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57 of 63 people found the following review helpful.
A unique game of thousands of 10 to 15 minute tank battles
By Craig
World of Tanks is an unusual game. When you start it up, and it gives you a start tank, and you press the big red 'battle' button, second later you are on a map with 14 other tanks on your team, against 15 enemies. There's a time of 10 or 15 minutes ticking down, depending on the type of battle the game randomly selects. A message says 'capture enemy base or destroy all enemies'.The controls are pretty intuitive, mouse looks around, w/a/s/d move and turn, left click shoots. Soon the battle is over, and you're returned to the 'garage' screen with the menu and your list of tanks, and a message saying you got some experience and credits. OK, what now? Most games provide hours of gameplay - that's a nice intro. Well, get ready to repeat that thousands of times - that's the game.Now, that sounds bad and limited - what the heck, just the same 15 against 15 over and over and over? Well, yes, but for one thing there are a couple dozen different maps - more are added several times a year - and it's a lot more fun than it sounds.You get to know the maps, and look for good spots. Different teams have different amounts of teamwork - which helps win if they do it. Every normal game sticks you among 15 random people - though you can have one friend (free) or two friends (if you buy 'premium') join you as a small platoon in the team of 15 each match. There are 10 tiers of tanks; you can get bigger and bigger tanks to play as you save the credits you get.The most notable two things about the game for me are the very realistic/detailed graphics in the battles, which are varied settings from bombed out ruins of towns to desert dunes to mountain passes; and the excellent and varied music. They have several songs that play, and I don't like 'march music' but every one of the songs is surprisingly good and helps the atmosphere.There are five types of tanks. The 'heavy' is what most think of in a tank - larger slower, fine gun. The mediums are the more agile battle tanks, able to circle and shoot larger enemies, to go quickly. The 'Tank Destroyer' is a tank designed more for hiding and ambushing, with a strong gun and front armor generally, usually for staying back and supporting the other tanks. The light tanks are mostly used as scouts, fast and small and able to hide well, exposing the enemy and zig zagging to not get shot in the enemy's area - and looking to try to find and kill the last and most distinct type of tank, artillery, which has the most damaging guns, the least armor, and a special 'satellite' view of the map where they look down on the enemy and send long range shots. The variety of tanks helps the game not get as repetitive.There are different countries' lines of tanks, with the same types but variations in the actual tanks; there are favorites in each and almost everyone gets tanks from each country.There are three game currencies. Gold is the one that costs money; experience and credits you get automatically each battle, the more damage you do, the more you get (damage is counted, not kills, for rewards). The game has a somewhat confusing interface; experience is the currency for 'researching' new tanks and equipment like better guns (you start with tier 1, which then researches tier 2, and so on); after researching, you need to buy the item with credits (you can sell back what you buy for 50% of the cost). Playing the free game, you make the most rewards around tier 5 and 6; the game has you lose money playing higher tiers, in order to keep the game being dominated by high tier tanks.Gold is used for a variety of things: premium, which the main benefit of is getting more experience and credits in the battle (it works about to about twice as much); you can also buy 'premium' consumable add-ons for the tanks, and paint jobs that don't affect gameplay, resources like spots for more tanks and reserved crew members, and a few other things (like paying to remove an item you put on a tank to move it to another tank).Premium accounts can be bought from one day to one year (costing $100+ approximately).The most useful purchase I find for gold along with premium is 'training'. Crew members are trained, first for the main role - like gunner - and then with more skills, such as beign able to turn the tank faster or drive faster over soft ground or radio locations of enemies further. As you get new tanks, you likely want to move crews to the new tanks - but that needs retraining, and if you don't pay, some of the training is lost each time.There are also a limited number of 'premium tanks', which play about the same as other tanks of their tier, but receive more credits by having lower 'repair costs', making it easier to get credits to buy other tanks. The best of these cost just over $50, as a one-time expense. The benefits are cumulative with a 'premium account'.The gameplay varies between four types: standard, where two teams start at a flag on sides of a map and want to capture the other team's flag or destroy all their tanks; encounter, which is similar but has one map in the middle; and assault, which has the attacker and the defense, where