World of Warships

[porina]

I first took notice of the game when Linus did the sponsored event at LTX2019. I thought, I should give it a go some time especially as it was free. It wasn't until last Saturday I finally fired it up with a friend who had played before. Suffice to say, I'm hooked. This is based on my impressions in the week I've been playing.

 

Note I play on PC. I heard there may be differences between it and console versions.

 

The download was a bit fat at around 50GB but soon enough you're in and you get to pick your ship. Starting ships are relatively simple and allow you to get used to the game. 

 

The early battles I had were in co-op mode. A team of mostly human players (filled with bots if insufficient) go against a team of only AI. The AI is not as smart as a good human player, but will still hurt if you find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Depending on the map there may be different win conditions. You can always win by destroying the opposing fleet completely, but if applicable you can also win by scoring enough points for the team, or capturing the other side's base. More of a challenge is the mode where both sides are humans, but so are the rewards if you're successful. There is also a ranked battle system which I haven't tried yet. That sounds like more hardcore pvp if you're into that sort of thing. 

 

Ship progression is through earning exp, which can be spent on ship upgrades, and then new ships. First you research them, and if you want, then you can buy it. Ships are organised in tiers, and I've unlocked up to tier V. When matching for combat, you will be placed with similar tier ships, and both sides will be balanced on both tier and type of ship.

 

There are 4 types of ship in game, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and carriers. Destroyers typically are fastest but don't take a lot of damage. They can deal a lot of damage through torpedos, and also have guns too. I really suck at predicting ship movement so my torpedo hit rate is extremely bad, but if you get in the zone big ships disappear fast. Cruisers are more gun focused, although some can have torpedos too. Not as fast, but a bit more tanky than destroyers. I haven't played battleships yet, but they have heavy hitting long range guns and move slowly. If they hit, it tends to really hurt. Last but not least are carriers. I've also not tried them yet, but I've certainly been on the receiving end of torpedo bombers. Did I mention torpedos hurt? Also they can be used to spot you and allow longer range ships to fire where you wouldn't be seen otherwise. Even ships of the same class and tier can vary between them. Some might be relatively faster, turn better, gun placement/tracking speed/range varies. So to do the best you learn each ship and use its characteristics to your advantage. The game therefore has a wider strategy element, as well as action. 

 

Note friendly fire is a thing. With guns this doesn't tend to be a problem. Did I say I suck with torpedos? Well, that's not strictly true. I seem to be good at hitting my own side with them. Torpedos can hang around for a while. Even if there isn't a friendly unit where you're firing, it doesn't mean it will remain that way for the life of the torpedo. Doing damage will give you a warning at the least (and some reduced rewards), and a friendly kill puts you on notice that if you don't clean up you can get limited or banned. A couple of clean games is enough to clear yourself from that. Collisions are another common way to do friendly damage, if you're too engrossed in firing your weapons you lose sight of what's immediately around you.

 

This is not meant to be a comprehensive review, but just to cover the basics I've dealt with so far. I haven't touched upon the signal system, which are consumables giving you particular bufs for the next match, or commander skill upgrades. There is a premium shop. Thankfully this game seems balanced enough, at least at my current tier, that you can't pay2win. You can also pay for a premium account that boosts the rewards you get, so progression will be faster with that than without. I'm still in my free premium period so I haven't played without yet.

 

Hardware demands don't seem too high. My laptop with 7300HQ and 1050 was doing fine on 1080p + high preset, and I actually reduced it to low just to make it quieter and still maintain 60fps vsync on. My main system with 8086k and 2070 runs 1440p very high and typically sits around 75fps. I haven't really tinkered with the settings since this seemed good enough.

 

Overall, I'd say if this sounds at all interesting, give it a go. It's a free download, easy to learn, will take some time to master. 

[GrockleTD]

i am thoroughly convinced to perhaps try it in the near future

[aisle9]

Is this a pay-to-win game, or do they primarily make their money via ads and data mining?

[SolarNova]

13 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Is this a pay-to-win game, or do they primarily make their money via ads and data mining?

P2W. in the strictest sense

The World of *** games all have currency directly connected to the purchasing of higher tier, better ships/tanks etc of the same tier, and upgrades to said vehicles.

 

On a less strict sense, its just another F2P game with MTX. One can argue that since u can unlock most/everything in game without paying, its not P2W, but rather Pay 2 Advance faster. .or Pay for convenience.  Though to be blunt, those arguments are only ever used by those who do 'pay' , so its a means of defending ones purchase decision, a natural and common thing.

[Lot Qahnaarin]

18 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Is this a pay-to-win game, or do they primarily make their money via ads and data mining?

I would like to know this as well. 

[Lot Qahnaarin]

1 minute ago, SolarNova said:

P2W. in the strictest sense

The World of *** games all have currency directly connected to the purchasing of higher tier, better ships/tanks etc of the same tier, and upgrades to said vehicles.

 

On a less strict sense, its just another F2P game with MTX. One can argue that since u can unlock most/everything in game without paying, its not P2W, but rather Pay 2 Advance faster. .or Pay for convenience.  Though to be blunt, those arguments are only ever used by those who do 'pay' , so its a means of defending ones purchase decision, a natural and common thing.

