User Score
3.8

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 1908 Ratings

User score distribution:

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  1. Feb 7, 2017
    4
    Got hooked for a good few days, paid up got some cool planes, got hooked for a few weeks, saved and slogged for a Lancaster, got hooked for a few more days, then realised...holy cow this is boring.

    Play have some fun, but don't waste too much money on this one ;)
  2. Oct 24, 2015
    4
    After being away from gaming for a few yrs then giving it a try, I still think IL-2 1946 owns this game. Flight sims take so much time to master but in this one you need to just buy planes $$$
  3. Dec 20, 2013
    4
    This game had a lot of potential last year, but the developers have ruined it.
    +good graphics
    +different game modes
    +a lot of planes
    +really nice mouse aim
    -grind
    -pay2win
    -no end game content, just endless grind
    -grind again with new economics and progression system
    -matchmaking and balance
  4. Jun 8, 2014
    4
    A great game but a terrible f2p model. It could be much better if the microtransaction system was less blatantly greedy. Personally I found it very frustrating trying to get into, and issues with matchmaking ensure that you'll feel it if you havent spent any cash.
  5. Apr 18, 2015
    4
    This opinion pertains to the arcade tank mode only.
    The game is great, it really is. The tanks feel great and battles can be intensive and exciting. The tank,s oh, the tanks are just awesome: the damage model works perfectly and forces you to know and exploit the various tanks' weaknesses. So, why do I give the game a 4? The experience is underwhelming. Ignoring the fact that people who
    This opinion pertains to the arcade tank mode only.
    The game is great, it really is. The tanks feel great and battles can be intensive and exciting. The tank,s oh, the tanks are just awesome: the damage model works perfectly and forces you to know and exploit the various tanks' weaknesses. So, why do I give the game a 4? The experience is underwhelming. Ignoring the fact that people who play this game just can't seem to comprehend the importance of capturing the points, the matchmaking system in the pure f2p mode is just awful. So, now I have 4 tanks with the following ratings: 5.7, 5.3, 5.0, 4.7. As the game considers only the highest rating and looks for player with a +/- 1 rating, well, I get obliterated all the time by 6.0 to 6.7 tanks. Add to that the enormous maps (whose design is great, by the way) and realistic speeds of tank and what I get is the following experience: it takes 2-3 minutes to get to the action with the super-heavy IS-1. And then you get blasted to smithereens by a 6.7 Tiger. Then you can respawn and take another 2 minutes drive to get blasted again. Sounds like fun. It would be okay if prices of new tanks (that is, the research price) wouldn't; be that high. It appears that I reached the limit of playing for free. My next tanks costs 100000 research point. Considering all the negativities I described above, this means in the best case scenario 50 boring, useless battles. This is very disappointing, the fact that such a great game got ruined.
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  6. Mar 4, 2015
    4
    The game has great potential and is fun in many aspects but is downed by many negative points.

    The main problems are that the developers are bad when it comes to management. They obviously don't know where they are going resulting of things being redone all the time and a lot of annoying things in the game. Also, they don't listen much the community. They implement things that hasn't
    The game has great potential and is fun in many aspects but is downed by many negative points.

    The main problems are that the developers are bad when it comes to management. They obviously don't know where they are going resulting of things being redone all the time and a lot of annoying things in the game. Also, they don't listen much the community. They implement things that hasn't been asked and don't some that are asked. There's a big gap between the game and historical accuracy for no reason. They have a bias toward their nation (Russia). The community is average. Finally, the price of what they sale are very high.
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  7. Apr 20, 2015
    4
    My review at a glance:
    Pros:
    - Good graphics - Very good sound - Simple, yet precise controls - Many different planes to fly -Three different gamemodes / difficulty levels (Arcade, Realistic, Simulator) Cons: - XP gain (to unlock more vehicles) is extremely low, UNLESS you spent quite some real money (especially painful when trying to research vehicles higher than Tier 3 (out of
    My review at a glance:
    Pros:
    - Good graphics
    - Very good sound
    - Simple, yet precise controls
    - Many different planes to fly
    -Three different gamemodes / difficulty levels (Arcade, Realistic, Simulator)

