World of Tanks XBox Review

So I want to start off by saying I am sorry…sorry I havn’t gotten this blog review out to you sooner. I would have gotten it out sooner but this game has been my addiction lately and whenever I open it to refresh my memory about things to write about I find myself instead playing it long into the night. So before I get into the review let me say that this is available for XBox 360, XBox1, Playstation AND PC…PC has more things to it because it started there and migrated over to the console but no matter which of those systems you have if you have ever wanted to do tank warfare or if you like tanks or war games then GET THIS GAME NOW!!!!!!

I have always loved Tanks…I love the way they look, I love the destruction they can do in a small amount of time and I love how they just seem indestructible except for other tanks. This game has captured ALL of this and more in it. You know all those Halo and Call of Duty first and third person shooters that have you running all around a certain board and just destroying each other…well that’s what you get with this except you are in TANKS…huge metal plated wonderful tanks!!!

Aaaaaaaanyway sorry for that…I get kinda excited with this game, have I mentioned I like tanks yet? Well in this game you take control of a tank and lob highly explosive shells at enemy tanks! Sounds pretty easy right? Well there’s a lot more to it than that. You have to learn how to use cover, you have to learn how to angle yourself as some areas are better armored than others and if you present yourself at an angle then enemy shells could ping off of you instead of penetrating, you have to decide what type of tank you want to play as and figure out how that class works (handy little guide will be put in below). You also have a lot of upgrades you can buy that can help you hide, help you go faster, help you aim or help you reload faster or take more damage. As you can see there is truly a lot to think about for this game or you can just jump right in and try and blow things up.

So one of the first things that drew me to this game was seeing the tech trees for the various nations in the game. You can play as tanks from the USA, USSR, Great Britain, France, China, Japan, and Germany. Due to all of those tech trees available there are literally a couple hundred tanks to pick from I’m sure. Here are the pictures of the various tech trees.

TANK CLASSES

There are 4 main types of tank classes that you will have to choose from and each one has a different way to play them. I personally prefer the Artillery due to how it aims and how far it can hit from but sometimes that can be frustrating and a nice fast light tank is what I need. So without further ado let me introduce the types of tanks you will see.

 

• Light Tanks
  • Very fast and agile
  • make great scouts
  • not much armor
  • small guns
  • fast firing guns

The Light tank is not one you typically go toe to toe with other tanks in. No instead this tank is supposed to use it’s speed to get behind enemy lines and scout out where the enemy tanks are and do damage where they can. While not usually able to go toe to toe with other tanks this tank is a killer if it goes up against Artillery or Tank Destroyer tanks. Most Artillery and Destroyers do NOT have turrets and have to turn the whole tank to fire at someone this gives light tanks one hell of an advantage as it can swoop in behind them where their armor is lightest and get in several shots usually killing them before they can even turn and defend themselves. Some light tanks have rapid firing guns that can hit off 5 shells in rapid succession just by holding down your fire button, all the other light tanks have a VERY fast reload time. The only problem with this is that they are light shells so if you come up against say a heavy tank your shells will just ping off of it like a spitball against a car windshield.

 

• Medium Tanks
  • Better armor than a Light Tank
  • Better Speed than a Heavy Tank
  • Harder Hitting than a Light Tank
  • Faster hitting than a Heavy Tank

The medium tanks are in some ways the best of both worlds. They are fast and agile though not as much as the light tanks because they are a bit more heavily armored. They are better armed than the light tanks. They make for ok scouts but their real power is used when they come in to flank the enemy. If the scouts show a unified front of the enemy coming in the mediums are great to run the sides coming in fast from each side to try and outflank the baddies and win the day for your team. They are also useful for providing cover fire for artillery and escorts for destroyers.

 

• Heavy Tanks
  • Slow Moving
  • Lots of Hit Points
  • Lots of Armor
  • Huge Guns

The heavy tank is made for the front lines. The smaller guns of the light and medium tanks can stub your toe but for the most part unless they get in some lucky shots most of them will just ping off of your armor plating. The problem with the heavy tank is they are slow so lights and mediums can swarm you which can take you down but I can guarantee if you keep a clear head you will take several of them down with you. Your guns are a bit slower to load than the light and medium tanks but they pack a good punch and one shell can normally take out a light tank where as two or three can take out a medium. I have been in some slug fests with other heavies where we each are sitting still in the open just pounding away at each other and it usually takes 5 or 6 direct hits to kill one or the other. You still want to try and use cover where possible so that you can dish out more than you receive especially if the enemy team has any artillery left on the field.

 

• Tank Destroyer
  • Lives up to it’s name
  • guns rival the size of Heavy tanks if not bigger
  • usually has a small firing arc
  • light armor
  • good for sniping

Tank destroyers are awesome battle tanks if you keep them a good distance away from their target. They have good signal range so make good snipers. With some great heavy guns that rival those of heavy tanks if not being better than at times these guys can take out tanks from halfway across the map if they can get a good shot. The downside with these guys is they have weak armor; they are not made to wade into the thick of things so they have to hang back. MOST of them also don’t have turrets so if other tanks get on the side or behind them they become almost useless and defenseless. They have to rely on their full body turning to home in on something as their muzzle only gives about a 20 degree firing arc. This makes them very easy prey for light and medium tanks that get past the front line using their speed. It is good to try and keep some medium or maybe a light tank or two near the destroyers as a rearguard protector, the only problem is that there is a person behind the controls of every tank and unless you have  a whole party on the team and a microphone setup chances are you won’t have anyone standing back to protect your destroyers. So destroyers try to find high ground with good long lines of sight to snipe from but pay attention to your surroundings!

