In preparation for Heroes 2, I've bought and am playing Vanguard through right now. It's not a series I would normally buy, but since Heroes will be the first online FPS on the Wii, it's got my interest.
Controls:
Love the About Face move. For people who haven't played, a quick left jerk with the nunchuck instantly turns you 180*. Haven't had a chance to use it in multiplayer yet, but one of my biggest complaints about Red Steel multiplayer was turning time. Someone gets behind you, you're toast. You practically have to strafe with your back against the wall if you're playing someone smart.
Not all of the motion controls are as responsive as I'm used to. I tend to reload using wiimote.two just to avoid a problem. I also use c and Z for crouching and rising.
Also unlike Red Steel, there was NO pointer jumping. Huzzah!
As to Iron sights, where you bypass the on-screen reticule to snipe using only your gun's built-in sights, it has ups and downs. One up is that it makes every gun a little more unique. Learning the sights on one weapon doesn't really tell you about the sights on another. One down is that it makes all the guns a little more different—do you really want to relearn how to snipe every time you get stuck with a weapon you don't like anyway? It'd be different if you got to choose your loadout. Iron sight leaning is awesome, and makes cover more useful and more realistic. Your imbecile fellow soldiers who keep jumping in your sights right before you have a shot and move you while you're trying to aim are not so awesome.
Atmosphere:
I guess this is why people buy these sorts of games. Trying to get the feeling of being there, or at least all the feeling that doesn't include mortal terror at your own impending death. The addition to Vanguard was the paratroop sequence. It's nice, and Airborne (not coming to the Wii) will take note of that and expand on it to make it more real and more useful, but it's also short and small part of the whole game. Airborne makes sense to me, in a "Why make that game" kind of way. Vanguard doesn't. It's hook is too limited, and it's too much like any old WWII fighting game. Vanguard should have been Airborne.
I've enjoyed it. It isn't perfect. Even with About Face, tighter turning control would be appreciated. Button-remapping would be nice. A lot of it is what I expect virtually every other MoH game has been, which is expected out of such a prolific franchise. Sadly, I expect Heroes 2 adds little to that, though Airborne would have.