World of Tanks: Heat

I won't beat around the bush; I find reviewing games like World of Tanks: Heat to be rather challenging. It's not that these games provide a complex array of mechanics or a gameplay design which is a bit polarising to get your head around, it's simply that this is yet another example of a live-service game where I can't help but feel as though the cards are already stacked against it. This understanding doesn't just come from the fact that it's a live-service game in a segment that is more cutthroat than ever before (just ask Highguard, Spellcasters: Chronicles, heck even Destiny 2 to an extent, for this year alone), but also when considering the limited slate of content currently featured and also how this is a Wargaming project. Again, not to point the finger per se, but Wargaming has tried all manner of live-service efforts as of late and many don't tend to stick around for very long, with Steel Hunters the most recent casualty...

In fact, Steel Hunters is a fascinating game to compare with this latest idea known as World of Tanks: Heat, as Steel Hunters offered a unique hook by combining towering mechs with intense online multiplayer action. Whether or not this marriage worked to great effect is another point of conversation, but the key thing to note is that Steel Hunters was fundamentally a unique video game. World of Tanks: Heat doesn't exactly fit the same bill.

Essentially, what we have with this game is a faster-paced and less demanding version of the World of Tanks formula. The core mechanics and premise of using armoured vehicles in multiplayer combat is preserved but it's now less rigid and strategic, and more focussed on letting players get into the action to make for chaotic carnage that feels more like an arena shooter. A very rudimentary comparison could be if World of Tanks plays more like the tactical Counter-Strike, World of Tanks: Heat is Call of Duty.

But again, aside from a tweak to the pacing and change to the game modes on offer, at its core we're still talking about a multiplayer game where players drive tanks, shoot at one another and steadily whittle down health bars to defeat opponents and win matches. The difference is it's less reliant on landing the perfect shot and overcoming armour thickness, armour sloping, round penetration values, how camouflaged and hidden your vehicle is, conserving resources to ensure you last the full game. All of the key elements World of Tanks players will know so familiarly at this point have been cut out in favour of more arcade-like gameplay where you zoom around a map and run-and-gun, completely devoid of the worry of being destroyed as you know you will simply respawn.

On paper, I can see why Wargaming wanted to create this game and I understand it too, but at the same time, I don't know whether there's a place for it. Core World of Tanks fans will still find the more strategic and intricate gameplay of the original more compelling, similarly to how they will continue to better connect with the creative focus of that traditional experience where the premise is steady but rewarding progression and learning every niche nook and cranny of every map and combat scenario. Likewise, newer players less familiar with World of Tanks will likely find that Heat is still too slow and sluggish for them. This isn't a responsive and snappy twitch shooter, the sort of experience Marathon and ARC Raiders players have come to enjoy as of late, it's still very much World of Tanks, except around 30% faster. So as you can see, I feel as though this game fundamentally has a bit of an identity crisis.

The trump card would be that the gameplay is simply too well refined and enjoyable that the identity issues become forgettable, but I'm not quite convinced this is there either. It works and I won't knock the experience for what it fundamentally does to a functional degree, but at the same time, we're not talking about a World of Tanks variant here that will knock you off your feet. It's acceptable and that's fine, but live-service games need to draw in an audience and then keep them hooked for months, years even, and I can't see Heat snatching players away from World of Tanks or even landing a broad new playerbase who so clearly associate with this experience but not the original. There's just too much overlap and many of the areas this game changes the formula simply stand out as regressions.

Now what I mean here is that the broad and lengthy progression of the original game is gone. There's no direction really, you simply get handed powerful stock vehicles and use them in battle, gradually levelling them up to earn improved components. You match this up with 'Agents', which are hero-like characters that bring unique abilities and fit into defined classes, and the end result is a bizarre melange of design choices where you can never quite tell whether Heat wants to be a hero-shooter-like experience or a World of Tanks-lite-type project. From my experience, there's little reason to have defined classes and Agents, and if anything, it's simply counter-intuitive that the various tank options are tied to specific characters, meaning if you like a certain tank you have to use a specific Agent, and vice-versa, if you like a certain Agent's abilities, you have to use that character's defined vehicle options. It simply comes across as needlessly stiff and you can't help but wonder if the traditional World of Tanks vehicle categories of Heavy, Medium, Light, Tank Destroyer, Artillery would be better in practice, where you can select the tank you want to use and then combine it with an Agent of choice, truly putting your own stamp on the game.

Oh and let's not forget how the Agents are simply forgettable and leave no impression, an issue that countless hero-shooter-like games have faced in recent memory. There seems to be this understanding that we can be thrown a face and a name and then simply fall in love with a character with no lore, backstory, motivations, nothing. These characters are simply names on a sheet of paper for the most part and it doesn't do anything for me.

On a more positive note, Wargaming has done a fantastic job with the new engine that World of Tanks: Heat runs upon. It looks remarkable, plays like a dream, delivers a stunning ambience and thumping, intense combat, and typically speaking, this is an engine that could be put to great use if the developer could get the original World of Tanks experience running on it. There are crashes that need to be sorted, but otherwise, this engine is a highlight, and for all of its vices with how it churns out live-service games without much of a plan for their future, Wargaming does make well put together projects, and Heat is just the latest example of that.

However, we do have to build upon that last point further. World of Tanks: Heat is a free-to-play game, so there's no real obligation for Wargaming to offer up a ton of content as there's no financial entrance fee, if you will. Still, eight forgettable Agents, 15 rigidly-implemented tanks, four familiar and safe game modes, and eight rather anonymous maps is not enough content to launch a game with - especially if you want players to come in the door and stick around for the long-haul. Fans will give this game a few hours, mostly exhaust it of what it gives them, and move on, and while that may sound ruthless, it's the truth that a lot of live-service projects don't seem to want to face. There's already a clear focus on Battle Passes, premium currencies, store-bought cosmetics, and various other meaningless fluff. To me, it's rather bold to ensure these elements are so prevalent on day one when such a limited array of content is also present.

So anyway, we come full circle to the Steel Hunters debacle again, as after playing both the now-defunct game and the next live-service project being churned out by Wargaming, it's clear that the former project had a more unique theme to it. Again, World of Tanks: Heat fundamentally works, but it doesn't leave much of an impression, has a limited array of content currently, and is weighed down by the typical live-service design choices that have made this section of the game industry the most tiresome and indefensible of them all. But hey, it's free-to-play so give it a go and see what you think at the end of the day.