Hey folks, I hope you're all doing great,
I played WoT since beta and accumulated just under 19K battles over my 'career' (18988 to be precise). I loved playing it and was pretty good at it too. Was in one of the best clans at the time and made tons of gold by just playing clan wars. At some point I had to quit playing, due to reasons unrelated to the game. If I recall correctly, it was around the time the Chinese tanks were introduced (2013?). I did pop in once every 6 months to play a couple of games, but my absolute last match was in 2015.
Last weekend I had a bit of time on my hands and randomly heard about WoT, so I thought I would give it a shot once again. I downloaded it on my PS4 and played for the weekend, managing to get a few T3s and a T5 (good ol' Sherman), and would like to share a few random thoughts. As a disclaimer, this might end up being a very long post and there is no real tl;dr to it. I do hope you find it somewhat interesting. Also, if there's anything you'd like to ask me, fire away!
- Firstly, the switch from PC to PS4. It feels weird to me and am legitimately struggling. It's not as bad as shooters, but I have a tough time aiming properly, particularly against fast targets at close range. Maneuvering also feels hard, particularly when backing up. I assume everybody struggles the with this, so it events out. On the flip side, the game looks and sounds amazing on my home cinema.
- On the topic of graphics, I do believe the game looks genuinely great and nothing like it used to. I'm pretty certain that my old rig wouldn't even be able to run it. I didn't use to care about graphics to be honest, I played 'competitively' and I cared about performance more than about looks. Now I do enjoy just looking around and taking it all in. I like the weather effects in particular. It also runs really smoothly.
- I received a bunch of free stuff, various XP boosts and were able to get a T5 running in no time. I'm aware that there are now many more tanks to grind, but unless you want to have them all I would argue that the game is more accessible than it used to be. Having said that, it feels terrible that there is no way to transfer the progress from PC over to the PS4. It just feels greedy for a bunch of different reasons. I spent time, energy and money on my old account and I'm not inclined to start it all over. If I had my old stuff, I would be tempted to pay for premium and continue playing. For now, I'm just going to meme about.
- I'm not sure how I feel about the mercenary contracts and tanks. The opportunity to unlock those tanks by accomplishing various objectives sounds great, but in practice they seem rather restrictive. I also don't like the tanks themselves, as I appreciate the historical aspects of the game. It's by no means historically accurate, but it does create a good illusion of that. Mercenary tanks break that illusion for me, but it's not the biggest deal in the world.
- The new player experience is dreadful. I get that low tier tanks are supposed to be bad and that progression is good for player retention. The grind at the early tiers is also short, however early battles feel so frustrating. The maps also don't help this case, Province in particular. It's as dreadful as I remember it to be, is it still in the pool for high tier matches (god I hope not!)? The main takeaway is that a lot of players might get scared off before getting to the fun part.
- They appear to have simplified the way you manage tanks, modules, crews etc, but it also feels more restrictive than necessary. In particular, what happens to old tank modules once you replace them? I recall you used to be able to sell them and regain some silver, but for the life of me I couldn't find them anywhere. I also couldn't figure out a way to sell ammunition, repair kits and so on.
- I like the operations and the different mini-objectives you get, with the associated rewards. Great stuff.
- Gameplay as a whole feels 'strange' and I can't quite point at why that is. The main words that come to mind are passive and lopsided. I might just have to play some more and get a better understanding of each map.
- WHY IS THERE NO WAY TO AUTOMUTE ON PS4? There's always that one guy who is spouting random stuff and muting them is a chore. I've yet to find someone who is using their mic to actually communicate useful information.
- Summing up, and though it might not seem so, I am actually enjoying the game. I am playing dreadfully and sitting comfortably at a sub 50% winrate, but I'm having fun. I wasn't sure I was going to play past the weekend, but I actually can't wait to get back home and play a few more rounds. Might just be nostalgia, but I'm going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.
Have a great day everybody,
Cheers.