World of Tanks (BETA) Review

“World of Tanks is a team-based massively multiplayer online game dedicated to armored warfare in the mid-20th century.” -- www.worldoftanks.com

World of Tanks (WoT) is not as fast paced or exciting as first person shooters like the COD, MOH or BF series. It is part Role Playing Game with your tank and crew improving over time as you build up experience and credits to buy better vehicles and upgrades. It is part simulation with the strengths and weaknesses of different vehicles playing a factor in battle. It is part strategy game as you must play smart to survive. This game isn’t about who can aim and shoot the fastest but about who can deceive and out-maneuver the other team.

While the game does not allow the degree of customization and flexibility that IL-2 did, it succeeds by making sure that you can get into battles quickly and ensuring those battles will be fair and balanced. If you like gritty armor-on-armor combat, you will probably find something to like about this game. And if not, at least you didn’t have to pay for it.

THE GOOD: It's free. How can you beat that? The game allows you to operate and fight against just about every light, medium and heavy tank, tank destroyer or self-propelled artillery commonly seen in the WW2 European Theater. The graphics are excellent and frame rates on a mediocre machine are good. Team battles are quick and easy to get into and teams are usually well ballanced. The variety of maps is good with each map having its own challenges - you will need to adjust your tactics based on the terrain. Maps vary from wide open plains that require long-range engagements to cityscapes with narrow streets and close-combat slug-fests. The in-combat interface superb - easy to understand and offers some customization options.

Did I mention the game is FREE. You can play and access most (if not all) of the features and vehicles at no charge. Paid services allow you access vehicles and technology more quickly, but are purely optional. The game appears to be balanced enough that paying players won’t have any major advantage over non-paying players, other than gaining access to top-tier tanks more quickly.

THE BAD: Every battle is won by either capturing the other team’s HQ or by destroying all the other tanks. An average battle lasts about 10 minutes (with a maximum time of 12 or 15 minutes). When your tank is destroyed you’re done. You can observe the game from the view any of your team mates, but you can’t respawn. If you die early in a battle, be prepared to wait. Go to the bathroom. Smoke a cigarette. Make a sandwich. You’ve got about 5 to 8 minutes before the next battle starts. On the other hand, you learn quickly to avoid getting killed which means more time playing and less time observing. While the developers say that buildings can be “perforated” it appears that most walls are solid and con not be destroyed or penetrated. A tank hiding behild a building appears to be completely safe from enemy fire, except that it is still vulnerable to artillery fire.

THE UGLY: While the graphics are generally very good, there is a lot of repetition in the building models. In the urban maps, you’ll find yourself passing the exact same bombed-out building repeatedly. On my computer, the interface screen was too big to display properly and the bottom of the screen was cut off - not a major problem, but it was somewhat annoying. Fiddling with resolution settings might fix it. Players can not set up their own servers and there does not appear to be any type of active moderation, so you will encounter the occasional abusive, team-killing asshole and you’ll just have to live with it since you can’t kick him. However, you can set up team battles that allow you to limit your team to invitees only. Artillery is a mixed blessing. It ensures that an out-matched tank has a way of defeating a well entrenched target (by having a team mate in an SPG lay down artillery fire on it). On the other hand, artillery seems unusually precise and in many battles I saw the SPGs held the highest kill counts.