Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Dec 4, 2021

  Updated: This is the spiritual successor to the amazing Men of War: Assault Squad 2.. and oh boy, it delivers - only hope for more content! How is it attached to the atrocious 'CTA'? Well, I'll educate you after some research of such a poor marketing decision: the original developer, Digitalmindsoft, was rejected by the Men of War publisher to produce Men of War 2, sidelined for a team to develop 'Men of War Arena' (which predictably failed miserably, now being converted in a failed state to MOW2) as a shoddy mobile-esque direction...likely to explain their absurd direction with the base CTA (publisher pressure for that deplorable P2W market). Fortunately, the developer, Digitalmindsoft, decided to be independent as some pride in their development integrity - probably sick of being overlooked or coerced into incompetent, absurd projects. They adopted some experienced modders as 'Barbedwire Studios' - in progress already with GOH - who were in a stalement without any legal rights to the engine - their whole development at risk. Subsequently, they begun to support releasing 'Gates of Hell' as unable to produce a sequel to Men of War, but here's when the politics starts - it was created with the engine of their former overlords, 1C Entertainment, who wouldn't license the use of it any more. Consequently, they had the license of the engine via 'CTA' and so attached it to this as a contrived 'DLC' on a technicality, even as a horrible handicap and inevitably going to cause prejudice... The end result, however, proves they were absolutely a threat to their former masters and more than capable in vision - this is a brilliant product only restricted from how it's delivered...as a legally necessary DLC for an awful base game. Original Review (prior to research): "Brilliant - how is this even associated to the atrocious 'Call to Arms'? I hope they continue developing this, it needs more content."
• gamedeal user

  Dec 25, 2021

  If you've played MOWAS in any variety, the first part of this review should be redundant, but for people new to the engine, its important to know the basics of your getting into. Essentially, the game is simulated on a man-by-man basis, with each individual unit possessing a name, class (kinda), and grid style inventory. Thus, every weapon, ammo type, grenade, helmet, fuel tank, etc is all tracked on a very in-depth individual level. When a unit dies, they leave their weapon and a corpse, which can be looted by any other man for any equipment they might have possesed (one of the unique draws of the game). In actual combat, each man can be moved as an individual, team, or squad depending on the amount of units you are managing. More on this later. You also have the ability to directly control any unit at any point, taking control of their movement and aim to devastating effect. GOH uniquely adds a third person mode, which counts for a million coolness points, but is often not super practical. Along the same lines, cannons and vehicles also have individual crew members operating them. They are tracked identically to infantry, with inventories and classes and names. This affords a lot of depth that many games can't hope to have. In armored warfare, for example, a lethal penetration may kill half the crew, leaving two men to bail. Those two men could be used to supliment crew on another tank, or (more commonly) for suicidal satchel attacks and the like. Low caliber anti-tank munitions also might JUST kill your crew, allowing the tank to be captured and turned against you. Same goes for cannons, which can be decrewed and recrewed by you or your enemy. This, to me, is the major draw of this style of game, and GOH is the most modern example of it. So how does it hold up? Pretty damn good, but I'll start by addressing a common hang-up. My major issue with the MOW games has always been the dissonance between infantry emphasis and the reality of WW2. When it comes down to it, infantry are great at a ton of stuff. They are easy to conceal, hard to hit, and can wield extremely devestating (though often close range) weapons. You also have the afformentioned level of depth on the individual infantry unit, which is commonly lost in the large scale destructive combat of the eastern front. To put it blunty: infantry are meatbags that die to everything, but are overwhelmingly neccesary for everything. MOWAS2 got around this by making infantry frustratingly hard to kill, GOH does not. Infantry die to pretty much everything and one inattentive or stupid advance (or stupid stationary position) can easily see a section go night-night. This can be frustrating for some people, which I understand. Meticuluosly kitting out your Riflemen with captured Panzerfausts and MG34s just to see them wiped out by a single 105mm shell is infuriating, but that's World War II, and that's where this game ironically shines. The game is called Gates of Hell because randomness rules all things. Sometimes your 88mm shell will bounce harmlessly (several times) off a T-34/85, only to have it annihilate the cannon in a single shot. Your flamethrower might ignite themselves or their allies on accident, or get their tank blown by a stray bullet. You own tanks run over your men, your own artillery might fall short, and your left wondering what you did wrong. Get that out of your head. Shit happens, people die. Welcome to Hell. If you don't like the idea that your best effort might fall victim to the maelstorm of modern warfare, then the game just aint gonna be for you. If you want your German über Guns to brew commie tanks all day like in Guderian's book, it ain't gonna be for you. If you want your Russian conscript horde to overrun several dug in autocannons with nothing but the power of the Rodina, uhhhh the game might be for you? Watch your spacing I guess, and don't expect a miracle. Either way, the game thrives on a simple brutal randomness that affects your enemy as much as it affects you. It is frustrating when it goes against you, and brilliantly uplifting when it goes for you, but you can't have your cake and eat it. If what I just described sounds exactly up your alley, and your willing to put aside a competetive need for victory for a appreciation of the realities of combat, then the game just might be for you. Just get used to the term "unlucky," never overestimate anything, never underestimate anything and go raise some hell. The gates await.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 22, 2022

