The grandfather of all MMO FPS war games (Guiness world record).

If you like medium paced WWII FPS on a massive scale this game is for you. (Looking at you, Battlefield)
If you like flying and like to kill air and ground targets which are player controlled on a massive scale this game is for you. (Looking at you, IL-2)
If you like historical armor thickness, realistic round kinetics and armor penetration values instead of health bar systems this game is for you. (Looking at you, World of Tanks)
And if you are like me, a dedicated FlaK (AAA) gunner, and like to sneak up on the enemy from towns away (20km plus) with AA guns this game is for you (looking at you, War Thunder)

The game offers many different ways of playing it and if you like a specific task, such as only playing anti tank guns, only flying, only bombing, only playing light machine guns etc. etc. you can do your nerd stuff here. The community is amazing, everyone tries to help you and other new players out. They are highly communicative using ingame text, ingame voice and Discord.

Pricing, the biggest obstacle of anyone not having tried the game yet - I suggest you just make a free account on steam first you get 30 days of free premium with access to all weapons. The only restriction is that some equipment is rank locked and you need to rank up, if you talk to the veterans in game (some are real veterans from wars like Vietnam, Irak etc.) they will help you rank up in less than no time! There are two sides, either Axis or Allies, Allies featuring 3 countries, the French, Brits and USA. Each country has 3 branches, Army, Air Force and Navy and they all require separate ranking up (there are many easy ways to rank up to your wished level required for that sweet gun you just can't wait to get your hands on extremely fast all approved by the developers). When you have done your 30 days of free premium you've tried out many of the weapons in the game, you have started to get a feel for what they can and can not do. You can now decide
to explore all weapons into infinity by supporting the game, its development and the community buy subscribing to a premium account, buy a DLC, subscribe to the starter account (cheaper than premium but you don't get access to all weapons) or simply stay free to play. Free to play players get very limited access to the weapons. We get the simple rifle like K98k, a reserve SMG which functions exactly like the others just less ammo (friendlys can still resupply you though), simplest ATGs like PaK 36 (which when used with the right amount of skill can kill all enemy tanks except the Char B1 bis, Churchill series. note extreme skill with side and/or rear shots in specific areas of the armor are required.), The simplest AA guns (these can kill anything in the air and are absolutely lethal. I'll get back to these later), The simplest Airplanes like the 109 E-1, Hurricane 1 but also the Blenheim and StuKa B, The simplest of the ships a Fairmile B river patrol boat which is an excellent AA gun platform and you may or may not be able to spawn the Trawler as free to play too which has the FlaKvierling 38 (quad 20mm AA gun). Every campaign CRS (the devs) open up a few of the premium weapons to all players paying or not so that you can try for example the M1 Garand or the heavier tanks etc. and keep these in rotation so there are always different weapons you can try out if you missed trying them that much when you had your 30 days free premium.

The game is currently being converted into Unreal Engine 5 in a project CRS calls WWII Online 2.0. There is a different game also being worked on by CRS which is called WWII Online: Chokepoint, a basic lobbyshooter style WWII FPS with fast pased action in closed quarters combat. Chokepoint's infantry system will be the base of the infantry mechanincs in WWII Online 2.0 but they are two entirely different games. 2.0 will have the massive scale where you can Take a rifleman and walk from Frankfurt to Calais in France just as an example.

Free to play, pay to win or pay to play?
If you know the limitations of your weapons and utilize its strength and don't try to engage things you cannot kill, the free to play version is definitely good enough. I took the basic axis AA gun (FlaK 30 which is a 20mm AA gun) for an entire campaign and became top AA gunner that time (Campaign # 198) surpassing everyone else in the entire game in the points system on the stats page, killed the most airplanes as an AA gunner and had the least deaths by aircraft. The campaign lasted some 60 days but I outskilled the enemy and my competition with the most basic AA gun the game offers you. This AA gun is and always will be free to play. I did this to prove that with enough experience and skill you can become absolutely lethal and a big opponent to your enemy.

I highly recommend the premium account though, you just get a higher variety of fun weapons to play with. And obviously you cannot kill a Sherman tank with the Panzer IIc for example...

All in all I rate this game with all its flaws and bugs and the extremely high dedicated developers CRS 8/10.

Would review anytime again and always recommend it. Remember 30 days free test of premium, you cannot lose by trying.

Very fun game would recommend to play only on DLC needed weekends but being able to buy the DLC will always be a meh options since preim for a month just works Planes are really fun but wish yall would add a better way to Remap keybinds for Ease of use but plane Combat and Tank combat NGL more fun then warthunder Mainly cause Inf running around just adding to the fun. 7/10 Please Join on week ENDS WE NEED HELP ON THE FRENCH FRONT AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

very good very nice