    Cons:
    - XP gain (to unlock more vehicles) is extremely low, UNLESS you spent quite some real money (especially painful when trying to research vehicles higher than Tier 3 (out of 5))
    - Matchmaking is often unfair
    - You can't fly all planes / drive all tanks in Simulator difficulty anymore

    Why only 4 points then:
    This game used to be good, until:
    - Matchmaking got screwed up. Vehicles now have a "battlerating" which often has very little to do with its performance / historical era. So it can easily happen you are facing Korean War jets while flying a WWII propeller plane. You are also highly likely to face post-war tanks in your 1943 models, which means your skill doesn't really matter anymore, you're highly likely to get wrecked (literally). This ruins the realistic approach the game would like to have.
    - A few months ago you used to have a x2 XP bonus for the first victory WITH EACH OF THE 5 AVAILABLE NATIONS (USA, GB, Russia, Germany, Japan). (Similar to World of Tanks.) This motivating system was recently replaced by daily log-in rewards. They are extremely less powerful than the old boost, and those rewards even expire after 3 days. They do stack, so you can use them all at once, but their outcome is highly diminished upon stacking.
    - Pay-2-win slowly but surely gets more and more.

    Conclusion:
    Right now I would not recommend this game. It used to be a fun game, so two years ago I would have praised it and advertised it. But today, even more with the latest developments, I fear there's little point in playing it for fun. Unless one is willing to pay a lot of money...

    Still, PLEASE read other reviews too, because they will vary from mine! My point of view of course is different than other players'! Keep that in mind when considering whether to start playing War Thunder or not.

    But I got of the worsening changes. (I'm not tired of the gameplay though. So if one is able to forget about all the issues there are, this game can be great fun.)
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  8. Sep 26, 2015
    4
    Gaijin really don't know what they're doing at all. I started playing 2-3 years ago, and even back then they didn't know what they were doing, but at least they seemed like they were trying. They listened to the community sometimes, but now... too many bad changes and patches that don't seem to be letting up any time soon. Now they refuse to listen to the community. Even going back andGaijin really don't know what they're doing at all. I started playing 2-3 years ago, and even back then they didn't know what they were doing, but at least they seemed like they were trying. They listened to the community sometimes, but now... too many bad changes and patches that don't seem to be letting up any time soon. Now they refuse to listen to the community. Even going back and playing the old planes isn't fun for me. The matchmaking changes have been horrible, and (as much as its overstated sometimes), there's a debatable Russian bias and they straight up retcon history sometimes.

    I love the game to death, but as long as its in the hands of such an unorganized and dysfunctional development team, that won't be happening any time soon. This game is the epitome of one of those FPS's that seem promising for the first few months, and then you realize how much of a grind it really is.

    It's not even just the fact that it's a grind, it's not about taking forever to unlock planes, it's not about the fact that it will take the average user about a year to get their first jet, because it's possible to have fun in this game without jets. In fact, jets are one of the most unbalanced and un-fun parts of this game, besides ground forces. The early tiers are some of the most fun, in fact. That's why you so often see players with about 100 hours or less giving WarThunder positive reviews, yet as you go up through the hours, most of those players start giving negative reviews.

    The real issues lie in the dev team's unwillingness to listen to the community, their horrid, horrid, HORRID mod team who watch over their forums like hawks and strike down almost all criticisms of the game with impunity, it lies in the fact that they've made some painfully obvious cash grabs in the game, like making it so you have to pay for country flags because "teamkilling was an issue." We offer criticisms and ways to fix the issues, they give us bans, longer grinds, and horrible BRs.

    The dev team's unwillingness to not only fix the FM issues, but even their complete failure to acknowledge them, means that the game is doomed if it continues on the path it's currently on. BRs are complete trash, if you aren't flying the flavor of the month plane then you might as well not be flying. If you're not driving a Russian tank, you might as well not be driving.

