Men of War: Red Tide. Good news to those who were disappointed with the haphazard way the scenarios of the original Men of War were tied together.

The authors’ most obvious input can be found during the loading screens that feature texts recognizable to those who are familiar with Alexander Zorich. One such paragraph sets the scene for the Red Tide pretty well and I quote a part of it here:

“There is a certain popular concept known as ‘collective heroism’. If there is a single perfect example of this notion, it would be the Soviet naval infantry of the Second World War. [. . .] With a grenade in one hand and a standard-issue rifle or machinegun on their back, the infantrymen could do wonders: they waded through ice-cold water submerged to the neck, attacked German and Romanian coastal batteries, turned captured guns at the enemy, detonated enemy offices and ammunition stockpiles…” etc. etc.

Men of War: Red Tide not only puts you in charge of the heroes as mentioned in that quote but also of tanks, armored trains, landing craft, artillery and enemy weapons that can be captured and used. The campaign will carry you back in time to the famous theatres of war, including Odessa, Sevastopol, Theodosia and Eltingen.

Historical detail

The most striking feature of Men of War: Red Tide is undoubtedly the historical detail that has been inscribed into the game. This becomes apparent right from the start of the game as the player is treated with period documentary film material of the Soviet Black Coats and the battles that they fought in. Similar background documentaries are offered for each of the six battles that the campaign covers. This film material and written descriptions of the battles are wonderful at setting the scene for the game.

Like the original Men of War, Red Tide challenges the armchair generals’ to an ultimate test. Unlike other RTS games that pretty much guide the player by the hand for the first mission or two, Red Tide simply throws a couple of units of the Black Coats on the coast of Odessa and tells you to get through the first line of defense of the Romanians. The player will have to figure out the main controls as enemy fire rains down on his units and learn more detailed controls on the go.

This introduction proves to set a steep learning curve that is complicated further by inordinately high challenges very early in the game. For instance, you are vastly outnumbered and your units seem to hardly care about your commands at all. The first battle is set at night-time, making it very hard for you to tell your men apart from the enemy and allies. So there are no easy starts to be had here, but on the plus side, you find new appreciation for the confusion of a real battlefield.

Where is that rifleman running to?

You control your units by selecting them and then clicking on the destination where you want them to go to. But whereas you can usually draw a rectangle over several units in order to select them all, in Red Tide this action will only select one of the units inside that rectangle. Instead, you should select the units that you want to command from the list on the left side of the screen. But even this way you can only order the units one at a time. This tends to break up your formation into smaller units at whim, leaving you with a new button for a single machine gunner or a single officer and no clue as to how you could attach them back to their original units.

So much for ‘collective heroism’. Many times I saw a single soldier standing somewhere far outside the action, apparently bent on taking a nap while his pals were engaged in battle. Similarly, when I ordered a single unit to attack a certain enemy stronghold, one of the soldiers decided to run straight at the enemy while the rest of the selected unit remained where they had been, or decided to start shooting at the enemy from where they were at the moment. Naturally, the single attacker usually perished as the enemy battery opened fire at the fool.

Other problems arise in the pathfinding algorithms. I once ordered a single soldier standing at one end of a trench to traverse to the other end of the same trench. ‘Naturally’ this fellow decided to do this by jumping out of the trench and running through enemy fire until he reached the other end of the trench, where he got back into cover, much to the detriment of his health.

When everything works

Looking beyond these quirks, the gameplay of Men of War: Red Tide does give the player detailed control over the units, allowing you to order your men into defensive positions in trenches, bushes, behind vehicles and in buildings with great accuracy. The tactical detail of your controls is superb as you can command a group of men to capture a 75mm Schneider artillery, take direct control of the unit and blast away with the artillery at precise spots of enemy defenses, instead of letting the AI to decide what to shoot at.

The sounds and graphics are certainly the weakest spot of the game. The visuals are mediocre at best at today’s standards and the sound consists of basic pops of small-arms and explosions of bigger guns. Both the graphics and the sounds certainly achieve what they were meant to, but they will not treat the player any more than that.

There is also some voice acting included, mainly consisting of the cries of the soldiers on the field, but also featuring during the cut-scenes. Some of the voice actors seem to be trying hard at sounding realistic, but their efforts are undercut by their fellow actors who have all the enthusiasm of an S-Mart clerk using the store sound system to tell the customers about various deals of the day.

Hardcore

Men of War: Red Tide is seriously hardcore on many fronts. First, learning the controls takes time and patience and forces the player to refer to the game manual, instead of teaching the controls and other basics during gameplay. Second, the missions themselves are very difficult to perform. Many times you find yourself having completed one main objective, but facing the next one with far fewer soldiers due to the casualties that you have taken. This forces you to start over, trying to perform the initial objectives with less casualties so that you can even hope to overcome the main objectives. Third, the historical accuracy of vehicles and the men’s uniforms really shows the enthusiasm of the developers and how they love their subject matter.

Overall, I was left with an impression that Men of War: Red Tide would have been a far better game if the developers had paid more attention to the controls and user-friendliness of the interface. As it is, the interface seems to hamper your actions more than it helps you perform them. This may drive away many traditional RTS fans. Still, I am sure that World War II buffs will enjoy this title as much as they enjoyed the original Men of War. And after all, war was never meant to be easy.

Source: hookedgamers.com