The new Front Line mechanic is the bedrock of exciting dynamic encounters, where the push-and-pull of each skirmish directly affects territory borders. Manage attritional battles and break through undefended lines to advance the areas of maps under control, digging trenches and supporting troops in newly won territory.

Assume greater command of the battlefield with the enhanced Direct Vision feature to focus solely on one unit at any time and upgrade, change, or repair equipment on the fly. Level the theater of war with powerful armor and artillery capable of destroying buildings and weapon emplacements, while choosing from an arsenal including 45 battalions and more than 300 vehicles, all painstakingly designed with complete historical accuracy.

Two story campaigns – playable in single-player or up to five-player online co-op – let commanders engage in battle on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. Take control of the courageous Allied Forces pushing their way through a devastated France, and the steadfast Soviets defending their lands from the menacing Third Reich army. In returning to World War II, Best Way shines a spotlight on battles and scenarios never-before-seen in the series, with conflicts such as the Battle of the Falaise pocket and Operation Bagration.

Fulqrum Publishing and Ukrainian studio Best Way announced the upcoming Beta weekend for Men of War II coming on 16th November and concluding on November 21st on Steam.

This new beta showcases the progress in development and offers players a more polished experience, including match-making and leaderboards for each of the PVP match setup modes, shorter loading times, and various graphical improvements. 

Launching next week, the upcoming open beta introduces “Officer” mode, a challenging PVE scenario that demands strategic prowess from players. In Officer mode, participants must skillfully balance offensive and defensive tactics as they strive to protect an NPC officer for a set amount of time; if the enemy manages to eliminate him, it's game over. This intense mode will test players' ability to coordinate their forces effectively and make split-second decisions to achieve victory. Alongside this new mode, all PvE and PvP modes from previous open betas will return for players to enjoy. 

Additionally, players can look forward to two gripping new single-player missions that delve into pivotal moments of World War II history for the USA and German troops. These immersive missions provide players with a chance to experience the intensity and complexity of wartime decision-making, plus the Soviet campaign from previous betas returns for players to jump back into the action with all single-player missions.

This beta also introduces four new multiplayer maps, ‘Witch’s Vale’, ‘Village’, ‘Champagne’, and ‘Polesie’, with a total of ten available for players. 

This open Beta has been based on feedback from thousands of players who have already played, tested and provided their thoughts on the previous three public tests. The developers will continue to work on polishing and balancing based on fresh player feedback from this Beta. Players' progress and saves in this open beta test will not carry over to release.

Open Beta Content:

• 3x PvP Match Setup Mode
  • PvP
  • Combined Arms 
  • Classic 
• 2x Game Settings
  • Competitive
  • Realism
• 4x PvP Mode (also playable against AI bots)
  • Front Line 
  • Assault Zones 
  • Combat 
  • Incursion
• 2x PvE Game Mode
  • Line Defense
  • Officer
• 10x Maps
  • Witch's Vale
  • Village
  • Champagne
  • Polesie
  • Borovaya
  • Winter March
  • Airfield
  • Suburb
  • Bazerville
  • Farmland
• 3x Single Player / Co-op Missions
  • Towards Freedom
  • Convoy
  • Through The Snow

Men of War II - Changes & Fixes 

• Gameplay Changes:
  • "Classic mode" now has its own match-making queue and leaderboards 
  • Loading times have been shortened
  • Allow PVE/lobbies players to complete tasks to gain new battalions and supply points
  • Improved vehicle pathfinding 
  • Multiplayer (PvP with battalions)
    • Added leaderboard for Combined Arms
  • Multiplayer (Classic)
    • Added matchmaking & leaderboard for classic multiplayer
    • Balancing changes based on player feedback
  • Multiplayer (Realism)
    • Adjustments for realistic battle settings 
    • Added HP bars when dealing damage to players’ allied and own infantry units
    • No detection of infantry/vehicles on enemy territory
• UI Improvements:
  • Improved filter in Learn / Units
• Sound Improvements:
  • Improved sound quality
  • Support of stereo sounds playback in 3D
• Miscellaneous:
  • Updated special effects 
  • Tons of bug fixes & improvements

Enlisting in the open beta is simple; players just need to head to the Men of War II Steam page, where they can request access to the “Men of War II Playtest”. Doing so once it is live will grant them instant access; requesting access before the beta starts will ensure they receive an e-mail notification when it’s available. Once downloaded, they will be able to jump straight into three single player missions (also playable in co-op) or try their hand across seven varied maps in four competitive multiplayer modes, and one PvE mode.

The open beta is also already localized into the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Ukrainian, Korean, Polish, Brazillian Portuguese, Turkish, and Russian.

Prepare to face enemy armies in intense bouts of all-out war in the series’ most advanced online multiplayer mode yet. Select the Allies, Soviets, or Germans and engage against other commanders’ armies. Choose from a wide range of skirmish and challenge maps, each created with strict attention to detail, making each arena authentic to the time period. Commanders can also join forces with other armies in online co-op, sending combined units against the new-and-improved AI in bloody mass combat.

The ravaged battlefields of Europe are enhanced with realistic physics and fully destructible objects, letting generals shape the warzone to their liking. Immersive sound design captures the guttural, terse, and chaotic cacophonies with lifelike explosions, the chattering of machine guns, and the treads of German Panzers. Full mod support gives commanders endless opportunities in creating new battle scenarios with a special level design and modding toolset.

Key Features:

• Single-player narrative Campaigns
  • The American campaign, ‘The Falaise Pocket’, sees players taking on the role of Allied troops facing the task of eliminating German forces west of the Seine.
  • ‘Thwarted Blitzkrieg’ is the Soviet campaign, and follows an almost hopeless situation for the USSR, as they struggle to slow the encroaching German tank forces.
  • In the German campaign, ‘On Their Own Soil’, players act as an old soldier amidst the collapse of the Third Reich, following the difficult road of retreat and loss, in a war that was never truly his own.
• Historical Campaigns: In addition to the narrative campaigns, players will be given the ability to dive deeper into true historical operations with American ‘Operation Overlord’, the Allied operation into Western Europe and Soviet ‘Operation Bagration’, a large-scale Soviet offensive against Nazi Germany, through a series of related missions. These historical campaigns offer the player more dynamic choices when choosing their battalions and units to defeat the enemy threat.
• Raids and Conquest: Two further campaign modes offer even more variety. The first being Raids, which are a series of 16 randomly generated battles, where players progress by conquering their opponents and upgrading their battalions with currency won in each subsequent round of combat. Conquest offers a truly dynamic campaign in which the player chooses a path for their army, in an attempt to conquer territory. These attempts are challenged by AI battalions, who will be consistently counter-attacking in an intense fight to capture it back. This advanced AI can also be utilised in any map or multiplayer mode.
• Multiplayer Mobilised!: Men of War II will also showcase over 20 hand-crafted multiplayer maps, 5 dedicated PVE game modes, and 13 game modes for PVP.Regarding PVE experiences, all single-player content will also be playable in co-op with up to 4 other players, bringing a true Allied experience as players join forces with friends to ambush their adversaries.
• Robust Mod Support: Action never stops thanks to a significantly redesigned and modified GEM RTS engine, with a comprehensive editor and full mod support at launch, Men of War II is primed to keep growing with community-created content for years to come.

Men Of War II will be available for PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and other stores) on September 20, 2023.