Many things are changed in favor of the so-called "playability," but they just feel dumbed down and more arcadish-the armor hit point system, the damage/range/accuracy system, etc. I don't understand what the rationale was, as the Bestway folks never actually explained it to us, but FOW, despite the welcomed addition of a larger scope in the squad system, is a step back from Soldiers. The bottom line was that I spent most of my time playing the COH campaign, while FOW (which I played first) sits idle because of all the frustrations it caused.
COH didn't change my expectations on this, but it does a lot of things right, while FOW, successor of my favorite game Soldiers, has yet a ways to go.
Going in, I thought I would've liked FOW much more, since I'm not really a RTS fan who likes to have units (tanks) with health bars and generated from buildings. This isn't a "my **** is bigger than yours" thread, but I've bought both games and have played them both, and comparisons are helpful to my view of FOW.