*EDIT* I play mainly Aircraft so this review focuses on that wing of the game (see what i did there?) P.S it gets good at the cons list.

When I first played this game way back before tanks or ships were introduced, it had so much potential to be a fantastic game and serious competition for other online games set in the same era. e.g World of Tanks, Warplanes and Warships. However, since that time I've extremely underwhelmed about the patches, bug fixes and general gameplay and mechanics of the game.
The few redeemable aspects of this game are heavily outweighed by everything that plagues casual gamers, like myself. The pros are as follows:

- Highly replayable, nothing gets you going more than shooting down 8 aircraft in a single sortie and leading your team to victory
- Gorgeous graphical capability of the game puts all its competitors to shame, literally ♥♥♥♥♥ all over them
- Huge variety of historical veichles to choose from
- Five Nations with mostly fleshed out tech lines starting from Bi-planes all the way to jet technology
- Realistic battles are very well flushed out for aircraft and add huge amounts of depth and challenge to battles
- Unlockable equipment allows you to become a true ace is your favourite fighter by modifying both ammunition loadouts, cannon configuration, reduction of weight and souping up your engine to get maximum output from the plane
- Camoflage, this is by far my favourite and least favourite part of the game, camoflage allows you to distinguish yourself from other members of your team by either unlocking them by completing certain challenges or forking out some golden eagels (premium money, bought with real cash).

CONS:
- Arcade battles get to be absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, honestly youd get a fairer trial as a jew in nazi germany that even attempting playing mid/low ranking arcade games, unless of course youre flying a Russian plane made out of Stalinium where every shell you fire is guided by the dead hand of the communist party into the fusilage of the closest axis/allied plane

- The broken matchmaking system is out to systematically ♥♥♥♥ on everyones day. Here you are having a great old time flying out in you Spitfire Mk. 1 shooting at fritz and smoking joe with your eigth machine guns when all of a sudden the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cold war turns up and you get trail blazed by a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mig travelling faster than a preist that heard about a 5 y/o's birthday down the road. So after all your planes have been torn in half by Ivan and his 30mm cannons you think what the everloving ♥♥♥♥ just happened, so you look into the patch notes and notice that ♥♥♥♥ players who constantly suck more than a 5 dollar ♥♥♥♥♥ on double time and a half get down teired so these precious snow flakes can then consistantly ♥♥♥♥ all over low BR ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

-The BR system, its a fairly old update but after War Thunder removed the previous 20 teir match making system I swear on Caesars glorious ghost I heard angels cry and the devil chuckling with glee knowing that he could once again come up from hell and ♥♥♥♥ us in the ass, while all we can do is say "Please sir may I have another?" This BR system is so broken it could participate in the special olympics.

- The endless grinding. Everyone loves a good grind whether its a hot chick on the dance floor to drunk to realise what you look like or a grinding in skyrim where you know everythings gonna be all right and nothing seems repetative. War Thunder on the other hand makes getting to the next plane a challenge in ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ patience and fortitude but then it has the gile to tell you, "You know what? After 15 hours of grinding to get to this plane we'll add some content to the game so theres a plane before that one!" So all that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grinding was about as pointless as tits on a bull because you wasted 15 hours of your time and cant purchase that plane until you research and buy the plane directly before it. This has happened to me so many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ times i literally nearly threw my back out in frustration.

- Geared to make you spend money, now for a free to play game I understand that the business that owns it has to butter its bread somewhere. The course War Thunder took was more or less damn the torpedos and full speed into their wallets. The way this games progession system works its almost impossible to unlock new and cool planes, tanks and camos without greasing the wheels a bit. It takes so long to earn Xp and credits without a premium account that I may as well use coconuts as currency ingame cause they sure as ♥♥♥♥ grow faster. However a cool little loop hole in the game is that if you buy eagles you can use "free xp" to unlock planes faster, that is neat and i personally dont have a porblem with that cause free xp has to be earnt by playing, but if you purchase upgrades on planes you already own (such as new guns) for eagles the xp that wouldve cost automatically gets transferred into you free xp bar, you see how this can cause a never ending cycle of pay to win. To be clear i have no problem with buying premium account or eagles to purchase premium veichles but "exploiting" a system that heavily is bordline psychotic.

- Finally, unfair aircraft. What do I mean by that? Only that when flying German jet in high BR battles like most people would do because they are obviously superior, right? WRONG! Every German designed jet you can get your precious little hands on are from 1943-1945, they face Korean War jets and even later era ones. Now yes they do get the MiG and Sabre, but why the ♥♥♥♥?!? I know they were two countries during cold war but seriously? WWII jets vs cold war fighter interceptors? thats no contest, just one huge ♥♥♥♥ show where the only winner is the other team!

Please excuse my language and i apologise if i offended any but this game has/had so much potential that it pains me to see it become this abortion of a thing. For the all the things stated before I cannot recommend this this pay to win piece of ♥♥♥♥ for anyone to play

EDITED*
And ♥♥♥♥ them for making a part of their program malware now i need to hunt it down a slaughter it with extreme prejudice, the malware that is...

