World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition
In the three years since its initial launch, World of Tanks has attracted an impressive 75 million PC gamers to its strategic, online warfare. It’s even garnered a healthy following in the growing e-sports community. Now the ‘cult’ hit has made the leap to Xbox 360 as part of developer Wargaming’s roll-out and assimilation of their ‘World of’ series.
It’s easy to see the appeal of Tanks right from the off. A comprehensive library of short training videos shows that Wargaming are gunning for a wide breadth of players, from tentative newbies to battle-hardened MMO veterans. Meanwhile, the game itself is admirably shorn of extraneous chaff, from the pared down controls and weapon load-outs, to the simplistic five-minute long ‘kill all enemies’ or ‘capture the base’ game modes.
It’s a boon for those of us who can no longer sink six hours a day into such gaming fare, allowing a fairly level playing field for anyone who has picked up a joypad in the past ten years. Of course, all this would be for nowt were newbies able to conquer the fray by aimlessly gunning into the rather nice scenery. Thankfully, Tanks deploys some rather straightforward but effective tactics that are easily learned and can help even novices quickly alight to a higher level of skill.
Similarly, the ‘garage’, where tanks and weaponry are bought and upgraded, is simple on the surface and easily skipped past during earlier games, yet is deceptively deep as you gain those essential experience points. Actual cold hard cash can also be injected into what is ostensibly a free-to-play experience, but beyond a post-battle ‘here’s what you could have won’ enticement, it’s relatively hands-off and won’t make you feel like you’re missing a huge part of the game.
For the price tag, it’s hard not to recommend downloading this long-coming console port. What you put into it beyond that will be your call, but if you’re looking for an alternative to the glut of polished, overbearing war games already out there, you may find World of Tanks is worth enlisting up to those already hefty recruitment numbers.