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Gaming World of Tanks Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by arcticstoat, 18 Jul 2011.

  1. .//TuNdRa

    .//TuNdRa Resident Bulldozer Guru

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    I note that some of the complaints against World of Tanks and the like seem to be around the community; Why not just stitch together a Bit-Tech/CPC clan on there? At the very least you might find people who will actually talk, play and cooperate within such a thing?

    As for the lack of Tactics; Very few people, in my experience (Although I'm only as far as Tier 3, so I can't speak for the whole game), bother to use anything like the Voice Chat, or the text chat, for that matter, the few people who do think they know tactics, though, just spam locations on the map, causing a loud, slightly annoying distraction, often trying to repeat information people already knew. On the whole I think there should be more of an incentive for people to work together, like a slight XP reward or something of the like if you team up with a few other players in the match to help out the team as a whole, rather than just the Match Win bonuses.
     
  2. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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    While I can't really agree with your other points, we can definitely agree on this one.

    However, the same can be said of most multiplayer games, Bad Company 2 for example is plagued by snipers who do nothing but headshot each other, yet by doing so contribute nothing towards the teams objectives (blowing up/capturing stuff).

    The key, as with most multiplayer games, is playing with people who know. You're x times more likely to win, but more importantly will be having fun, because you're chatting while playing.
     
  3. Dublin_Gunner

    Dublin_Gunner What's a Dremel?

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    Its a super game, taking up WAY too much of my life lol

    Been inthe beta since last July, and obviously ben playing right through past release. I now command a clan, and the clan wars give us something different to aim for, each and every day. It can be a frustrating grind at times - you'll go through entire days where you seem to get paired with the worst players in the worst teams. But get a few mates on TS, platoon up, and it becomes a different monster altogether.

    I'd highly recommend mmo & FPS players alike to give it a whirl - well worth the £/$/€0 required to play it.

    Having said that, if you want to get far quickly, a premium account is a must, not only for the double XP/creds, but to be able to transfer XP from 'elite' tanks - making the grind a whole lot easier.

    Decent review of a superb game.
     
  4. metarinka

    metarinka What's a Dremel?

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    The basic mechanic is very fun and very well implemented. In that the gameplay is additive and somewhat well balanced there isn't a singular tank that is a "instant win' at most a tank makes 1/15th of a team so even the Maus or i-7 can be taken down, by lower tier tanks.


    That being said I've been playing since beta and a few main observations.

    Slow progression: At tier 6 it takes approximately 110 wins to unlock enough experience to hit tier 7. That is with premium account, it takes about 200 wins to hit tier 7 without premium. Each game lasts about 10 minutes so you're talking about 20 hours per ding. artillery is worse it takes 115K xp to go from tier 5 to 6 artillery, you accumulate about 350 xp per game as artillery and the shells are expesnive so it's easily a 40-80 hour grind to hit tier 6.

    stock tanks can be horrible: at higher tiers stock tanks need a lot of experience to unlock "useable" weapons. For instance the VK 3002 DB is a tier 7 tank, however it comes stock with a tier 5 gun. It takes about 26K experience to unlock the tracks and turret prior to mounting a better gun. (assuming you have the gun researched) 26K xp will take about 30-40 games to unlock with a gun that is just about incapable of killing a tank at your level (and at tier 7 you get to play with tier 10 tanks). This represents a big time sink of "un-fun" time because hoping into a new tank can actually be a downgrade for the first 30-50 games. Imagine unlocking new raiding gear in WoW but having to play with it for hours before it was better than what you unlocked.

    matchmaking imbalance: they admit this is being adjusted. It's common to seetier 4 lights in tier 10 games. It's a rubber band system so it is possible for a tier 5 tank to be in a game full of high tier tanks but not visa versa,y ou basically become fodder.

    little variation in game play. The game play is addictive but there is not a huge sense of progression. For instance two tier 6 tanks take roughly the same amount of time to kill each other as two tier 3 tanks. They also move roughly at the same speed. So while the escalation in damage, armor and hp goes up for each tier, they remain in step. that coupled with the long grind, there's really no motivation to play in a tier 10 tank as opposed to tier 5-6 which can be gotten to in a reasonable amount of time. Pz-4's T-28's KV's 3001H are tanks that are seen all the time because they are fun to play and easy to get.

    unsustainability as a "free to play game":
    can't form teams without premium
    xp transfer from tank to tank costs RL money
    unbearably slow grind as free to play
    not enough cash generation to buy mid-high level tanks without premium account time or gold transfer or premium tank

    basically it's impossible to play the game past tier 5 without going insane from the very slow grind, or having to wait for 30-50+ hours to build up enough xp and money to buy a new tank. I use premium but don't pay a cent for anything else. You can transfer experience from old tanks that are completely researched to new tanks, but at the conversion rate buying enough experience to outfit a tier 7+ tank would be about $10-$40. I.E not worth it for all but the most hardcore players.

