War Thunder

 PC
User Score
3.8

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 1908 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 590 out of 1908
  2. Mixed: 203 out of 1908
  3. Negative: 1,115 out of 1908

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  1. CactusReviews
    Jun 24, 2014
    9
    One of the best Airplane FPS shooters I have ever seen. Offers different view modes and a variety of different planes. Ground Forces (Tanks) is now in OBT (Open Beta Testing) and has a few bugs but is not bad. Naval Forces are coming soon.
  2. Alsmir
    Jun 16, 2014
    0
    Once a very interesting game that continues to get worse and worse.

    The worst problems are: Completly messed up matchmaking. The system that used to be clear and simple got replaced and now we have MM based on BR (battle ratings) of each plane. The spread is way too big and on top of that we have ridiculous modifiers. For example players that perform really well in a couple of games    Once a very interesting game that continues to get worse and worse.

    The worst problems are:
    Completly messed up matchmaking. The system that used to be clear and simple got replaced and now we have MM based on BR (battle ratings) of each plane. The spread is way too big and on top of that we have ridiculous modifiers.
    For example players that perform really well in a couple of games in the row will get matched against opponents with better planes. No, you won't get matched agains more skilled players, but rather vs more powerfull planes. Similarly, after a few bad games you will get enemies in weaker planes.
    The system is basically rewarding bad players and punishing good ones.
    It's not unusal to see players crashing their planes on purpose to eventually get matched against really bad opponents and dominate them.

    Secondly, money-grabbing system.
    It gets more and more ridicculous. The grind keeps getting worse and playing without premium account that speeds up your progression gets pointless after a certain level. We also have premium planes. Those can only be obtained with rl money. Way too often when they get released they offer incredible performance with low Battle Rating. The only downside, seems to be their price. Then, a couple of months later, their stats get significantly nerfed. But don't worry, there's new premium plane available - limited offer - great performance, great cost.

    Russian bias.
    Russian developers work really hard on making russian airforce the best one available. Realistic approach towards plane's stats is only used for other nations.
    Some tech trees (Japan) aren't completed and require a lot of work, but devs keep on adding new overperforming russian planes. It's been like that since the game got released so it doesn't seem like anything's going to change.

    Lack of communication between devs and players.
    Appearently devs have a clear vision what they want to achieve with this game. Player feed back is irrelevant. Positive feedback is allowed, neagative one - not.
    Mods go as far as removing posts, editing them, bannig people and locking+deleting threads that contain the posts they'd rather not see.
    Latest bigger patches (1.37, 1.39, 1.41) that brought many negative changes caused a lot of pople posting it on the forums. Needless to say, all of the official topics where ppl discussed changes got deleted because there was a lot of negative feedback.
    Asking (politely) why my posts got edited to the point where no longer made sense got me a warning - without any explaination.

    I strongly advise to stay away from this game.    … Expand
  3. Lil_Meerkat
    Jun 11, 2014
    5
    Probably the most realistic flight-sim game available for the WW-II era, and free to play, so as a simulator it's pretty good. But as a game it kinda stinks, since game-play is totally repetitive (go into battle; shoot things down; get shot down; repeat; see the same map; use the same planes; repeat again; get bored; repeat again again) and since imbalances in favor of certain nations /Probably the most realistic flight-sim game available for the WW-II era, and free to play, so as a simulator it's pretty good. But as a game it kinda stinks, since game-play is totally repetitive (go into battle; shoot things down; get shot down; repeat; see the same map; use the same planes; repeat again; get bored; repeat again again) and since imbalances in favor of certain nations / airplanes are never addressed by the developers. The community of players is rapidly learning to shut up about the game's weaknesses, because negative feedback leads to immediately falsified records which support bans or similar control-the-community measures. Try to submit a bug report? Get banned! Ask in public why you got banned? Get banned again!

    Wait? What about money? Can they ban you if you paid something? Yes. See, War Thunder claims to be in perpetual Beta, but it'll take your money! And then change the game so that the cool new plane you just bought is no longer half as effective. Pay at your own risk ... a funny but futile attempt by members of a rather non-market-oriented culture to create "market friendly" goods, by DEMANDING that the market be SUPPLIED with their product. See, supply-and-demand? Right ... you silly Russkies, that's NOT how it's supposed to work!

    I think it could be a great game because it has such a great simulator-engine running behind all the airplanes. But because the people making the simulator don't know how to make a decent game, the only thing they've got is an excellent simulator masquerading as an annoying game that will slowly die because of their dreadfully abusive attitude toward their player-base. Pay money? Get banned! Oops ...    … Expand
  4. Pannon
    Jun 10, 2014
    5
    Title: Free To Play as a Cannon Fodder

    I was hoping War Thunder doesn't fall down the same slippery slope pay-to-win game like World of Tanks, but it seems like they are thinking about money more than gameplay. The game claims to be a "open beta" stage for quite a while now. If you'd do some research, you would find out that it's part of the money making scheme. Since being an open    Title: Free To Play as a Cannon Fodder

