World of Warplanes – Interview and Gameplay

If you read our review of World of Tanks, you can see that we are big fans of Wargaming.net.  The company working hard, not only on their game universe, but also in efforts to give back to charities and military organizations.  That alone is enough to make us seek a meeting, but the promise of World of Warplanes had us equally excited.  Before we got to see the game in action, we checked out a quick trailer that you can see below:

 

Wargaming.net sees World of Warplanes as an evolution that builds on the success brought by World of Tanks.  Giving them a lot of information they could use to build the PvP and PvE experience, World of Warplanes offers the same great experience, but at a much faster pace.   The game will feature three countries at launch – Russia, Germany, and the United States.  Using the same free-to-play /  microtransaction system that fuels World of Tanks, the game will have a similar three-part fighter squadron system, giving players the chance to fly light, medium, and heavy planes.  With so many similarities, and the longer-ranged World of Battleships on its way, Wargaming.net is looking to pull all of their games and services under one roof.  Eventually credits, gold, and XP will span all three games as part of this new system.  While there was no detail yet on how XP will move between the games, the resource sharing is a no-brainer.  The reason why is simple – Wargaming.net values the player’s time.  If you have the time to invest, you can get everything there is to have in the game with hard work and practice.  If you don’t have the time to invest, or want to play more casually, you can invest a small bit of your hard-earned cash and convert to the paying model to keep up with your friends.  From what I’ve seen with World of Tanks, this model works well as experienced veterans destroy players who buy themselves to the top as those new players can’t buy practice.

World of Warplanes is in closed beta currently, with four maps currently circulating for players to play.   At launch they are looking to hit 60 planes, at least, spanning from the 1930s to the Korean War era Jets.  Anton Sitnikau, Producer of World of Warplanes, gives us our first view of the game.  You can see it in its entirety right here:

 

After our demo we did ask a few clarifying questions about the game.   It turns out that the Wargaming.net crew will be adding a full tutorial and new user experience system to help acquaint fresh faces to flying fighters and bombing strategic targets.  In World of Tanks your crew will handle repairs and fix the tracks on your vehicles, but in a plane it is most often a one-man show.  To that end, the crew skills will be more like an RPG, giving the player more skills for their pilot rather than enhancing their team.   Naturally, larger planes like bombers or planes with rear gunners will have a more familiar upgrade path.

It isn’t all World of Warplanes at Wargaming.net – later this month we get the 7.4 upgrade for World of Tanks.   Adding British tanks, this patch brings the Churchill, the Mk 1, two new destroyers, SBGs for the French side, new maps, and new premium tanks for paying players.  In addition, there are two new game modes to chew on.  Since the game is free to play, you could download it and try it for yourself in the time it took you to read this far.

As we conclude our meeting with the Wargaming.net crew it is clear that they want to bring their community together with this new game.  With World of Battleships on the horizon, their new centralized portal for worldwide interaction, including forums and feedback, will serve to connect their entire gaming landscape.   It isn’t often you see this level of customer interaction and feedback acceptance for a title that is free to play.  Look for our continued coverage of the title, including a chance to win a chance to try the beta for yourself.  While we wait for that opportunity, check out World of Battleships a little further out on the horizon.