  The AI understands how to use artillery.... That was unexpected and it hurts 10/10
• gamedeal user

  Mar 1, 2022

  Rule#1567 "Always steal tank from AI enemy"
• gamedeal user

  May 20, 2022

  Game is excellent, only wish they had a world map to conquer like hearts of iron and a way of grouping platoons instead of combining them.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 12, 2022

  TLDR: Game is good but they are selling DLC for a DLC that is not even done yet and you have to buy a base game to play the first DLC. Gates of hell is a good game but Gates of hell is a DLC for the base game and is not standalone, Gates of hell is also not a finished DLC. Yet they are now selling an $18 DLC for Gates of hell a DLC that is not done yet and is lacking content. I do really like the game but this is scummy stuff they make you when not on sale buy Call to Arms $14.99, Call to Arms - Gates of hell $34.99 and now Call to Arms - Gates of Hell Talvisota 17.99. So they are making you buy a game a DLC for a game that is not done yet and now a DLC of a DLC that cost more than the base game dose now and both the DLCs have bugs and are lacking varying degrees of content. It's sad that back in the day people got rightfully upset about horse armor DLC and now we are here. As I said it's good and if you get the stuff on sale it's fun but I can't recommend it due to them selling DLC on top of DLC when the first one is not even done yet. Sorry I was a bit of a broken record when explaining this but I hope it gets across how the game is good but the business practices are not. (P.S. sorry for the rant and any grammar or spelling mess ups I may not have seen.)
• gamedeal user

