I like tanks, and even though I don’t have complete
knowledge about every World War 2 era tanks(or even modern ones) I enjoyed
games that showcases tank combat. I played World of Tanks a year ago for a few
months and really enjoyed it. Of course the fact that I used some mods to make
the game more reminiscent of a certain anime also helps further improve my
overall enjoyment of the game.
War Thunder have been around for some time but only features
aerial combat with the promise of ground combat in a future update. Now after months
of waiting, Gaijin Entertainment have added tank combat to their game, War
Thunder: Ground Forces as they call it, adds various tanks for(currently) 2
countries: Germany and Russia. U.S., Japanese and British tanks are planned but
are not available for now.
The tanks are divided into Tiers, just like in World of
Tanks but Ground Forces tanks starts with better known tanks and does not
feature prototype tanks like the Maus. Upgrades are handled a bit differently with
upgrades consisting mostly of internal components. Different weapons are
available but that means changing into a different tank entirely as Ground
Forces divides them all into different vehicles like the Pz. IV Ausf. C, Ausf.
F1, Ausf. G and so on.
Graphically, the game looks great with tanks having a lot of
details that you can see up close. There are also a lot of vegetation and
objects in the environment, which makes hiding your tanks quite an easy thing
to do. There are some annoying problems however like getting stuck on rocks and
hitting on ground that looks traversable ending up in disabling the tank. The
game sometimes takes time to load up tank models when the match has started,
resulting in people hitting other tanks that are invisible, creating chaos at
the start of the match.
There are currently two game modes which are minor
variations of the usual domination game mode where two teams compete to take
control of some important points in the map. If your tank is destroyed, you
still get a chance to get back into the match with reserve tanks. This helps a
lot considering you could sometimes get destroyed from a distance and doesn’t
have the chance to do anything. Those who want better realism in their tank
game could try out Realistic and Simulator battles which offers even more
realistic and challenging gameplay.
The combat in Ground Forces is brutal, even in Arcade mode.
Tank crews gets unconscious or wounded easily and parts of the tank can be
easily damaged. Targeting weak spots are important in tank vs. tank combat but
it is even more important in this game as one good hit could destroy an enemy
tank. Even when you’re not destroyed in one hit, chances are your tank will be
immobilized and you will be a sitting duck for quite some time while waiting
for your crew to finish repairing the tank.
The main weakness of the game is that it really lacks proper
visual feedback and with the game having quite a complex gameplay this is
somewhat of a big problem. Crew status, tank status, enemy being spotted, ally
and enemy indicator in the screen and the map of the game itself doesn’t give
information in a clear way. Having to constantly peek to the lower left part of
the screen each time you got hit gets annoying after a while and no audio cue
or any clear visual indicator that an enemy is spotted nearby(aside from having
to peek at the unclear map) makes it really hard to have proper battlefield
awareness.
The map, which should be a very important part of your
screen in relaying ally and enemy positions are practically useless in Ground
Forces with tiny and blurry blue and red lines moving unseen in a badly
designed minimap that even fails to show you where objective points A, B or C
are when they are not being captured.
Another case of the game failing to give information? Ammunition
types. Tanks have different types of ammunition that the players can choose but
aside from a few that has clear difference in armor penetration, some of them
have unclear description. What is the difference between an APHE and HE shells?
And what does the APCR shells do? Those who have prior knowledge of tanks might
know their usage but an average player will have no idea what ammo type to use
on a particular situation.
Aside from these negatives though the combat in this game is
really solid and provides tons of fun. While improvement on visual feedback is
sorely needed, the game is completely playable at this point and hopefully
Gaijin Entertainment improves everything at the end of this Open Beta period.
Final verdict? As a game in Open Beta, War Thunder: Ground
Forces is definitely showing a lot of promise. With a few improvements on how
they provide information to the players and a rework on how the enemies are
highlighted and shown in the map, the game should provide a great deal of
entertainment to those who likes tank combat or competitive games in general.
Note:
This article is an old article I wrote for another site that is now
closed. The content might not be relevant anymore right now.
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