    I was hoping War Thunder doesn't fall down the same slippery slope pay-to-win game like World of Tanks, but it seems like they are thinking about money more than gameplay.
    The game claims to be a "open beta" stage for quite a while now. If you'd do some research, you would find out that it's part of the money making scheme. Since being an open beta, while taking cash like a fully patched-finished platinum title encourages them to keep the game in a beta-stage and dodge complaints by claiming "hey, it's a beta"! "What did you expect?"
    I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but logically thinking- and just counting how some companies trying to find a way not go under funded and loose money, the logical answer why this game is still in beta stages is: Because it's profitable. If you haven't figured this out yet, maybe you will in a year or 2. You can carve it in stone so you will remember that I said it first.
    So, Back to this free-to-play game.
    The pluses I give to credit where credit is due is just the game engine, graphics, and finding the compromise between realism and playability, when it comes to controls. The planes feel real. Medium/heavy bombers feel heavy and cumbersome, fighters feel agile - according to their tech level and design. You'd expect a bi-plane to be highly manouverable, while you'd expect a mid-tier late '40s fighter to be fast and well armed. You'll find these in the game and it's done just as well as in many previous Russian-origin simulator titles, such as IL2-Sturmovik or the predecessor of WoT- Wings of Prey.
    The game can be quite addicting...for a while. The graphics, the sense of speed and satisfaction after a good bombing run or a well placed burst taking down an enemy bogey can make you want more.
    Unfortunately, my list of positives coming to an abrupt end, since the gameplay will get quite repetative, especially if you think, you can get away without paying for a premium account.
    Again, I'm not revewing this game as a typical game, which usually go for 40-50 dollars, but the free-to-play "beta" game.
    Let me state this: You won't get too far without a premium account. And if you won't believe me, ask others, who played it forever. Watch youtube videos, read the forums. You CANNOT progress too far without a premium account, unless you are ready for the punishment of grinding for quie a long time and being stuck in the same aircraft, that you "may" not like or end up facing superior - upper tier crafts, which will shred you to pieces within the first 30 seconds.
    For those who have no idea what I'm talking about.
    1. The game set up, so there are ties- depending on the aircrafts available for axis and allies. Starting with pre-war airplanes with similar capabilities put into categories, you can fly them (regardless of nationality or historical alliances) to do a team-battle against each other in arcade mode. (the simulator mode and historical modes are different, I'm writing about the arcade type of game, which is by far- the most popular part). After you return from the battlefield, you gain experience by shooting other planes or ground targets or completing game objectives (bomb the airfield, land and take the airfield etc). Once you gained some experienced, you have to "research" the next tier aircraft available and then buy it. After buying the next tier aircraft, you may be put into battles with planes with similar capabilities in the next tie.
    The problem is, that you may have worked on and spent and researched 1 aircraft, while you had 3 or 3 "free" tier 1 craft and now you got 4 aircraft , with one being tier 2, while the others are tier 1.
    And that will force you to either send your tier 2 craft to "holiday" - and keep fighting with your tier 1 planes against tier 1 planes and you won't be able to fly your new tier 2 plane. If you decide to step up, then you gonna have to face the reality, that you got 1 tier 2 plane and 3 or 4 tier 1 planes, which are far inferior to be played on the map- designed to be played by tier 2 planes. And planes go down fast, I mean, you want to stay in the game for at least 10 minutes, then you need at least 3-4 planes available for each battle. If you are stuck with only one capable craft and 3 low-level planes, then you gonna end up struggling until you earn enough credits to replace all 3 - tier 1 planes with something better. If you can think you can play anyway - be my guest- I have done it. I have gone the hard way to earn my tier 2 crafts and it took me forever, not mentioning that many times my gameplay on a battle was no longer than 2-3 minutes, due to my tier 1 craft being a target practice dummy for superior aircrafts on the map. Just think about it flying against BF109 or Spitfire with a bi-plane from the 30s. If that sounds hilarious, you're right. But this game will force you to do that, because - drumroll- you don't have a Premium Account to buy planes for real $$!    … Expand
  5. Useful1d1ot
    Jun 10, 2014
    8
    A spectacular visual, some of the finest ww2 era combat, it's not without flaws but it gets you hooked and you just keep coming back. A free to play title that isn't pay to win (but it is close)
  6. LaughingSam
    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.
  7. Drlk02
    Jun 6, 2014
    10
    War Thunder is really good game, it isn't pay2win game. Many maps, planes and tanks, rly good optimized, beautifiul graphics. This is best simulation of World War II
  8. Michael_J_Wall
    Jun 1, 2014
    0
    This is a good game and its very addictive, but STAY AWAY its a money grabbing cash cow. Don't even consider playing you will end up spending far more money in a few weeks than you would normally spend in a few years on computer games. These types of games should be banned, what ever happened to paying an up front £39.99 for a game then play for as long as you like. Something should beThis is a good game and its very addictive, but STAY AWAY its a money grabbing cash cow. Don't even consider playing you will end up spending far more money in a few weeks than you would normally spend in a few years on computer games. These types of games should be banned, what ever happened to paying an up front £39.99 for a game then play for as long as you like. Something should be done about this very worrying trend of paying more & more to play.
    People will argue that its free to play but what they don't tell you is that if you want cool things in the game and to be able to compete with other players you will have to start regularly paying money to the developers & they constantly bring out new missions & campaigns that have to be paid for.    … Expand
  9. LD9000
    May 21, 2014
    9
    As far as P2W games go, this is one of the best - quick, adrenaline filled battles and affordable premium currency. The core game mechanics of high intensity air combat is fun across all tiers.

