Recently Obsidian’ new free to play tank shooter Armored Warfare went into Early Access beta testing and we got the chance to test the game out for ourselves, putting in a couple of hours to check out early gameplay and see what the game had to offer. As the new contender in a small genre heavily dominated by World of Tanks (and in some ways War Thunder) we were interested to see what direction the developers were going to take Armored Warfare.

So first lets highlight the differences, well first and foremost the game is a modern setting so that essentially offers up (in general) different tanks that won’t have featured in WW2. With modern and “prototype” technology Armored Warfare could realistically offer up even more unique additions to battle if they wanted to capitalize on their theme and step further away from their main competitor; though currently it’s only different tanks that we’re seeing and modern maps and environments.

As far as environments go Armored Warfare looks incredible, developed using CryEngine the impressive map detail is pretty stunning, whether leaving tracks in the snow rolling through some Eastern Bloc style industrial areas, or fighting in a huge facility in the middle of the desert, the weather and water effects and terrain really create an immersive experience. Once the guns start firing and dirt starts flying, explosions and smoke and all that good stuff really shows off the engine and does it credit. Our one disappointment was that whilst the majority of the world was destructible, particularly smaller elements like trees, walls, smaller buildings, cars, etc. they typically just exploded into a shower of debris and were removed when taking collision, which didn’t always look or feel particularly realistic

Scouting around the Garage there’s all manner of customization options available, from choosing your own Commander for unique buffs, choosing your Crew and training them to give them new traits, picking up different ammos and consumables likes repair kits, fire extinguishers, engine oil and others to combat in battle effects and statuses. The tanks are divided between two corporate factions, some Eastern company giving rise to a lot of European tanks, and the US with their own fair share. Starting out we only had access to two light tanks/recon; the speedy M113 and the slightly more armored PT-76, having numerous tanks means that when you are destroyed in a battle you can head back into your garage and jump into another game with one of your others whilst your active tank is still locked into the other ongoing battle.

Combat was fun, but a little difficult for us, though we’re not tank shooter veterans and in comparison to some of the players who seemed to be able to snipe tanks we couldn’t even see other than a distant target marker we were generally quite useless in battle. Our main plan was to just stick with the other players, roll up as a vanguard and work together, but once again whilst they had patience and skill to fight from a distance we had the opposite and so all too often we would head off and go on recon trying to dodge enemies and navigate through hard to reach places to spot the enemy for our team; all too often this lead to us being blown to pieces. At least from here we got to enter spectator mode and switch between our remaining team mates and see how they played, there was a mix of ranged precision and strategy and duking it out as tanks smashed into each other and tried to shoot one another at point blank range. In our light vehicles and lack of experience we didn’t have the range of firepower to do much (or so it felt) and so were forced to engage the enemy more up close and so we were punished for it proving that whilst the game is new there are plenty of people who have played other tank shooters that are experienced and skilled enough to jump into Armored Warfare straight away.

Currently there is only one focus in battles and that is to either capture the enemy team base (whilst defending yours) or destroy all the enemy for a default victory. Whilst the different maps were having the same objective each time was a little dull for us, we’d have much sooner preferred more sub objectives or alternate means to winning, or at least sub-objectives that could help support pushing the main objective. The game will be supporting PVE campaigns for single player and team coop adding another key difference to the game when compared against WoT. However the modern theme, improved graphics and PVE elements… that’s about all there is when it comes to differences; Armored Warfare plays similar to World of Tanks in many ways and for us we’re just not sure if it is different enough.

Whilst there is plenty of reason to imitate an already successful MMO (World of Warcraft and League of Legends see it often enough) we’re not entirely sure if the stunning graphics are enough to pull players away from World of Tanks, it’s possible and playing up the idea that Armored Warfare is something a little fresher could definitely have some pulling power. Realistically thought it could equally be a case that players who have invested time and money into WoT have no interest in playing another game just like it, which is why we think it is a shame Armored Warfare hasn’t tried to be a little more original and try some different things,. The gameplay is fun, it should be as it’s a pretty tried and tested formula that has already shown great value, but it definitely has a long way to go.

SCORE:

• Pros: CryEngine provides detailed high quality graphics, lots of customization options.


• Cons: Many maps are snow maps, players face the same objective in each fight, gameplay too similar to World of Tanks.

Rating: Still in Beta

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2015 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Articles, MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.