World of Warships is an action packed tactical wargame. Emphasis on the action. Taking from their previous games, Wargames.net uses the same mold with World of Warships. The free to play model gives you instant access to one tier of small warships to start your campaign to collect them all. Like with Wargames.net previous entries, World of Warships has you earn experience points and cash that allow you to research and buy new ships and upgrades. From my early closed Beta test experience so far, they have done an adequate job of not making new equipment and ships seem inaccessible. You can generally find yourself able to afford a new ship after only a few battles, assuming you can hit the enemy on a fairly regular basis.
Early gameplay is pretty fast paced as early ships are small and maneuverable, and don’t carry much fire power, nor hit points. These first few battles are quick and allow you to get used to the basic controls, navigation and firing techniques. Though the actual combat is more action oriented, and not a true simulation, it still takes a fair amount of skill to judge distance and speed before firing your canons, or loosing torpedoes.
As you gain experience, higher ranked ships become available. These ships vary in class from cruisers, to destroyers, to massive battleships or aircraft carriers. World of Warships does a great job offering a varied amount of combat once these second and third tier options open up.
Cruisers, the first ship type you have access to, offer balance in performance and firepower. They are fairly maneuverable and the higher tiers carry both an assortment of guns, as well as torpedoes, and anti-aircraft flak guns. Destroyers are fast and highly maneuverable. They tend to favour those who enjoy the torpedo game and can move quickly into range to fire, and escape by dropping smoke screens to hide themselves and allies. Battleships are the heavy hitters, and tend to stay at range firing massive guns for similarly massive damage. The aircraft carriers offer the most unique play experience, as they mostly lack any direct fire weapons and must rely entirely on their loadout of planes. When choosing and aircraft carrier, you find yourself generally moving between an overhead tactical view of the entire battle, and to your various planes, either fighters, bombers, or torpedo bombers. This mix of styles is very welcome, and offers variety to each battle.
Visually, the details of each ship really stands out. You can zoom out and in, and see even tiny details like deck plates on each ship. Water effects are solid, and explosions are vibrant and effective. Throughout each battle you are given both visual and audio cues to let you know your status, and any potential threats. Incoming fire and torpedoes are clearly identified, and warnings flash on your screen if you are on a collision course with one of the many small islands.
The only current struggle so far in closed beta, is the sometimes clunky match making system. Wait times can be long, and sometimes teams are very unbalanced either in tiers or total players. Though many of these issues are derived from the current amount of players in the closed beta. Overall however, the game seems to run smoothly even at the highest graphic settings, with only occasional lag and hiccups.
In it’s early state, World of Warships is looking to match the addictive nature of it’s predecessors. It offers a solid variety of gameplay options, and many ships for you to unlock and collect. With the premium options limited to a small variety of ships, and faster xp and in-game cash accumulation this should turn out to be another success.
MicBeMac Games 