one team tries to capture the flag of the other team, and the other team is on defense instead of trying to capture.There are a vareity of 'medals' in the game, for things from killing six tanks in a battle to hitting numbers of total damage done in all battle, and some varied objectives as well, such as ramming a higher tank to kill it.The game's group structure are 'clans'; clans offer a chat room and another type of gameplay, 'clan wars', and a few clans who win the most 'control lands on a map' and get some gold. This is the main gameplay where players use special ammunition that costs about 50 cents per 15 minute match, that increases the chances of penetratint enemy armor.The game is designed by a very entrepeneurial East European company, that's very fast growing (I read tens of dollars a month income), and they are developing two more similar games for warplanes and warships. They make an effort to keep enhancing the game, and provide varied information such as history articles on tank battles, and regular specials.The game is in some ways historically designed to be like actual tanks; for example, the paint jobs are only ones used on period tanks; on others, it's not, such as how tanks have the 'light up' to spot them, and the artillery overhead view, and the way the crews get out and fix damage in a few seconds.Time for a few negatives. One, I find the user interface is often user unfriendly. Sometimes confusing, sometimes inefficient, and sometimes even causing players to make mistakes that can cost money. They also don't seem especially receptive to improving these things, though they do occassionally (and sometimes make them worse, removing features players like).I also find the customer service mixed and sometimes poor. Until recently, the 'chat room' moderation has been by volunteers, who provided very uneven moderation. Mostly not a problem, but sometimes they'd not take action when they should, and others they'd take it with little basis - and the room goes for hours without moderation. When they take action, it suspends the player from having any communication sent anywhere in the game for the duration of from six hours to multiple weeks, including in battles. So your clan might be counting on you for a clan war that night, and you don't be able to chat with them, even to tell them what happened, unless you can contact them outside the game. If you lose playing premium time you paid for - too bad. For example, one night in chat I saw one player say inappropriate things, and the moderator banned him for three days - and a kid who had done nothing wrong, but have his messages next to the other person, appearing that the moderator had mistaken who said what. Players said this, and the moderator said 'don't discuss moderator actions' and that would get a ban, too.Also, when the game makes a player waste gold by mistake, customer service has been totally unwilling to provide any credits. For example, when you get a new tank, and move the old crew into it, you have to re-train the new crew, so you bring the members up, and click the training tab, and options for training. No problem - except that the default for which tank thye're training for, which is easy to miss, is set to the OLD tank, not the new tank they're in. There's no reason to have it that way - no one ever moves a crew into a tank and then trains them for the tank they were in previously, but that's what happens if you aren't careful to notice it every time for every member. Contact support if you accidentally waste gold and they'll tell you the policy is no refunds for any mistakes, no matter how much a poor interface contributed. I've been quite unhappy with the service at times; response time has ranged from about an hour to a couple days.Players often complain about a couple things. One is the 'matchmaker' - most matches start with one or more complaints - that's the game picking the teams to be about even. Lower tanks don't like being in matches with higher tanks they can't kill. Another is 'lag', that's periodic for various reasons. But the lag isn't that common enough to be a major issue. The other major area players, especially newer players, complain is about how the 'camoglouge' game system works, where ou find your tank being shot by enemies you can't spot. The game a system that can't easily be described in a review for how tanks spot each other, from equipment and training to hiding correctly beind bushes. It's part of learning the game.