Steel Division 2

Well, this game gave me a lot of emotions.
I loved the strategy interface even more than the actual battles.

There are a few historical inaccurate things, also in regard to tanks and tank battles, but nothing that would compromise the single-player experience.

The multiplayer is also funny, despite the horrible multiplayer interface, where u spend literally hours waiting to join a battle sometimes, with the consequence that players drop the game and the battle is uneven.

Still a great tactical, turn-based title for fans of Second World War ground combat.

Ganz toll. You should absolutely buy this game. But you already know this, otherwise you would not have made it all the way to this comment.

- atrocious sound effects 1/10, MG-42 rounds hitting the ground sound like someone is hitting his head against the textbook on acoustics, tanks sound like your kings tiger was flushed into a toilet and you hear him through layer of water and toilet porcelain echo, when I was calling on aviation I instinctively looked to the side forgetting that I don't have my cheap crackling fan anymore. I played many ww 2 themed games but I've never met such negligence in sound department
- visuals, nothing special 7/10, armor has good level of details but infantry up close looks boxy in a bad sense, environment looks unimpressive even on max settings but again I understand that most of the time you play on max distance and just see icons of your units so it's not that important.
- UI 6/10, User interface is cluttered but at the same time informative, I think that it wasn't designed with casual players in mind, I guarantee that devs were making UI for themselves and how they like it without thinking about player preferences much. Oh and font choices, even though it has good readability it doesn't feel like a font which I'd expect to see during ww2, it would more suit some spread sheet for your work.
- Gameplay well I haven't played game enough to give objectively fair score but it didn't have wow effect. Tried to join multiplayer game 10 vs 10, spent 20 minutes in a lobby and left unable to fill it.

First impression 6/10 I feel like the game was designed by ww2 nerds who are hyper focused on micro details and technicalities instead of big picture. Will play the game occasionally but definitely not going into favorite.

not really a fun rts, once the enemy holds a point with artillery and anti air there is nothing you can do, ended the match on god's worst stalemate with 1300 kills and 3000 deaths with the front not having moved at all

maybe its just my autism but the color gradient is a really big owch to constantly look at (it feels like its sunset all the time)

other than that solid game

my dad plays this all the time and dosen't let me play my games, probably good game tho

Steel Division 2 is a great game. I'm always impressed by the Ai's tactics. I'm impressed by the sheer variety of units and the developers commitment to showcasing historical divisions despite those divisions sometimes being under-powered; I enjoy playing underdogs where careful positioning and timing is essential to victory. The graphics look great, although they are starting to show their age when compared to Warno for example.

dont get it, my divisions are 100% not steel
they get shredded every time

The only way I will ever win a match is if my opponent has no AA and no airplanes to fight me with.

i bought the game and a few dlcs and come to find out nothing works and i tried getting help from the community and alot of people said to refund the game just heads up before buying games look into them and find common or just issues in genral because you might end up reqeusting for a refund like me

Best WW2 Simulation with Dynamic Campaigns. I only wish this would feature a D-Day Normandy invasion dynamic campaign. 90% content is Germany vs Russia. Dunno if all the DLC divisions will ever get a chance to shine in campaigns.

Steel Division 2 is a game that truly elevates the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. Set during the Eastern Front of World War II, it offers an immersive and highly detailed battlefield experience. From the moment you launch the game, you're thrown into the heart of large-scale, tactical warfare with a level of depth rarely seen in modern games.

I thoroughly enjoy the game. If your someone who enjoys warno or red dragon but looking for something just slightly slower this us the game for you.

Each division in the game has unique unit offerings that conform greatly to any playtyle with a ton of flexibility in individual lists.

balancing. this game lacks it.

A LOT of detail, I haven't played it much though because I'm not into tutorials...and not in the mood to totally learn it...but seems like it would be cool. I will play it again.

Spent more time making decks than playing; very enjoyable experience

Not enough maps, they add like one a year. Stupid

Once you get the hang of it, you can still lose. And it doesn't feel unfair. Worth learning

It is basically an open world WW2 RTS but the DLC prices are insane.