    Now, because of Gaijin's failures, hundreds of veterans like me are jumping ship. Not because we don't care about the game anymore, but because Gaijin doesn't. Most bad reviews of this game are from players who has played for a long time, and most of the good ones are from complete new users who are still able to enjoy the game before they realize how truly bad the situation is.

    I'm also pretty mad at the fact that Japan gets **** over soooooo much. Germany has been getting pounded on, or at least was last time I played, Russia has always had curbstomping abilities over the other nations, and the US flip flops depending on the tier. British are just everywhere. I personally stopped playing consistently about the time when ground forces started having the issue with the foliage, where you would be at a severe disadvantage (and I'm talking gamebreaking severe) if you kept your grass/foliage on. I have logged on a handful of times since, but only for 2-3 rounds and then I just get tired and sad. I want the game to be good. The sad thing is, though I have been playing for 2-3 even back then and through the years, I can never truly say the game has felt completely good. There have always been a number of broken FMs, the economy has gone through various levels of **** one nation is always curbstomping another, etc.
    Gaijin's PR is horrible, especially with their whole "guys, don't judge, we're still in Beta" excuse which has been **** bull**** ever since you've been able to pay to get ahead in the game. It's been bull**** ever since they started using it as an excuse to disregard their personal flaws and using it as a way to completely shift the blame from them over to the community. It's been bull**** because most games in beta survey the userbase, asking for feedback, while Gaijin denies feedback at every opportunity. Ever since their PR team straight up quit the subreddit, calling it a "toxic environment", most likely due to the fact that they were unable to control what was said (unlike their forums, where they have total control and use that control freely), there was no hope for their PR team. A development team that will readily call their community, who offers criticisms and only wants to help the game get better (though I do concede that a lot of the players will get pissy after a bad patch, but who can really blame them?) isn't fit to run a game.

    I really do want this game to be good. But as long as it continues on the path it's currently treading on, I will not recommend it, or play it.
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  9. Sep 26, 2015
    4
    The game would be fun if it was run by some other studio, as is the development team is pushing it towards P2W. There is a total disregard of the player base, changes that are proposed by the community not only are not implemented, they are actually changed for worse. Currently only certain groups of tanks are playable at all, most of the other ones will be matched against machines thatThe game would be fun if it was run by some other studio, as is the development team is pushing it towards P2W. There is a total disregard of the player base, changes that are proposed by the community not only are not implemented, they are actually changed for worse. Currently only certain groups of tanks are playable at all, most of the other ones will be matched against machines that are years more advanced. So if you would like to see how would it feel like to take a WW2 tank and bring it to North Korean war than go right ahead, assuming you can stand the ~300 hours of grind it will take to get those tanks unlocked anyway. Planes can be fun but suffer from the same matchmaking problem, later models might even end up fighting prop vs jet... Overall there is a lot of good things in this game but as an online game that is driven by its developer currently it has a very grim looking future as player base about had it. Expand
  10. Jan 29, 2017
    4
    The epitome of Russian bias against everyone but the Russian lines. The BR rating system is broken and the way you upgrade your vehicles depends solely on how much you pay and even then you don't have a guarantee of reaching the top. My advice, avoid this game at all cost.
  11. Jul 18, 2017
    4
    Good idea, poorly executed. The realism is nice but when paired with some of the more moronic game mechanics it creates a truly frustrating experience. The spawn points system in ground forces realistic battles is possibly the worst thing they could have done. Spending 5 minutes in a queue for a game then getting one shotted after 30 seconds and finding yourself without enough points toGood idea, poorly executed. The realism is nice but when paired with some of the more moronic game mechanics it creates a truly frustrating experience. The spawn points system in ground forces realistic battles is possibly the worst thing they could have done. Spending 5 minutes in a queue for a game then getting one shotted after 30 seconds and finding yourself without enough points to spawn a new vehicle is a fast route to a rage quit that punishes new players and teaches them nothing. Expand
  12. Sep 16, 2018
    4
    There is battle rating system in this game, which used as balancing component. This means that if you are driving a vehicle with a combat rating of 4.0, you will be put against more or less the same. But! When I was playing at 4,7, I was constantly losing battles against 5,7, which are dramatically higher. Even if I could penetrate some tanks at higher ranks, sometimes there wereThere is battle rating system in this game, which used as balancing component. This means that if you are driving a vehicle with a combat rating of 4.0, you will be put against more or less the same. But! When I was playing at 4,7, I was constantly losing battles against 5,7, which are dramatically higher. Even if I could penetrate some tanks at higher ranks, sometimes there were situations when I turned more slowly than others drove through the horizon.