    The basically game play is fun but they need to do several game experience upgrades to keep players around. I for one would like more skills and abilities to tactically compliment the basic gameplay. Really in all honesty there's very little difference in skill or progression from a tier 2 tank to a tier 10 tank. it just takes hundreds of more hours to hit tier 10.
     
  5. Whindog

    Whindog What's a Dremel?

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    Oh god....just got into EVE online after reading an article on ARS....

    Now im probably gonna go home download this and leave the rest of my backcataloge of games on the back catalogue.

    FFS. I need to hammer down and clear off the list.

    Gotta say thou EVE is pretty good, my first MMO.........if this is any good.....Ill be going to this. Rather than start paying for EVE.
     
    Last edited: 19 Jul 2011
  6. Jediron

    Jediron What's a Dremel?

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    Think the reviews final conclusion is a bit off the mark; this game uses historical data much, to the extreme (with prototpye tanks for example). Sofar, pretty historical. What the gameplay concerns, that is more arcade then anything else. All tanks have automated gears, all drive too fast, all turrets turn fast, very fast. Artillery is a tanks nightmare, due to the detailed "sattelite maps" the arty can use, along with their pretty good accuracy and great splash damage. In that regard, every relation to real life WW2 real life combat is a ghost of the reality. Till Tier 4 its quite funn, From tier 5/6 and upwards it only gets worse. I can tell you this, after about 4200 battles ;-)
     
  7. Odini

    Odini What's a Dremel?

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    Whilst I agree with most of the points made by the naysayers such as occasionally rubbish balancing, stock tanks often are rubbish, I still don't feel that these stop the game from being fun or enjoyable.

    There are moments of great ellation when a team, without talking I would add, come together and effectively work together to defeat the enemy.

    And those with the comments about the 'grind', people are still playing games such as CS1.6 on de_dust/de_dust2 despite the fact that the weapons, maps, objects, players, etc all haven't changed. This is because the basic gameplay is good. I believe the same is true of WoT.
     
  8. misterd77

    misterd77 What's a Dremel?

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    the thinking mans shooter, best game iv played for yrs, over 1,000 battles in and im halfway up the russian tech tree, the russian kv2 tank is a beast and my main points and kill scorer, my best being 12 shots, 12 hits, 9 kills, 7 Reaper Kills (one shot kill), that means i killed 9 (out of 15) of the opposing teams tanks, 7 of em with one shot, no other game like it, I felt like a god, lol, you have to constantly change your playing style, depending on your team, and the oppsosing teams tanks, you have to educate yourself on the tanks themselves, to learn how to use them, my kv2 was a russian heavy siege breaker, with a massive 152mm, but choosing the quicker 107mm makes the kv2 a hard hitter in and amongst its peers, my advice, choose a tech tree and dont deviate, wait till you complete one before moving to the other, the grind in the middle tiers is where to spend money, use gold to purchase a premium account, and your passage through should be easier, if not, be prepared to fight over 5/600 battles with one tank to progress if you play free, on the upside, many free players know thier tanks better though, as the amount of time spent in them does pay dividends, i always hit 2/3 kills with my kv2 for instance, just cause i know its strengths and the opposing tanks weakness's, many players will have at least one "keeper", and use other tanks to grind, its this "keeper" that will win you honours and medals, as I have done with the kv2, all in all, an excellent game, 10/10.
     
    greypilgers likes this.
  9. Domestic_ginger

    Domestic_ginger What's a Dremel?

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    The matchmaker is broken. tier 4 lights in tier 8 games with no artillary is just wrong. Your role then becomes base defender if you have a decent gun by loading HE to reset or as a capping machine; you could I suppose spot for your heavy guns but due to getting one shotted survivability is laughable. Its not suprising you see t4s doing kamakaze runs to try and spot just so they know they'll get some XP. With arty however it can be a nice challenge.

    I would recommend filling all your slots asap and then collecting daily doubles to progress faster and use t5s as money makers; tanks of the same nation often share components so if you're clever you can often avoid driving a completely stock tank. You can grind upto tier 7 okay without premium from then a premium account with no life for two weeks will get you upto tier 10.
     
  10. greypilgers

    greypilgers What's a Dremel?

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    +1,000,000 to this and an amen too!

    :thumb:
     
  11. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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    I just realised that the old official bit-gamer channel had expired, so I've re-created it this afternoon with the following details:

    Channel: bit-gamer
    Password: bit-gamer


    Have fun, and hope to see you all in there :thumb:
     
  12. Booga

    Booga Cuppa tea anyone?

