This year, Wargaming dedicated us quite some time. In addition to an interview with their CEO, we were also granted a meeting with Diana Radestki, the PR Manager, and got a hands-on look at World of Warships, the franchise’s newest instalment, as well as some information on what was currently happing with the company and their games.
We were actually able to get an insight into World of Warships at this year’s E3 a month ago, but were already informed before our GamesCom trial that some changes had taken place based on the feedback gathered at E3. First, the camera view now brings players closer to their ship in order to better involve them into the action, which is a welcomed enhancement, especially now that the game’s damage models have been enhanced as well. Players now have better control over their ships and distance/ journey time to join a battle has significantly been reduced, meaning that players don’t have to wait that long until plunging into the action-packed combat.
World of Warships is by far the most graphically impressive of the three titles under Wargaming’s new image (taken into account that they have developed games outside of the "World of ..." series), with far more impressive graphics, typical warship models boasting around 200,000 pixels in comparison to their 15,000 pixel tank counterparts. Due to the protracted nature and level of detail, it can take up to 6 months to develop one of the larger Warships, which results, as would be expected, in a much slower release of new ships than World of Tanks players are used to. The Alpha graphics we were presented with are continually being improved and we are therefore quite eager to get to know how the game will look like at launch.
For our trial (still in Alpha), we were thrust into the centre of a kind of escort mission and control of one of the medium Japanese battleships (purely so it was easier to control and harder to die), fighting off enemy US ships while our convoy tried to reach the base. Movement of your ship was as simple as controlling the W + S keys for forward and reverse speed and using A + D to steer left or right. You are able to control the camera angle with your mouse, which also is also responsible for aiming your targeting reticule while the left and right mouse buttons are used to fire off different missile rounds.
Combat is definitely an aspect with a steeper learning curve, for battles take place over such long distances that players usually have to fire ahead of a moving ship, hoping the latter would run into the line of fire at the right time. Having played for around 15 minutes, we’d had a healthy dose of combat and were able to sink 4 enemy vessels (which is not that bad for a newbie). It was easy to imagine how players would be able to perfect this game and adapt tactics and strategy when working together in larger fleets.
This was the first time the devs had focused on PvE content, but depending on the feedback gathered at GamesCom they may decide to turn the mission we played into a tutorial mode to allow players the chance to learn how to control their ships. The game is scheduled for closed beta testing any time between now and the end of the year, with no concrete date other than it being 2014, but signups will be imminent.
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