*EDIT* I play mainly Aircraft so this review focuses on that wing of the game (see what i did there?) P.S it gets good at the cons list. When I first played this game way back before tanks or ships were introduced, it had so much potential to be a fantastic game and serious competition for other online games set in the same era. e.g World of Tanks, Warplanes and Warships. However, since that time I've extremely underwhelmed about the patches, bug fixes and general gameplay and mechanics of the game. The few redeemable aspects of this game are heavily outweighed by everything that plagues casual gamers, like myself. The pros are as follows: - Highly replayable, nothing gets you going more than shooting down 8 aircraft in a single sortie and leading your team to victory - Gorgeous graphical capability of the game puts all its competitors to shame, literally shits all over them - Huge variety of historical veichles to choose from - Five Nations with mostly fleshed out tech lines starting from Bi-planes all the way to jet technology - Realistic battles are very well flushed out for aircraft and add huge amounts of depth and challenge to battles - Unlockable equipment allows you to become a true ace is your favourite fighter by modifying both ammunition loadouts, cannon configuration, reduction of weight and souping up your engine to get maximum output from the plane - Camoflage, this is by far my favourite and least favourite part of the game, camoflage allows you to distinguish yourself from other members of your team by either unlocking them by completing certain challenges or forking out some golden eagels (premium money, bought with real cash). CONS: - Arcade battles get to be absolute bullshit, honestly youd get a fairer trial as a jew in nazi germany that even attempting playing mid/low ranking arcade games, unless of course youre flying a Russian plane made out of Stalinium where every shell you fire is guided by the dead hand of the communist party into the fusilage of the closest axis/allied plane - The broken matchmaking system is out to systematically shit on everyones day. Here you are having a great old time flying out in you Spitfire Mk. 1 shooting at fritz and smoking joe with your eigth machine guns when all of a sudden the fucking cold war turns up and you get trail blazed by a cunting mig travelling faster than a preist that heard about a 5 y/o's birthday down the road. So after all your planes have been torn in half by Ivan and his 30mm cannons you think what the everloving shit just happened, so you look into the patch notes and notice that shit players who constantly suck more than a 5 dollar whore on double time and a half get down teired so these precious snow flakes can then consistantly shit all over low BR bitches. -The BR system, its a fairly old update but after War Thunder removed the previous 20 teir match making system I swear on Caesars glorious ghost I heard angels cry and the devil chuckling with glee knowing that he could once again come up from hell and fuck us in the ass, while all we can do is say "Please sir may I have another?" This BR system is so broken it could participate in the special olympics. - The endless grinding. Everyone loves a good grind whether its a hot chick on the dance floor to drunk to realise what you look like or a grinding in skyrim where you know everythings gonna be all right and nothing seems repetative. War Thunder on the other hand makes getting to the next plane a challenge in fucking patience and fortitude but then it has the gile to tell you, "You know what? After 15 hours of grinding to get to this plane we'll add some content to the game so theres a plane before that one!" So all that god damn grinding was about as pointless as tits on a bull because you wasted 15 hours of your time and cant purchase that plane until you research and buy the plane directly before it. This has happened to me so many god damn times i literally nearly threw my back out in frustration. - Geared to make you spend money, now for a free to play game I understand that the business that owns it has to butter its bread somewhere. The course War Thunder took was more or less damn the torpedos and full speed into their wallets. The way this games progession system works its almost impossible to unlock new and cool planes, tanks and camos without greasing the wheels a bit. It takes so long to earn Xp and credits without a premium account that I may as well use coconuts as currency ingame cause they sure as shit grow faster. However a cool little loop hole in the game is that if you buy eagles you can use "free xp" to unlock planes faster, that is neat and i personally dont have a porblem with that cause free xp has to be earnt by playing, but if you purchase upgrades on planes you already own (such as new guns) for eagles the xp that wouldve cost automatically gets transferred into you free xp bar, you see how this can cause a never ending cycle of pay to win. To be clear i have no problem with buying premium account or eagles to purchase premium veichles but "exploiting" a system that heavily is bordline psychotic. - Finally, unfair aircraft. What do I mean by that? Only that when flying German jet in high BR battles like most people would do because they are obviously superior, right? WRONG! Every German designed jet you can get your precious little hands on are from 1943-1945, they face Korean War jets and even later era ones. Now yes they do get the MiG and Sabre, but why the fuck?!? I know they were two countries during cold war but seriously? WWII jets vs cold war fighter interceptors? thats no contest, just one huge shit show where the only winner is the other team! Please excuse my language and i apologise if i offended any but this game has/had so much potential that it pains me to see it become this abortion of a thing. For the all the things stated before I cannot recommend this this pay to win piece of shit for anyone to play EDITED* And fuck them for making a part of their program malware now i need to hunt it down a slaughter it with extreme prejudice, the malware that is...