Well, if you prefer those Shoebox games with a visual distance of barely 100 meter, and not care much for hearing a tank roaming a kilometer away, or even an aircraft flying four kilometers away and the heavy Anti-Air Artillery pumping out their shells againt the said aircraft, then is the graphic maybe not as good as a shine kids shoebox game like Call of Duty 3 or 4.
But if you prefer gameplay over eyecandy and think it is awesome to join a battle with a several hundred other players that takes place not at a location of maximum four square kilometers, but is spread out over hundred square kilometers (I kid you not), then is this the game for you.
It's hard to describe how thrilling it could be when you rolling up to a part of the frontline where a heavy battle is in progess. You'll hear the heavy calibres guns firing and bombs exploding a couple of kilometers away. All seems quite in the area you are driving which give a false senses of beeing secure.
I don't know how often I have droven into a interdicting ambush and been blown sky high in a second. You can only admire those guys that sets up these well hidden ambushes, then waiting patiently far from the real fight for any enemy that might or might not trying to encircle the enemy forces.
Nothing you can do in a shoebox game since the game world is so tiny.
Add to this that if you win a map in a shoebox game has it no strategical importance for the next map. Each won or lossed town or city in WWII Online can have a major importance. Maybe within an hour or two. Or a few days later. It all dependes on how the High Command officers play their game moving around the Divisions and locating the Brigades (which we all spawns from, and that has limited resourses).
Which just as in real world can be as frustrating for the guys at the front that don't move around Divisions and Brigades on a map. But to a big contrast to the real world can any one of us join the two High commands, and after some training, be the guys that sits by the map and by your self see if you can be more cunning then the guy on the other side of the map. This strategical game can go on for weeks, seeking for weak points that isn't a trap and at the same time try to lure the opponents into a trap that - if they bite it - might result in a breakthrough that will result in a role-up which will encircule and eventuelly crush of one or two cut-off Divisions.
Shoebox games don't even plays in the same league as WWII Online. But they are sure nice to look at if that is important.
