A couple months back at the PAX Prime show, I had a chance to check out a few titles from Wargaming specifically World of Tanks for Xbox® 360 and World of Warplanes. Foggy memory? This post should refresh you or let me give you the gist.
Built specifically for the Xbox 360, World of Tanks has over 100 armored behemoths for you to tinker all with their own unique strengths, which encourage different styles of play. The game is very simple for anyone to pick up and play, but immerse enough with the variation of vehicles and customization tree to keep you engaged for hours. You’ll definitely want to put the time in to upgrade your “tiny tank” into an “armored juggernaut.”
I had a chance to dig deeper into the beta and there are two things that I can tell you with definitive, indisputable, without a shadow-of-a-doubt certainty:
- The game is a blast.
- I terrible at it.
Let’s talk about why I’m terrible first because it actually plays into why I say it’s a blast. World of Tanks is forcing me to change my gameplay style. It’s like the martial arts fighter who knows one style, gets his butt kicked by the evil overlord, and has to learn a new style in order to avenge his master. I’m typically a “run and gun” player. My strategic thinking is something akin to “hey, there’s a guy over there who hasn’t seen me yet, let’s shoot him.” This style of play doesn’t always work in a game like World of Tanks, which makes it much more fun and definitely more tactical.
Once you’ve selected your tank, done your customizations and are ready for battle, you’ll be placed into the map with your team. This is the part that’s a blast (and also where I have the greatest need for improvement.) The gameplay itself is smooth; controls are fluid and graphically very appealing. Your tank can pretty much go anywhere. (Believe me, I’ve tested this.)
While most of the matches I played were the standard battles where you win by securing the enemy base, there are two other battle scenarios which tasted so good, I was hungry for more – Encounter and Assault.
Encounter puts you battling the enemy for control of one base and Assault sets up one team to defend a base and the opposing team must either eliminate the team or destroy the base to win. Good stuff, right?
There are a couple other key features I want to highlight that really stood out.
Sixth Sense: I love this. While you can use the map on screen to see when the enemy is near, you’ll get a small, non-intrusive notification on your screen to alert you that you’re in enemy range. So while you start homing in on their position to fire, be aware they’re doing the same for you. This simple feature helps add to the intensity of tank on tank action.
Communication Radial: So simple, so effective. This is a quick way to send messages to teammates to help coordinate tactics while in mission. Use the left bumper on your controller to call up the screen and then the left analog stick to select a message. I got a couple of these in games I played and it really helped make the experience a unified one…even though I’m still horrible.
Destructible Environments: I love when games have this. Sometimes you just want to blow stuff up and World of Tanks brings a solid delivery here. Whether it’s running over trees, brick walls or through housing, the dev teams have really done well showcasing the strength and power of the tank you’re driving. It’s a nice touch.
If there were one thing I would nit about, it would be once the game session ends, getting back into another one fast. I’m used to just cycling through matches until I’ve had my fill of virtual destruction versus being sent back to the central lobby. Again, a small nit because there are times I do want to switch tanks to test the waters a bit. But again, this is minor.
Sometimes you want a change of pace. Because sports games are seasonal, they are full of wash, rinse and repeat. First person shooters have started to blend together to the point where the not even the enemies are different.
With World of Tanks, Wargaming has taken some amazing military hardware, threw in a tanks weight of historical accuracy, piled on robust features and customization options to cater to the personality of the player and then let you loose in an open field to wreck the havoc we’ve all daydreamed about during history class.
If you’re not playing World of Tanks, you’re shorting yourself one of life’s little pleasures.
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