This post has been migrated and imported into different systems over the years, I have not had a chance to format this post manually so it may be hard to read but I have left it here as a reference.

I have been playing World of Tanks for about 2 years now and it is a really fun game. You can see my profile here, feel free to add me, I play very casually and my favorite type of tank is artillery. Hopefully my review will show why it is such a fun game and why it is definitely worth trying as it is free to play. There are also a few negative aspects which I will cover but I think overall the good outweighs the bad and I am giving this game a 4.5/5. Fix the issues and World of Tanks would get a 5/5! Below is a video from BigSwedish which shows us in a few team battles we played a few days back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ERZVhX7zE

Graphics

The graphics for World of Tanks is really good and even goes beyond the graphics of the average game out there today. It’s the Forza of tank games. Sometimes just sitting in the garage and looking at the details of all the different tanks can be quiet interesting and fun.

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The scenery is nice as well with plenty of maps to make the combat interesting. Buildings, grass, trees, mountains all look pretty real and you can even run down trees and small buildings with your massive tank.

Combat

The tanks you play with are early to mid-20th century tanks, there are no modern laser guided shots at the moment, just your normal shells with point and shoot accuracy. The quick battle function for World of Tanks makes for fairly unrealistic battles when compared to real tank battles. As you start out in the low tiers you will find that most users will simply rush into the middle of the map and fire at each other. Try to think of this early stage as more of a learning experience. The battles are usually pretty quick which makes it quicker to get into the higher tiers.

Once you start getting to tier 5 or higher the battles will start to slow down a bit as more users will learn strategies and be more careful as recklessness will cause them to earn less points in the game. Some of the games at the highest tiers (tier 10) can take around 20 minutes to complete, sometimes even resulting in a tie because time simply runs out.

As you get better you may want to consider joining a clan or creating one with friends as I did. This will allow you and your friends to claim land/territory for bonuses and points in more organized 15 vs 15 battles where all players are most likely using voice chat to create a strategy and communicate. You may also want to join random battles with up to 2 of your friends in a platoon or play 7 vs 7 battles as we do above with up to 6 other friends.

There is a lot to learn as different areas of every tank has different armor and penetration values which makes learning where to aim on tanks and how to angle your own tank when going against other tank an important skill in itself.

Free or Premium

The game is free but does come with small transactions to make the game easier. Personally I have probably spent more money than I should on the game but it has been fun and I don’t regret it. I currently have about 50 pretty tanks to look at in my garage which is nice. I also have friends who haven’t spent any money at all and although it takes a bit longer they have still managed to get the good tanks and have no problem competing against users who pay money.

There is also something commonly referred to as “gold ammo” which is ammunition which you can buy with gold (which you purchase with real money) or with a large amount of silver (which you earn by playing or buy with gold). This ammunition will make it easier to penetrate other tanks armor but most of the time it is not worth buying as skill usually wins the battle. If you use gold ammunition you may expect to be called out by other players for using it, this can also happen if you are a skilled players and simply make good shots.

If you like the game and want to support the development I would suggest simply getting the premium account as it does have the most value giving you extra experience and silver in every match. If you want to get a head start you can get a premium tank but you will probably not be very good with it as you would have missed the learning experience and you will still need to “level” your other tanks in order to research tanks in the higher tiers.

Addons

There are two addons that I like to use and they are XVM and MeltyMap’sMathMod.

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XVM is a pretty nice addon which will show you thinks like how many battles users have played and what their win percentage is overall and for their current tank. Some people take the percentages too literally and basically play poorly because the other team has a greater number of users with a high win percentage.

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MeltyMap’sMathMod is the second addon that I would recommend. It adds nice features to your interface and will show you where you are the most likely to penetrate with your shot, or where the opponents tanks armor is the weakest.

Problems

One of the biggest problems right now is the matchmaking in world of tanks which causes tier 5 tanks to sometimes be paired up with tier 7 or even tier 8 tanks in some cases. This is usually all about luck when playing the game and you will have to adapt your play style for this when it happens. A possible solution would be for World of Tanks to simple match users of the same tier all the time so that everyone is the same tier (not including artillery and scouts).

Conclusion

This sums up my World of Tanks review and I hope that you will try the game if you haven’t already as it is completely free to do so. I really enjoy playing World of Tanks and I do hope that they will fix these issues in the future so that I can give the game a full 5/5 rating. I hope you enjoyed my review and I would love to hear your comments and feedback!