Like its predecessor, the game is played from a third-person perspective, in which players take control of a variety of units that form a battalion, in order to complete missions and battles. Gameplay features a mixture of elements from both third-person shooters and real-time tactics games, with players taking control of a single unit fully, while giving orders to the rest of their battalion, whether to a single unit, a company of the same type, or the entire battalion. "Battalion Wars 2" amended some elements of gameplay brought over from its predecessor - Light and Heavy recon units were replaced with the Recon unit, combining the speed of the former with the firepower of the latter; the HUD's radar now features a mini-map of the battlefield; and units can now be given orders by players through the map screen. One significant change was allowing players to take control of five of the six playable factions during the single-player mode, consisting of twenty missions plus a prologue, with each faction receiving their own campaign that is unlocked one after the other.