    After playing arcade battles for a few months (and spending like 50$), I'm starting to like this game more and more. The skill gap between players is HUGE, with 3-4 top players getting 90% of    As far as P2W games go, this is one of the best - quick, adrenaline filled battles and affordable premium currency. The core game mechanics of high intensity air combat is fun across all tiers.

    After playing arcade battles for a few months (and spending like 50$), I'm starting to like this game more and more. The skill gap between players is HUGE, with 3-4 top players getting 90% of kills each match. Luckily, I'm one of them. Chances are if you have some experience with mouse flying from other games, you will like the game too. MOUSE FLYING IS AWESOME and joystick is not really needed for arcade battles.

    The scoreboard for most matches lookes like 8-6-4-2-1-1...0-0-0-0-0, with some planes(P39,P63) clearly performing better than others. A lot of players in tiers 1 to 3 seem completely blind and oblivious to the radar, so they get sniped by autocannons from the side at 0.77km.

    My review is based on Arcade mode, as I found Realistic or Simulator battles to have too few players, long waiting times and 5 minute flights to get to the objective. Arcade battles drop two teams of 15 players head on, with pretty nice furballs developing within a couple minutes or so. This is much more fun than World of Tanks or World of Warplanes.

    In terms of country balance, it seems that each nation has good planes and mediocre placeholders. Americans have P-39 and P-63 which seem to insta-chop-off-my-wings very frequently. Russians have IL-2 and I-16. German entire line of heavy fighters is awesome (BF-110 to Do-217 to ME-410). The only country I don't understand is Japan, as their planes seem too fragile and poorly armed.

    The game has a couple of arcade play modes, mostly capture the airfield or bomb out enemy base. Both have ground units that move and can be destroyed with bombs or rockets. There's bunkers, tanks, ships and it seems like in the future each may be player controlled.

    The in-game currency seems reasonably priced, with a month of premium account costing about 15$, comparable to most other MMOs. I personally found that spending just 10-20 golden eagles is enough to raise a plane to 100-150 crew level, required to turn a plane's crew into "expert". Doing so offers in-game bonuses of slower gun overheating, less blackouts during high-G turns and quicker reload times.    … Expand
  10. LoliPoltergeist
    May 19, 2014
    3
    War Thunder, I've been around since before patch 1,25 and I came to learn more people (Alpha testers, Mods, devs, Gaming masters, users, historical consultants etc.) than most people in the game. Initially when I stumbled across War Thunder I instantly fell in love the with idea of an all-out combat 'simulator' and as such I signed up and was surprised by the small user base. I learnt whyWar Thunder, I've been around since before patch 1,25 and I came to learn more people (Alpha testers, Mods, devs, Gaming masters, users, historical consultants etc.) than most people in the game. Initially when I stumbled across War Thunder I instantly fell in love the with idea of an all-out combat 'simulator' and as such I signed up and was surprised by the small user base. I learnt why it had such a small user base really quickly; Gaijin's inability to tackle problems and find solutions in a sensible amount of time.
    Where should I start? Let me do it at with the current existing game modes (Patch 1,41), currently there are 3 game modes; Arcade Battles (AB), Realistic Battles (AB) and Simulator Battles (SB). Tanks have gone into OBT and now all are free to play them, however currently tanks are separated from planes (Why? In the CBT you could play both tanks and planes together) however both tanks and planes have the same type of game modes.
    Let me start with the positive sides of War Thunder, nice graphics (For both planes and tanks), detailed tank/plane models, mostly accurate tank/plane models, some real life based settings and the massively improved Custom Battles. However right here is where I have to stop, there are just too many negatives that plague this game as of late. Currently the Battle Rating (BR) system (The MatchMacker uses the BR to fill games) is completely messed up, a Meteor F3 has a BR of 6,7 whilst it's German counter-part the Me262 has to enjoy fighting Korean era Sabres. You can see this across all the tech trees of all nations, e.g. the F4U Corsair (Late war plane) is rated at a BR of 3,3 and it enjoys fighting early war planes, am I the only one that finds this ridiculously stupid? Then there are other things such as repair prices of planes (My God take a look at the N1K2 for Japan and it's BR whilst it's US adversarie the F6F enjoys a low repair cost and low BR) as well as the damage output of all cannons of all planes/jets. Things like these, the fundamental of the game are broken, they broke it with this patch, previously it worked half fine however now it's simply broken which is just sad considering how much time I invested into the game.
    Now there is another glaringly obvious problem (Not the rotten community) but the corrupted, underage and childish moderation team. One might ask, well how do you know that they are corrupted? Can you show us evidence of this? Go and ask some of the older players that stopped playing the game (Guys from A01 for example) and they can tell you all about the lovely PayPal payments that some moderators received (There are even YouTubes videos about it). The Mods and GMs ban based on the players they dislike that is always fun is it not?!