    It's not all. Lions and eagles. Game constantly turning into the P2W arcade when you see camouflage bushes for dorrars, which can hide your vulnerable zones, and P2W tanks, which are put lower in that BR gauge, than it needs to be, because you need to win when you are paying, right?

    Lions. When you've already got the amount of exp to get a tank, you need to win so much more to get the lions to buy this tank. You do not like it? Pay for it.

    Aircraft are allowed to participate in tank battles. They get more for killing and for them the game gives more lions. I thought then that I go into the tank mode of the game, but it turned out to be a mistake.

    I'm not talking about airplanes, because I've played enough in this mode, and the game on them is not very interesting. Also in aircraft mode very much decides the amount of money invested in the game. For example, a paid aircraft destroyed 100 enemy aircraft in a mode against bots, when the second after it shot down just 38...
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  13. Nov 15, 2018
    4
    The game engine and the visuals are the only interesting things in this game.
  14. Mar 1, 2019
    4
    mensen zeggen dat het een goede wo2 simuator is op dat aspect doet het zn ding maar de mensen achter het spel willen al je geld uit je zuigen met microtransacties het verbaasd me dat dit spel niet door EA is gemaakt. ik weet dat het een free to play spel is maar als je kjkt naar andere spellen kun je ook gewoon skins of andere dingen die niet de gameplay of het progresie systeem beinvloeden.
  15. Feb 14, 2019
    4
    This is best tank simulator ever loads of fun. But matchmaking is ****, 1.0 match is too high.
  16. Mar 12, 2019
    4
    This game is one of the best vehicle simulator games on the market, but it's biggest drawback is that it isn't very fun. It takes several minutes to find a multiplayer match, and the matches start off with 5 to 10 minutes of simply taking off and climbing to altitude. While that's realistic, it's not really very fun, and can be really frustrating when you want to practice your skillsThis game is one of the best vehicle simulator games on the market, but it's biggest drawback is that it isn't very fun. It takes several minutes to find a multiplayer match, and the matches start off with 5 to 10 minutes of simply taking off and climbing to altitude. While that's realistic, it's not really very fun, and can be really frustrating when you want to practice your skills only to have 10 to 15 minutes in between very brief encounters with other players.
    In stark contrast, there is arcade mode, which is an absurd hodge-podge of planes killing each other and exploding, which can be fun, but quickly it becomes apparent that there's not really any skill to be developed there, and it starts to pail in comparison to a more skill based or realistic experience.
    The game's flight mechanics and graphics are genuinely very good, but unfortunately the game is much more likely to leave you frustrated that you have to spend another 15 minutes waiting to be shot down immediately, or to not get any points for shooting down a plane because the pilot bailed out before you could seal the deal. It would be a truly great game if the devs came up with some new mission styles, or tried to bridge the gap between arcade and realistic modes, but it doesn't seem like they will. The main positive is that it's a free to play game, so you won't be out $60 unless you decide to try premium.
    All in all, the game just seems like a big waste of potential, and it has been around long enough to indicate that the devs likely won't be making any changes to the match making or gameplay, but are consistently and solely focused on adding more vehicles.
    I'm a lover of airplanes, and I truly wish I could give this game a better score, but I just find myself ending all of my matches either disappointed, frustrated, or both.
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  17. Feb 26, 2020
    4
    O sistema de progressão é terrível um lixo de verdade fora isso eu daria um 10
  18. Apr 10, 2020
    4
    2400 hours gameplay on ground and air battle