First of all, I want to say how absolutely blown away I am by this game. This is the best tactical ww2 rts on the market. Call to arms, company of heros, man of war, all of them need to make way for this masterpiece. For starters, the scale is on a much bigger level. In other games similar to this, it is comparable I'd say to managing a company of men, however, in the skirmish game mode, you are basically commanding at the regimental level, which is commanding a couple of thousand men. (Typically I end up killing about 3-4k guys per skirmish, so I'm comfortable saying that you are operating at a regimental level), Company commanders typically didn't get direct control over armor, but whatever, COH2 is a game, right? However, typically a company of infantry may operate in tandem with 1-2 tanks? The scale is way out of wack in games like that, which is fine, it's not suppose to be super realistic, but in this game it makes much more sense. A regimental commander would be able to choose in most situations(especially if you're a german SS Panzer Regimental commander) where their tanks were directly deployed, and what infantry companies they would support. So, in my first part, I am basically saying the scale of this game is almost perfect, it isn't so large that you're playing hearts of iron, or you're lagging your PC out, but it is large enough to effectively simulate regimental combat in ww2.


Part two of this, is about censorship and all of that. This game is unapologetic about the time period it depicts. There are swastikas on tanks, german units are represented by swastikas, this is super bold, and I like it. if you are going to be depicting a period in time in media, you oughta do it correctly. If the "hitler was a genocidal maniac and his symbols are offensive", then why isn't the hammer and sickle banned? Why is the Roman flag revered? Julius Caesar basically genocided the gaulic population, and the communists in china and in the USSR killed millions of people. My point is, censorship of Nazi symbols in games is childish. If you are playing a world war two game, you want it to be accurate, you want people to do it right, you want to be immersed in the time. Not only does the game not censor the swastika, but you can play as full SS panzer divisons in some of the DLCS. So, yeah, hats off to the games. This is an unapologetic, un-sugarcoated representation of Nazi germany, and I think that adds a lot to the game.

OMG, I thought I purchased the most expensive pack and worry not about some dlcs left yet turns out there IS a lot of contents i dont owe!
I played RUSE 10more years which is a real amazing game( i didnt find here) people like me are willing to pay but your strategy is a frustrate...

maybe I will refund and wait for a whole pack or maybe thats it then turn to other games i dont know.

SD2 is super and unique I recommend to everyone.

I think if reality was like this game, Germany would have taken over the whole world in 1940.

tank go boom

add pershing stop whining about "tImEfRaMe" and "hIsToRiCaL AcCurAcY." if you want it to be historically accurate, make the panther break down constantly and need an hour to warm up before you can use it. lets see how fun that is. ADD PERSHING

I don't recommend multiplayer games take years to start, you sit in the lobby for hours picking your nose.

Feel like i need 30 hours of Youtube research to play this overwhelming game

This game is basically like a WW2 Total War game, and it is very cool. You play on a massive map and you don't micro the troops too much. It's more important to position your troops well and let them defend their area. The attack ranges of cannons are more historically accurate than other games, so they feel very long ranged. You need to study the terrain and figure out where you're going to put everything.

I am terrible at this game. I love it.

Good game in the format of Wargame and Warno, but with more detail than most WW2 games out there.

underrated but very good, get a marketing team

Imagine paying extra for total conflict and finding out you still have like twenty more bucks to fork over for the rest of the DLC. Eugen should do better by it's playerbase, they're not the stalwart industry giant that CA and Paraodox are. I see no justification for breaking up a game over a dozen DLCs. Refunded because there's no way I feel good about giving these people my money, I'm just going to the high seas on this one.

I can't enjoy playing this game in singleplayer with such a bad game engine.

Playing Steel Division 1 a couple of months ago, in 2024, for 100+ hours was super fun because of the great gameplay. The graphics are of course outdated but still acceptable.
So I didn't hesitate to also buy Steel Division 2, the full package a the time.
But when i started the game for the first time a while later and maxed out the graphic options I was shocked seeing the game engine in action. I naturally expected the game to look better than SD 1 but wouldn't have been bothered if the changes in graphic details hadn't been very great.
But in fact the overall look of the game is worse than in SD 1.

There are three major reasons.
First, level of detail of the terrain in close up zoom is great. But when you zoom out just a little there is a pretty sharp line after which, whithout any transition, the LOD is at a significant lower grade. This looks just terrible. Even at greater distances the lack of details is clearly visible due to the missing transition smoothing. The game engine of SD 1 has a quite well working LOD transition smoothing. So why is it not existing in the newer engine?
Second, level of detail of trees can be also pretty great but only if the camera is set directly in front of a tree. If the camera goes just a tiny bit further away the tree plopps and has already a pretty bad LOD.
Third, post processing makes fields of grass look all blurry in more close up zooms which also is very unpleasant for the eye especially when you have crisp looking objects between it.
This may not occure to all players but if you have this issue there is no work around without passing on any post processing details, due to the minimalistic graphic options.

