A fun game dragged down by heavy micromanagement and brutal difficulty.
Graphically, the game is astounding. Everything looks great, especially the environments. The amount of detail is mind-blowing. Unfortunately their are some performance hiccups, and last I knew it didn't support crossfire. Animations are also rather stunted, and textures look a bit blurry when zoomed in, but otherwise the game looks great.
Sound is strong too. Weapons and explosions are convincing, and the musical score is far better than it's predecessors (it's still rather generic). Voice acting is horrible (1C really needs to invest in some decent VA).
Gameplay is where this falls apart for me. Pathfinding is still stupid even with the latest patch. The AI can be a bit slow, often taking a few seconds to react to gunfire. In a game like this that often gets you killed. The Squad bars on the left side of the screen are there to help cut down on micromanagement, but aren't very permanent and change with each selection (read: useless).
None of these things were a big deal in Silent Heroes, and Faces of War because you didn't have to control nearly as many troops. Now that you control whole companies, things can easily get out of hand.
There are other little annoyances from time to time. It's seems you're men can't crouch walk or crawl prone. If you give them an order they immediately abandon their stance and stand up to jog to the move position. They don't even reassume posture when they get there. This is an example of senseless micromanagement.
The interface is also worse and manages to hide more info than Faces of War did. I would have preferred the older interfaces as they were far superior.
Now onto the good things about gameplay. The missions are very elaborate and well laid out. There is a nice variety, and no shortage of cool ideas. The cover system works well, and it's a real joy to see your men fighting out an intense battle. The physics are grand and the environments are fully destructible. Men of War like Faces before it can be more exciting than some shooters.
The direct control feature is a nice gimmick, but it's only a gimmick. I rarely use it, instead only when I need to compensate for the AI. It's still a fun feature and I glad it's there.
Man of War isn't a bad game it gets a six due to it's problems. It's not good, it's not bad. The combat and realism is impeccable, and you get some good graphics to back it up. Unfortunately, your enjoyment of it depends on your ability to tolerate a bad interface, unnecessary micromanagement, and brutal difficulty.
Note: I just wanted to add that I can handle brutal difficulty, but when there's this many problems to go with it, I'll pass. Also, I have not played the multiplayer. Needless to say their will be no AI problems there. The difficulty and control issues still remain.