Faces of War

I picked up "Faces of War" on sale, having never heard of it, despite being a dedicated RTS fan. I've played games like *Company of Heroes* and *Sudden Strike*, and while I've heard of *Men of War*, I haven't had the chance to play it. My first impression was that the tutorials were complex. I found myself saving after each small objective to avoid replaying the entire mission if I made a mistake. However, once I grasped the logic of the user interface, the game became much easier to navigate. For a game from 2006, the gameplay holds up surprisingly well, though it's still challenging. Back when it was released, many would have considered it difficult due to its demanding controls and high level of micromanagement. As an RTS veteran, this wasn't an issue for me. The game's reputation as a "low-key gem" stems from the very things that likely alienated players in 2006. A quick search of old reviews, such as one from Xplay, confirms that the primary criticisms were its difficulty and the extensive micromanagement required. These same sentiments are echoed in some of the GOG reviews. If you're a fan of hardcore World War II RTS games, you'll likely enjoy this one, even with the clunky UI and demanding micromanagement. The game is specifically designed for that niche, and if you've enjoyed the games I mentioned, this will feel right at home. I believe even fans of other micro-heavy RTS games like *Command & Conquer* or *Blizzard's RTS titles* would find the mechanics manageable and enjoyable. I rate this game 4 out of 5 stars. It was ahead of its time with great graphics and modding support. It's a shame I never discovered it earlier, as I can only imagine how fun the online multiplayer must have been.

I played Soldiers: Heroes of World War II many years ago Good to see other games with the same engine on GOG The game itself is quite old but the physics engine is still great and less micro manging than Soldiers (due to being able to form squads instead of controlling each man) Especially good if you want some WW2 vibe without a very power computer

The predecessor of the great Men of War series, I loved it back then! Still nice

Had this on Steam, haven't repurchased here. If you like micromanagement, you'll have a good time, probably. I did. The mechanics are a mild step up from "Soldiers: Heroes of WW2" but not quite as refined as "Men of War". (For example, in Men of War, you can drive a tank next to another tank, and freely transfer their inventory back and forth. Here, you still need to get someone out of the vehicles, and only can transfer as much as a person can carry at a time.) Unfortunately, I think it's a bit buggy at times. My biggest beef is with a mission where you infiltrate a base in disguise. If you get "made", you get a voice line that I've heard 1,000 times: "Alarm! Saboteur on the base!" and the mission fails. (The rest of this review is just about this particular mission as an example. Again, the game is probably 3 or 4 stars overall, but depends heavily on how you feel about this kind of micromanagement.) The overall arc of the mission is to plant four explosives at key points, set them off and take over the base, and then defend the base from a counterattack. Anyway, to live up to my usual "no guards to find the bodies" method, I carefully isolated and eliminated every single person on the base except for the barracks, where there's simply too many in close proximity. This makes taking over the base a cakewalk. Unfortunately, somewhere during the counterattack I'd get the "Alarm! Saboteur on the base!" message and fail the mission...despite the fact that anyone who could be saying that is dead. I did beat the mission once playing "as intended", but I was very saddened that I couldn't have it this way, especially since I was able to spend *hours* save-scumming to get everything just-so.

Refuel your vehicle(s)? Click to disembark a soldier. Click grab. Click barrel. Wait for soldier grab the barrel. Click fuel souce. Wait. Click tank. Wait. Click drop. Click location to drop barrel. Rearm? Same with ammo.... na sorry. This could have been really good, but this micromanaging is terrible and did not let me get past the training missions... well I looked 10 minutes until I found the repair icon hidden in a hidden menu to repair the tank (click click click). Controls are hard to get into - there can be assigned a key to everything but all the micro actions feel too overwhelming to really be useful, especally when bullets start flying around when your clicking orgy is at its finest...