This is a complicated beast of a game. Reading through the reviews around this one, I've noticed some common trends. The positive ones either see something truly remarkable about this game's concept, or they talk about a specific positive experience they had with it. The negative reviews complain about glitches or are from veterans who have lost faith that the game will ever be what it was promised. While valuable, I don't think any of these have the full picture. Then again, the game is too big to be summarized in a few paragraphs. I shall try regardless, but I'm more interested in sharing the unique experience this game offers.

This is a combined arms war game that allows an extensive array of experiences made possible by the game's depth and incredible multi-national community. Every bullet fired, every rifle carried, every tank destroyed was at one point built by a player, but not always used by the same player. That's an important distinction, because logistic chains are the name of the game. Battles are won as much by attrition or one side running out of bullets as brilliant strategic maneuvers; it falls to logistics players to organize and adapt to ensure their side does not suffer that fate. All levels of combat in this game come back to logistics somehow. Partisans intercept shipments behind enemy lines to try and starve the enemy front line. An artillery crew can be devastating, but shells are expensive and someone needs to supply them. As soldiers die and respawn they need more supplies to keep fighting, but medical supplies can extend the effective lifespan of soldiers and prevent equipment loss. Defenses are invaluable but take time and resources to build, and usually have blind spots, so they need to be placed in appropriate locations. Everything comes back to scarcity and how it is handled by logistics. Additionally, no one is ever mechanically forced to do a specific job. There is no medic class, there is no tanker class. Every "job" is done because for whatever reason a player or players have taken it upon themselves to ensure it happens.

If this sounds complex, that's because it is. It's hard for me to imagine a game that comes with as much stuff to learn as this one. Hundreds of hours in I'm still learning things. Even something as basic as "what is the objective" can be a difficult thing to ascertain, because it's dependent on what your team wants to do. But it's also hard to imagine a more supportive community. There are literally hundreds of veterans who share a love for this game and want to share it with others. If you are lost and confused, and ask for help, someone will provide. Some veterans make it their business to train new players, and set up training squads and platoons to get new guys into the war faster and with a better idea of what to do. Unfortunately not everyone is as kind, and there is some elitism in the community. But ultimately most are good people and I've never struggled to find dedicated team players in this game. Additionally, it's difficult to imagine a more diverse community. It's not uncommon to find a half dozen nationalities represented in a single squad.

Three paragraphs is already pretty long, so I'll rap this up with a story. Several months ago, after a major update there was a sale. With the sale, came a flood of new and inexperienced players. The spawn area was packed with confused newbies and no one was sure what to do with them. A few veterans gathered them up, and came up with about twenty soldiers. Twenty raw recruits with no idea how this game worked, and were eager to shoot something. The veterans ran these troops through the tutorial, hammering what bits of wisdom they could into them. Newly trained in the basics, they headed to the back-lines, and gathered up a number of half-tracks and trucks for their use. In an organized column, this group of five veterans and twenty new soldiers drove down to the front line, hearing the occasional "Go get em!"'s and "Holy ****, the army is here"'s from the impressed veterans they passed. Other new players (and some veterans) who had jumped in without direction joined them as they went, swelling their numbers further. When they got to the front line, the town of Kingstone, they found that the front had stalled. Their half-tracks weren't well equipped to push the line forward, and taking these new players into the meat grinder would be a disaster. So they went east instead, and attacked a neighboring town. These recruits crashed through the weak defenses and began clearing the town house by house. But disaster struck. A line of Colonial tanks arrived and destroyed every half-track, and the artillery piece they had brought along. Undeterred, the unit's commander told everyone to grab an RPG and walk back to the town. Twenty-something men with rocket launchers can do a lot of damage. The town was captured, and the unit secured the place as best they could. Enemy tanks attacked relentlessly, being destroyed or repelled with each wave. The unit eventually disbanded as players got tired and logged off, but the town was ours, and they had been seen. A press-consultant for the community new's cast saw all of this, and wrote a story for the next stream. Foxhole Flash, a twitch stream in the style of a WW2 radio show, ran a piece on this attack on the town guarded by new recruits "where tanks came to die." The accomplishments of that group of newly blooded soldiers were immortalized, and it was all made possible because a few players took command, and the rest were willing to follow them.

I don't know of any other game where this kind of event can happen, and I shall hold it dear to my heart for years to come. This game is challenging to get into. It can be frustrating and it's still in early access. There are glitches, imbalances, and sometimes you just might not have a good day online. But the fact that stories like that are written with every war, in every battle, is enough for me to recommend this game. I hope this was helpful, and hope to see you on the front.

**EDIT**
9/30/2022

I put this review up 3 years ago and am still playing the game on and off. The content is fun and the player base is bigger than ever. I can only recommend this game as it has fulfilled its promised ambition from early access, and continues to promise greater achievements still.