Convincingly brings the blood, lead and grit of World War II to life. Has a major save bug. Somewhat repetitive.
For the first time in my gaming experience, basic infantry tactics are integrated into the game. You must use smoke grenades to cover your movement, flanking the enemy (especially machine guns and tuns) is essential, and each soldier in the squad supports the other.
The AI on both sides is great. Your fellow soldiers will yell out the position of new enemies ("red building, fourth floor, left side!") and your commander will give you orders and get your squadmates to cover you. The Germans act believably, running for cover when they spot you, charging at you in closed quarters. One of the most humorous and human reactions is when a German soldier runs out from cover, is met by your squad's fire, and then runs back to cover.
I never really understood before how chaotic urban combat is. Enemies can literally pop out of anywhere and kill you. It makes things very tense, the work methodical, and progress slow. When everything is clicking, it makes for strong gameplay. But clearing out the third and fourth bunker of a mission, or the sixth and seventh house, gets somewhat tiresome.
The Russian and American campaigns in particular have slightly repetitive objectives. There are some fun breaks in the British campaign though. Tank combat is always fun, and there's the mandatory Call of Duty armored car ride.
Co-Op would have been a nice feature - the sense of teamwork is already strong with AI, it would have been a blast with a friend.
One huge issue: The game sometimes loses all your saved progress. There's a few workarounds you can find online on the xbox.com forums that you should definitely check out before playing.