Nvm

 

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

P2W. in the strictest sense

The World of *** games all have currency directly connected to the purchasing of higher tier, better ships/tanks etc of the same tier, and upgrades to said vehicles.

 

On a less strict sense, its just another F2P game with MTX. One can argue that since u can unlock most/everything in game without paying, its not P2W, but rather Pay 2 Advance faster. .or Pay for convenience.  Though to be blunt, those arguments are only ever used by those who do 'pay' , so its a means of defending ones purchase decision, a natural and common thing.

Yeeeeeeeah, I'll pass. I'd rather pay $20-50 up front for a game like this than get it for "free" and be hosed by the pay-to-win crowd.

[TVwazhere]

1 hour ago, porina said:

I first took notice of the game when Linus did the sponsored event at LTX2019.

Apparently you dont watch enough @JayzTwoCents

 

 

[porina]

41 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Yeeeeeeeah, I'll pass. I'd rather pay $20-50 up front for a game like this than get it for "free" and be hosed by the pay-to-win crowd.

I can only speak of my experiences so far, but I haven't noticed anything that resembles overpowering by paying. Note this isn't a 1 vs 1 or battle royale game. It is team based, and the matching system does seem to balance quite well. Even if we assume some can pay for slightly better ships, there is as much chance they're on your side than the opposite side. It wont be enough to make up for bad skills in itself.

24 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Apparently you dont watch enough @JayzTwoCents

I'd say I watch enough, but that doesn't mean it is a lot...

[TVwazhere]

30 minutes ago, porina said:

 

I'd say I watch enough, but that doesn't mean it is a lot...

I LiKe BoAtS1!1!1!

[2FA]

On 10/10/2019 at 10:32 AM, aisle9 said:

Yeeeeeeeah, I'll pass. I'd rather pay $20-50 up front for a game like this than get it for "free" and be hosed by the pay-to-win crowd.

There isn't any part of World of Warships that is pay to win. The game actually requires skill and just because someone buys  a ship doesn't mean they will stomp on everyone else. Honestly I think the most powerful ships that you can get are only obtainable by playing the game and earning XP or one of the in-game currencies that can't be bought. There is only one aspect that I would consider P2W  and that is only the way to get the Radar consumable on a Tier 7 ship is by buying one from the Premium shop, but the only ship with said tier 7 radar is that is actually OP, or even strong at all, would be one that is no longer sold and will never be sold again (the ship being HMS Belfast). It was only available for like one update, if that, before they pulled it from the shop due to its power which came from the other consumables it was equipped with besides the radar. I would argue that WoWS is the most friendly to free players out of all the Wargaming titles too.

[seon123]

On 10/10/2019 at 4:10 PM, aisle9 said:

Is this a pay-to-win game, or do they primarily make their money via ads and data mining?

 

On 10/10/2019 at 4:28 PM, SolarNova said:

P2W. in the strictest sense

The World of *** games all have currency directly connected to the purchasing of higher tier, better ships/tanks etc of the same tier, and upgrades to said vehicles.

 

On a less strict sense, its just another F2P game with MTX. One can argue that since u can unlock most/everything in game without paying, its not P2W, but rather Pay 2 Advance faster. .or Pay for convenience.  Though to be blunt, those arguments are only ever used by those who do 'pay' , so its a means of defending ones purchase decision, a natural and common thing.

 

On 10/10/2019 at 4:29 PM, Lot Qahnaarin said:

I would like to know this as well. 

Imo, it's definitely not P2W. While I am by no means an expert, I am doing okay and have played a little, with a 57,68% WR over 6,8k battles since release, with a few hundred games in closed and open beta. I have spent exactly €0 on the game over all of that time. That's really the important bit, I'll add some unnecessary details in the form of a ramble below.

There are certain ships that you can only get by paying (premium ships), and there are certain ships that you can either buy or unlock by playing (certain reward ships). I wouldn't say that the premiums are generally better in battle; they usually just have some special gimmic that wouldn't fit into the theme in the tech tree. The ships that are currently considered OP are normal tech tree ships or reward ships.

There are some reward ships you can buy in the premium shop, but these are not the OP ones. To unlock those, you actually have to play a ton to get resources, and there is no way of getting those resources without playing. I took me about a year to unlock these ships by playing, which I find reasonable (about the same amount of time to unlock same tier tech tree ship (tier 9-10)).

In terms of in battle advantage, there are none. The game mechanics and ship stats are the same, whether you pay or not. You can get a premium account, which gives you 65% more credits and XP per battle, which can help if you're impatient, but I haven't felt the need for it. Some consumables cost more credits to use, but I have way more credits than I need, so that really isn't an issue. This is unlike World of Tanks, where I struggled to get enough credits if I used the more expensive consumables (at least that's the way it was when I played).

 

(Kind of necro, but eh. I don't visit the Member Reviews section very often)

 

 

Oh, and if you start playing on the EU server, DM me, and I can get you a few freebie bonuses. If you start playing, try to find anyone on the same server and ask them for an invite. That way you both get some bonuses.

[Xiee]

I play this regularly. Hit me up on the NA server if you'd like. Played this since beta. 

 

IGN: Mezurashi