Best tactical /semi realistic FPS

I am in love with this game, the setting, the graphics, the balancing, it all feels amazing, especially the gunplay could not be better to me, the weapons work like a treat, better than the competition, there are no hit detection issues or anything similar i encountered so far


This game is most definitely worth full price, if you are into "realistic" shooters but i would also recommend it to players who prefer more "casual" shooters, as Tannenberg feels rather easy and intuitive to get into, compared to other games of the genre, in my opinion!

I could go into depth here but i'm just going to keep it brief i think

------
TL:DR: if you dont have FS17, this includes most of the DLC content of that so consider going for this
If you like modding your game, get FS17, the FS19 modding scene is yet to develop

If you are an FS17 player looking to upgrade, dont, not now, and not for full price, even in the future. unless you have a cotton fetish.. i guess..
------

Right now, this game offers no significant advantage over FS 17, what new features there are are overally just badly implemented, there are some nice things that are basicly Mods for FS17 that have been turned into content

this feels Less like a new game but more like a heavily modded FS17 that has its graphics settings played around with and i am very sad to say this because i really enjoyed my experience with the game so far, but i'm going to go back to FS17 for now because this does not offer any significant advantage yet

If you are new to the series and wonder if you want to buy this game or FS17 you should consider this because it also includes most of the relevant DLC content of the previous game, but if you are an FS17 player who wants to upgrade, dont to it yet, and if it doesnt improve SIGNIFICANTLY dont give them full price, ever. FS17 is just... equal to this game... and it saddens me to say that

This is just a reskinned FS17 with a mod package. and thats not what Giants should do, they should improve the things we can't get out of mods, and thats what we pay them for. I dont mind them implementing good mods as standard to their next games, but if its the only thing they do, this is a ripoff, i can't call it anything else.

I cant recommend farming sim any more than i do, its such an amazing game, but theres no way i can give this game, as it is now, a positive rating... and i really want to :(

Definitely not a space flight simulator!

Would recommend the game, on a sale, i think the current price tag is too much for the content

Short review after first steps ingame

++the controls are easy to learn (Players who don't spend mcuh time with games should have no difficulties learning them)
+the inventory and crafting system are very nicely done and intuitive
++name everything the way you want it to
++++++developer seems to try their best to react to wishes,problems and feedback from the community

----little content (apart from the large map)
----ship controls inside Atmosphere are VERY restrictive, no stunt flying, or even get close enough to the ground to look for a landing spot
----ship controls in general seem quite shallow, more assignable keys that do fancy thigns would be nice
-60 Euros
-It will EAT YOUR HARDWARE ALIVE (and or look quite low end)

Warning: I tend to get sidetracked a little
Disclaimer: This review contains my personal, uninfluenced, opinion on this game and the way the people who work on it operate, not my opinion of their personalities.


Would I recommend this game?

Yes: To players who want to fool around a bit and have literally nothing else to do and especially to Games developers who want to see the concept of this game and make something similar but with improved quality (please don't let this concept die, especially the "realistic mode" that is between arcade and sim (and I believe unique to this game, I haven't seen or heard of anything similar)).

No: To players who look for a realistic/simulator-ish experience and wish for very high quality gameplay (the latter includes arcade).

I personally do not play it anymore because I just couldn't bear seeing what they do to this game any longer.

In the past I spent a considerable amount of money on this Game and I don't regret a single cent but as of today I would not encourage anyone to spend their earnings on the game and it's developers.(of course everyone can do with their money what they want but at least take your time on this game before you decide)

Do try it, but don't expect anything.

(Simmers beware, most of the time you have to have the planes available for the sim rotation unlocked before, in the arcadier parts of the game, also the simming community of it is extremely small and it can take ages to get into a game, I recommend playing something else)



This used to be one of the most promising games on the market and had the potential to become the go to game for fans of tanks and planes around the WW2 area as well as players who wish for a semi-realistic sim game that is not overly hard to get into.