    So how do we conclude? Well it's rather simple, don't touch the game until its major fundamental flaws have been ironed out and the moderation team has been subbed out for a more mature one.    … Expand
  11. PsychoticAztecs
    May 2, 2014
    8
    (Started playing on 1.37 patch so... i don't know how the game changed.)

    For a F2P "Flight Sim", it's a good/decent game. (+++ Pros | - - - Cons) - A bit too grindy but it isn't that bad unlike other F2P MMO games. - Community is somewhat.... Terrible. *Cough* WT Forums *Cough* + Surprisingly, NOT-ish Pay-to-win, only helps to progress through grind bit faster (though it will cost    (Started playing on 1.37 patch so... i don't know how the game changed.)

    For a F2P "Flight Sim", it's a good/decent game.
    (+++ Pros | - - - Cons)

    - A bit too grindy but it isn't that bad unlike other F2P MMO games.
    - Community is somewhat.... Terrible. *Cough* WT Forums *Cough*
    + Surprisingly, NOT-ish Pay-to-win, only helps to progress through grind bit faster (though it will cost a fortune to get into a decent Tier5) Premium Planes are not OP, it has the same stats as the silver lion planes. *Get a grip whiners, They need to earn money too... *
    + Though there's only a handful of available maps, it doesn't feel repetitive because the weather pattern varies (cloudy, clear skies, haze, fog and my favorite Night/Dusk/Dawn).
    ++ Wide selection of planes, Plane Tactics varies (BnZ, Energy fighting, turnfighting, etc). *Personally i love skill based games, it puts me on edge being a really tryhard.* Cough, Realistic Battles, Cough*
    +++ Very well-optimized game (I have a **** pc, so.... this helps me a lot)
    + Tanks will come out soon. *Merged Planes and Tanks *
    +++ NO HEALTH-BARS, It has damage models
    - Painful grind on Crew Leveling (Tanks are planes a separate)
    - B*ll**** Ground strike mode in Arcade.
    + In-game voice chat (For squads only)
    - Devs doesn't support Sound Mods (It's bannable guys xD)
    + Decent game economy
    + 3 Modes Arcade, Realistic, and Simulator = Baby-flyin/Seasoned/Veteran|Elitist
    + Mini-games *We need turret mini-game)
    + Detailed plane models. Textures are great (For a F2P game)
    - - - Bugs (A lot of game breaking bugs)
    - - - Slight touch on the ground is deadly (Can clip the wing, destroy a tail fin)
    +++ Landing mechanics (Airstrips and Carriers) *I'm a really fan of this*
    +++ Still somewhat playable even with 250 - 310 Ping *Though some hits will not trigger*
    - - - Slow processing of payment on Paypal.

    Overall: If you love "Flight Sim" definitely worth checking this one out. *cough* 7.2 GB *cough*
    play with a squad, works better that way.    … Expand
  12. D88isaac
    Apr 7, 2014
    0
    Game is decently redundant. The staff are horrendous, to the point I would not advise spending one dime on the game. Unless you want to risk losing everything you purchase if you espouse political views that differ with the Game Moderator staff. Only one of the seven staff-members responded to my questions professionally. I actually was threatened to back off of a question for "my ownGame is decently redundant. The staff are horrendous, to the point I would not advise spending one dime on the game. Unless you want to risk losing everything you purchase if you espouse political views that differ with the Game Moderator staff. Only one of the seven staff-members responded to my questions professionally. I actually was threatened to back off of a question for "my own good". What? Now they threaten me with a blanket statement of possible harm? Ok, done with this game! Do not recommend for anyone pro-US.… Expand
  13. Metalsand
    Mar 17, 2014
    6
    Extremely cool game, but suffers from F2P money grabbing.

    I've played War Thunder for almost a year now. Mostly it has been great, solid gameplay nice variety, etc....up until they changed the research tree to slow down progress of players. Now, instead of choosing how research points are allocated, you choose a plane to begin researching, and even researching a tier 3 plane (out of 5    Extremely cool game, but suffers from F2P money grabbing.

    I've played War Thunder for almost a year now. Mostly it has been great, solid gameplay nice variety, etc....up until they changed the research tree to slow down progress of players. Now, instead of choosing how research points are allocated, you choose a plane to begin researching, and even researching a tier 3 plane (out of 5 total tiers) takes nearly 100 battles to obtain, and because of game mechanics you'll want at least 3 of those planes researched. As battles can take 10-20 minutes each, the game expects you to play 50-100 hours just to go up ONE TIER IN ONE COUNTRY. Yet, it only costs $5 USD to research that same plane with "free" research points. They turned an excellent simulator into an obvious money grab, and it is unacceptable. Playing to unlock new planes is nearly pointless now.

