Review of World of Tanks

 The idea behind Wargaming.net's free-to-play game World of Tanks is straightforward: take a shooter and swap out the people with enormous, hefty, and incredibly realistic tanks. Wide, vast expanses take the place of cramped hallways, and more tanks replace your weaponry. Actually, a whole world of them. Playing a game of Counter-Strike is similar to the framework of World of Tanks in that each session has two possible outcomes. Either take over your opponents' bases or eliminate them all.

In World of Tanks, tank combat is generally enjoyable. The substantial thud of a shell landing squarely in the back of an enemy tank gives you the impression that you are operating a ruthlessly potent machine of war.

A significant portion of World of Tanks fighting involves chance, and occasionally that chance can be used against you to such an extent that it becomes annoying and irritating. The way tanks aim, represented by a circle that becomes wider when you move and gradually gets narrower the longer you remain motionless, best illustrates this. There will always be some leeway, even if you remain still for long enough for the targeting circle to get as tiny as feasible. Over long distances, this leeway can lead to more misses than hits. All of this is presumably done to increase realism in the experience, but realism comes at the expense of enjoyment.

That may not seem like a big problem, but World of Tanks also employs an extremely sophisticated algorithm to determine whether armor is penetrated by your bullets and, if so, how much damage they inflict. These calculations include the part of the opponent you strike, the angle at which the shell hits, and the type of round you are employing. Although there is a wiki that goes into great detail, this is only partially explained in-game, and even with these calculations, some things still seem to be left to chance. This meant that I fired five point-blank cannon rounds from a German mid-tier tank into the rear of a Russian well-armored KV tank, doing exactly zero damage. I think that was one of the most "what the eff" moments I've had in a game in a very long time.

In addition, the game doesn't explain how line-of-sight operates or why an enemy tank might appear out of nowhere, but even that scenario relies on calculations. Being dominated by someone who has read every available piece of information can be a bad experience when playing World of Tanks due to the opaqueness of many of the game's mechanisms, which leaves a lot to be desired.

Fortunately, World of Tanks is still simple to play and enjoyable even if you skip your homework. Even if you may not know why some players come and leave from the map or why a certain tank appears to be nearly impervious to your rounds, you may have a hunch that assaulting a tank destroyer from behind is a good idea because the armor appears thinner there. Alternatively, perhaps glancing out from behind a rock for a brief moment to launch a salvo (and hoping for good fortune) helps it reach its objective) before retreating behind cover is another astute move. These are homages to traditional shooters, where hitting the head and hiding behind crates seems as right as stopping when you're not hungry and eating when you are.

Similarly, Wargaming.net is counting on the inherent urge of players to want to acquire a more potent tank. Tech tiers are used to group tanks together, and any nation (the USA, Germany, and Russia) can move down a tier with another. are the three that are currently available), you should first look into the bulk of the upgrades for your present tank, then look into the next tank, and last make the purchase. Initially, going from tier one to tier two and then tier two to tier three just takes a few hours of gameplay, but even with a premium account, reaching tier five will likely take me a whole week of playing for at least three hours every day, if not longer. The more down the tier tree you go in World of Tanks, the more gritty the gameplay becomes. Upgrading your engine and purchasing new tanks can occasionally feel like a step backward (typically because of a decrease in speed or accuracy). Your tank will almost immediately need a cannon, tracks, and turret to have a realistic chance of winning a battle.

World of Tanks makes an effort to group tanks of equivalent tiers in games together because it is rare for a lower-tier tank to destroy a fully upgraded higher-tier one. Regrettably, I've occasionally been paired in really unequal games because the matchmaker isn't always ideal. It happens, albeit it's uncommon and probably depends on whether you're playing during prime times.

World of Tanks is still an enjoyable multiplayer game despite these issues. This is generally the result of extremely creative map designs. I can't find a place where I can actively attack far-off tanks while playing as an SPG (self-propelled gun), which is very good for balance. Similarly, when I play as a tank, I can use ridges and hills to my advantage to avoid being caught off guard by artillery fire and end up leaving my thinner top armor vulnerable to attack from ground assaults. There aren't many places I feel comfortable hiding out and biding my time.

Some players refer to the KV "derp-gun" as a gigantic cannon that appears to be able to take down even medium-armored tanks with a single shot, which raises balancing problems for me. Even with its sluggish reload and aim times, the weapon's overwhelming strength seems to outweigh the drawbacks.

Verdict

Notwithstanding its corny moniker, World of Tanks accomplishes some amazing things. It creates something that, despite its flaws, is nonetheless genuinely entertaining by balancing between shooter action and pure tank simulation. Games can become unduly irritating due to matching and other random components, and researching new tanks might take an unnecessary amount of time. Even simple basics like sight and cover can become confusing due to a lack of in-game tutorials, but if you can get past these problems, there are plenty of positive aspects to enjoy.