Surprisingly good game, with some pretty bad acting
Why is this annoying? Let me explain-
I'm a long time Company of Heroes player and I got this game to ridicule it, to say that CoH is the best WW2 RTS ever and leave it at that. But MoW proved me wrong... but it not only proved me wrong, it showed me how Company of Heroes could be drastically improved. For one, the damage system is perfect since your vehicles show realistic damage and have no need for the fabled 'health bar' system. Tanks rarely explode, unless your set the engine on fire, which mean most Tanks only become 'destroyed' when the Crew abandons it. This gives you the opportunity to run out onto the battlefield and salvage enemy hardware for your own use, and can easily turn the tide of the battle... given you salvage a good enough vehicle.
I have to point out that this game has very little in common with CoH; the damage system is different, the cover system not only different, but is much better, Infantry can be selected as squads OR as individuals and best of all, MoW has a direct firing system, which essentially means you can kill/disable enemies from a distance away, given your gun is powerful enough. It makes killing those Heavier tanks a little easier.
Missions can be tedious, actually a lot of the time your find yourself reloading the game after your plans fall apart before your eyes. Its easy to set up defences thinking they're as impenetrable as the Maginot Line, but as soon as the enemy brings out the heavy guns and you have nothing to counter it, you have to swallow your pride and start thinking on your feet as one after the other, your Anti-Tank guns bite the dust. Most of the time, your fighting a losing battle against a superior enemy and the objective is simply to hold-out for as long as possible, which is easier said than done... the last Allied mission is prime example. The infiltration missions too can be quite tiresome since they can take a long time to complete.
My only severe quibble that makes this game not a 9/10 is the fact there is no Skirmish mode with some AI. There's a LAN and Internet Skirmish mode, but I know nobody else with this game and most people on the Internet are gits.
Overall, the game is a decent buy if you plan to play it after the missions, the LAN and Internet skirmish modes look brilliant (like a CoH/WiC love child)... I'm looking forward to tanning the crap out of a Centurion MKIII with an IS-3.