Recent reviews by Tearfall

I have just described to scratch the surface of this game.
The controls, especially in the beginning, is probably not what you are used to - but are introduced gradually.
The world, game play etc is very cool. This to me, looks to be an amazing game that you can sink hundreds of hours into. Yes, you don't have have control of option dialogues - but this isn't necessarily a bad thing - the protagonist, as I haven't yet unlocked the other two main protagonists, still has identity of his own.

Apart from introducing HOW to do things though, there is little to no hand-holding - but also not a bad thing.

Why I haven't described this game as I normally do others is that this is not your average game, and it doesn't quite fit into a neat genre as most other games do.

But so far, it's fantastic! Try it!

Nails the chaotic combat and the grimy, neon‑soaked aesthetics—it's pretty fun to play and look at. But it’s hard not to notice that nobody seems to enjoy Ruby’s character design; she’s practically always the last character in any team to get forced onto someone, which says a lot. Still, the game itself delivers solid fun - but this is one of those games where you'll probably get bored of it after a bit, as it's the same few levels you can play over and over.

Think Skyrim, but more fluid and better combat - harder too (not impossible, but not easy). Rich story-telling. Just an awesome game, been wanting something like this for a long time and didn't even know it. Great game!

Do not recommend, they are going to do seasons where essentially *everything* you've gained is wiped... So a battlepass, sort of.... But instead of rewarding you, it's just punishing you. Don't play it, their vision is not one to have players have fun - it's to monetize players to pay for in-game stuff by making the game as painful as possible if you don't pay up. Every month.

Have a very good computer, tried turning down settings more and more and more and more and more and more....

i7 from two gens ago, RTX4080, 64GB Ram.... but the stuttering is horrendous when looking around. Not sure if the game is actually good, the graphics stuttering made it near unplayable.

Pretty good game honestly, but for some stupid reason you can't play it with no internet connection (discovered after a large thunderstorm). Because of that simple reason, get another game that will allow you to play regardless of internet connection. Maybe Jagged Alliance 3?

So.... War Thunder.

How is this game laid out?

You can play either in air mode, where you only face other airplanes - or "Ground" where you face ground vehicles, helicopters and airplanes. Helicopters is reserved for medium-to-high tier of play.

It's set up to be easy in the beginning, and this is probably where you will have the most fun (not the very first time you play.... you'll be a free kill)...

Now how it works is this, you earn "research" for killing other players or taking essentially "capture the base" areas. This will let you, very slowly, get new vehicles and give you "modifications" to the one you're in.... "Modifications" could really be referred to as "repair flaws" - as your vehicle will be just plain worse than others of its kind until you've researched most of them.

Now, having researched a vehicle does not mean you get it, you also get "silver lions" - the in-game currency - for the two actions listed above.

On top of this, you will ~lose~ "silver lions" for getting killed in a vehicle as at the end of the match you have to pay a repair cost repair cost for *each* destroyed vehicle you have. This will not be noticeable until you reach higher-tier play, at which point it can be punishing and essentially prevent you from progressing as you will be unable to pay for the new vehicle.

So the system is rigged to make you get annoyed and angry, so that you will pay for "Premium" where you get MORE research and more in-game currency for your in-game actions. On top of this, if you buy "Premium" vehicles - those will give you even MORE research and in-game currency for those same actions. So those two options combined is how you will progress faster.... BUT, if you buy a "modern" vehicle, you will only get to have that ONE vehicle in your line-up against other players that then EACH probably have 8-10 vehicles in their line-up.... So now the game makes you highly likely to die, and not learn the game if you buy a premium modern-day vehicle as you will be facing skilled players that have hundreds of hours of game-play behind them, or thousands.

You see, the match-making is tied ENTIERLY to the vehicle you use. The best one in fact, in your line-up.

So this means you have to buy SEVERAL "Premium" vehicles in your chosen nation if you want to play modern era (no, you cannot have multiple nations in the same line-up) vehicles in the beginning. So now this game costs USD 100-200+
...And is rigged to make you not have fun, the idea of is so that you'll keep buying things.

When it comes to the different nations, the Russians have the BEST ground-based anti-air platforms by FAR (have had through every single update), the BEST air platforms (airplanes AND helicopters) for attacking ground players that ALSO are SUPREMELY good against other air platforms with the BEST air-to-air missiles and arguably all the best ground-vehicles. Sounds fair? No, it isn't - but this is how the game is.

