If anything was prominent at PAX Australia, it was World of Tanks. Their two story display, parked in the middle of the exhibition hall could not be missed. Not to mention their product was plastered across the ‘swag bag’ handed to attendees upon entry. I gave the game a quick look from the sidelines and what I saw looked good. Being more of a console gamer than a PC gamer, I chose not to take a seat in front of a monitor and keyboard, as the lines were always quite lengthy anytime I strode past the display, proving its popularity. I was quite surprised when I was offered the World of Tanks Xbox 360 beta and seeing the game make a transition to console, but very interested all the same. If you are yet to experience World of Tanks, in any format, just imagine a third-person shooter style game… involving tanks.
The game begins at your home screen, which is your tank garage. Now I have always known tanks to live in ‘hangars’ and not in garages, but this is also where upgrades to vehicles take place, after research is performed at a cost, so I suppose the title is fitting. From here you can select your tank (and purchase or upgrade, funds permitting) and jump straight into battle. There is quite the catalogue of thanks that will be available, both German and US. The selection is split into five classes: Light, Heavy, Medium, Artillery and Tank Destroyer. Choosing the right vehicle is a little trial and error, as smaller tanks may have speed and be harder to target, larger tanks have slightly less speed but certainly pack a punch. It’s much like choosing run’n’gun or sniper classes in your run of the mill war shooter, it all depends on your preferred play style.
The battle scenario in the beta was a capture the base type session, with opponents located at either end of the map with a flag/base to defend. It’s a ‘one life’ scenario, where if you are destroyed, well you might as well duck off to the fridge to get another beverage while your team mates pick up your slack. Of course there is the option to stake your claim as a one many army, but communications with team mates and strategic placement will win over every time. There was no visible lag during the course on an online game and connection periods were very short, even on my ‘backwater location’ internet connection. This bodes extremely well for the finished product.
The maps available in the beta were just the right size, as I couldn’t imagine trying to traverse and entire large scale map in an armoured vehicle, some of which travel no more than 18 km/h in their basic form. The terrain plays well against the vehicle, offering resistance on various surfaces and inclines, as it should. Trees will be levelled should you decide to become an armoured lumberjack and plough through the foliage, possibly giving away your position. Amazingly, bushes that are best used a cover do not suffer damage if driven over. This, of course, would leave the area open if it were to happen. The balance of realism versus game play comes into question here.
World of Tanks possesses a very industrial soundtrack, but it did stutter and jump quite often during pre-game set up. The sound in game is quite acceptable, with a noticeable difference in the tank track sounds of the lighter and heavier vehicles. Communications between players are clear. These can also be enhanced by marking opponents with the LB button and calling set commands via use of the controller.
Commanding your tank with the Xbox 360 controller has been well laid out, using the L3 button extremely well for acceleration. That being said, on quite a few occasions the tank would not respond and go off of its merry way, doing its own thing. Now before you suggest it, this was not due to the battery life on the controller or to damage sustained to the tank tracks. Often if didn’t rectify itself in time to seek cover or prevent the tank from going over a cliff or submersing itself in water beyond its limitations.
World of Tanks on Xbox 360 is certainly a refreshing take on the saturated first person shooter market, straying from the typical ‘gun-in-hand’ game play. The few hiccups that were encountered in the beta should easily be rectified, making this quite a viable option for FPS fans, especially those who lean towards console gaming over PC play. War enthusiasts will also take something away from this game, with its vast selection of armoured vehicles, each supplied with a brief historic detail when selected.
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