Recent reviews by fireclaw

This game was never that fun to begin with, but lately it's been in a steep downward spiral.

I don't play the airplane gamemodes that much so I can't say much about it. Arcade is ... arcade-y, I don't like that but thats up to you. The airplane realistic gamemode is extremely boring. In low BR it consists of flying towards the battle for 10 minutes, engage with 1 to 3 people and then run out of ammo, so you need to fly back to the airfield to reload. I hear from others that high br isn't much better.

The following is mostly about ground realistic battles, unless I mention otherwise:

Ground battles are infuriating in their own way. While the actual tank gameplay is pretty fun, there are loads upon loads of factors that deteriorate that fun until it becomes pure pain and anguish. Because of BR compression, you will often face tanks you have no chance of winning against, or atleast be so massively outclassed you will need tons of effort and luck (the luck being that the enemy player is oblivious) to win the fight. There is also no Ground ONLY mode, so when you play ground battles, you will get bombed or machine-gunned to hell by airplanes. Most tanks do not have a counter to this, and for the ones that do, it is not fun gameplay to stare at the sky all the time. It is how most of my games end, being bombed 3 times in 3 tanks and not being able to play anymore. This is made worse by the fact that spawning planes costs nothing but repairing tanks costs a fortune, especially for nations that Gaijin seems to hate (France). This is made EVEN worse by the fact that Gaijin recently also introduced drones. Having an enemy drone in the air basicaly guarantees death as they are massively out of range for most anti-air vehicles.

It is not satisfying to look for planes. It is not satisfying to shoot planes. It is definitely not satisfying to suddenly get bombed out of nowhere by planes. Why are they in Ground battles?

Like said before, tanks cost a lot to repair, and you will lose a lot of money playing tanks if you're not excellent at the game.

Most maps are horrendous, for most of them it looks like they haven't been thought out at all. With problems like extreme spawncamping (on some maps the spawns can even snipe into each other, causing many people to leave the game before it even begins), or being extremely one-sided (on some maps the outcome is already deterrmined from the start by one team just having the better spawn). But all around most of them are boring and often annoying to play.

I do not have many strong opinions about premium vehicles (vehicles that cost real money to buy). In a way they suffer from the same powercreep as normal vehicles, meaning they are sometimes at the wrong BR but the same can be said about some non-premiums as well. The most recent example I have for this is the TURM III being on the same BR as the AMX-30, the TURM is better in every way that counts but still they will often face each other.

While premium tanks aren't the affront against God like in some other games, this game definitely does have pay2win mechanics, namely bushes. In ground battles it is important to see you enemy before he sees you, and especially to know WHAT you are shooting. This is completely thrown out of balance by bushes, that you can buy for real money. Obviously it is harder to spot tanks covered in bushes, but is also harder to identify WHERE you have to shoot them. Each tank has their own weak-spots, and if those weak-spots are covered by bushes, or you can't even identify what tank it is you are shooting, then obviously the player with the bushes has the upper hand. Lots of players claim they earned the bushes by just playing the game, but to earn a singular bush without paying, you need to play the game for 3 months straight without pause. So either they have no life, or they are just lying.

If you value your sanity, and most importantly, your time. Look for another game to play.

EDIT 21/03/2024:
Some time ago Gaijin improved the economy to appease the playerbase during the reviewbombing, but judging from the low amount of XP I'm getting from high kill winning games these days it seems like they silently reverted to the old bad economy again, atleast for match rewards.
Still not recommended because of slimy updates.

I love this game so much that I played it so long until I hated it .... Pls send help

10 out of 10 would make an orbital nuke again