Overall, the gameplay design for World of Warships Legends is simplistic, though complicated underneath the hood. The game doesn’t do anything special to magnify its intentions, but it does keep the process smooth and uninterrupted by not overcomplicating how you play. It wants you to feel like you’re playing a moving version of Battleship but insists on taking all the potential PC obstacles out of the way. It just simply wants you to have fun, and it achieves that in the most uncomplicated and uninterrupted way. While most people might be turned off by the pay part of the game, there is still fun to be had here.
I didn’t expect much from World of Warships Legends, outside of the typical F2P model game design where you’re hooked, then you’re hooked. I had heard about this game for the better part of a year, even went as far as posting news about the Halloween event last year, which looked cool as hell, but I had never dived into the game. It’s warships, it looked complicated, and having played other PC ports on a console before, I didn’t feel like learning translated PC keyboard commands in controller form. Final Fantasy XIV was quite enough for me in that department. Great game, but felt like it required a Master of Science to understand the control scheme.
So, I delayed trying out Warships.
As more news rolled in about it, I finally just threw in the towel and committed myself to at the very least giving the game a few rounds. What I found was a bit more than expected — in a good way.
World of Warships Legends is a game where you have open war military fights with massive battleships. It’s actually just that simple in what to expect. Each level brings a different flavor of modes with it, the two I played were territorial capture, while the other resembled capture the flag. You win the game by doing one of two things:
1. Capture all territories (could be one, could be several)
2. Destroy all enemy boats (there is no respawn — hey, but you can view the battle once you’re dead)
It’s a simple concept that doesn’t ask too much of you in the front end of the game. How you accomplish either/or is entirely up to you and your strategy. The game just wants you to play, get addicted to the gameplay, and then continue playing more. It’s respectfully stupid fun, which is the main crux of its design. The most you have to think about in the game is how you control your ship, while not running into rocks/islands/icebergs (the latter of which I had the most problem because I’m an absolute idiot). Beyond this, the game doesn’t ask much more from you, though it gives you a bit more with regard to strategy.
The backend content for this game is where part of your strategy comes in. As you progress in the title, you gain XP along the way. If you earn enough XP, then you get to upgrade or unlock new ships. Each ship comes with an XP tier to it that allows you to add blueprints to improve your ship, as well as your chances to conquer. As you get further and further in the game, and as you gather up victories, you also level up your overall warship account. Once you level up, you start to open up additional options, such as adding commanders to the crew, which improve your odds of success. There are several layers to this onion that don’t get overly complicated, but in fact, improve the playability of the game. The devs didn’t just throw things in to throw things in, they had purpose.
Now, not everything is easy and peachy, as one would expect from a F2P title. You can purchase your way into victory. You can purchase ships (right now there is an ultimate edition ship deal that costs $109.95 for four ships — I guess people do this and I’m happy for them). You can purchase boosters, which helps you out quite a bit in what you can do in the water. You can also purchase additional doubloons, commanders, and such that can see you through to the next level of upgrades fairly quickly, or just simply make you powerful. While this does scream ‘pay to win’ all over it, and in some logical aspect you wouldn’t be wrong, I think there is more to it than that simple answer. Just because you get these things, you still have to know how to strategize and use them. It’s not like you’re playing a first-person shooter and you have a one-shot weapon to take down everyone, rather it’s technical upgrades that simply give you a good chance of winning, which also depends on your mode of play.
The mode of play is broken down into two main pieces:
– Versus AI: I spent the most time in this mode of the game. You essentially play against AI bots the entire time, though your teammates are actual human beings. While I’m certain I disappointed my teammates on a regular basis with my warship shenanigans, it was nice having actual human beings help take down enemy ships. Occasionally you will run into an AFK’er, which is not fun. The game should have some sort of timer to kick those folks out, but in the single case I saw an AFK’er, they stayed the whole time. He/she was the last remaining survivor of the match. I’m sure everyone wanted them to wake up and win, as the match was really close (2-1 enemy/them left). Alas, no such luck. It was somewhat entertaining to see them sink, though.
– Versus Player: I stunk at this. I like killing bots. The end*.
*I should note that this version was meant for dedicated players that were serious about this game from beginning to end. I’m not exactly THAT type of player, but I respect the hell out of them.
There is more than the above, including campaigns and missions, but I suspect gamer interest will lie squarely on these two modes of play. I honestly don’t blame anyone because both modes are worth your time, potentially your money (depending on your expectations of the title).
On the control side of things, World of Warships Legends, as I was told, was changed slightly for the console. While I didn’t play the PC version, the PlayStation 4 version was a well-crafted game that took advantage of the console’s simplicities. You didn’t need a keyboard to move around, you didn’t need to reinvent, through complicated button commands, how to play the game; rather it just was. Of course, ‘was’ meaning that the game didn’t try to be more than it needed to be for console players. Nothing was dumbed down, rather it the game just used what controls it was given. For example, when tasked with moving your warship around waters, the main controls for acceleration and deceleration involved using ‘O’ and ‘X’ as a simplified gear shift. You could send your ship in a particular direction through the thumbsticks. It was a thoughtless way to move your ship forward and backwards, and fast/slow, as well as side-to-side. If you wanted to choose the guns or torpedos, then you used square and triangle on the PS4 controller. The game purposely wanted you to keep your attention on the screen and less on the button commands, which I thoroughly appreciated about it. Essentially, controls don’t get in the way of strategy, which is thick when it comes to playing this game.
As for the presentation, gosh it was a pretty game. I’m not suggesting it was Horizon Zero Dawn, but the game is smooth enough with its visuals to put you in the mood for water warfare. It gives you some solid details, such as water color difference when fighting in a variety of seas. It even puts some housing and towns in mountainous areas that look solid when you zoom in to launch an attack. There’s a lot to appreciate about the visuals, but, much like the game it doesn’t try too hard to overcomplicate itself. It just wants you to enjoy things and move along. There is nothing wrong with that one bit.
Before wrapping up, let me just state, and I’m not a huge fan of F2P games, that the pay part of this game didn’t feel in the way of having fun. I didn’t buy anything, I played the game as it was (even forgoing the offered coinage from the company). It was fun as hell, quick, and it just felt like there wasn’t a clear advantage between purchasing your way to the top and earning your way there through playing the game. Sure, you could probably stomp someone on the PvP side of things, but you’ll still find some unpaid-for joy in the game. Just don’t let that get in your way of trying it out.
Overall, the gameplay design for World of Warships Legends is simplistic, though complicated underneath the hood. The game doesn’t do anything special to magnify its intentions, but it does keep the process smooth and uninterrupted by not overcomplicating how you play. It wants you to feel like you’re playing a moving version of Battleship, but insists on taking all the potential PC obstacles out of the way. It just simply wants you to have fun, and it achieves that in the most uncomplicated and uninterrupted way. While most people might be turned off by the pay part of the game, there is still fun to be had here.