An example of how SKEWED this game really is nation-wise for the russians - at top-tier, spawning the SU30SM or the SU34 means you essentially get 6 free kills, because they carry an immense payload of 6 air-to-ground missiles (the fastest in the game, and the one's dealing the most damage - they are a one-shot-kill and essentially never miss)....
And in addition to that, they do not need to compromise their air-to-air load either, which means they can spawn in, fire all 6 air-to-ground missiles, switch to air-to-air and clear out the skies...
And if they have both of the above airplanes they can jump out of the airplane, immediately spawn into the other which will give them another 6 free kills (not counting air kills). At this point, it is likely ONE player like this essentially killed most of the entire enemy team.
BUT, you say - surely the other team will have air-to-air that can deal with the russian air platforms!
Well no, all the other nations have HALF as long range as the Russian ground-based anti-air platforms, with missiles that are NOT fire and forget- most of which don't steer well.... Soooo, the russian air planes out-range you, out-gun you and yeah.... You CAN spawn an air-plane, and CAN win against the russian air planes like that.... BUT, if the Russians have their anti-air up, they essentiallly have fire-and-forget, double the range of all other AAAs with faster missiles that are very agile.... So if you are not on the russian team, good luck.....

Ontop of that>

• Frame stutters, this can vary from annoying to your death. Running on a good computer I might add (RTX4080 and components similar to that in specs, i9 etc). Pending patch, this goes from CANNOT PLAY to SLIGHT ANNOYANCE.
  
  
  Now, do I recommend it....?
  Really not. Don't waste your time, money or emotions on this pile of garbage.
  
  If you want a SIM for Air Planes or Helicopters.... Definitely try DCS, but it requires you to buy some hardware to have fun with it (head or eye-tracking is essentially a must, along with flight controls), but that game has a HUGE learning curve (you essentially have to learn ALL the systems and buttons in the aircraft of your choice) - no bias in that game though, and extreme realism... But yeah, learning curve.

(Review text hidden)

So my initial review was this:

No matchmaking, newbies meet level 30's - half-empty teams that quit after having no chance in the first place. And more than once we were a full team of lvl 2's facing level 20's.

If you want fair AND fun, don't play this in multiplayer otherwise it's a really fun game.
Oh, also - it's only in multiplayer.

I'd like to add to that review:
Matchmaking is, shall we say "poor" (non-existent).... but as you play, IF you in some sort of deranged state keep playing whilst being murdered over and over....

Eventually you'll get better and start to see some issues that weren't apparent in the first place - and some good things too:

- There is seemingly no penalty for leaving a game, so quite often the side that starts off poorly will have people dropping off.... meaning the remaining people have even less of a chance to turn it around
- There is no progression, as you level up you only unlock cosmetics.
Personally I'd like to see some talent-trees or alternative weapons/powers/abilities etc so that there is some sort of thing making you come back to it. Maybe unlockable dragon and rider traits - different attacks for the breath-attack and fireball?
- The dragons themselves, and the characters look amazing, the sound is good, the maps are pretty well thought out. with sneaky passages and essentially power-ups strewn about the place (generally meaning shields, health and unlimited stamina - used for evading or speeding up)... Have yet to experience a map where one side had an advantage
- The movement of the dragons is fantastic, but hitting obstacles could have better effects than simply bouncing off and taking damage.... if there was some sort of impact with rubble and so on.... that'd be neat, could also prevent some people on purpose crashing into objects to get turned around (the damage taken is pretty negligable) if it wasn't quite so much bouncing.

So I'll say this now.... The game itself is actually pretty good - but frickin' hard to master, so good matchmaking is essential so that new players don't quit after the first 15 minutes.

Do I recommend it..... Hmm.... Sort of. I think this game can be much better with some tweaks though. Overall a tentative YES though.

I cautiously recommend this game, the core gameplay is good - but the following are issues:
Range of weapons is very low (snipers..... you won't really be sniping, but you have to stand still for a long time before you have any sort of accuracy) which takes some fun out of it as you shoot, realize you're too far out - move closer, try again, move closer, try again... move closer - now the enemy shoots and hits you.
Also, there's a fair amount of lag official servers, which if you want to experience the full stuff you can do you HAVE to be on.
Monster movement is not fluid, it's choppy so makes it really hard to predict where they "are".
Snake monsters quite often looks like there are two of them, but when they stop it's just one.

Seriously though, if they optimised stuff/fixed lag so that movement was fluid and the range of weaponry (especially sniper rifles) I'd give it a good review, but the above are issues that detract a lot from the game. Still, it's a good game - but maybe not at full price in current form.