I cannot recommend this game in its current state.

Six months ago, I was absolutely ecstatic for the release of this game. As a veteran MOWAS 2 player with over 1400 hours, I was excited for something new, the supposed "MOWAS 3". Wow, unrivaled realism? Different ammunition types for tanks? This was going to be a standalone version of the RobZ mod! Unfortunately, this naviete was broken once I got my hands on the Open Beta. I first thought "This feels off, but I think that the devs will change things throughout the course of the Open Beta" Here we are, and nothing has changed. Not to mention that the devs decided to release this game in a bundle for $35,. IMHO, it's pretty scummy to charge nearly forty dollars for such a half-baked product. Oh, and more "paid expansions" are on the way? I feel as though this is DMS trying to find a way to milk more money from the MOWAS 2 fanbase. Remember when the GoH devs said that "there would not be any FPS direct control"? I sure do. And then the community complained, and the devs buckled. I've always been a strong believer that the new direct control that CtA brought was nothing more than a gimmick. I understand that you're able to toggle between different options, however, I believe that the Direct Control should've never been tampered with. Whatever happened to "no healthbars"? Call to Arms, for the failure of a game it is, had the option to toggle healthbars. You know what's the worst part? The Open Beta closes and the very next day they release. I'm not an expert, but that doesn't seem like a whole lot of time to make a myriad of bug fixes and tweaks, The game is incredibly unpolished. Text in loading screens isn't formatted correctly (runs off into the background), a quote from Zhukov was given to Eisenhower? How are these things missed?

Movement of units feels clunky, even worse than MOWAS 2. Often I will double click to have units sprint, and instead they will have a Sunday afternoon walk to the frontline. Units will not dive out of the way of an enemy grenade. MOWAS 2, with its punishing AI, did this better. Explosion effects are paltry, and the only real feedback you get is obnoxious screen-shake that you cannot disable in the options. The devs have said that this is for "immersion and disorienting the player". Obnoxious screenshake is used to compensate for terrible explosion effects because the devs couldn't be bothered. MOWAS 2, a game from 2014 had more weight and feel. Without screenshake, explosions are often just a puff of smoke and then nothing.

Don't get me started on the combat. The TTK is that of vanilla MOWAS 2, and in game I feel as if I need to hose down a single soldier with a coaxial MG for an eternity before he falls. For a game that champions on itself on immersion and realism, it sure feels real arcady. The tank combat is horrendous. Light tanks will have slugging matches with each other, while a FlaK 36 will bounce a shell off the side of a BT-7 because the game said so. The infantry units feel all the same. Ammunition compatibility is a joke. A PPSH-41 that has been arbitrarily assigned "stick magazine" is magically not able to use drum magazines. Overall, the combat feels like a carbon copy of vanilla MOWAS 2. The bullets move at the same speed, and the AT guns feel like they have the muzzle velocity of a wet noodle. I'm not asking for Combat Mission: Shock Force here, but I would've thought that a game that was in development for like six years would outdo a free mod for MOWAS 2.

The bugs and crashes are another beast entirely. When I was playing the Open Beta I thought, "hmm the bugs don't seem too bad" The full release looks like No Man's Sky on launch in comparison to the Beta. I'm unable to progress through the third mission of the German campaign because the scripting on it is faulty. Did those YouTubers with press copies actually play any else other than the Dynamic Campaign? The game holds your hand the entire way. On the second German campaign mission, the defenses ARE PRE-MADE. You literally don't have to do anything. I don't expect to grab a shovel and dig an anti-tank ditch myself, but PLEASE let me play the game, for goodness sake! Or, for the first Soviet mission, the game goes "put dummy guns here pretty please :))"

I'm not a big stickler for graphics, but the models for infantry are disappointing. Sure, they're better than MOWAS 2, but my dog could probably make better models than MOWAS 2. The (FREE) RobZ mod for MOWAS 2 had better graphic fidelity in terms of infantry models, vehicles, mounted weapons, etc. Did I mention that the Blau Division volunteers have randomly generated German names and speak German? Instead of y'know, Spanish names and dialogue? Where's the immersion? Mine sure is broken. The devs promised an "immersive representation of the Ostfront" and yet, are so far away. So this game is centered completely around the Ostfront, huh? Where are the Romanians, Italians, Hungarians and Czech? Where are the nearly 300,000 Italians that fought and died on the Eastern Front? Oh wait, maybe it'll be for a paid DLC! Oh joy!

I feel like this game needed another year of development. The final product feels rushed, and I'm sad to say that I don't enjoy playing the game. I know this entire review I've been really harsh. That's because I'm disappointed. I REALLY wanted this game to be good. However, as the days rolled closer towards release, I realized that this wouldn't be the case. Maybe in a year or two, this game will be better, but without realism mods for an already "realistic" game, I can't recommend. For those interested in this game and have never played a MOW game, go buy MOWAS 2 and download the RobZ realism mod. You'll get a much more realistic experience for cheaper. And for veterans of MOWAS 2, I feel you. I know your excitement. Save your money.
I'm tired of YouTubers kissing this game's ass and hailing it as the greatest thing to grace RTS players since RobZ. It's blind endorsement for a product that hasn't even gotten major bugs and crashes figured out.

I know I mentioned MOWAS 2 more than a cow goes moo, and that's for a reason. Why spend a steak dinner's worth of money for a reskin of something you already have? I mentioned the RobZ realism mod often because I believe that was the pinnacle of the MOWAS 2 experience. It brought life to a community that was aching for something new, something fresh. I cannot say the same for this game.

Those who disagree with this review will say "It's not fair to compare a mod to a vanilla game"
That's literally the point I am trying to make! RobZ, and a few others published a fantastic mod for MOWAS 2 in four years. I don't know for certain, but I'm sure RobZ had worked on the Realism mod for a lot less hours than a FULL DEVELOPMENT TEAM WITH THE BACKING OF DIGITALMINDSOFT. I think that it's a sick joke that a free mod for MOWAS 2 managed to capture the experience of the Second World War better than an overbloated mod dressed up as a game, supported by a dedicated development team.

I will say that the GEM engine being x64 is a welcome improvement.

Look. If you enjoy the game, that's your opinion. But it's not something we haven't already got.
I have nearly 20 hours on the Open Beta and full release combined, and I say thumbs down.
I wouldn't haven been so critical and held such high expectations if the devs hadn't advertised GoH as "Offering unrivalled immersion to give the most legitimate WWII RTS/RTT to date." This half-baked mod is definitely NOT the greatest WWII RTS to date.

I will update this review if the issues I felt the game had are resolved.