Recent reviews by 大音。京 (Bob)

Great game

A wise man once said: "War Thunder is ALMOST fun."

I have 1900+ hours on this game, yet I still give it a negative review.

tl;dr: This game is a game with a lot of potential, but plagued with problems.

I mainly play the air force, so this review will have a huge emphasis on the air force and my experience with it.

To start everything off, this game is extremely not friendly to new players. You start off with biplanes that are slow but extremely maneuverable, this is where new players have their first taste at areal combat. However, it conditions every new players into having the mindset of "out turning" their opponent, which is NOT how most areal combat works. So, when the newb first get their hands on a monoplane, they get absolutely REKT by the biplanes, which makes them frustrated, possibly quitting the game.

Second, the current matchmaker (29th Jan 2021 as of time of writing this review) for propeller driven aircraft is absurdly bad. Most matches I've encountered are mostly American forces teaming up with the Japanese fighting against German forces teaming up with the Soviets. This is really bad, not only it breaks the historical immersion, it also leaves the Germans and the Soviets in a very awkward situation where the Americans have the advantage of speed and the Japanese have the advantage of maneuverability.

"Don't complain like a cry baby, you are just not good enough"

It's not about individual skill level, but your team's collective skill level. Sure, an experienced pilot can handle few planes no problem. However most players in these tiers are intermediate players that lack experience and still need to learn more about their plane. With the huge advantage that the American and Japanese faction has, players playing the Germans and the Soviets can't do much before they get absolutely dunked on, let alone increasing their skill level, resulting in a very frustrating experience.

Lastly, top tier grind is horrible. You don't really "unlock" the plane's true potential until you ace it (which is a slow and painful journey), you also don't have missiles which puts you at a disadvantage. I basically quit playing top tier after like 20+ matches or so, the grind is THAT BAD.

War Thunder is a good game by it's nature. Air RB (Realistic Battles) game mode struck a good balance between realism and arcade. The infrastructure is there. The system is there. But poor balancing, decisions, and the grind issue makes it a painful game to play.

To sum up your War Thunder experience in one sentence: "Wow! This game is amazing...... And now i hate it."

As of now, I have deleted the game and have absolutely 0 interest in it. Too bad, because this game is ALMOST fun.....

For keyboard players:

It is basically dark souls of driving games, you will fail miserably and crashes are unavoidable where the track hurdles you off the track.
A lot of effort have to put into this game due to the binary inputs that the keyboard has.
However the sense of achievement and joy that it brings when you finish a race is incomparable to other games.

Very much recommended if you have a lot of spare time.

Dark Souls of driving games

makes you hate Greece and Sweden

Very good, with proper skills, you can win