    Outdated graphics came from 2015, especially the cloud chartlet
    Bad game balancing, the server forced people with no gameplay experience to play with 100lv with premium vehicles
    Only one game mode ( capture point and defend)
    Too many bugs and magic
    Vehicles problem are unrealistic ( challenger mk2 and oh-ho)
    Bad server connection
    Bad map design
  19. Aug 3, 2023
    4
    as simulator is the best available, as whole game, is a **** the studio turned a free to play game in a pay to win game without decorum, non-premium players lose half the prices with the same repair, armament, and crew replenishment costs, the premium vehicles are insanely pricey for a virtual good, skins are made by community and sold by the company, the matchmaking is broken, premiumas simulator is the best available, as whole game, is a **** the studio turned a free to play game in a pay to win game without decorum, non-premium players lose half the prices with the same repair, armament, and crew replenishment costs, the premium vehicles are insanely pricey for a virtual good, skins are made by community and sold by the company, the matchmaking is broken, premium vehicles are slightly better than free vehicles even in the same model. IDK, there are lots of things that are broken in the game, and executives are trying to squeeze the community with **** content. Expand
  20. Apr 6, 2021
    4
    this game is awesome and all but it does not matter if you cant play because of its INGAME downloading witch raises your PING and PacketLoss every time you see a tank with marketplace CAMO in every match there is.
  21. Jul 11, 2022
    4
    anybody tried dlss in this game? It makes my eyes x_x . Its good to make battles with modern tanks but why tf russians are so freakin strong?? That game literally a russian propaganda fr
  22. Dec 17, 2022
    4
    What's the Point Of Grinding when You can just Buy Top tier vehicles for 60 Dollars? The Game Tries to make you spend money on it at every turn. If you want to Grind the Game Without Buying Premiums It might take years to do 1 Tech tree. And if you do Buy Premium you can only hope The Developers won't Nerf it to the ground for it to be Unusable.
  23. May 21, 2023
    4
    very boring and lackluster gameplay some good ideas but its not there and the countless bugs don't help
  24. May 19, 2023
    4
    This game is like this in a word.
    "Game hostile to users"
    They said that they make games by reviewing and researching real-world data. It's a lie and a comedy. Except in some countries (*cough*Russia*cough*), most of the performance and wrong vehicle in reality that users find difficult to understand appears, causing despondency and anger. For example, Japan has never had an f16 but
    This game is like this in a word.
    "Game hostile to users"
    They said that they make games by reviewing and researching real-world data.
    It's a lie and a comedy.
    Except in some countries (*cough*Russia*cough*), most of the performance and wrong vehicle in reality that users find difficult to understand appears, causing despondency and anger.
    For example, Japan has never had an f16 but it does or Italy's Ariete MBT's armoured material is expressed as having none just because it's confidential.
    And you should be very good at this game or subscribe to premium benefits.
    Or most of the time, when you look at the results window after the game, you make a little bit of money, or you lose money.
    Other than this, there are some minor bugs and errors in each patch, some unbalanced game maps, some developer who forgot this was a game, but it's fun to watch various war machines come out and fight each other, so it's a game that's good enough to get 4 points.
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  25. May 24, 2023
    4
    Cela fait 5 ans que je joue à ce jeu et ça commence à devenir de pire en pire" -L'économie qui nous fait perdre de l'argent même si on fait une bonne game. -le br qui nous fait croiser des chars de la guerre froide alors qu'on se bat avec un char de la WW2.

