Review: World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition

The tank can be a very powerful force on the battlefield. When used with other military units, it has the potential to make a huge difference and to help win the battle. In World of Tanks‘ case, they’re the be-all and end-all;  there’s no need for a supporting cast of ground troops, navy and air support. What results is destruction on a huge scale… and a whole lot of fun.

Victory can be achieved in one of two ways: kill all the enemy tanks or capture their base. The later is uncommon as most rounds end with the victors annihilating all enemy tanks. Each round has a 15 minute timer, but I have never seen it run out before a team becomes victorious. There are plenty of different types of tanks on offer and all have their advantages and disadvantages. Some aren’t very durable but speedy by comparison. Others are slow but devastating in frontal attacks or destructive from long range but not very maneuverable. Obviously this makes strategies a lot of fun. Players in the know will split into small groups at the beginning of each round and hunt down enemy players one by one.

Most rounds begin with a few tanks from either side making a reckless charge for the other teams base. This inevitably ends in a few tanks going down on each side in the first few minutes. If you die early, you have the option to watch the rest of the match unfold or retire to your ridiculous tank garage. Here you can grab another tank and jump strait into another round while you wait for your first tanks battle to finish.

World of Tanks offers a lot and asks very little in return… apart from constantly hinting at the benefits of a premium subscription. After each battle, you gain experience and silver. The experience is used to unlock new tanks and various upgrades. The silver is used to purchase what you have unlocked. After each battle, you are shown your exp and silver and how much more you would have received if you spend a little extra. Very clever. If you want to power though the game faster than a heavily armored tank, microtransactions are the way to do it. Don’t let this scare you away from playing if you’re a total tightwad; the game is plenty of fun without throwing money around. If anything, it adds some longevity to the game.

Other than the excitement of the tank on tank action, the game’s strongest feature is the amount of upgrades available. Its makes the overall game add up to potentially monstrous total of hours required before you’ve done all there is to do. There is an impressive amount of tanks to choose from when considering all the classes and countries of origin. Factor in the upgrades and improvements on each tank and you get a scary amount of playtime before things get stale. Experience and silver become the driving force behind each battle. Sure you want to do your best and annihilate every enemy in site but chasing the reward becomes the main focus. The better you play in a round the more exp and silver you’re rewarded with. Getting you one step closer to unlocking that next more powerful tank.

There are small skill trees full of upgrades in each class of tank allowing access to each tanks full potential. At the end of each skill tree are new tanks rated a tier above your current tank. As the tier rating of the tank goes up so does it’s effectiveness in battle. There are ten tiers in all and each new tank feels like a huge improvement over the previous one. This makes leveling up tanks so much fun and the tiers help to make player match ups fairly even.

I’m not much of a history buff, but something about the arms race of the last century has always interested me. WoT offers up an impressive amount of history on each model of tank in surprising detail. Countless times I found myself lost in reading about my latest tank. The only thing that snapped out of my haze was teammates yelling at me to hurry up and join the match. On the subject of teammates I realized I don’t play a lot on online games and I asked myself why recently. I didn’t take many matches in WoT to remind me of the unfortunate nature of the online gaming community as a whole. After learning some shocking truths about my apparently promiscuous mother I decided to invite a few friends to play. Obviously the slander slowed a little and the game improved. Playing with a few friends can make being tactical a lot easier and can be a massive advantage.

You would think a huge mobile metal gun would be a tricky thing to hide but apparently some shrubbery will do the trick. Finding some good cover early is the key to staying alive longer than 2 minuets. Easily the funniest thing I saw while playing was someone attempt to join another friendly tank hiding behind some trees above a cliff. The second tank bumped the first down the cliff like a hulking metal great dane that doesn’t know its own strength. The tank toppled end over end down the cliff while every microphone but one lit up in hysterics.

World of Tanks is a lot of fun and easy on the wallet if you want it to be. A super simple game that’s easy to pic up and jump into if you have half an hour to kill. Plenty of thought has gone into making WoT a balanced game that anyone can play and enjoy.

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