A few years ago, prior to the Xbox One being released, World of Tanks was released for free on the Xbox 360. I had had some previous interaction with the game when it was playable at an E3 I attended. During my time with the game,I played using a keyboard and mouse and was horrible to the point of embarrassment. The handler there tried to suggest tanks for me and remind me of key functions, but all I did was drive around and eventually die. When it comes to me and tanks I’m only good at using the ones in the Battlefield games. Recently World of Tanks was re-released for the Xbox One, again as a free to play game. I downloaded it again, hoping I had become better, and gave it a whirl.
The first thing I did was head to the training area, where all games make you think you’re better than you really are. I was presented with a small tank and given some objectives that would make me a master at using a tank. A couple of objective points and a blown up enemy later, I was told I was ready to start missions. I was awarded some kind of currency and no direction where to go next. I eventually found my way to the section where I could play a mission, I picked the lowest one and started it.
The actual mission put me in the smallest tank I had ever seen. I suppose this is where the free to play kicks in, as here you would pay for some upgrades. The small tank reminded me of the movie Fury and even thought it was fast, it had horrible armor. The other tanks in my squad were full size with weapons that actually did damage. I ended up with a semiautomatic gun, but it took about 30 seconds to reload, so if I didn’t blow up a tank right away I was pretty much dead. Most tanks I came across had 3/4 of their life removed with a single 6 shot burst from my tanks, then in about two hits I ended up being blown up. My squad mates were bots and I can only assume they just sat back and watched as I was blown up. After being blown up, I decided to explore the options of upgrading with whatever pity currency they game me. Like most freemium games you are given different forms of reward currency, but never enough to buy what you want. Tank upgrades cost gold pieces and stars, but you never have enough gold pieces, so you have to keep playing. I upgraded what I could and headed back in to battle. This time my upgraded tank was destroyed a lot earlier than last time. It was then when I decided I was just not that good at World of Tanks.
The same happens to me and MOBA’s, it’s like I just don’t understand how to play them. I’m sure if there was someone else here playing I could see what they were doing and Twitch doesn’t always have the most skilled players, but I shouldn’t talk because I’m pretty sure they would last a lot longer than I did.