Massively was giving away beta keys to World of Tanks yesterday, and I decided to give it a shot. On paper a MMO focused strictly on tank combat sounds...well insane to be honest. I was motivated to try it mainly out of morbid curiosity. To my shock I actually came away fairly impressed.
As near as I can tell the NDA is still in force, so unfortunately I can't go into a lot of detail. I will say that the tech behind the game is impressive, with a speedy install and convincing graphics. The open beta game is a fairly simple PvP match game. However, there are some deep advancement mechanics on hand which could potentially be pretty addictive. I expect that match options will be expanded as the game develops.
Unfortunately, the current newbie experience is a lot like putting on a suit made of bacon and jumping into a cage filled with ravening wolves. I was dead within less than a minute in the matches I played. I assume this will get smoothed out by the open beta. As long as a few common sense changes are made to the introductory experience, I will definitely be giving this game another look in a few weeks or months. Color me surprised.
Ah, advancement in a PvP game. Of course good matchmaking and a healthy community can offset any problems. But getting that wrong is part of why APB failed. Best of luck to World of Tanks.
ReplyDeleteI will say that if they don't section of the game according to tiers of character power, or atleast have a cordoned off newbie area, the game is going to crash and burn pretty horribly imo. I was impressed by the tech, but not so much by the "log on and get ganked by a vet instantly" aspect of it. I am definitely giving them a lot of benefit of doubt because it's still in closed beta.
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