I have only had CoH for three days, and have not been playing it very seriously, so I guess this review may be premature. Anyway, it is great. Everything is balanced, the campaign is fun, the skirmishes moreso; its great. So, instead of listing all the areas where other real-time strategy games have failed and this one suceeded, I will just tell you the main reason it has gripped me.
Intuitive complexity. I guess that’s the best way to express it in two words. The game covers flanking and cover, and yet does so easily. You can use complex and intelligent strategies, but it isn’t hard to carry them out. The interface doesn’t come in between you and the battlefield, you look through the screen, not at it.
The only thing I don’t like, and not because they did it wrong, but because I’m a pussy, is that the campaign is fricking intense. It’s not that I wish it wasn’t intense, but… my god, it’s like playing through “Saving Private Ryan”. The beachead level is just goddamn depressing, so depressing that I had to take a break afterwards. Part of this is that the soldiers seem real, mostly through excellent and plentiful voice acting.
More later, but for now I give it
=D> 
:D/
Ten smileys out of ten!