Alarm klaxons are blaring loudly as you hear the Captain come in over the intercom, “all hands to battle stations!” You make your way to the bow of the ship, and ready your gun for firing solutions. You hear someone yell to get down as a plane buzzes close over your head. You hear anti-aircraft artillery fire behind you and watch as the plane bursts into a flaming fireball. This is our impressions of the new War Thunder 1.83 update, “Masters of the Sea.”
War Thunder is a free to play MMO developed and produced by Gaijin Entertainment, and it is in the same vein as the World of series of games. (World of Tanks, World of Warships, World of Warplanes) This particular MMO arrived a while after the original World of Tanks game, by six years, but it has already shown great dedication to the gaming community with these types of wargames. When you enter War Thunder you participate in a Land or Air tutorial, which doesn’t take very long at all, and then you get right into a screen that looks similar to the hanger in the other games. Here you get to choose between your aircraft, your tanks, or your new naval vessels. For this piece, we will be reviewing the new entries in patch 1.83.
Patch 1.83 introduces a number of new vehicles including, Naval Forces OBT, Royal Navy CBT, German Helicopters, tanks, and a lot more than that. We see navies from the USA, USSR, Germany, and now the British Naval forces. New ships like torpedo ships, corvettes, destroyers, and others have been added for the Brits to fight against the rest of the world’s forces. When you start into the game it begins like all other games, the beginning. You will get your first ship, and expect it to be small. The gunboat is the first line of your tech trees. When you have earned enough combat experience and currency to purchase upgrades then you can update your ships, and research the next tech tree for new ships in that line. From the gunboat to massive destroyers you will be able to play to your heart's content and take the fight to your enemies. Some ships are stronger than others, so you will need to play strategically, and you the maps to your advantage. Any rocks or mountains jutting up from the ocean floor will make excellent places to set an ambush. Launch your torpedoes, fire your machine guns, and have at them.
The next stop in our update trail is the air, and War Thunder devs don’t disappoint. Adding three branches of helicopters to the German arsenal from the SA 3.13B to the BO 105 attack helicopter. You will have fun upgrading, and flying these fun helicopters along with the other ones already in the game. Loaded with guided or unguided missiles, TOW rockets, and machine guns, these will be air to ground dominance vehicles. Germany isn’t the only ones to get a surprise though. The French MB.175T bomber makes its way to the skies loaded with torpedoes and machine guns to take out air and water targets, and the Germans get the Ju 288C bomber as well. This last one is a premium so get out there and get it.
Tanks are seeing some love as well with an American variant of the T32E1, and Japanese Multiple Rocket Launcher, and even some Soviet tanks as well. These are game changers for ground combat. Make sure to try and test these out for yourselves, you will be pleasantly surprised.
Don’t worry if you are an Xbox One player either, as long as you have Xbox Live Gold then you get access to all these updates already, and you don’t have to pay a thing. The console brand will probably see as much love as the pc, but only time will tell.
Overall, I have played World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, and World of Warships, and one thing I have noticed is the lack of immersion for true battle events. War Thunder has hit it out of the park merging all three modes together into one complete game. Having the ability to mix ships and planes, or helicopters and tanks, into one battle makes it that much more challenging, and that much more fun. Currently, War Thunder is available on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Shield Android TV, and Xbox One.