    Gameplay would make this an 8 or a 9, but the money-grab tactics bring that down to a 6. Only get the game if you love pumping at least $100 into a game to make it playable.    … Expand
  14. Anguem
    Mar 13, 2014
    8
    This game is excellent as far as gameplay goes. Don't listen to the whiners who gripe about 1.37 or Gaijin being greedy. They have no clue what they are talking about. My suggestion is to practice a lot with free flights, where you can take your plane out in a calm environment and learn it's strengths and weaknesses, or fly lots of low level arcade battles against new players to improveThis game is excellent as far as gameplay goes. Don't listen to the whiners who gripe about 1.37 or Gaijin being greedy. They have no clue what they are talking about. My suggestion is to practice a lot with free flights, where you can take your plane out in a calm environment and learn it's strengths and weaknesses, or fly lots of low level arcade battles against new players to improve your skills and upgrade your aircraft.

    As far as the forum site, don't bother. It seems to be full of power hungry moderators, whiny petulant children masquerading as adults, and folks who just love to insult and disrespect others.    … Expand
  15. czg
    Mar 10, 2014
    2
    This game is a ripoff. Micro-transactions are actually rather 'macro'.
    If you want to get your crew a bit better you may try to gain experience, but that comes so thinly that after days of fights you may at best progress 1% towards one fully upgraded crew. And you need more than one crew to play. Then there is the experience where free XP can only be used for progression after you pay    This game is a ripoff. Micro-transactions are actually rather 'macro'.
    If you want to get your crew a bit better you may try to gain experience, but that comes so thinly that after days of fights you may at best progress 1% towards one fully upgraded crew. And you need more than one crew to play. Then there is the experience where free XP can only be used for progression after you pay Golden Eagles, which can be obtained for cash only. (unless you are BFF with the developers)
    So I thought £50 would get me neatly ahead. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It was gone in a level or two; I was still stuck with crap planes. But, hell, you can get an F-86 on the end, and I'm no quitter, so I've payed again and again... and I ended up on blowing around £200 on a game that was actually a crappy flight sim.
    Okay at this point you will say that it's just because I am a crap gamer. Which could be true, however the crap community, the returning frustrations proved otherwise. After 3 months one supposed to show some progress after all, shouldn't he? But then, after getting really upset at the game I have uninstalled it. Then, after 4 months I thought I would give it a last try, I would just log in to check my account and see if anything changed for the better. And this is what put me off of this scam forever.
    My crews plane skills were gone. Basically all the planes that I purchased were suddenly non-flyable, unless I spend another £50-100 on purchasing new skills. Due to the constant modifications and 'perpetual beta' all the progress I had were annulled.
    I've learned my lesson. Coming from Hungary I know it's a well-established Eastern European ripoff. You'll end up paying thrice. The 'perpetual beta' is the perfect excuse to constantly hinder players in any progress and rip them off with the promise of better content that will never materialise.
    Do not spend a single dime on this game. It is a ripoff and a scam. Rather try Guild wars 2 or SWtOR; or buy Flight Simulator, X-Plane, or Lock-on Modern Air Combat; all of them way cheaper and better both as games and simulators.    … Expand
  16. ChaosLord
    Mar 4, 2014
    0
    This game f-ing horrible, from the ridiculous grind (where even worse than WOT, the only way to use "free experience" is by paying), the obnoxious russian bias both in air combat and ground combat, it feels like the developers are compesating for something, with russian planes that were a piece of crap in the war being the most undertiered, over armored, best armaments, best speed,climbingThis game f-ing horrible, from the ridiculous grind (where even worse than WOT, the only way to use "free experience" is by paying), the obnoxious russian bias both in air combat and ground combat, it feels like the developers are compesating for something, with russian planes that were a piece of crap in the war being the most undertiered, over armored, best armaments, best speed,climbing and turning compared to other nations and the developers could care less, they will just ban you for stating the obious bias.What else we got, oh right, an cannon centric game where mgs are the most useless weaponry out there, 7.7 feel like BBs and 12.7 even with incendiary ammo fail to do any damage to fighters ( God forbid bombers then) while cannons tear wings and tails in one salvo at best ( unless you deal with horrible networking where all you get is sparkles from hitting an enemy).

    Then we have bombers being **** carrying small loadouts ( unless american or russian), vulnerable, slow and incompetent AI that even with maxed crew can't hit a plane 100 meters behind it and don't forget that if they fire, from the constant "gunner unconcious" to reloading a mg which take more than one minute( even more than BOMBs!).Then you flight models and damage models, some planes downright suck at flying, can't turn, climb or throttle, you are easy picking while there are plenty of UFOs out there (especially russia) that also have a generous DM, granting the ability to soak ridiculous amount of bullets and sometimes cannon shots( just take a look at youtube, it is filled with evidence on it), for instance japan has piss por armor and equipment, can't dive well, can only turn fight good at low atitudes with Zeros( their fighters also suck, with exception with the first one with its UFO nature), can't take one shot from anything and have guns constantly jamming while the glorious slavs with their wooden planes can take any punishment, have miniguns that hardly jam.Another point, this game is very anti-german just like WOT, germans have horrible planes that can only BnZ if you dare try making any turn your plane loses all control( not only that but germans have horrible early tiers, if not one of the worse) while any one faction can with no problem BnZ and turn fight ( lets not count the Stuka and its paper mache tail).