Considering the developers are still busy updating the gameplay and adding content, I'm hoping they will also tweak the game engine just a little bit in the near future so I can enjoy it as much as Steel Division 1.
I think after a few years, with better hardware available, some small adjustments with great impact to the game engine wouldn't be too hard to achive (for example greater distances for max details, LOD transition smoothing and a few more graphic options). I think the game is after all intendet to be something where you want to have a closer look from time to time enjoying details (at least in singleplayer).

they are expendable

Hidden gem and best massive TACTICAL ww2 game there is. Why hidden gem? Lack of marketing, thus hype and therefore pretty unknown to the masses. Instead, focus and resources are put in making a great game, which is still worked on to this day.

Pros:
- Most historical accurate ww2 game in the genre (no politics, no agenda's, no censorship, no bs, just facts and truth);
- Interesting game mechanics, holding flags by capturing and holding certain regions on the map that bleeds away tickets from enemy. It's possible to have a draw outcome. Longest 10v10 fights lasting over an hour are the most epic battles I've played and experienced;
- Massive battles on massive maps up to 10v10 player and/or autofilled with ai;
- AI is not braindead as in >90% of games, it knows how to play decent, like hiding in forest to make an efficient shot that can pierce bypassing vehicles in the flank. AI is a challenge on higher difficulties, as it gains more points to call in reinforcements, on top of already decent AI can be a real challenge on hardest in some scenario's (outside of the 10v10 skirmishes);
- Range + Line of sight indicator, which inc. info how far the enemy is away from current position in meters (up to 2000m) and % chance to hit and pierce (and if in line of sight, with colored layer, if that wasn't obvious);
- Official autofill servers to play against bots with friends, highly recommended to have a very relax experience in late evenings;
- Game is balanced, good job! Unlike some other games, king tiger and elephant are historically accurate and cannot be pierced by chasing peasants with revolver, they're stronger than allies' tanks, but they're most expensive to call in.
- Active devs and mods in discord server. I haven't seen hardcore cheaters in the sense of hacking (game altering), other than cheaters playing with double accounts being afk in your team to have map awareness (i.e. semi-maphack), teamkilling or just afking. Sometimes little kids flaming. Well, easy to report in discord to mods, but nowadays is done via email to Eugen with replay and screenshots as attachments and I can genuinely say that those hardcore gameruiners are banned. To verify, I've even saw one of them complaining on Reddit about it and never saw them in game again.

Neutral:
- Graphics are decent. What is most important are the mechanics, which are top notch. What makes a game replayable is good AI and some randomness. AI is decent, which is rare last two decades. On the other hand, runs well on 3440x1440 ultrawide all highest settings on 3070, vsync on (60Hz) not even 50% gpu utilization;
- Pretty unknown game, which means longer wait time in lobby to fill 10v10 matches. With friends is no problem of course and even with 10v10 autofill servers, is pretty fast when you play together.

Cons:
- Artillery, mortar and offmap call-in spams are not uncommon in 10v10 games, which might kill your fun and experience for that session if you're targeted and have very little left and are dependent on the rest of the team to victory;
- AI has full map awareness (can see through fog of war, i.e. maphack) and snipes expensive (high value) units with mortar and artillery, even when fully invisible and never been spotted.

How does this compare to Hearts of Iron IV and Company of heroes (1, 2 and 3)?
Like I've said at the first sentence, this is a TACTICAL game. Hearts of Iron IV is a grand STRATEGY game and it's my favorite game at that and in my top 5 best games ever (and I've been playing before 2000 on Pentium III on DOS, good games such as heroes of might and magic, transport tycoon, jagged alliance, dwarf fortress, etc.).
Company of Heroes is also a tactical game, but more like esports and arcadish/gamey. I've given CoH3 a negative review (CoH2 is good), because the balance was whack, pathfinding issues, dumb ai, too unrealistic and too many gameruiners (afkers and quitters) to enjoy. As an example, chasing inf with small calibre can damage tanks, so what do you see in thsoe games, chinese players blobbing up inf and runnig all over the map, such a shtshow. If you do this in SD2 (Steel DIvision 2, this game I'm reviewing), they will get pinned down by mg on tanks from 750m, so they never can fire off their anti-tank projectile ranging 100m, 120m or 250m. All those blobbing infantry will simply die, just like in real life. That's the difference: realistic vs fantasy. I might give CoH3 a positive review if they keep improving, but for other reasons than realistic. Another huge difference between CoH and SD2 is that SD2 is a (very) relaxing game. It takes time to move big boys such as elephant to a certain location on a much bigger map. CoH games are click-fest intensive, like Starcraft, hence esports and triehards, requires little braincapacity, but high on lsd. SD2 is most suited for people that can appreciate a relaxing intersting gamestyle, which requires thinking where to position units on the battlefield and when to call in air support and offmap artillery.

