Greetings, commanders!
We hope you enjoyed our previous devlogs about multiplayer and the graphical and technical improvements made to Men of War II. Today, we want to share some detailed info about our approach to creating the single-player part of the game and our story campaigns — to provide you with the most varied, abundant and most epic single-player content possible. And whether you enjoy it alone, or in an exciting game with your brothers in arms, that’s completely up to you - all single-player content in Men of War II, without exception, is also playable in up to 5-player co-op. But now, make yourself comfortable and dive into this intriguing new brief!
Philosophy and General Approach
Over the years of the series' existence, players have seen a lot - from large battles with different sides of the conflict to sabotage operations and epic stories of sacrifice and loss during various historical conflicts. There may be nothing left to surprise you, but we've hidden a few aces up our sleeves specifically for Men of War II, which will give you new impressions of the highly acclaimed series.
Story Campaigns
Three sides of the conflict — three massive story campaigns about ordinary people and heroes who were unlucky enough to find themselves at the epicenter of World War II. The main philosophy of the entire series has always been this: every story is personal, and all of them are about people, not just battles. Our goal is to tell as much as possible while maintaining the authenticity of the events.
Soviet Campaign "Thwarted Blitzkrieg"
This is a story of the Third Reich's invasion of the USSR and the most challenging period for the defenders on the Eastern Front. We believe that this period is not widely covered in mass culture and video games, even though it was the site of the largest tank battle in history (the Battle of Dubno-Lutsk-Brody), considering that the Soviet army was utterly demoralized and disorganized. At the same time, the Wehrmacht had complete initiative on the battlefield. The front is unstable; there is no proper communication with commanders, but there are orders, and they must be executed.
American Campaign "The Falaise Pocket"
In this campaign, we tell the story of American forces encountering desperate resistance from the Third Reich during the "Falaise Pocket" operation. A seasoned soldier, Randy Howard, does not take the newly arrived young officer Karl Young seriously, but the more they fight side by side, the more their characters and true motives are revealed.
German Campaign "On Their Own Soil"
A campaign dedicated to the last year of the desperate, already lost war of the Third Reich against the whole world. Together with Feldwebel Ludwig Mueller and his comrades-in-arms, you will have to go through the difficult path of retreat, loss, and bitterness; and even though the character has no sympathy for the regime, he inadvertently delays the "death of the gods" - the defeat of the Nazis and the end of World War II.
Historical Campaigns
In addition to the primary three story campaigns, players will have access to two dynamic historical campaigns dedicated to actual historical operations of World War II:
- "Operation Bagration" is a historical Soviet campaign dedicated to the Belarusian offensive. Players will lead their battalions through forests and swamps, react to German counterattacks, defeat Army Group Center, and liberate Minsk.
- "Operation Overlord" is a historical American campaign about battles for control of northern France and the subsequent liberation of Paris. You will encounter classic sabotage missions with airborne troops and an exciting "detective" mission, "Hunting the Tiger."
Additional Missions
Our team has a tradition - alongside the primary narrative campaigns, to provide players with access to additional missions reflecting various gameplay concepts and classic images of World War II, but not directly related to the primary story campaigns. During the past beta tests, you may have explored missions such as "Ambush," "Through The Snow," and "Towards Freedom," but in the full version of the game, you will also encounter "Thwarted plans," "Scorched Earth," and "False Alarm."
PvE Modes
Previously, we discussed various multiplayer modes available during the project's release. Still, it's worth noting that each mode can be finely tuned to your liking, using AI bots instead of live players. Moreover, Men of War II has a separate mode consisting of a collection of 26 customizable PVE battles. To activate it, go to the lobby, in settings select the Match setup mode called “Battalions, PVE” and under Game Mode select the “Special Battle Mode”; you will see the list of available missions in the list of “Maps.”
"Raid"
We know many players enjoy battles with AI bots, but it's much more enjoyable when these battles occur within something larger, with their own goals and tasks. For such cases, we have prepared the "Raid" mode, an entirely generated dynamic campaign consisting of 16 battles with its technology tree with all available units and 21 battalions, as well as tasks and rewards for expanding the arsenal.
“Conquest”
The "Conquest" mode introduces a unique territory conquest and control campaign style, in which you use specific types of troops (available in two main formats: Western Front, where you can choose to play as either the USA or the Third Reich, and Eastern Front, with either USSR or Third Reich). “Conquest” takes place on a strategic map, where the player (or players, as even this campaign mode can be played in co-op) and AI take turns attacking and defending the marked regions. In this mode, you not only choose the following location for battle but also have to carefully move your divisions around the map, distributing them along the front line, as their position determines where they can strike or defend next. The enemy acts similarly, attacking or defending their territories within the allotted turn.
You must capture control points, break through the front line, build defensive structures, crush enemy troops, and do everything possible to gain the upper hand in an unequal battle with the enemy. Each subordinate division (out of 16 available) is a battalion with versatile capabilities and a substantial specialization bonus. You can use all types of troops in any division, but there is also a specialization bonus for discounts and logistics (so a heavy tank division can field more heavy tanks, but fewer infantry than an infantry division, for example). The "Conquest" mode encourages playing with unfamiliar units due to its board game structure, where each cell is a new challenge. And specific units are better suited for each challenge.
Main Gameplay Enhancements and other improvements
However, all of this would be impossible without significantly improving the gameplay and graphics engine of Men of War II, which allowed us to address some critical issues in the series:
- Separate reinforcements in co-op: In Men of War II co-op multiplayer, each player has their own menu with their reinforcements, unlike the previous games in the series, where there was one menu for everyone with all the resulting consequences (for example, it will no longer happen that units summoned by one player fall under the control of someone else, a random player on the team).
- Enhanced AI: We have significantly improved the enemy's artificial intelligence, giving it the ability to think strategically on the battlefield, consider player behavior, and change its strategy depending on the situation. You can customize the AI’s difficulty in all PVE modes on multiplayer maps and story missions.
- Improved saving and loading: We have improved the game's save and load system — now you can quickly save or load your battles, even against an AI-controlled enemy in "Conquest" mode.
- Mission scaling: As we mentioned earlier, any single mission can be played cooperatively with up to four friends (meaning five players in total); and any available map will automatically adjust to the number of players in the session, scaling its size.