 

• Artillery
  • huge firing power
  • can hit targets from across the board
  • light armor
  • slow moving
  • no turret

The Artillery units are some of my personal favorites for this whole game. This thing can fire over mountains and hit people clear across the board from you. This is where your light tanks come in super handy because as the light tanks light up your enemy, you use your same targeting method from the other tanks to this time have a heads down view of the map from the sky and you can zoom in on your enemy…once your aiming reticle has smoothed down into the smallest circle it will launch off some of the most powerful shells in the game or just send off some quick snapshots as soon as you are loaded. This tank does amazing damage at long distances and can one hit kill many tanks. However, like the destroyers these tanks have to rotate their whole body to find their firing arc which makes their aiming slow, these guys are slower than destroyers as they don’t even get that limited 20 degree turret that they have these guys are more of a fixed mount up and down swivel with no side to side. One huge advantage with these guys are their aiming is NOT line of site like the other tanks. With the other tanks aiming is pretty straight forward…literally as in if there is a wall or a small rock or something like that in the way your weapon is useless but not so with the Artillery. You see artillery lobs the shell up into the air at an arc and thus you get a skyview of the map to aim with. Now hills and buildings and such will still limit your aim but if someone moves far enough back that same building that will block them for other tanks no matter how far back they move will become no problem for you. Honestly though artillery sucks in the maps like Himmelsdorf that are all buildings and such but areas like the Sand River or Tundra maps they are wonderful badasses that will let you start quoting Rocket Racoon from Guardians of the Galaxy with a called out “BLAM Murdered Ya!!!!” in the middle of the game. Like the Destroyers however these tanks are VERY susceptible to the light and medium tanks that breach your perimeter and sneak in the back. You are only very lightly armored so even one or two hits from a light tank can take you out. Find yourself a good hiding spot preferably high in the air so less things get in your way though and you can be a killing force to be reckoned with.  The video below shows some good material in how the Artillery looks for aiming. Watch the green line especially and how when there are hills it will become red for some areas, at those times you can’t hit what you’re aiming at as something is in the way but notice how if you move further back past the obstacle you become green again. Also with this video keep an eye on the green dotted circle, this is your aiming reticle the smaller this gets the closer to being sure to hit your target you’ll be. Artillery is not the easiest to aim so you always want to try and let that circle get as small as possible before firing to give yourself the best chance of hitting your target.

 

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay is for the most part pretty straight forward. You start in third person perspective and this is the easiest way to drive your tank but hardest to fire. Your left joystick controls your front and back and left and right movements. Your right joystick controls your camera which controls the turret on those tanks that have one. So in this form you have ease of driving but your aiming SUCKS as all get out. To get better aiming as you drive click your left trigger this puts you in your gunner’s seat for your view. This is slightly harder to drive from but not impossible and it zooms you in on your shooting just that much more, this also puts you behind your gun which makes aiming a little easier. If this still isn’t zoomed enough for you then I suggest you put on the brakes and click your right joystick. This will zoom you in as far as you can go and with this view you can snipe till your hearts content, however it is almost impossible to drive with this view or to aim while you’re driving as every little bump looks like you’re going over a mountain. The following video will show a little bit of driving then aiming and then zoomed in aiming, I will try to make a better video for this soon.

 

The next two videos will be showing you the difference in battle between a normal tank and then the Artillery. This first video starts in the view you get when you have the left trigger squeezed which I call aiming view then it zooms in with a click of the right joystick

The next video shows the look of the aiming with the left trigger clicked for Artillery…notice how it is a sky down view, this one is zoomed in nicely with the Right joystick clicked, without the zoom it’s the same shot but from a plane’s eye view instead of a bird’s eye view if that makes any sense.

I just want to put a small part in here before we go. This game is FREE to play. When you start playing it you are given 10 garage spaces which means you can have 10 tanks in your inventory without ever paying a single cent. However like many games nowadays there are microtransactions that you can do. You can buy gold that can be traded in for everything from more garage spaces, to freeing tank xp up to use anywhere, to getting more silver or even buying special tanks. However if you play your cards the right way you could easily work your way up to tier ten tanks without ever paying a cent by selling old smaller tanks as you move up in the tiers. I personally am a collector so I will be spending about 8 dollars a month on this game but it isn’t needed.

So that’s it for now guys. Hopefully soon I can make some small little videos about how to control each tank and show off a little in the proving grounds area so you can all see the various types of tanks in action and how they seem to be different and things like that. Now if you guys do play World of Tanks on the 360 or XB1 feel free to hit me or my wife up with a friend request, you can get me at Gamertag Thalra and my wife at Gamertag KentaroAsano and we would love to game with you! Also if you want to be part of a clan on WOT we have created our own clan for All Things Geek which is our facebook group and we would love to have you join us. If you want to do that be sure to either send me a friend request and let me know you want to be in our clan and I’ll send you the invite or easier yet go to http://console.worldoftanks.com/en/clans/find/ and type in “All Things Geek” in the search bar or just “ATG” where you can find us as well.

 

Hope to game with you soon!!!!