    - Le système "anti-triche" qui fait tout sauf bannir les tricheurs.
  26. Aug 10, 2014
    3
    This game is fine while you arte running around in the reserve vehicles. However, as soon as you earn enough to get another vehicle you are suddenly plunged into games against tanks you cant penetrate and planes that are faster, turn tighter and are better armed, with no clue as to why the maps are suddenly huge, taking hours to get anywhere. Add to this the crazy long wait times and theThis game is fine while you arte running around in the reserve vehicles. However, as soon as you earn enough to get another vehicle you are suddenly plunged into games against tanks you cant penetrate and planes that are faster, turn tighter and are better armed, with no clue as to why the maps are suddenly huge, taking hours to get anywhere. Add to this the crazy long wait times and the unexplained research and crewing systems and you have something not worth persisting with. Expand
  27. Jan 12, 2014
    3
    +physical model of flight and damages,
    +quite realistic airplanes performance [in realistic and historical mod] (specific for each plane, it makes player closer to real, historical technical specification of each plane) - some mistakes are still there, but I hope they will be solved during game progress.
    +graphics/sound, - bad research model (after last patch), - bad economy model -
    +physical model of flight and damages,
    +quite realistic airplanes performance [in realistic and historical mod] (specific for each plane, it makes player closer to real, historical technical specification of each plane) - some mistakes are still there, but I hope they will be solved during game progress.
    +graphics/sound,

    - bad research model (after last patch),
    - bad economy model
    - it is still beta and it seems that it will stay like that for a long, long time...

    I'm giving low rate only because of research/economy model which is very annoying now.
    Anyway, it is F2P game so all of us can check it and decide if it is worth of playing and paying for premium content or not - that is positive side I guess.

    Thank you for attention
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  28. Sep 12, 2013
    3
    I was mislead in thinking that this game was a simulation when I read it won a 'simulation of the year' award. So I gave these people a good chunk of money thinking that it is a good simulation. It is not. It is a terrible simulation and a poor game.
    There is nothing historical about it as they claim you end up in a battle with a Spitfire MkI in the Korean war fighting Russian
    I was mislead in thinking that this game was a simulation when I read it won a 'simulation of the year' award. So I gave these people a good chunk of money thinking that it is a good simulation. It is not. It is a terrible simulation and a poor game.
    There is nothing historical about it as they claim you end up in a battle with a Spitfire MkI in the Korean war fighting Russian pilots and planes.
    If you like to play with a joystick don't get this game. You are outmatched by their mouse aim system, that is accurate but wobbles all over if played in Historical Battles.
    I asked the developers when they are finished with the beta and was told that War Thunder is a perpetual beta.
    The Gaijin company is a very poor company with a bad attitude towards its customers. They are rude and dictatorial. They censor the forums heavily.
    This game has or had potential. It is about 33% of what I would like to see. I therefore give it a solid 3 out of ten and the graphics are very nice. Otherwise I would give it a zero.
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  29. Dec 10, 2013
    3
    Some good elements but the fun ends quickly when you are constantly getting destroyed by your own team-mates or suddenly have your pilot knocked out without any apparent reason. Needs a lot of polish to controls, menus, and general game play.. Too often will you rage quit this game because sudden death that occurs without explanation or without any apparent warning.
  30. Dec 24, 2013
    3
    War Thunder started in 2012 with good intentions. Great graphics and clouds lots of clouds. I played it through 3 major upgrades(patches). Each patch version has degraded the original game. Lately they have consolidated the competition levels and increased the dollar cost of playing while nerfing plane and bomb performance. What was a fun game has suffered a greedy makeover. Players areWar Thunder started in 2012 with good intentions. Great graphics and clouds lots of clouds. I played it through 3 major upgrades(patches). Each patch version has degraded the original game. Lately they have consolidated the competition levels and increased the dollar cost of playing while nerfing plane and bomb performance. What was a fun game has suffered a greedy makeover. Players are up in arms. If you haven't already bought into this game avoid it. There will be better games soon. Expand
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Jan 25, 2017
    87
    One of the cornerstones of War Thunder is that player’s skill is more important than his wallet. Premium vehicles offer no combat advantages, there is no “microtransaction-only” ammo or consumables, so no amount of cash will buy you a spot on the top of the food chain. [Issue#216, p.56]
  2. Jan 13, 2017
    75
    The official launch of War Thunder reminded me why I like this game so much. It's adorably chaotic - in contrast to the reliably designed World of Tanks. That's why it can be really fun and frustrating at the same time. There's tons of great vehicles (and the planes are superb!) and a difficult simulation mode, but there are also balance and technical issues.
  3. Aug 14, 2014
    90
    Overall the War Thunder tank battles are great even at this early stage.