If you know all about War Thunder, you will have seen the great leaps forward it has made over the past few months. If, on the other hand, you're thinking 'War What?', then sadly you are part of the vast majority. This page is here to bring those with a passing interest up to speed, and hopefully serve as a revelation if this is all a bit unfamiliar.
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| War Thunder PC & PS4 Game Review |
War Thunder is the competitor to World of Tanks/Planes. Like WoT, War Thunder is Russian. And, it's huge. It is almost identical in all important respects to World of Tanks. That is to say, it is a free to play WWII MMO, with a pay component that is debatably pay to win. It is perfectly possible to have a thoroughly enjoyable regular experience without spending a cent, but the developers are as mercenary as the worst of them, and have structured critical aspects like crew skills and plane performance in such a way that it takes an agonisingly long time to get yourself kitted out with decent gear. Or, spend a few dollars and instantly have a superior plane with a powerful engine, more accurate guns and more damage resistance by throwing a few dollars down.
War Thunder, like World of Tanks, aims to serve up a total war experience. That means land, sea and air. War Thunder started with planes, and is now in the final beta testing stage of its ground units. Naval warfare will be added later, probably next year. Conversely, World of Tanks kicked off with ground units and then added planes. As a comparison, War Thunder's air combat is vastly better than World of Planes, and as good as World of Tanks is, War Thunders ground forces combat is shaping up to be a very serious competitor.
Where they diverge is in bringing it all together. War Thunder aims to have single battlezones where players flying, driving and sailing all exist in the same space, and with that, a fascinating approach to team gaming. World of Tanks/Planes will always keep their areas separate. Players in planes will never cohabitate with players in tanks.
Furthermore, War Thunder is currently beta testing a PlayStation 4 client, and when that's green lit the plan is to have console gamers join in the same battlezone with their PC cousins. Pretty nifty, and as grand a vision as can be had in a modern gaming space.
War Thunder has three main ways to play split by difficulty. Arcade has a simplified flight model and unlimited ammo, and takes place in fantasy zones with exaggerated canyons and mountains with holes to fly through. Realistic has the full sim flight model, but doesn't require full manual controls (fuel mix, radiator and manifold settings, trim etc), and is set in loosely historical scenarios with semi-accurate maps. While Full Sim forces cockpit view, manual flight controls and removes the player tags that make identifying enemies easy in the other modes.
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| War Thunder Game |
Each of the nations (U.S. Germany, Russia, England and Japan) has a few dozen planes, and it's not all dogfighting. Medium and heavy bombers are there too. The game is notorious for having the advantage swing for and against bombers with each patch. Right now, following the latest 1.39 patch bombers stand a fighting chance, their spawn points being much closer to targets to let them score a few ground kills before the inevitable swarm of fighters sets upon them.
It doesn't ultimately matter; there are so many different planes that it's tremendous fun to fly whatever suits your inclination on a given day.
Many new planes were added with 1.39, and flight models for existing planes greatly improved. There is always an accusation of Russian bias in War Thunder, and it's hard to deny. Russian planes seem to be constructed of material able to withstand damage better than other nations, but not by a lot, and most players don't specialise in any one nation, there's so much variety on offer in War Thunder, and that's what makes it great.
Once tanks come out of beta specific mechanisms will be introduced to give them a decent lifespan. AI ground units will be tagged on-screen, but humans won't so you will have to go down for a close up to ID enemies -and enter the savage AAA zone where human controlled anti-air guns will be waiting to rip you from the sky.
It's perfectly easy and competitive to fly with a mouse and keyboard, or go with a joystick if you prefer. The graphics are fantastic and generally run well on older systems. An Asia Pacific server has just been added, too. It's the game I've played more of over the last year and a half than any other. I think it is design, coding and gaming genius, and War Thunder is destined for a long life and big bold gaming.
DEVELOPER: Gaijin Entertainment
PUBLISHER: Gaijin Entertainment
WEBSITE: warthunder.com