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    Yes and to that end and to echo the thoughts of a previous poster, why isn't there a Bit-tech clan.
    If there is were can I join :D

    On the chat front I have to agree that even if you are just in chat with 1 friend and group with them, it does bring a whole new dynamic to the game.
    I'd even go as far as to say that your normal play style, or at least mine, has to change and the co-op side and banter makes for a much more enjoyable experience.
    Without voice chat learning this game seems to been done more by osmosis rather than any meaningful instruction.
     
  13. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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    It's one post above yours :)

    See you in-game.
     
  14. jumblejane

    jumblejane What's a Dremel?

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    any reason why my last post was applied??
     
  15. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Ah, This is one of those games I'd love to play, but it would remind me of exactly what's missing in my life: A garage filled with heavy armor.
    *sigh*
     
  16. Hazchem

    Hazchem Minimodder

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    Anyone notice this game is quite heavy on resources for what you actually get? I can play max settings on BFBC2 at 1600x900 just fine, but this chugs along at medium at 1920x1080.
     
    Last edited: 20 Jul 2011
  17. NewGoldDream

    NewGoldDream What's a Dremel?

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    If somebody would have asked me a month or two before, I would have more or less agreed with the review. Now, after playing it quite some time, I can only completely disagree.
    The complete gameplay is based on a unfair dice-roll random outcome and has absolutely NOTHING to do with skill. Play it for free? Yes, but only the first Tiers. Later on in higher Tiers, you simply can´t go on without at least a premium account, when you have to play 100+ battles in the same game-mode just for a gun.
    The setup is completly unfair and makes this game a VERY frustrating experience when you go with e.g. a stock Panther against a full reasearched T-32. So you exchange money for gold to speed up the module research process.
    As much fun it might be in the first 3 Tiers, the more painful the game gets later on and I can hardly believe that anybody really believes that the game basics are made to play free forever. How should the investment pay out then at the end? Beside the unfair setup the game physics are far from finished. Very often you come into situations, where bullets vanish, tanks on open fields are just invisible and so on.
    The Graphics are average 2008 standard - good for a browser game - but as said you cant get on without investing on higher levels so it has to be compared to retail games.

    And regarding to the former post...the free skinning is over soon, cause in 0.7 (can´t wait until the finsihed game in 2013 - sarcasm off) the skins are charged with credits or gold (real money). Custom skins don´t work anymore then.
     
  18. NewGoldDream

    NewGoldDream What's a Dremel?

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    Well I´m astonished that this game is reviewed like this from people who obviously didn´t play it through (at least on tree).

    If you want to go in higher Tiers you simply can´t play them without a Premium account and more so without exchanging money into gold and use this gold to exchange the so called "free experience points".

    Simple example:

    You play a stock Panther in Tier 7. With this you get a stock cannon with that you can´t really harm any of your opponents. To get a better one you have to research a turret first - roughly 40 battles. For the Turret you need a new suspension (cause it´s too heavy) another roughly 40 battles. Then you need the first gun - another 50 battles and then you get the gun when this tank sets up to his Tier after another 80 battles.

    So to make this tank competitive it needs roughly 210 battles of frustration.
    The Matchmaking System doesn´t notice this and puts you in battles against e.g. a full researched IS-3. So only way you speed things up and avoid hours of total frustration and pain is to "buy" the turret and guns with the "free exp. points" for real money. If you do so, the cannonand the rest costs about 7 Euro. And that’s just for 1 tank and just for the upgrades…

    To go to a Panther 2 you need roughly 170.000 exp. With Premium you get an average of 500-600/battle. So you need roughly 300+ battles for the next tank

    It gets worse the next Tier BELIEVE me. To play e.g. a Ferdinand the “good gun” costs 63.000 exp.. BEFORE you can get this you have to get the suspension first. As this Tank is extremely slow and can barely turn, you need a new motor first. With the first motor you are a little bit more maneuverable, but the tank really moves after buying the second motor (31.000 exp).

    So BEFORE you even can think of going to the next tank you have to research roughly 100.000 exp. That with a slooooow moving, non competitive Tank – pure horror. And without Premium you need even 50% longer… Worst news is that the experience you gain after the battle are calculated ONLY on damage made. It doesn´t matter if you destroy 10 tanks, when they all were near dead. With a small cannon you get less damage – get it?


    You simply can´t drive a Tier 9 or 10 tank without premium and without a smaller Tier 6 tank to generate credits. In an average Tier 9 battle a single bullet costs around 1.000 credits, so 10 shots = 10.000 credits. If you get destroyed which most likely will happen in average a third of all games, it costs 15.000 creds or more. You earn for a “won” game in average 26.000 credits which puts you 1.000 behind and that´s with Premium account AND a won game. If you loose, you might get half of it.

    Fact is, you will have a real hard and painful time without a premium on higher Tiers that’s far away from fun. Even more pain if you play without money for the upgrades on higher Tier tanks.


