World Of Tanks – XBox 360 Edition
I only started playing World of Tanks on my crappy old laptop after a couple of mate started playing it and were raving about it. I was instantly hooked, but by the time I was up to level five tanks, the constant updates (and my low data cap) along with the uncomfortableness of being hunched over a laptop for long hours, saw me give up the fight. So I got quite excited when a couple of months after giving up on World of Tanks, Microsoft announced the XBox 360 Edition was coming.
Jump forward to a couple of weeks back, and with an unlimited data plan, I plunged back into the battle.
For those of you who don;t know anything about World of Tanks (where have you been hiding?), it’s a simple game that plays like a third person/first person shooter hybrid, with World War II tanks. No re-spawns, just large tank on tank battles, where two fairly equal sides are pitted against each other, normally in a base conquest mode, that often ends up more like a team death match.
It’s simple, but it’s fun. A whole heap of fun.
So what’s new with the XBox 360 version? The most noticeable thing is the games targeting system, where a colour coded reticle shows you the chance of penetration, from 0% up to 100%.
Other than that, and a lesser assortment of maps (but new ones are bound to come over time) the game plays pretty much the same from what I can tell, but with the ease of an Xbox controller and the comfort of my couch.
Graphically, the game looks great. When compared to my old laptop. But if you were playing on a high end PC, I’m told, the XBox version is a fair bit clunkier.
What about the pay to win system? Well, that has carried over form the PC, but I wouldn’t call it pay to win. The leveling system and the game creation system means you’ll be matched against similar tanks most of the time, and as you grind your way up the levels, your skills in playing should increase.
For the purpose of helping me review the game, Microsoft did give me a gold package, which gave me a decent boost. I was able to purchase some gold tank packages, which meant I could jump straight into some level five tanks. Having these gold tanks also allowed me to earn more experience that could then be converted into experience that I could use to upgrade my other tanks. Converting experience of course costs gold. Lastly, I was able to purchase a month of premium play, giving me 50% more experience.
What this meant in real terms was I was quickly able to get my beginner tank up to level five. The grind to level six was still a grind, but helped by my gold, and the grind to level seven will probably wipe out my gold supplies.
Has the gold given me more of an edge? No. It’s just given mer more garage space and a few better tanks to play with. The gold hasn’t made me a better player. Possibly it’s made me a lazier player!
So in essence, World of Tanks on the XBox 360 is a solid game. It looks and feels like a retail game rather than some cheap free to play crap, but never feels like a wallet hunting pay to win game either. It’s well balanced, and despite the lack of game-play depth, it has surprising addict-ability. It’s both a fantastic game in it’s own right, as well as a competent consolisation of an established PC game.
GAMEGUIDE rating:
