World of Warships
It’s not just World of Tanks in the ocean, though—the gameplay is different enough that it feels fresh without feeling gimmicky. Unlike World of Tanks and World of Warplanes, this game isn’t based on realistic battles or aircraft. Instead, it’s a completely fictionalized setting that allows for a much broader range of vehicles to be included. The graphics are crisp and beautiful, as you’d expect from a Wargaming title, but they give you an underwater view from your ship that’s unlike anything else.
The controls take a little getting used to, but they’re intuitive once you get the hang of them and make sense with how your ship moves in the water. What really makes this game stand out is how it handles destruction: when things sink, they sink gracefully and believably—you can see it happen right before your eyes. This adds a lot to the excitement and helps you feel like you’re playing an authentic naval battle.
World of Warships, an Wargaming Group Limited game, is our new favorite. Over the past decade or so, Wargaming has made a name for itself in the PC gaming world by creating incredible online war games like World of Tanks and World of Warplanes. Now they’ve got their sights set on the nautical combat of World of Warships.
When we first began playing it, we were impressed with the attention to detail—from the realistic physics and ballistics to the painstakingly crafted ships and vehicles to the graphics, which are more impressive than many current console games. The gameplay is simple to learn and exciting to master: you pick your vessel, either a small ship like a PBR (Patrol Boat River), a destroyer, or a cruiser; then you choose your position on the map: from being in close quarters where you can hear your teammates’ commands to being far away enough that all you can see are blips on your radar screen; then you figure out what role you want to play as a teammate: scout for finding enemy ships and informing your team of their position, join in a massive brawl with everyone else on the field at once, or sit back and snipe from afar; then you begin fighting.
