Like reading a book on this war, playing this game gives some glimpses into what it was like - although this game, as well as books, can never really capture the horror of fighting on the Eastern Front or any combat for that matter.
But, the game does provide some insights and this is why I like to play.
From playing this game with its focus on realism, I realize that I never would have survived the war . You read accounts of those who survived this war and you always think that you would have been one who could have survived. But this game humbles you and makes you realize that in all likelyhood you would have become one of those who never made it back.
To survive, you do have to employ proper tactics, techniques, and procedures, and must work as a team, but you also must have an strong amount of luck. No matter how you do everything right, you can always find yourself in the wrong place, looking the wrong way and at the wrong time, and you are dead.
I believe also from this game that there are far more casualties in conflict from friendly fire than is generally thought to occur.
I also enjoy games like this because it gives some thought to how in the future we might have humans operating and controlling infantry bots through a keyboard to conduct close combat. Robots are a long way from having artificial intelligence to operate effectively on a battlefield by themselves - look at bots in this game. But a human using a keyboard remotely controlling a human like bot as you do in this game controlling a human type entity, offers potential on future battlefields.
So the wife has college classes tonight, and I anxiously await end of work to go home and join the fighting