I finally decided, after more than 27,000 battles, to express my opinion on World of Tanks. This game doesn’t really deserve all the praise it gets. I’m going to give a personal opinion   here, based on my experience with the game.

 

The positive aspects of this game:

As a result, the strengths of the game lie in its wide variety of tanks, with different nations (two new ones to be released in 2018, Italy and Poland), featuring both iconic tanks that we no longer present (Tiger, T 34 or Sherman), but also other vehicles less known or even almost out of the imagination of developers. Update 1.0 gives the game a new lease of life in terms of graphics, giving the player a more immersive experience. The sounds are quite pleasant to hear, as well as the national voices of the crews (well, the tank commander). But roughly speaking, new players will be able to appreciate or not other aspects that I would not have mentioned, each one living his own experience. But here, I don’t hide that for a few months, or even a few years, the game has lost its flavor in my eyes.

The negative aspects of this game:

First of all, this game works on a premium account system (like many games nowadays). This system would not bother me if it was not omnipresent in the garage! “Exchange gold”, “standard account, buy premium”, etc. Everything in this game is done to make players buy a premium account, which brings a VERY big advantage to the game. I wouldn’t say no (as I’m a non-premium player, but I’ve tried it a while ago) if the game was worth it, but in my eyes, it’s better to use the 100€ (1 year premium account) to go do a lot of other things than to spend it in this game. Small remark aside, WoT has proposed for Christmas 2017 a Loot Box system, with the possibility (for the modest sum of 5€ per box) to win gold, decorations for the event or even premium tanks. Unless I’m mistaken, the system has been very criticized lately, especially regarding games like Overwatch or Battlefront II. I think it’s really weird that Wot falls through the cracks.

While we’re on the subject of premiums, let’s talk about premium tanks. More powerful, better concealment, better protection, and so on… These tanks are anything but the same level as standard tanks of the same tier. Example, the Object 252U, also called “Defender” with a different skin. This Russian tier VIII heavy tank is anything but a tier VIII. Its protection and firepower are worthy of a tier IX. Indeed, it can block shots from the most powerful tanks in the game, and its gun has the highest alpha damage of the light, medium and heavy tanks of this tier. I refer you to the video presentation of the Defender, just see how proud the developers are to sell this thing that has nothing to do in tier VIII. The matchmaking offering battles of more or less two levels (tier 5 against 7, so battle with tier 5, 6 and 7 tanks), needless to say that falling against the Defender with a tier VI is anything but fun and amusing (even with the more powerful premium ammunition). Another example is the Skorpion G (German Tier VIII tank fighter). It is similar to the standard German tank fighter of the same tier and type, the Rhm Borsing, but it is faster, and has a much better camouflage. Finally, some light weapons (AMX 13 / 57f, AMX EVEN 90 or T92) offer significant advantages, more stealthy, better concealed, etc.

I will also talk about premium ammunition, with higher penetration than standard ammunition. If you have a premium account, you have more credits and therefore you can buy premium ammo more easily, which gives you a considerable advantage in games, since you don’t need to aim at the weak points of the tanks anymore, as premium ammo can penetrate anything… The problem is that it spoils the game, the soft tanks that have the advantage of a thick armor turn out to be vulgar bags of health points. I played on the Japanese Type 5 Heavy (Tier X heavy), but all the enemy tanks were playing “Gold”, making the armor useless, even if the tank was oriented… The survival of some heavy tanks was just ensured by the number of life points and not their armor.

Another recurring problem (and this one is increasing dangerously) is the level of the teams. You don’t need to have reached the venerable figure of 10,000 battles to realize it, but the level of the players in Wot is just going downhill! On some maps, players simply go to the right or left side of the map, leaving the other side empty…The players of this game have not understood the principle of “Frontline”… Line… (imagine a soccer or rugby coach asking his team to position themselves only on the left or right side of the field and leaving the other side empty…) .

Moreover, it is not uncommon to find campers of all kinds, sometimes light tanks, sometimes heavy ones or even medium ones, especially at the level of artillery… sometimes even premium tanks, powerful as I have already explained. In short, strategy is absolutely not the strong point of this game, and wargaming does nothing to teach players how to play through tutorials.

All this is just my personal experience, which varies from player to player, but I wanted to share it because I often see that the scores are great for World of Tanks, but once in battle, we can talk about disillusionment… Tanks completely overpowered, “precision” more than limited, Unoptimized matchmaking which sends you in impossible battles, abusive use of premium ammunition…