  Jul 1, 2022

  Gates Of Hell is a great game. The best WW2 RTS around. If you think you will like a hardcore WW2 RTS you should try it. Especially on Steam sale. First things first, The DLC thing needs to be addressed. For once this is nothing to do with "Greedy Devs" as the seemingly "most helpful" review inaccurately describes the "DLC" situation. They are different developers from CTA. They were forced to tie their game to Call to Arms to even get it released, to get the use of the Engine licence of CTA. That's it. And you should be glad they succeeded in releasing this excellent game. This is a game made largely by Modders of MOWAS2 so they are making the game they want, and that a lot of us want, not as dictated by actual greedy Dev companies. There is a longer explanation someone else wrote before at the bottom of this review for those interested in any more details. If you like the look of this game you should get it. See it as purchasing Ostfront for £15 currently on Steam sale and completely ignore CTA. You don't even have to install CTA. This is a much better game than COH2 for anyone who enjoys a bit of realism in their games. The armoured and vehicle combat is a lot of fun, as is infantry combat, and artillery and all the explosive battles and environment destruction works brilliantly together, as you can hide you men in shell holes created by artillery. If you have no patience and want arcadey stuff you may not like it. If you have the patience for MOW Assault Squad 2, this is a considerably updated version with better graphics and many improved features, like medics being able to heal while crawling and thus not getting shot, improved direct control, more fortifications and much more. They have been adding a lot of free content in updates since last autumn, and working on the new DLC so people can't really complain about content, and, being made by modders, it is one of the most modding friendly games out there now, so there is lots of extra free content if you want it, you are free to create your own with a great editor included in the game, and there will be much much more. The Finnish DLC is excellent. It is really the first DLC to the base game Gates of Hell: Ostfront. It adds a lot of content, an extra faction with a lot of new units. lots of excellent missions and is worth it for its size. I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off for content like this. It feels more like the good old days of gaming when an expansion pack was rare and really added a lot. Something like medieval 2 Total war Kingdoms back in the day. Ostfront feels like good games being worked on and made better, unlike the last 10 years of gaming where it seems almost all game companies were determined to take great concepts and franchises and make them worse, dumb them down for the masses and ruin them, while ripping off their customers. So I think most people who aren't put off by the difficulty will really enjoy this game. For ordinary play it feels at least as finished as MOWAS2 ever did, much more so in fact, and has felt in this finished state for playing since last autumn at least. More gamemodes will be coming out and many existing aspects refined of course. The more complex controls can be a bit fiddly at times but most of the time in ordinary combat it is fine, for those of us who like the complex mechanics of games like Arma and MOWAS2 that is nothing new, and there is hope for even further improvements. The game looks and feels amazing, it is definitely the best game of it's kind, and I think you will be missing out if this is your type of game and you don't give it a try. The masses will no doubt run off and give all their money to actual greedy mainstream developers and huge games companies turning out an inferior product as usual. I think people are being unfairly predjudiced against the game by the DLC label, and stupid reviews. I felt some correction was necessary. Someone else explained the DLC situation in more detail so i'll leave you their description if you want to know more: "How is it attached to the atrocious 'CTA'? Well, I'll educate you after some research of such a poor marketing decision: the original developer, Digitalmindsoft, was rejected by the Men of War publisher to produce Men of War 2, sidelined for a team to develop 'Men of War Arena' (which predictably failed miserably, now being converted in a failed state to MOW2) as a shoddy mobile-esque direction...likely to explain their absurd direction with the base CTA (publisher pressure for that deplorable P2W market). Fortunately, the developer, Digitalmindsoft, decided to be independent as some pride in their development integrity - probably sick of being overlooked or coerced into incompetent, absurd projects. They adopted some experienced modders as 'Barbedwire Studios' - in progress already with GOH - who were in a stalement without any legal rights to the engine - their whole development at risk. Subsequently, they begun to support releasing 'Gates of Hell' as unable to produce a sequel to Men of War, but here's when the politics starts - it was created with the engine of their former overlords, 1C Entertainment, who wouldn't license the use of it any more. Consequently, they had the license of the engine via 'CTA' and so attached it to this as a contrived 'DLC' on a technicality, even as a horrible handicap and inevitably going to cause prejudice... The end result, however, proves they were absolutely a threat to their former masters and more than capable in vision - this is a brilliant product only restricted from how it's delivered...as a legally necessary DLC for an awful base game."
• gamedeal user

