Men of War: Assault Squad 2 Review Summary

Boasts outstanding mod support and top tier RTS quality, but suffers from poor AI, repetitive missions, and a steep learning curve.

Outstanding mod support: The game features exceptional mod support via Steam Workshop, with a thriving modding community that provides extensive content and enhancements. Mods greatly extend the game's replayability.

Top-tier RTS experience: Reviewers identify this as one of the best real-time strategy games ever made, particularly excelling in the WWII and historical strategy genres. It is often compared favorably to Company of Heroes.

Excellent overall game quality: Players consistently praise the core game as excellent, wonderful, and among the best they have ever played. The overall sentiment is highly positive.

Custom battle editor: The built-in editor allows players to create custom battles, control every aspect of the engagement, and even craft stories. This feature is highly valued for creativity and replayability.

Popular mods: Star Wars: Star Wars-themed mods are especially beloved, with multiple reviewers citing them as a major reason for enjoyment and replay value.

Poor AI performance: Infantry AI is considered dumb and useless, failing to fire in range, prioritizing distant enemies, and standing idle. AI pathfinding and unit control are also problematic, making gameplay frustrating.

Repetitive mission design: Campaign and skirmish missions are highly repetitive, often involving capture-point or defend-objective loops. Many missions feel copy-pasted with only map or faction changes.

Steep learning curve: The game is described as confusing at first, with a high barrier to entry and little tutorialization. New players face a steep learning curve that may deter them.

Lack of tutorial for new players: The game lacks proper tutorials, making it hard for new players to understand mechanics and controls. Initial frustration is common.

Toxic multiplayer community: The multiplayer community is described as toxic, with veteran players kicking newcomers for low rank or any reason. This creates an unwelcoming environment that drives new players away.

Real-time tactical WWII RTS: The game is a real-time strategy (RTS) or real-time tactics title set in World War II, with direct control and micromanagement of individual units.

Extensive modding support: The game has strong modding capabilities, including Steam Workshop support, with many popular mods such as Star Wars, Warhammer, and total conversions.

Multiple game modes: The game features single-player campaign, skirmish mode, cooperative play, and multiplayer, providing varied ways to play.

Individual soldier management: Each soldier has a detailed inventory with limited slots, equipment, and ammo, adding a layer of micromanagement and realism.

Detailed vehicle damage system: Armored vehicles have a modular damage system and realistic armor penetration mechanics, requiring tactical targeting of weak points.

Outdated engine performance issues: The game uses an old 32-bit engine that cannot handle large numbers of objects, high destruction levels, or utilize more than 4GB RAM, leading to crashes and severe lag. The engine is considered unoptimized and outdated.

Frequent crashes and instability: Many players report the game crashes frequently, both on startup and during gameplay, across different hardware configurations and scenarios. This is the most commonly mentioned issue.

Mods cause crashes and corruption: Using mods, especially incompatible or large ones, often leads to game crashes, corrupted save files, and editor errors. Removing mods can also cause the game to fail to start.

Multiplayer desync and disconnects: Multiplayer sessions suffer from desynchronization errors, random disconnects, and crashes, often attributed to poor netcode and host connection issues.

Runs well on low-end systems: Despite performance complaints, several users report the game runs smoothly on low-end laptops and older PCs, indicating it can be playable on modest hardware.

Best for RTS fans: The game is consistently recommended for fans of real-time strategy, deep tactical gameplay, and challenging experiences. Multiple clusters highlight its suitability for hardcore strategy enthusiasts and those who enjoy methodical troop control.

Buy on sale: A significant number of reviews advise waiting for a discount, suggesting the game is not worth its full price. Players recommend purchasing it on sale or during promotions.

Highly recommended overall: Many players give strong, outright recommendations, often with perfect or near-perfect scores. These reviews emphasize that the game is a worthwhile purchase with no regrets.

Not for casual players: Several reviews caution that the game is not suitable for those who dislike high difficulty or want a simple, casual experience. It is aimed at dedicated strategy fans.

Best of its genre: The game is praised as the finest RTS of its era, the ultimate experience in the franchise, and a top-tier strategy war game. It is often compared favorably against its competitors.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00.

Game completion: 100.0h.

Session length: 4.0h.

Endgame: 200.0h.

The game requires overcoming a steep learning curve and clunky mechanics before fun emerges, typically after the mechanics 'click' or after leveling up in multiplayer to unlock better units. Co-op play and mods significantly enhance the experience.

Friction: steep learning curve; clunky controls; lack of proper tutorial; repetitive singleplayer campaign; dead or imbalanced multiplayer matchmaking; unforgiving PvP against veterans.

Unlock drivers: learning game mechanics through experimentation; leveling up to unlock better units in multiplayer; cooperative play with friends; using Workshop mods to add content.

Hardcore Tactical Simulator Enthusiast: Meticulous micro-management of individual soldiers and vehicles, using combined arms tactics and terrain to gain advantage. Motivation: Realistic tactical depth and unit control. Stance: buy.

Casual Co-op Skirmisher: Plays co-op or single-player skirmishes, focusing on fun rather than optimization. Often plays with friends in PvE modes. Motivation: Relaxed gameplay with friends or against AI. Stance: sale.

Workshop Content Consumer: Explores mods, custom maps, and campaigns. Often engages with community creations and may create content themselves. Motivation: Infinite replayability through user-generated content. Stance: deep sale.

Overall, the game performs well on both hardware cohorts, with minor crash reports on lower VRAM systems and occasional multiplayer stability issues on mid-range VRAM cards.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Most players report stable performance, though some crashes and visual glitches occur on lower-end systems.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. Generally positive, with a few reports of crashes in multiplayer.

Steam Deck: The game suffers from severe crashing issues on Steam Deck, especially when saving, and requires forced use of a custom Proton version to function. While some players achieve playable framerates after workarounds, the overall experience is broken for many.

Linux and Proton: The game runs well on Linux/Steam Deck with a forced GE-Proton version, achieving stable 40-50 FPS. No other Linux-specific issues were reported, and no native Linux port mentions exist. The requirement to manually select a custom Proton variant places it in the minor tweaks category.

Monetization: The game is heavily criticized for locking the standard AI skirmish mode behind a paid DLC, a feature that is typically free in most RTS games. Players view this as a greedy and scummy monetization tactic, with many citing it as the primary reason for negative reviews. The practice effectively paywalls a core gameplay mode, creating a poor experience for those who only want to play against bots.

Long-term commitment validated: Players who have been with the game since 2019 and chose to purchase the license in 2025 signal strong sustained satisfaction and trust in the game's future. This loyalty indicates that core features have kept them engaged over several years.