    There is far too many to say, but to resume, this is a scam game, you pay to progress( sometimes it is the only way to get good planes), you pay for "backup" planes( the same op plane can be used twice), you'll suffer at the frustating mechanics as g-force in every turn making your scream go black and losing your target, you'll be ramed all the time by friend and foe, but the worse part is the without a doubt the before mentioned balance, it is just so bad you'll start to see every slav( count WOT with its "Stalin was benevolent" crap) as some sort of brainwashed loony.

    Do a favor, stay far away from this time consuming, frustating scheme    … Expand
  17. Billy_Benoit
    Mar 2, 2014
    7
    War Thunder is a great game solely for the fact that it is free to play. It is probably the best aerial World War 2 game out there. Realistic dog fights and fun to play for a time. Not a game you will see yourself playing for any more than a few months. Regardless, if you enjoy World War 2, or dog fighting games, this is definitely worth a try.
  18. sealclubbering
    Mar 2, 2014
    8
    People say this game isn't fun. They say its a grind(well you're right now that 1.37 rolled out and screwed some things up). Somethings are right, while other things are wrong. So let me give you an analysis from a person who's played this game since patch 1.27(yes, that was about a year ago).

    Progression This game's former progression system was pretty good. Getting to the jets    People say this game isn't fun. They say its a grind(well you're right now that 1.37 rolled out and screwed some things up). Somethings are right, while other things are wrong. So let me give you an analysis from a person who's played this game since patch 1.27(yes, that was about a year ago).

    Progression

    This game's former progression system was pretty good. Getting to the jets wasn't too tricky, and money was never a problem for me. Now, things are slightly different(or very). With this new system, you have to grind each plane one by one, just like WoT, which I don't like, but have gotten through. Its not as good as it used to be, but its not as bad as some say.

    Planes

    This game has a massive selection of planes, and soon, tanks. All major countries of WW2 have their lines of aircraft. You will be able to fly Yak 9s, Mustangs, Zeros, B17s, Spitfires, Typhoons, Bf 109s, Fw 190s, etc. and even jets. Its competitor, WoWP, doesn't even have british planes, and misses many great aircraft, like the P47, the F6F(which is the reason I won't play it until), the Fw190(which is intolerable). But, as always, there is always some ridiculous things that are in this game. There is a common joke that the USSR has OP planes(which is somewhat true at points, but at the time of writing this, I have just finished a 7 game losing streak in russians). But there are tons of aircraft, and they mostly are good.

    Game modes(multiplayer)

    There is a arcade mode, which is a simpler game mode for everyone, realistic mode, which is for more seasoned pilots, and then simulator battles, which is the joystick land of War thunder(which I've never played in). Its like 3 games in one. Not only that, there is even a singleplayer, but it's not the greatest.

    Money

    Yes, many people say that this is pay to win, but let me tell you straight, they just are bad a flying. If you are a good pilot, you can beat anyone you face. Prem planes aren't expensive compared to WoT($10:$50, yeah, $40 dollars cheaper than the best Wot Prems, hooray), and they DON'T give any advantage besides more money. And when it comes to repairs and ammo, they aren't the money suckers like in WoT. You can play this game completely free(I did until all my countries were tier 3).

    So in short, this game is great, and like every game, it has drawbacks. Some days, you will be pissed at it, and others, it will feel like you are jesus, bu overall, this game is great, and is free, sooo,