  Aug 18, 2022

  DO NOT BUY THIS **** Do not even think about it. Don't do it. Don't. I have been with this since BETA, their updates do nothing but add some units and that is it. They still have not fixed gamebreaking bugs and the AWFUL pathfinding back from BETA, they lie on forums and close topics if people complain about the game being a broken mess. https://youtu.be/njG_4Ls9f1A https://youtu.be/7u9DQVxeC4E If you like MOWAS2, THIS GAME IS NOT IT, NOR ITS SUCCESSOR. Hell, they hire clowns as moderators for their forums, who then start spamming jokes instead of maintaining the guidelines. The amount of bugs and broken stuff in this game is so colossal, and yet instead they add new DLC faction while the base game itself is not even half fixed. Your MGs won't shoot if there are wooden little fences in-between them and the enemy infantry, while being perfectly fin if you manually control them to do so. Your infantry won't run away from grenades even if you click to run manually. Developers avoid answering that question, but it is a "confirmed kill" mechanics for grenades, forcing at least one of your soldiers to die if a grenade landed near them. https://youtu.be/A89cfkbqW1w Your STURMTIGER rockets will ricochet from a wooden fence randomly https://youtu.be/7mbYfIV9zgM , your ISU-152 won't be able to kill a single soldier if he is sitting behind a little invincible rock (yep, a lot of "props" on the map are immune to any destruction, so you won't be able to destroy a concrete wall or a pebble, while an AT gunner will sit and kill all of your tanks) https://youtu.be/a3OVzqhiunY https://youtu.be/WP0FuCa92is https://youtu.be/EO-gnIe5L-Y Speaking of AT gunners, the devs decided that it would be awesome if there was a random 25% chance to kill a 1-4 amount of the crew no matter where you hit the vehicle. The problem with it? Well, if an AT gunner scratches even a corner of your armour (even if it protects nothing), then suddenly half of your crew is dead! Cool is not it? When asked about it, the reply was "Don't care, it is a "feature" https://youtu.be/h3RVi3IluUY Same goes about the guns that are mounted atop of trucks. Imagine a huge flak on a truck, perfectly functional an crewed. Guess what, if you hit the side of the truck itself, for example, a sheet of metal above an empty space, where literally NOTHING is located, someone who is crewing the canon will die! Just randomly, cause you know, "feature" and stuff. Even cooler, if you hit this empty and protecting nothing plate again a couple more times, the whole truck will suddenly BLOW UP, and the crew will refuse to use a perfectly working cannon mounted there...because? You'd guessed it! It is another FEATURE. https://youtu.be/2sxM1s8cxAE I once argued with a DEV for a few freaking days about a broken feature of MGs ricochecting from wooden fences, and instead of fixing it, they kept clowning around talking about Rainbow Six Siege, even when I literally recorded MOWAS2 mg42 destroying wooden fences, so I got tired and made a mod that fixes it which literally took like 2-3 lines of code to get back the feature that was present back in MOWAS2! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN-dxTh-F-c REALISM, my ass. Hell, when confronted about this, do you know what the developers said? "Well, we don't have ants crawling in our game, so here goes the realism". Perfect! https://youtu.be/6Q0aCuU-AyE This game does not deserve the attention it is getting, nor it does not deserve YOU and your money. If you decide to buy it anyways, please just check it for an hour and refund it, it is not worth your time and nerves. Do it in skirmish, because conquest mode is you sitting for 40 minutes destroying dumb AI wave after wave. No lies, literally 44-45 minutes per defense mission, you can not edit it, speedup it or change anything to make it go faster, even if it is just your forces obliterating the enemy the moment units spawn. This game is not worth a single dollar. ESPECIALLY since you have to buy the original CTA, which is also an unfinished and abandoned game (conveniently no longer updated after the release of GoH, but developers claim that it has nothing to do with it, of course)
• gamedeal user