Sadly it started suffering from bad development decisions which continued to make the game less and less attractive especially for players who prefer a more realistic gaming experience (War Thunder features 3 different gamemodes that cater different gameplay tastes ranging from arcade to "simulator"(the easy to learn not overly complex version of sim))

I am not going to go into detail about what exactly I am referring to because I want to keep this review from being too boring.

Last time I checked, the developers were continuing the way they had chosen to go (dumbing the game down more and more and optimizing it to run on even very low spec computers at the cost of gameplay quality.

Incoming rant with examples

In the more realistic modes, for example, it was(is?*) possible to turn off grass (including tall grass) and bushes which was (is?*), while being beneficial for players who can't afford even a half decent computer**, problematic because it made it possible to see tanks trying to hide behind said bushes and tall grass.

This was possible for any player regardless of computer quality and players who decided to leave bushes, small trees and grass visible were(are?*) not only easy to spot when hiding but also unable to see players hiding in said bushes. (wall hack comes to mind)

The decision by the development team not to do anything about this for more than a year (and nothing significant afterwards***) (starting from the closed beta of the ground forces mode where this issue was already highlighted by the testers of which I was one) was justified to the community with "Competitive players play on low settings in many games to improve their performance" (= "This is not an exploit" stated by the game's community management in the name of the game developers)

(Personal Opinion: Yes, but in CS:GO(just an example where this seems possible to me) they do this to improve their frames per second not to see through walls and crates)

A similar problem has been present in the air forces section for a long time where players were able to turn off clouds to see other players hiding in them.(with similar outcome)

There were also issues with the rendering of vehicles in the ground forces section (sometimes in ground forces vehicles that should be visible were(are?*) not rendered in even though they should have been visible

As far as i know the developers never admitted this issue never existed and I believe (not confirmed since I only heard this from other players) they even stated that " vehicles are always rendered".

(To players who want devs that listen to their community and good community management this game is absolutely not recommendable in my opinion (note: MY opinion) I will not go deeper into this topic, they are really nice guys but they may or may not react too well to negative feedback on their product (by frustrated players) and they are sure they know the effects of gameplay issues better than you regardless how many thousands of battles more than them you have played in the gamemode, even when their number of battles played barely reaches the hundreds)

rant ends

*I haven't looked at this game for a few patches by now

** I ran the game on a laptop integrated "Intel HD graphics family" GPU once and with old video card support mode on lowest settings it worked with 25 fps (some frame drops when using ammunition compositions that included lots of tracers) (This is no longer possible)

*** grass and bushes now appear when using the gunner's optics of a tank regardless of graphics settings, however using these optics is (with a bit of practice) entirely unnecessary for most engagements, even in simulator mode (which I mainly played with tanks)



P.S. If you intend on playing the tanks prioritize the repair kit and Fire fighting systems when you research upgrades, without these you are absolutely unable to put out a fire or repair anything on the tank but your tracks****

Towards the high tiers the upgrades on vehicles get very expensive in terms of grind (some of them are quite essential like ammunition types or fire extinguishers and especially on some planes the ammunition you get without upgrades can be very frustrating to use compared to the more advanced types which is very noticeable as many planes use similar weaponry to their predecessors or upgraded versions that fire the same ammunition)

same with tanks especially as the armament of higher tiered enemy tanks gets more and more powerful (if they don't outright blow you up (which they probably won't as the devs keep decreasing the effectiveness of most ammunition to leave you living even through shots that a real vehicle would certainly not survive

(like the molten metal jet of a HEAT round going right into an ammunition rack which should 99.9999999% cause said ammunition to explode and tear the vehicle it was stored in to shreds) because some players (I believe that includes those devs who do play the game if they exist) couldn't deal with getting outsmarted and blown up by players they couldn't see and react to )

And it is very frustrating to loose valuable components of your tank the first time you see (or fail to see) an enemy and be unable to repair them for the rest of the battle(respawns are very limited if available and it's impossible to spawn twice in the same vehicle)****

****your engine is dead and/or your transmission got destroyed? you're a bunker now! your turret is stuck? good luck with aiming by turning the whole tank, it's not easy at all! your gun is disabled? well you won't shoot again until the next battle!