    see you in the skies!    … Expand
  19. TheNewYorker
    Feb 14, 2014
    0
    This game will forever be in "beta". Developer Gaijin relies on funding by an impossible grind where you are forced to fly certain planes in an esoteric order, and to do that you will either be stomped a lot or pay. The more they patch it, the more bugs get introduced, could have been a good game. Get Wings of Prey instead.
  20. spacepirate369
    Feb 12, 2014
    9
    An excellent FTP game, gameplay is superb. Like all FTP titles, the problems come with the in-game economy. Grind times are horrendous, even if you choose to pay money for a "premium account", but the game is fun enough to start out, so that that isn't really a problem. The game does get boring after the first 400 or so hours, though.
  21. ddddddddddddddd
    Feb 6, 2014
    7
    Pretty fun for 100 hours each faction, then it starts to sort of bore out a little. This is no doubt a good game, but the fact that it's essentially a freemium dumbs it down for me. Physics and graphics definitely better than WoWPs.
  22. RobCO
    Feb 4, 2014
    8
    For all the people giving negative reviews because they "randomly die instantly", i had the same problem. Except, i Googled it. Instead of doing nothing and running out of ideas. Turns out you just increase the pilots vitality, and/or get a covered cabin and it's solved.
    Awesome game, i don't think it's really PTW because, it really does reward Human player skill level. And being a well    For all the people giving negative reviews because they "randomly die instantly", i had the same problem. Except, i Googled it. Instead of doing nothing and running out of ideas. Turns out you just increase the pilots vitality, and/or get a covered cabin and it's solved.
    Awesome game, i don't think it's really PTW because, it really does reward Human player skill level. And being a well seasoned gamer on all genres & platforms, i know my way around a game. This is what i Love about it, if you are actually good at aiming a mouse and tracking people, then you hit and kill regardless of the other guy spending $1000 bucks. With the exception of fully upgraded AI guns on Bombers, which are tough.
    I give an 8 for the Beta bugs and very complicated (but eventually understandable) menus.    … Expand
  23. Haineko
    Jan 27, 2014
    5
    Used to be good, but now the research trees have been **** royally.
    Unlocking anything beyond Tier 2 is tiresome and time consuming, trying to fly a stock plane against fully upgraded ones, which you have to do all the time, is painful and brings you to the brink of just uninstalling.'
    Going from Tier 1 to Tier 2, or Tier 2 to Tier 3, is going to give you a kick in the teeth, as your    Used to be good, but now the research trees have been **** royally.
    Unlocking anything beyond Tier 2 is tiresome and time consuming, trying to fly a stock plane against fully upgraded ones, which you have to do all the time, is painful and brings you to the brink of just uninstalling.'
    Going from Tier 1 to Tier 2, or Tier 2 to Tier 3, is going to give you a kick in the teeth, as your amazing planes, fully upgraded, from the last Tier, are now useless, and you also have a just as useless new, higher tier plane.

    This game used to be fun (still is fun at most times) and something I'd love to sink some time into, even on my own. But nowadays.. Eh, not really. The balancing is horrible, the progression is horrible, and if you want to be in a good plane, you have to play Russians.

    P.S: All of this is in regard to Arcade battles, not Realistic or Simulator.    … Expand
  24. Vunguard
    Jan 26, 2014
    2
    This is a game that makes me want to cry with frustration, because every fiber of my being WANTS to like this game. To get some perspective, I am a long term flight sim fan who has played everything from Air Warrior to Aces High to IL-2 Sturmovik to the old Jane's sims and more. I LOVE flight sims and at first glance this one looks to be everything I could ever want. Healthy stable ofThis is a game that makes me want to cry with frustration, because every fiber of my being WANTS to like this game. To get some perspective, I am a long term flight sim fan who has played everything from Air Warrior to Aces High to IL-2 Sturmovik to the old Jane's sims and more. I LOVE flight sims and at first glance this one looks to be everything I could ever want. Healthy stable of planes? Check. Wonderful physics and plane handling? With one or two low-tier examples, checkaroo. Well-detailed? Holy mother of heaven this makes IL-2 Sturmovik look like a mod of the original source engine and runs amazingly well. Mission structure? While I'm not a big fan of furballs, it does them well and I can respect how it has it set up, so call that a check. The levelling system, while in need of tweaking, is still a decent enough system that takes the general World of Tanks/Warplanes formula and makes it a little less unpleasant when an un-liked vehicle stands in the way. They had literally everything going for this game, but it slips up on one little detail but one so vital that they basically slipped and fell into a pit of poison tipped spikes: the camera.

    I am utterly convinced that deck chairs have gained some semblance of sentience, because sweet mother of Heaven, there is no other explanation for how atrocious the camera was designed here. See, the issue here is that the camera was designed for a mouse and keyboard interface, which is nice and all but you need to also have a system that functions for the joystick and game pad crowds--the former of which will be HUGE groups attracted to this. So why it is that they've been given the cold shoulder BAFFLES me. Your common flight sim uses a hat-switch-based system to turn your pilot's head in each of the forward directions with the forward hat button being for up and forward and another button to act as an upward modifier and--if you really want it--another for down. This is a simple system that covers all of the appropriate directions and gives you a perfect spherical view within your cockpit, barring any obstructions that the actual plane would have had. So instead what joystick users have is a bizarre thing that tries to make a hat switch mimic a mouse, removing the entire rear-right quarter of your view, a fair chunk of the left rear, severely limiting the up-left/right views, and most criminally of all, doesn't even have a forward-up view. I sat down and compared it to IL-2 Sturmovik's camera (which eschews the direct rear just to show that it's your character looking over the shoulder) and it is missing seven head directions! Seven!

    For those who are not privy to flight sims, this basically leaves you wildly open to enemy attack--you don't know where the enemy is coming from and as such can not react quickly enough when, say, an enemy is diving on you from an angle behind you. And these are COMMON situations. Hell, I have a hard time keeping track of planes that I'm chasing at times. As such, I am utterly incapable of effectively fighting because I'm always getting mulched by assorted pilots hitting me in one of my far too numerous blind spots.