(Update: as of the 7.5 patch around August 1 2012, they plan to change the matchmaker to limit tanks to matches to within two tiers, which should go a long way to addressing the dislike tanks have of being matched with tanks several tanks higher).As can be expected, there's also a fair amount of annoying player behavior. Be sure your mother isn't doing indecent things with any other players before starting a match, or you may worry. This naturally motivates 'team killing', shooting a teammate you don't like, but the game strongly discourages this, reducing your reward, letting your team kill you without penalty, and if it's a pattern you can get a ban.This is a game it's easy to start out determined to play for free and not spend money - and hundreds of dollars later admit you decided it was worth it. I have to say, the game really can be played for little money and enjoyed; most of the fun in the game can be had with lower tier, easily obtained tanks for free.For a taste of a few 'good' tanks, try the BT-2 light; the T82 or Marder II tank destroyer; and the SU-26 artillery (which is the only one with a 'turret' making it viewed as perhaps the most fun in the game).When you start playing, don't judge the game by the first tank you get - it's lower than other tanks and gets killed quickly. Try the tanks I mentioned to get a feel.The Amazon packages say you 'can't get them anywhere else', but you can get everything in them - the tanks, crews, gold and credits - for gold in the game. They're a bit hyped with trying to sound 'exclusive'.There's a pretty robust community - look for people saying 'o7' in the games, which is meant to show a 'salute'. It's an easy game to try, and well worth it for most who do.I'd give the game 5 stars, except holding one for the interface improvements needs and the areas I have been unhappy with customer service. I hate to 'have a grudge' about the problems, but it's hard not to. So overall, I recommend trying the game as an unusual game, with well designed detailed maps, good music, and fun gameplay, while noting the problem areas.Update #2: A good example of the bad customer service happened tonight. This is a serious enough problem it's worth mentioning in some detail and is driving me away from the game.A little background about the in-game chat, which sometimes has moderators, which sometimes help people, and ban players for period of time for violating rules. These bans range from six hours to one day for some offenses, while the longest ban normally seen is three days for racist and homophobic slurs. In many months, with very offensive chat, I've almost never seen longer than a 3-day ban, maybe once.The other background is that people often talk about politics, though it's against the listed rules. If it gets to be too argumentative with people insulting, the moderators say to stop, with no bans unless someone continues.Tonight, the first night of the Republican convention, a player made a racist comment and correctly was banned for 3 days. I then made a joke - I made a joke about 'it's too bad speakers at the convention can't be banned the same way, homophobic policy speech 3 day ban'. Several players laughed, no one was offended.The moderator then without warning placed a 7-day on my account for 'impersonating a moderator'. A player responded 'it was just a good joke'. I 'filed an appeal', the staff responded citing the rule against political chat - ignoring the fact the ban was not for that - an uphodling it. Nevermind that even if the political rule was applied for the first time ever for one line without warning, it'd normally be a 1 day ban, not 7.This sort of thing has happened to others, and is a bad enough problem to take the game review down one more star, given it's driving me away from the game. Note thoough, the game is better for those who avoid the service.
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Great game, great mechanics, plus you learn history!
By aznriptide859
By far the most enjoyable multiplayer game I've played for years.World of Tanks (or WoT as most players refer) is, essentially, a TDM-based free-to-play game with premium content. Game types are essentially variations of force on force deathmatch, with 15 players per side. Teams start on opposing sides of the map, and players are tasked with eliminating the enemy team, capturing a flag, and/or a combination of the two based on game variation. There are 30 maps right now available for play (and more come with each Wargaming update), which vary from snow-covered glaciers to sandy deserts. Clan Wars and Tank Company battles are also available, although I have not played those myself.Tanks revolve around most tanks built/developed in the pre-WWII, WWII, and post-WWII era. Over 150+ tanks from the USA, Germany, USSR, and France (one from China, though it's no longer available for purchase, and future tanks from Britain are planned) can be played. Vehicles vary from the famous backbone tanks of armies (i.e. US M4 Sherman, USSR T-34, German Tiger) to never-deployed prototypes - being a WWII history nut myself, I enjoy learning about the tanks as much as I do playing with them. Tanks are split into five categories: light, medium, heavy, tank destroyer, and artiller/self-propelled gun (SPG).Each tank type has a varied play style. Light tanks are generally fast and good for harass and scout tasks. Mediums are well-rounded with good armor and good armaments, and are suited for support, harass or even frontline duty in some cases. Heavy tanks make up the beef of team (especially in higher tiers), and although well armored and heavily armed are slower than other classes. Tank destroyers have very good guns, and although not very maneuverable, exceed in sniping and ambush tactics. Artillery/SPG's support the frontline with high-arcing and long range fire - the "snipers" in a team. The huge variation of tanks available ensures you will never be bored playing WoT, and, hopefully, that you find a tank class that you enjoy the most.Tanks are split into different tiers (ranging from 1 to 10), and games are generally matchmade based on their tier (a Battle Tier is also involved in this as well), which ensures games will be relatively balanced. I hear complaints all the time regarding the matchmaking system, but overall it does an OK job. The matchmaking ensures whatever game you're put in, your play style is not consistent - you will not strongarm your way through a battle as a bottom-tier tank as you would playing a higher-tier tank. Tactics and cooperation are key to winning and enjoying this game.Experience grinding through this game is not like other MMO games - the EXP grinded is for both each tank and for the tank crew. As the tank crew progresses, each member will do their job a little more efficiently (i.e. a driver will drive/accelerate faster, a loader will reload faster, and a commander will spot enemy tanks earlier). EXP gained per battle can be used to research new modules for your tank, making it faster and better armed. Although the experience earned per tank/per tank crew is locked to each vehicle, you also earn free experience on the side to spend on any tank research, and you also have the ability to train tank crews for new vehicles. However, the longer you play, the longer you will spend to grind tanks - be warned that higher tier tanks take a very long time to fully research and upgrade.Besides the normal currency used for purchasing tanks and modules, there is also Gold currency, which is bought for real money - the "premium" aspect of this FTP game. Gold can be used for many things - buying premium equipment, converting for more normal currency, converting vehicle EXP into free EXP, buying Gold ammo, buying tank slots for more tanks, etc. The biggest two aspects are buying a Premium account, which gives you 50% more gold and EXP earnings per battle, and buying Gold tanks, which are fully upgraded with modules and 100% crew (making them good money makers).I personally feel that Gold definitely gives you more freedom to manage your tanks, crew, and money (even just a good $5-10 worth of Gold is enough, but that is up to each player). The benefits gained through buying Gold do not give you an extreme upper hand in games, which doesn't make WoT feel like a "pay to win" game. I do however wish there was a way to earn Gold without having the need to spend money - it doesn't make non-Gold purchasers feel left out, yet gives an incentive for those who do want extra Gold to spend money.Overall, World of Tanks is extremely enjoyable - this is the first game in a while where I wasn't upset after losing. The game is filled with so many mechanics, so many variables, that no two battles are truly alike, and where teamwork is essential to winning. If you like a free, team-oriented, fun multiplayer "shooter", there's no reason to miss out on World of Tanks.If you want to read more about the technical/gameplay aspects, you can go to wiki.worldoftanks.com.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Fun FPS that is Free-to-Play
By Geoffrey Bunger
World of Tanks is a FTP with premium content, excellent graphics(although you won't need the most advanced graphics card to enjoy it) and great game play. Based on real world tanks pre 1960 you can pick your favorite tank or faction to research. Take your pick between Tanks(Light, Medium & Heavy), Tank Destroyers & SPGs(Artillery). As of now there are tanks from the US, Germany, USSR & French, with the British coming in a future update.There are multiple battle modes, but 15 v 15 randomly picked is the general format. Tanks spawn at certain points depending on the game mode. Standard Battles will spawn near your base and have two primary objectives to win capture the flag/enemy base or destroy all enemy tanks. Recently they introduced Encounter battles, which gives a common flag to capture with adjusted spawn points. Assualy battles have a designated Defending and Assaulting team with a single flag the assaulting team must cap or frag all the defenders.Alternatively there are tank comapany battles, which allows the commander to pick their team. These are a little more competitive and typically involve a bit more organization and tactics. Players can also Platoon with a friend, if you purchase a premium account you can platoon with 2 friends and communicate through the in game voice channel.You can join a clan and compete in the ultimate battles in Clan Wars to secure land in Europe, the Mediterannean and North Africa on the Global Map.There are Premium Tanks, Ammo, Camo and other items that are available for in game purchase along with Premium account that yields 50% more XP and Credits, accelerating research and ability to purchase future tanks, all to enhance your playing experience.It is fun to play FPS that immerses you in tank battles allowing you o go head to head with these armored war machines battle it out using tactics and teamwork to rise victorious.It is a slightly addictive grind to the finish that can be enjoyable once you master the basics of game play. Find a good clan that can help you learn the basics and you can work your way to the top tanks and elite battles.
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Could be great with a patch, almost unplayable as-is
Thanks for nothing Rockstar
