Tanks? Online play? Big battlefields? Yes, please.
While I generally don’t support too many free-to-play games, I genuinely had a good time with World of Tanks: HEAT in closed beta play a few weeks back. Made by Wargaming Group Limited, this F2P game features a decent number of hefty tanks, each with its own measured attributes, a good-sized set of maps, and plenty of customization to boot. This game is solely focused on tank play and is comparable to using a tank in a game like Battlefield, but it doesn’t go beyond what it promises to be. That is honestly fine because what World of Tanks: HEAT does and focuses on is fun and fancy-free.
During my short time with this closed beta playtest, I found the gameplay to be incredibly easy to pick up and play. Right out of the gate, I was thrown into a heavy M-1 Abrams tank with a team of four other tank operators, where we traversed a very large construction site and took on five other tanks. The map I played for this initiation had a lot of dips, plenty of nooks and crannies to hide and ride through, and truly felt like a Battlefield map. There was lots of elbow room, and some to spare. And this wasn’t the only map that felt like this. There was another that was in a worn-torn cityscape that featured different avenues of approach and a variety of ways to go at the enemy. Again, girthy with elbow room to spare. If you’re playing an online war simulator like this, you want that space to strategize and execute group plans, and World of Tanks: HEAT excelled in this category.
While traveling around those maps, I played a few modes that fit the bill. The first was a dog-tag collection, kill confirmed game, which was on that initial construction site map. Without even paying attention to what mode I was landing in, the gameplay was easily understood and simple to catch on to quickly, too. You could probably write that up as my Call of Duty muscle memory, but understanding what mode was being played was obvious. Blasting other tanks to hell, collecting their tags, and then riding into the next battle was fast and furious. While I enjoyed my time with that mode, and it was a mode that brought a lot of close combat situations to the table merely for tag retrieval, the game basically created a choke point of chaos for this particular mode, which made it pure metal and explosive madness. Tanks were exploding, firing, and everything in between. It was a little tight and up close for my tastes, but that was the name of the game. Of course, that wasn’t the case for other modes I tried.
My favorite mode of the bunch was domination, which is just classic capture-the-flag… with tanks. While it is easy to assume that this would also be more close-up chaos, it was a bit more refined than just that. This mode allowed teams to strategize, break into small pockets of tanks, and take out enemies resting on flags in different ways. Flanking was a big part of this mode, as was one-on-one battles, which typically led to chasing other tanks from the area, or just outright tank explosions. This mode offered more strategy than the kill confirmed mode, and brought a different, more delicate attitude with it that discouraged just running and gunning. It was easy to tell that Wargaming wanted to make sure each mode brought to the table had its own set of speed, personality, and best ways to win. I can respect that, and it shows what passion they put into this project. They could have easily just thrown tanks into a big map without much thought to mode, but they did craft something with variety.
With all these maps and modes, how did the gameplay feel? The short answer is that it was simple and fun. Aiming down sights, third-person fighting, and calling in airstrikes and huge hits didn’t take much effort to understand or execute. Everything fit like a glove in the gameplay department, and that includes controlling tanks and navigating maps easily. It also helped that there were a variety of tanks to choose from and unlock, which meant that going into battle with multiple tanks was akin to selecting an operator type in Battlefield. Much like that example, each tank felt different and was shaped for specific purposes during fights. The balance was trying to figure out if you wanted speed over power, or vice versa, and what it meant for the team’s performance against others. In the end, the gameplay was deep, fun, and there were a lot of different ways to approach a battle.
Now, what wasn’t simple, but still fun, was the game’s customization. In games like Battlefield and Call of Duty, there is hardly any option for adjusting vehicles. It’s more focused on people, guns, and items more personal to the character and player. For World of Tanks: HEAT, since this is literally just about tanks going at each other, the customization is all on the vehicle. This means having the ability to unlock guns, cosmetics, and everything to separate your tank from everyone else’s. While there is bound to be some microtransactions involved in this customization process, the unlockables as you get more XP through progression seemed attainable without dropping a single cent. Of course, this is still a closed beta, and I didn’t purchase anything for the game, so I can’t say for sure how the finalized version of this is going to go on the monetizing side of the tracks, but this seemed less like a money-grab and more like a true set of good customizations for the player that shouldn’t affect gameplay. Regardless, this is going to be a huge selling point to players who seek validation for having a unique and customized tank experience.
On that note, let’s wrap up this preview.
The above is my entire experience with the closed beta of World of Tanks: HEAT. I look forward to seeing the final released version and trying out all the other modes and maps that I didn’t quite get to during my time with the game. Until then, keep an eye on this one. It looks like it’s going to be a solid F2P game title.
