E3 2012: World of Warplanes -- Wargaming's Sophomore Effort

Two years ago Wargaming.net had just over 100 employees and World of Tanks, a game that most American's didn't even know existed. Now at E3 2012 they have one of the biggest booths, over 900 employees in nine countries and people lining up to play their next title, World of Warplanes. A carefully crafted balance between simulation and arcade flight, World of Warplanes hopes to attract the current World of Tanks players as well as new swaths of the ever-growing free-to-play market. The thing on everyone's mind, though, is whether Wargaming's first effort was a fluke or a sign of what's to come from the now massive independent developer? Having played World of Warplanes, I think it's definitely the latter.

World of Warplanes uses the same tech as World of Tanks, but it looks even better. Nicely rendered WWII-era fighters soar through skies filled with clouds, while bullets streak past and puncture fuselages, resulting in good looking plumes of smoke and fire. Even the cliffs, rivers and other bits of terrain look good as your soaring over them. I mean, it isn't on par with the likes of Crysis or an Unreal Engine 3 title, but it looks good, and is smartly designed to work on a wide array of systems.

The terrain isn't just there for looks, though. Real dogfights occur thousands, if not tens of thousands, of feet in the air, but World of Warplanes tends to keep things a bit closer to the ground. Sure, you could soar up into the clouds and come down guns blazing on your enemies, but Wargaming's development team wants you to get into epic skirmishes that take you into canyons, or have you narrowly avoiding enemy fire by sweeping behind a building. Slowly attempting to out maneuver one another thousands of feet above all obstructions might be how it happened in real life, but that doesn't mean it's more fun. Paying homage to the era is important to Wargaming, but they are making an approachable and entertaining video game first and foremost.

Liberties are taken with the land you fight in, but the aircraft are all based on their real-world counterparts. World of Warplanes will launch with Russian, German and American planes to start, but will eventually add in Italian, British and Japanese fighters. The three types of planes available are fighters, heavy fighters and ground attack craft like the famous Russian IL-2. The types of aircraft all serve as counters to one another in a rock, paper, scissors-esque way, but the ground attack craft are the type that I think players will have the hardest time getting into. When you think of plane combat your mind often comes to dog fights, so I can't help but wonder whose going to want to pilot an aircraft designed to take out AI controlled ground emplacements and boats? Granted, they serve a purpose since victory is achieved by "Maintaining Supremacy," a meter that's apparently calculated based on the planes taken out and the amount of ground units destroyed, but they just don't resonate with the fantasy I associate with aerial combat.

Unlike many other aerial combat games, you don't need to own a joystick to succeed in World of Warplanes. The mouse and keyboard controls are intuitive, and within moments of first picking them up I was lining up enemies with ease. Indicators tell you how far to lead your target, while clicking and holding the right mouse button allows you to quickly rotate the camera so you can assess the situation around you. Of course, Wargaming does want to accommodate the more hardcore fans out there, so you can use a joystick if you're so inclined.

World of Warplanes is tentatively scheduled to launch later this year, but Wargaming isn't committed to any date. Since they have the money from World of Tanks to rely on, they're decidedly against releasing any title until the studio is absolutely sure it's ready. Expect an open beta in the coming months, though, since the closed beta is going on now.



Source : ign[dot]com