Level Up: World of Tanks
By Samual Cale on September 24, 2015 from Level Up
World of Tanks, as the name implies, is a game about driving and fighting with tanks. It seems to be set in about the era of World War II, and the available armored vehicles come from major military powers of the time. This game requires a lot of strategy and teamwork to succeed against any opposing team, with the entire game consisting of online multiplayer, with no story.
A rather interesting damage system defines World of Tanks; depending on where a shot hits, it has a chance to either penetrate armor, or do no damage at all. Sometimes a hit will be particularly damaging, and disable the mobility of your tank, rendering you essentially helpless for a few seconds, which can lead to a swift death. There is no respawning, so one must be very careful when going into battle, because it only takes a few lucky shots to be put one out of the game for the duration of the match.
Reality seems to have no say as to the teams in World of Tanks. Where a tank is from has no real influence on which tanks it can be teamed up with. For example, a German tank and an American tank can be on the same team, fighting a team that has a British tank and a Japanese tank, in a Chinese village. It's not really logical, but it's a video game, and since when has logic really mattered there?
As mentioned before, there is a wide variety of tanks available. There are light tanks, which are fast, have little armor, and don't have very much firepower. There are medium tanks, which are slower, but have more armor and firepower. There are heavy tanks, which are very slow, very durable, and have very strong guns. There are artillery tanks, which are slow, moderately armored, and fire high damage explosive shots in an arc. Last but not least, there are tank destroyers, which are slow, lightly armored, and have a devastating long range attack that will destroy a majority of tanks with one or two shots.
Overall, I give World of Tanks a 6 out of 10. It has decent gameplay, and offers a good multiplayer experience. Despite its lack of story, or realism when picking teams, I like its premise, because it's not often you find a game about driving World War II era tanks. I also enjoy the wide variety of tanks, because choices are always dandy. World of Tanks is free to play, but I honestly would not mind paying, because they actually did a decent job
