Ever tried playing a nice flash game on some site and was greeted by one of those ads for World of Tanks?
This game was probably one of the most well known ads out there, but it's for a somewhat great game.
World of Tanks is... well... a world full of tanks. As said in the title, I tested the XBLA version, so I still do not know all of the attributes to this game. Nonetheless, it makes a great impression. In the XBLA version, there are about 6 or more maps to play on, but only one gametype. Again, since this is the XBLA version, I don't have all of the stuff in the PC version. But the one gamemode required much strategy, as well as wits, since it was either kill every enemy, or capture their base.
The tanks you can play as are basically from three trees, American tanks, British tanks or German tanks. They are all different, and they all have different styled tanks, with many attributes, strengths and weaknesses. As such, American Heavy tanks have more Turret Armor, allowing you to take enough cover to cover the tank, but not the turret, giving you more protection while still having offensive angles.Choosing the right one for the right game is crucial for victory.
You can have five tanks in your garage if you don't pay for another slot, and you can buy any kind of tank you want from any of the three trees, as long as you have researched enough upgrades for the first tank from the tree. Almost every tank tree has all five tank classes: Light, Tank Destroyer, Medium, Artillery and Heavy Tanks.
Light Tanks are basically used for scouting, spotting enemies, hunting down Tank Destroyer snipers as well as Artillery tanks, and sometimes flanking enemies and rushing them. They are able to move very fast around the map, as well as turn their turret really fast. However, their health and armor are no comparison to other tanks, leaving these tanks very little defensive capability if it weren't for one overpowered attribute. Their turrets can usually be outfitted with a semi-auto gun, which you can spray all five shots into your enemy and kill them very quickly, unless, of course, your enemy is armored. This one overpowered attribute can kill your enemy very quickly, and personally, I think both weak armor and health are not a good balancing factor for a semi-auto gun. Even if it's somewhat weak. Not even that, but these semi-auto guns can be upgraded in some Medium tanks as well! I don't know what they were thinking on that one, but I think this factor is a bit iffy on my part.
Tank Destroyers have basically the same amount of armor and health as a light tank. However, their offensive and range capabilities are unmatched. They are the snipers of the bunch, and they usually stay behind the team for long-range support. They are usually weaker than a medium tank, which is the reason why they stay behind and almost never rush into combat. Although their armor is usually weak, Their frontal armor is enough for a sniper to back away when spotted and attacked, without being severely damaged, unless your tank destroyer has no armor, which is really bad. Nonetheless, these tanks are the perfect support snipers.
Medium Tanks are the main offensive group. They are meant to rush into combat, flank, and take out enemies in groups. Their health and armor is well-balanced with their other attributes, and they are basically a jack-of-all-trades and just a basic attacking tank.
Artillery Tanks are meant to support by staying far behind and sniping tanks from shells shot into the sky. These tanks can basically shoot anything in the map as long as the shell can hit the target in a bullet drop arc. The shots fired from an Artillery tank can kill you in one shot... but managing to stay out of the drop arc can save your life. Even hugging the walls of a house can get you out of an Artillery tank's line of sight, and block the shots from their shells. Artillery tanks are also at a disadvantage with their speed. They are almost as slow as a Heavy tank, and their reload time is horrid. Missing a shot while being an Artillery tank means death in a combat situation.
Heavy Tanks are basically, one big lump of metal to kill others, while soaking in shots. They have an enormous amount of health, with a big offensive capability, enough to kill a tank with one or two shots. However, they are at a disadvantage with light and medium tanks, as their flanking capabilities are fast enough to circle around to your engine and fire as many shots as they can into that. Your turret turning speed is horrible, as with your hull turning speed, and pretty much the speed of everything else too, except for your reload, which is just...decent. However, a trick you can do to turn faster is to turn your hull and your turret at the same time, doubling your speed, fast enough to nail your surrounding flankers.
All of these tanks can be used in any game, as long as you are in a specific Tier group, which is basically how good your tank is. If you're a tier 2 tank and you're facing tier fives, you're dead. just sayin.
Also, once you die in a game, you can go back to your garage, without losing anything(unless you are still alive), and pick another tank to play as, getting more playtime, while earning your money and xp while you are still playing as another tank. And when you die, most likely your other game is over, so you can play as your other tank while waiting for your xp from your other game to come, and your other tank as well.
World of Tanks is pretty much a strategy game, with the implemented ability to play as a tank, and not just point and click to order stuff around, etc... and is pretty much a great game. However the one bad thing about it is that it can the "premium currency" system where you can pay money to get "premium currency" and buy overpowered tanks at the start of your first few games. So you'd literally have newbs using tier 7 tanks.
But all in all, the game is great. The strategic planning you are forced to do in this game can help you achieve a victory, while the ridiculous things you can do as a tank mixed in with that, actually creates a fun game that you can play for lols, or play to win.
Gameplay: 9. Very great gameplay mechanics, as when you die, you can return to your garage and pick another tank to play as, while waiting for your tank to come back. The strategy that you must integrate into your game also helps when fighting, assisting, and rushing enemies and friendlies.
Sound: 7. As like CoD, I feel like this game is also one of the "Arcade Shoot 'em Up" types, and is not really much of a "realistic" game. As such, I didn't feel like the game had realistic cannon sounds, and the engines were probably louder. Not many audio cues were given except for when something was damaged, of a crew member died, or something, but most of those things could have easily been known due to a visual pop-up.
Visual: 6.5. I don't think they were focusing much on the visual part of the game, except for the HUD. Explosions are of course, not very realistic, as explosions just leave a scorch mark in the ground. However, it does seem realistic enough for the point five mark of damaged tanks to have a damaged look on the tank, like having a broken track, and the track is broken on-screen. Tank corpses are also not blown to oblivion when they explode, but they are just colored black, split open in one area, and catches fire.
Overall score: 8.5. Very great strategy game, with a bit of Arcade shoot 'em up integrated to make the game fun. Great for casual players who can learn the concept easily, and excellent for the ones who love playing strategy games, like chess.
Sorry for the late uploads, I've been distracted by a new video game that I got, with this one included, my testing times were very much delayed. I will get more content out soon though!!
