Never thought that Men of war gained wide acclaim in the West.But it’s really good game and the first RTS I ever played ( I am talking about the whole game series, in particular the 1st game in the series released in 2004).
Unfortunately, the 2nd part (it is called in English “Faces Of War”) was less interesting for me. Despite numerous breakthroughs in gameplay and graphics/physics, a much larger number of units under your control and inablity to repair tanks confused me. I had played the whole Soviet campaign and part of the German when I finally realised what is wrong. That’s the idea of it. Because of localisation you didn’t get it but in Russian the title of the series sounds like “В тылу врага” which means “In the enemy’s rears” (in the western localisation it is called Soldiers: Heroes of World War II). The 1st part was all about it. You acted in deep rear, especially playing Soviet campaign and German campain. The number of units was much smaller, so it required only micromanagement which I really loved (imagine damaging Panzer, killing its crew, and then repairing it!) Yeah, there was much more fun…
It was also more dramatic (american and german campaigns, in particular). In german campaigh you played Michael Wittmann, a german tank ace. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wittmann), and under your command was a single Panzer VI Tiger and a couple of soldiers. Besides, all missions were based on real events covering some Wittmann’s fights in 1944 (an assault on Villers-Bocage).
So if you liked the sequels I suggest you play an original one.
Also, there is a game called DEFCON developed by Introversion Software, an independent british team. It is a simulator of nuclear war with great multiplayer (the whole idea is based on the old movie “War Games”). Here’s the web site:http://www.introversion.co.uk/