With the recent reveal by Wargaming.net, British tanks will finally be making their way to the battlefields of World of Tanks. I thought it would be a good time to discuss why I have a love / hate relationship with one of the most interesting free-to-play games on the market.
Why, then, did this game grab my attention in the first place? It took WW2 in a new direction for gaming; most games for this time period are either pure strategy or FPS. WoT is a first / third person tank-driving-simulation-strategic-battle, and a welcome breath of fresh air.
It's not a graphic powerhouse such as Battlefield 3 and The Witcher 2, but it has great artistic direction. The tank models and textures are superb. The developers love this period, and it shows in the attention to detail. The armour plates have individual thicknesses according to the historical values with some changes for balancing. Top speeds change based on your engine power and your accuracy is based on the main gun you take to battle.
Currently the game only has 1 mode, which is a 15 side team deathmatch with capture points. Turning your opponents to piles of scrap metal, or capturing the enemy base without being hit, earns your team victory and an experience bonus. Battle tactics can range from quick and frantic skirmishes, too strategic flanking manoeuvres. This occurs naturally without team communication because of the well balanced asymmetric map designs.
The fundamental gameplay is solid. Driving around the battlefield and firing the weaponry feels exactly like how you would expect driving a tank to feel. It's satisfying crushing scenery beneath your tracks, and watching opponents go up in flames as you punch an armour piercing round through the hull.
WoT is the first game I can remember that provided me with tangential learning. The array of vehicles ranges from mass produced front line tanks to prototype, super heavy monstrosities. The game's well put together wiki drew me in, providing me with the specifications and history of what players could drive in game.
A final big plus point for the game is that Wargaming.net are dedicated to adding more content to the game in patches. This includes new maps and vehicles, as well as some new features like vehicle camouflage. They also run a lot of events for the game, such as bonus experience weekends and competitions.
So with those glowing paragraphs of praise, what could I dislike so much about a free to play game? The biggest problem which any new player will be faced with is the fact that the game is a massive grind. The technology trees for the nations are huge. You can quickly progress thorough the first few tiers of any tree, unlocking all the early starter vehicles and equipment, but beyond that point it takes a lot of time and effort.
That's how the game's economy is set up. It encourages players to pay for premium accounts and other bonuses to speed their levelling progress (the developers need to eat), but the balance for this is completely off. Even if you put money into the game, you have to dedicate yourself to a nation to get into the high tier tanks.
Matchmaking is also a frequent problem for certain tiers of vehicles. The game will often create matches were the low tiers in the game won't be able to actually damage their higher tier enemies, except for lucky shots hitting weak spots. I encountered this very often while driving tier 4 (highest tier is 10) tanks, finding myself in battles with tier 7 and 8 which I would just have to do my best to avoid, whilst hunting opponents at my level or making myself useful by capturing the enemy base.
The brackets for matchmaking should be tightened to provide more matches where you feel that you have the ability to really impact the game. It would increase queuing times, but it's definitely not fun being blown to pieces by a tank twice your size.
The game's power balance just isn't right, even with the constant tweaks that are made in the patches. In fairness to Wargaming.net, they have to balance an arms race that constantly pushed for better armour and bigger guns; that's not easy.
If you haven't played WoT yet I'd suggest you give it a go, it is free to play after all so there's nothing to lose, but if you get into it, be prepared to spend a lot of time reading the wiki due to the steep learning curve and grinding the experience for the next tier.