  Sep 20, 2022

  I Hope Relic is Taking Notes

  This game always popped up in my feed given that I've flushed over 6k hours of my life into CoH2. I'd always blown it off because, from what little I knew about it, I assumed it was one of these disjointed RTS/FPS hybrid/milsim sorta joints that was probably for players looking to get the best of both worlds as opposed to actually experiencing a fully fledged and highly rigorous RTS experience. This assumption was founded mainly on my understanding of the original Call to Arms. Well... nothing could be further from the truth. Not only is this game perhaps more fully fledged than most other RTSs ever made, the integrated "FPS" elements aren't merely some gimmick aimed at appealing to a broader audience. The direct control mechanic, which is actually not in first-person, introduces an entirely new stratosphere of tactical potential that launches the game into a league of its own. For instance, in Company of Heroes, micromanagement and spontaneous combat events do require the player to home in on the utility of one unit at a time in order to accomplish specific goals. However, the RNG element of this system still distances the player from being able to fully assert their tactical dominance over engagements. Being able to get down and dirty, and execute plays EXACTLY how you want to, is not only extremely thrilling, but mentally engaging. Nothing is more satisfying than landing a hit on the ammo box of a Konistiger from across the map and watching its turret literally blast off into space while the ravaged crewmen flail around engulfed in flames. The level of detail, being able to manage the precise inventories of each unit, being able to choose the exact window you'd like a unit to fire from, being able to dictate the stance you want a unit to take on (prone, knee, standing), needing to tend to medical supplies, repairs, munitions, and all these aspects of the game's world which make it come alive, one questions how much more they may possibly be immersed into an RTS experience. There are an infinite number of potential solutions to every problem. There is no way of predicting what's going to happen next. There is always more you could be doing to get an edge. The difference between victory and defeat is often a mere well placed smoke grenade or an extra med pack. That bush in the corner may prove the perfect vantage point for your AT rifleman to bring down an enemy heavy tank. And no Company of Heroes moment compares to being able to directly control a flamethrower infantryman as he torches a a tank's engine, forcing the crew inside to flee their vehicle and throw themselves on the ground, begging for mercy. We need more eyes on this game. We need to push it to the forefront so that the multiplying number of RTS developers seeking to make their mark on this new age for the genre can gain true respect for what Barbed Wire Games has accomplished here. They must recognize that to deliver on a product that's anything short of what Gates of Hell represents would be to only take another step back into those failures which are to blame for the decades long death of our genre out of which we are on the cusp of emerging from.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 29, 2022

  It's very rare that I review a game, much less review it seriously. However, this game has quickly become one of my all-time favorites My perspective I do not come from a background of playing Men of War, as some players have. I have it in my library, but have yet to open it. However, I have played many other strategy games extensively, such as Company of Heroes 1 and 2, Blitzkrieg 1 thru 3, R.U.S.E., the Wargame Series, and bits of the Command and Conquer series So, this review comes from a completely fresh perspective on the franchise, but from a fairly experienced RTS perspective. Game Pace This game is, by far, the most enjoyable RTS I've played. It's realistic enough that knowledge of weaponry matters, but not so realistic that your infantry squad can be wiped out by a single soldier because you didn't invest enough in scouting & reconnaissance. It's a perfect balance, in my opinion, even as a vanilla experience. Control Individuals You can actually feel and hear the power of everything you use. This is only enhanced by the game's 3rd person feature, which is absolutely huge. Want to be the frontline soldier with an MG, holding off an attack? Take control of him while the rest of the battlefield continues to rage on. Want to take control of a tank or AT rifle to land that perfect hit on a weak spot? Press E, load Armor Piercing, and make sure your aim is true! It's a game were BOTH grand strategy and individuals matter, moreso than any other strategy game I've played Conquest & Co-Op I have very minimal experience playing multiplayer, just because the singleplayer dynamic campaign (called Conquest) is so good! You can set your difficulty, and play persistent battles which determine your resources, as you make choices on what vehicles and equipment to research to best counter the equipment that the AI, too, is fielding. And the best part? It's co-op too! You can play with up to 3 more friends as you allocate resources, and work together with the decisions you make in each and every battle. Critique My only criticism is that the AI isn't perfecty up to snuff. There are occasional points of gameplay where you do feel as though you have to micromanage. In my experience, this mostly occurs when towing equipment such as artillery. Parts of the game are physics-based, and sometime the AI isn't smart enough to avoid driving full speed over a crater, or not cut corners on a bridge, sending the towed piece to a watery death. Workshop Support One thing to also note, this game has a huge workshop. Most EVERYTHING has a mod. If you don't like how one aspect is, there's a mod for it! AI pathfinding, new nations, full conversion mods, construct-able buildings, conquest maps and call-ins. You name it, someone has changed it and it's on the workshop! Rating Out of 10 Overall, a solid 11/10 from me, and I hope the devs continue to get more and more support to develop this amazing game.