3.5/5 ★ – fantasium's review of Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront.

This game gives a true feeling of what it’s like to be in combat. Every time I send my soldiers into a conflict I’m terrified. The boom of a distant artillery piece sends shivers down my spine. You can control single units or huge forces in a revolutionary game design. The realism that gives this game its incredible feel however also takes away from it a bit. You’re generally tasked with attacking or defending some territory with a limited amount of troops. Also realistic, but when you inevitably take casualties you sometimes have to resort to some unrealistic meta tactics to accomplish your objective. Every time I accomplish an even minor task I save so I can reload when I make some brutal mistake and lose half my force. The micromanaging that makes this game cool also takes away from it. RTT games often struggle with this, but because of the penalty of even minor failures a small mistake like forgetting about a troop or not repositioning an AT gun have disastrous consequences. Again, realistic, but not always super fun and cause the game to not flow very well. I honestly feel like I need long months of training to be good at this game and understand its mechanics. Unfortunately I’m not sure I want to put that time in.