My rating for this game is: 8/10. A MUST-HAVE/PLAY game for WWII enthiousiasts and enjoyers of massive 10v10 tactical battles (vs players and/or capable ai). If you don't like realism and more arcadish games instead and are the esports type of guy/gal, you will most likely not like this game, which is where most of the negative reviews come from.

EDIT:
You might ask, why not 10/10? I only give a few games this score out of thousands I've played in the last few decades. The following (extra) criteria has to be fulfilled for me, in essence, it comes down to REPLAYABILITY:
1) Procedural generated content done right, like Rimworld or at the very least, each playthrough has a very high probability to have a different outcome, based on user actions (such as HoI4, many different ways to interfere outcome of historical WW2 by manipulating any major totalitarian faction). It must be dynamic, so that one does not have to memorize its way to victory. This means well implemented procedural generation is extremely important for replayability and there are only few games that hit that mark for me;
2) AI has to be at least decent. If it's no challenge, there is no replayability;
3) Mod support. Can expand the game tremendously, both in content as in mechanics. See Rimworld, TW Warhammer 3, etc. It's such an important feature for me that I base my purchase decision on this factor, does it have Steam Workshop. The reason is simple, devs don't have infinite resources to make infinite content and cannot ever think of all the possible interesting mechanisms to implement than the sum of modders, well, it's too unlikely. More people involved coming up with more ideas and content, the higher the likelihood the game will be even better and stay relevant, so it's a win-win for everybody.

SD2 fulfills #2 and #3, but #1 is too important for me. Can this game still be played 10v10 in say 10 years? Are there enough people to fill a room in reasonable amount of time? Will there be random map generated content per session for people who have already memorized all the favourable spots beforehand?

In essence, replayability is my number one concern for games I buy. Legendary games, such as heroes of might and magic 3 still are immensely popular and played to this day, because of this. The most valuable asset one has in life is TIME (it's not money), so I want to spent my time on quality games, such as SD2 and others, though, I've to admit, I like to hoard games that I might find interesting in sales to fill my library (most of whom I'll most likely never play).

I'd definitely recommend to buy the Total Conflict Edition and some dlc you'd like to play with the unit decks therein, that's what I've done. The TCE in sale is the most cost-effective package with the most interesting (and strongest) units in deck.

Excellent game for those that like RTS on a tactical ad operational level. Heaps of fun and lets you play back history on which ever side suits you. Plenty to think about during the game that will keep you on edge.

This game is a hidden gem in rts games
The reviews are totally unfair, watch a 2021 gameplay or video review. I have been having childlike joy playing this game & i haven't even touch multiplayer. I think that there is well over 500+ hours of just single player content, i don't want to write a wall of words describing it.
I also haven't experience any bug whatsoever.

The devs totally hear the community, on a daily basis i see dev responses to player made thread on steam, even the rude ones.
Community asked 5 batallions instead of 3? they are doing that next update.
Community asked for army general co op? they are doing that next update.
Community asked for map editor? They have been working on it and last week they said they making big advances on it.
Community asked for more divisions/countries? they deliver new divisions/countries.
Community said tank division dominate? They soft nerf them & now ppl complain about infantry divisions lol.

The game is very complex though, so don't expect to be good right away, i felt comfortable playing without slowing/down or pausing the game in an around 100 hours. Also you will need to watch community made tutorials & read some stuff.

10/10 game.

Fun but the new Eugen dlc pump businesss model combined with power creep ruins it for me. They have tuned it down thankfully after the stupidly overpowered Normandy '44 shit though.

I only ever play single player skirmish. I know I'm missing out on the other game modes but this is just what I enjoy and it's highly entertaining

Cool game similar to war game red dragon but as a ww2 style. I do wish you could replenish infantry units that lost men with supply trucks but other than that it is very cool. It also incorporates defenses like barbwire, trenches, and bunkers.

hard but good

This has to be one of the most underrated games I have ever seen. It's so f*****g good. It's probably due to it's overwhelming reputation but content creators AtkPwr and Vulcan do amazing jobs at providing advice and explaining things.

AMAZING

epic battle

Fucking communist artillery

honestly just really really fun. i don't even play for the battles themselves but instead to watch as the tank models roll on and fight, or take a shell and tank through it. i feel like the game should really be known more because holy shit my mind was blown when i first saw this

Me and Rommel make a good team.

Tiger shoot, Commie go boom

Great WW2 strategy game. All the divisions keep the game fresh. Multiplayer with friends is always a good time.

Poorly optimized. The devs also apparently do not work on bugs anymore but do release new DLCs from time to time.