    Furthermore the outcome of battles have absolutely NOTHING to do with skill or experience. It can happen that you perfectly outrun your enemy hitting him in the back and… nothing happens and again and again. The next game you seem to hit everything even out of impossible situations. The complete outcome seems to be dice-roll based and no matter how many games you play and how good you are, you will always have a near 50/50 win/loss ratio at the end (which could be also normal, due to the random battles)

    As you are not aware of all the game lacks in lower Tiers, since reload and everything is short, it gets real annoying, when you wait for a shot 15 seconds and this is a so called “Ghostshell”. This happens every 4th or 5th shot, but is not reproduceable by the developers, so this is most likely no subject of change in the future. Also due to the weak “spotting system” it happens a lot of times, that a huge KV-5 just vanishes on open ground direct in front of your eyes, cause he just stopped moving and has a good cameo bonus. That say not that he still can´t fire on you.

    Worst that ever happened to me was when I´m in a Tiger 2 and a KV shots me to the ground, because he was covered by a 40cm bush roughly 50 meters away. It was not possible to detect him, which is quite unbelievable respecting the size of this tank.


    All in all as addictive as the game is in the first few Tiers, the more painful it gets afterwards. IMO the whole game is based on a real unfair gameplay, which forces you into buying gold for real money. You don´t have to, that´s correct, but due to all these lacks, you simply can´t play Tiers above 3 only for the fun.

    IMO that’s also quite logic, cause what motivation should one have, to invest money in the game? If it would be overall fair, you would not have to! But its packed really clever, cause by all these microtransactions you don´t even recognize, that you already spended 100 bucks of your hard earned money. And money they have to earn that should be absolutely clear for everybody. Unfortunately this does NOT happen by a fair and balanced game…


    Even more this is a 0.6.5 version and surely it is.

    - Theres only one game mode, nothing changes over the 1000+ battles you have to go through for a high Tier tank. No cap-the flag, last tank standing or alike.

    - The maps are nice but far from good. Beside they a bugged as hell on some of them, the graphics are just average and they are too few. When you play all these battles you see every map 100 times. Since most of them are small in comparison, you know every single stone on them very soon. This would be o.k. if it´s just skill and experience as said, but like this knowledge is irrelevant.

    - The main body of the game – the MatchMaker - is so weak – or seems to be – that is far more than one time that you can see the battles outcome just by the overlay of the tanks on each side. Strangely this seems to work very properly in the first 3 Tiers…?...!!

    - Regarding that you can´t play the game for long without paying, IMO it has to be compared with every other full price retail title. For this the graphic engine seems to be from 2008 and has nothing to do with CryEngine 2 or Frostbite 2. A lot of Pop-ups, no permanent tracks, no environtment change (apart from some trees falling and minor destructible objects), one 1st person view for all tanks, you can´t see any attachments like camo-nets or Binos on the tank and so on and so on… The destruction model is one single animation no matter if your hit by HE- Shells, armor penetrating or got rammed.

    - MMO? Were has the second M went to? I can only see a online Multiplayer-random battle game with 15 people on each side… That is not massive in my eyes. Furthermore you can only play with your friends in a so called platoon, if you have a premium account. (They change that in the upcoming patch so you can play at least with 2 together).

    - When the 0.7. patch arrives you can´t skin-mod your tanks anymore. Instead you have to pay with credits or gold to get in-game cameos with no or little effect. The new –paid for – cameos are NOT compatible with the custom made ones. Only advantage is, that everybody can see them then, instead of only on the own PC. Difference? NO! Since I can´t look how my tank looks on other PC´s anyway it simply doesn´t matter.


    All in all I have to say that the basis game idea is quite brilliant. The game itself at it´s current state just isn´t. I wonder how it can get like this a Dream Note of 95? That´s nearly perfect for a game that charges – if played longer – double the price of a full price game and has all these lacks. On the bottom line it´s just some kind of a KING.COM game with - for it´s browser-like kind - improved graphics...

    And I´m VERY sorry to say that.
     
  19. metarinka

    metarinka What's a Dremel?

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    yah appears to be unoptimized, for the level of graphical detail. I can run BFBC2 at 1920x1080 on high everything with AA. In this I had to turn off AA and lower some of the sliders. I still have the game slow to a studdering 10-20 FPS occasionally, especially looking through lots of the semi transparent bushes. That being said the game play is so slow that low frame rate isn't an issue.
     
  20. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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    You are of course, entitled to your opinion (that's what well moderated forums should be like), but I'd just like to point out that I (the author of the review) have been playing the game for close to one year, in over 1,500 battles, so I do have extensive experience of the game.

    That's a lot more experience than the typical game reviewer has (who usually only gets 2-3 days to play a game before reviewing it).
     
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