    There are a few other little problems, such as the sort of 'advisor' in the radio chatter being a touch grating and some of the early biplanes being a bit heavier-feeling than they should be, but all that pales in comparison to the simple fact that this game should have been glorious, and instead found itself murdered by such an easy and proven portion. All they had to do is throw in a hat-based system alongside the mouse-based one, that's it! I have nothing against mouse pilots, there are some good ones and I respect anyone that can do it, but as a game designer you need to think of all the factors! I'm not about to relearn how to fly for one game and when the people playing tell me that that's the only way to properly experience the game, then my response is that I'll find somewhere else to fly.

    I hope to God that someone gets their brain in gear over at Gaijin Entertainment gets their brain in gear and fix this, but as of right now my only emotion around this game is pure exasperation and rage. This game should have been one of my favorites, instead one tiny aspect has shattered the whole thing. It is a very good thing that this game isn't a physical copy, otherwise I'd have to explain to my plumber why there's disk parts in my garbage disposal.    … Expand
  25. Utheriz
    Jan 17, 2014
    0
    This game has nice graphics yes but the gameplay is terrible. It is so unbalanced and such a scam. Its not f2p its p2w (pay to win). Even after this its a graphically nice game but the logic and balancing is just terrible and they just make it worse. Not to mention such a waste of time. The amount of time you have to put into it, its not worth the "fun" your supposed to have...

    I    This game has nice graphics yes but the gameplay is terrible. It is so unbalanced and such a scam. Its not f2p its p2w (pay to win). Even after this its a graphically nice game but the logic and balancing is just terrible and they just make it worse. Not to mention such a waste of time. The amount of time you have to put into it, its not worth the "fun" your supposed to have...

    I love ww2 era history but this is just a big money scam and a waste of time.

    There is no ingame options to change graphical settings and not much towards any hardware configuration in game. Even for a beta phased game this is a must have instead of closing it down and changing settings on the launcher.    … Expand
  26. Ciemnoczarny
    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    … Expand
  27. miguezc24
    Dec 29, 2013
    10
    Hello,

    I have seen a lot of negative reviews. In my understanding it was due: - Old reviews (before game was polished) - WWII freaks complaining about plane X was designed to work against plane Y and it doesn't work in the same way in the game. - People complaining about this is a pay to win videogame Absolutely false! These people are suc*kers. I can guarantee I have finished    Hello,

    I have seen a lot of negative reviews. In my understanding it was due:

    - Old reviews (before game was polished)
    - WWII freaks complaining about plane X was designed to work against plane Y and it doesn't work in the same way in the game.
    - People complaining about this is a pay to win videogame Absolutely false! These people are suc*kers. I can guarantee I have finished first or second a lot of times and I have not spent a single euro.

    Now... What we have in War Thunder:

    - Impressive graphics (And I don't have NASA computer).
    - Best dogfighting EVER and with that I mean memorable and sometimes absolutely epic fights between other players
    - Plane parts enhancements
    - Crew enhancements (G-force tolerance, vitality, visibility, etc...)
    - A ton of planes
    - Best mouse aim system in years
    - Even in "arcade" mode, quite realistic behavior

    Closure comments: Plz, give it a try. I cannot say about realistic and simulation modes (joystick needed) coz I haven't played them but the "arcade" mode is THE FUNNIEST THING IN AGES!

    MUST PLAY! IT'S FREE! GIVE IT A TRY!    … Expand
  28. NoMoreChillies
    Dec 26, 2013
    7
    War Thunder is a great free to play WW2 flight game
    It is friendly to new comers learning flight for the 1st time
    there are more sim like game modes for those hardcore, but Arcade Battles hold the largest playerbase no Joystick needed, can fly with M+KB Graphics are awesome Gamplay is tight and fun, still with some balance issues. Gaijin are a USSR dev company and show some    War Thunder is a great free to play WW2 flight game
    It is friendly to new comers learning flight for the 1st time
    there are more sim like game modes for those hardcore, but Arcade Battles hold the largest playerbase

    no Joystick needed, can fly with M+KB

    Graphics are awesome
    Gamplay is tight and fun, still with some balance issues.
    Gaijin are a USSR dev company and show some obvious bias to their national machines, hopefully they can overcome this if they want the game to be an international success.

    Tanks are in CBT atm with ships planned for future release. Yes all 3 will be in the same battles.

    gave 7/10 just because of the russian bias, once this dissolves the game becomes 9/10.    … Expand
  29. antjay
    Dec 26, 2013
    1
    Recent patch has turned a once fine FTP game into an horrendous grind Broken matchmaking compressed tiering systems and very miserly reward for effort have turned it into a strictly pay to progress exercise.
    Blatant greed on the part of the developers have turned this once brilliant game into a cynical money making exercise
  30. Juke16
    Dec 25, 2013
    5
    Good graphics and good simulation of WW2 aircraft, but the game has been ruined as of recent patches and focuses heavily on time intensive grinding in order to force players to buy in game currency from the company.
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Awards & Rankings

45
#45 Best PC Game of 2013
10
#10 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
18
#18 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. 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. GRYOnline.pl
    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.
    Read full review
  3. CalmDownTom
    Aug 14, 2014
    90
    Overall the War Thunder tank battles are great even at this early stage.
    Read full review
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