So, another game review. Although I’m sure most of you guys already heard of it, there’s some interesting information I gathered from their forums and streams.
But before I begin, I must warn you that unfortunately, I have no access to the closed alpha test nor have I participated in their focus tests so my review (which can’t really be classified as a review, sadly) will consist mainly on public information.
Firstly, let’s talk about Obsidian Entertainment. If you’re familiar with their products, you’ll know that prior to Armored Warfare, they developed roleplaying action games, such as Fallout: New Vegas (which was fucking awesome, I’ll give them that).
So, how come they’re following this road? Will they add roleplaying aspects into the game? The answer is yes. Unlike World of Tanks, the commander has a bigger impact on the rest of the crew and has unique abilities. You start off with 3 commanders (or 4, depending if you have Anthony Diaz – the one that was given away in December / January). Each commander will have their own biography, history, traits, likes and dislikes – to make them more unique and roleplayish. You will be able to gain and improve skills by playing and gaining experience.
It would be nice to see some community curators ending up as tank commanders, such as Jingles, Rita, or maybe Silentstalker (who now works for My.com).
Here’s a list of some skills that commanders will be able to adopt:
Eagle Eye — increases maximum aiming accuracy.
Uncontainable — increases the tanks maximum movement speed.
Tactical change — increases reloading speed.
As you can see, commanders are unique and they pose as a critical element in the tank’s crew, not just some dude that can spot vehicles. (*coughs*Wargaming…*coughs*)
Anyway. Obsidian said that they are planning to have about 60 armored vehicles when they’re releasing the game into open beta. I think that’s good enough. Open beta should be aimed towards testing basic game functions, not loads of tanks – that can be done later on in the development stage.
Unlike War Thunder, players will only be able to play one game mode only. It won’t be called ‘arcade’ for sure, since they seem to dislike the term. Let’s call them random battles for now.
There are 5 vehicle classes in the game: main battle tanks (MBTs), light tanks, armored fighting vehicles, tank destroyers and SPGs (ohh nooooo 🙁 ). Each of these has a separate role on the battlefield.
Premium vehicles will most likely be added into the game sooner or later. I’m not sure what they will be able to do, compared to ‘regular’ ones.
There will be PvE battles with background plots at some point of the game, but my guess is not soon.
You will be able to earn XP in both PvE and PvP battles. So in case the matchmaking of the random battles mode bother you, there’s always a secondary choice.
Matchmaking will be skill-based. Yes, I know – this was and still is a very controversial subject in World of Tanks. Why it doesn’t work in WoT is off-topic, maybe I’ll talk about it in another article. However, in AW it seems that they’re doing a great job. The matchmaker will take into account multiple factors, such as personal win rate, efficiency during previous battles, vehicle tier, vehicle status (stock, semi-upgraded, fully upgraded) and more. Their formula will remain however secret, to avoid the appearance of software such as XVM which further causes people to loose interest in the match when they’re getting 40 % chances to win.
There will be more weather types, such as overcast, rainy, snowy. It will be possible for the conditions to change even during the match, which is nice. In tank combat, the dynamic weather system seems essential, but that’s my personal opinion.
Steam integration is considered and will most likely be added during the final stages of development.
They are planning to add a battle mode like the training room, but it won’t be coming anywhere soon.
There won’t be any nations in the game. The main idea of the game is to have PMCs (private military companies). You have to do certain ‘jobs’ for the arms dealers before they will deal with you or sell you the next tank in line – such as “do so much damage to a certain type of tank”, “complete so many objectives in a certain tank”. That your progression is directly related to what you do in game.
You will be able to break things, since the game is running on Cry Engine 3.
You will be able to spam ‘gold’, but it will cost some silvers. You’ll get to choose from effectiveness and cost.
You won’t be able to drive unarmed vehicles, like Humvees (as seen in the trailer) and there won’t be any infantry, rebels or any kind of militia in the game either.
No more EU, RU, SEA and NA. All players from all corners of the world will be fighting each other in random battles on one master server.
You will, most likely be able to convert ‘global’ experience into free experience, with gold currency.
They have developed maps from 1000X1000m to 12.000X12.000 meters and they are likely to be symmetrical.
At the moment, there is the same WoT-like arty in the game, but I believe it’s currently a place holder for the unique arty concept they’re bringing in the game.
So, that’s about it – sure there is a /LOT/ more out there but sadly I feel like I should take a glance at the game and test it out myself. Hope I will be accepted soon, so I can post more. I am sure this game has a lot of potential and definitely deserves a lot of attention.
Anyway, thanks for reading. If I couldn’t convince you, I hope Jingles will – so here’s his video.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq0zPehVJGA&w=560&h=315]
