War Thunder

After 8,000 hours, I am finally done. I have put around 8,000 hours into this game, but I’ve officially lost all interest. The last update I was genuinely excited for was 1.5 years ago, and since then, the game has only gotten worse with every single patch. The developers have absolutely zero interest in listening to the community. Instead, every update feels like a cash grab designed to squeeze even more money out of the players with overpriced vehicles. It’s nothing but copy-and-paste content, and they clearly don't care about making a quality game anymore. I’ve tolerated this for a very long time, but I’ve finally reached my breaking point. I will not play this game again until something fundamentally changes. I truly hope more people do the same. This is the only way the developers will realize they are heading in the absolute wrong direction. It honestly hurts to watch a game with so much incredible potential die like this. I hope things change, but I won't hold my breath.

Many many issues with this game, mostly due to the Gaijin's own incompetence or willful disregard of the community. 1. Locking vehicles that would be excellent features of a tech tree due to either their uniqueness or well-known status behind premium. This is just a blatant cash grab most of the time. 2. ignoring the community. They willfully (and at this point, I believe it to be malicious) ignore community input and requests to actually improve the game. This extends from everything from basic bug reports to game feature requests. Such as new game modes or requesting that the take time to address QoL features. 3. Perceivable Russian bias/priority. The devs have a real tendency to prioritize Russian vehicles and equipment over other nations. Who gets the best SPAA first? Russia. Who gets the most benefit from volumetric armor? Russia. (The Abrams turret is only recently getting converted to volumetric). Who gets access to weapon systems that don't exist the most often (Kh-38mt, NS-45 APHE round, etc.)? Russia. Terminator? Russia. 4. Blatantly applying different rules to Russian and NATO vehicles in bug reports. There seems to be very different requirement when it comes to amount of and quality of sources when trying to get Gaijin to fix certain aspects of vehicles. The bar seems to be much lower for Russian vehicles and impossibly high for NATO ones. Sometimes it seems like all we have to do for Russia is basically say, "I know a guy who served in the T-90 and he said that it has the ability to fly", and Gaijin would make it so. But conversely we could provide all necessary public documents and images to show without a doubt that a NATO tank has something in real life that is not in game, and Gaijin will just say "Not enough proof" or "not a bug" in the case that it is an artificial nerf to the vehicle. These artificial nerfs in themselves are another issue in that they tend to overwhelmingly hit NATO vehicles. 5. The grind. The amount of RP needed to reach top tier is completely ridiculous. They keep adding new vehicles but they never adjust the overall grind. Helicopters are basically impossible to the point they may as well not even exist. Air and Ground are two very different grind experiences due to ground having much lower rewards. All in all, Gaijin needs to take a step back from constantly adding new vehicles and really take a long hard look at the game itself and start addressing many of the problems that the community is bringing up (cosmetic/ai content, game modes, bugs, grind, etc.), and making the fixes that would make the game better and more fun for everyone. I would personally love to see a major update that doesn't add anything new and only focuses on fixing many of the longstanding problems in this game and rebalances the grind over all of the tech trees in general. And then maybe after that an update that only focuses on new game modes. But we all no Gaijin will never do this, for some reason. It is wholly unfathomable why do not want to make the game better for the people who keep their business economically successful.

I'd like to start this review by saying that at its core, I do enjoy the game. But I really can't recommend it in it's current state. I was motivated by TheCodMineMan to write this, but I want to give valuable feedback and not just rant and rave about why this game is painful to play sometimes, if not most of the time. I'll run through this in sections, so this review might get quite lengthy. The Gameplay Matches are repetitive, I'm at the point where it just feels like a chore to play a game of War Thunder in 2026. So much so that I've been pulled away from it by other games that are just much more fun to play. I played War Thunder regularly, kept my daily streak going before I realised the rewards you get from it are just so next to useless. a 10% or maybe 30% booster for 10 games when I've logged in daily for over a year is just so inconsequential, I feel like a good daily reward would make me want to hop on the game. Something more rewarding can definitely be done in this capacity, perhaps a voucher for a free decal or prop? I think I should be rewarded more for my dedication to logging in. Playing actual matches, most of the community agrees that the 3 pointer or "battle" matches are very repetitive, and tend to go one sided. I don't have an issue with these matches at their core, but we really need something more to flesh out the game. More gamemodes need to be added to keep matches fresh. I don't hop on BF1 to play conquest all day, I like to play Operations, TDM etc. I feel like a breakthrough mode where sectors are captured could work well in War Thunder, and it would open up the door for some more historical elements. A tank battle at Kursk, Pushing the Iraqi army in Desert Storm, so many historical battles where Tanks were used can be utilised. I'm not saying "Abrams vs obsolete T-55's" level of accuracy but the ability to just have something new and evolving where each game is different despite still being the same formula would spice up the really dire gameplay loop that currently exists. Okay, now lets talk volumetric. I didn't play the game when hull break was a feature, but from observation I can definitely say that volumetric is a better way of doing things, but it's current state is absurd. It needs fixing. I should not be shooting a Panther side on with the US T34's solid shot and it non penetrates because I hit a single pixel where 2 armour plates join, making the joint value 500mm+ is ridiculous. There are surely solutions that can fix this completely broken feature, so why has it not been implemented? WT community has been SCREAMING about this for years, yet it still exists. Please fix this as soon as possible, because it is driving people away from the game. The Premiums Okay, so this is the most repeated criticism in the game. It's hard to criticise premiums without just bashing the game, greed, or copy paste without providing something meaningful in return. I'll start by saying that I have bought premiums and Battlepasses (and grinded for the vehicles in them), a lot of them. I really like some of the unique vehicles, they equate to some of my favourites in the game. I love the M551 (76) Sheridan, Somua SM and VIDAR. These are all unique, premium + BP vehicles that do actually add something to the game, and I am happy to spend money within reason on these vehicles. Premium + BP vehicles that are copy paste such as the new Senrai Maidens pack, or the ELC 901 are uninteresting. They don't have gimmicks or anything that makes them different from their tech tree equivalents, and their sole purpose is to give players an extra thing to grind for in the Battlepass or an easy way to get a top tier premium vehicle. There are so many cool vehicles that are put forward to the devs monthly, but these almost never make it into the game, I understand that WT and Gaijin likes to pride itself on historical accuracy (despite this being inconsistent in itself) but there are so many real and interesting vehicles that could be added, yet we get maybe 1 every update in comparison to the ever growing catalogue of copy paste premiums. Of which consume around 50% of current WT updates. Infantry Gamemode I played Enlisted, and I really liked it. It does lots of things better than War Thunder. The gameplay is more enjoyable, being somewhat like Battlefields Operations gamemode. But does this mean I want it in War Thunder? No, to be honest. All of the infantry content being touted for WT could have been added to Enlisted. It makes sense right? So why is it being added to War Thunder? It's becoming obvious that it's to extend the grind for War Thunder now that new tech tree additions are drying up. It seems like Gaijin are more than content to just kill off one of their own projects just to kick War Thunder down the road a little bit longer. I'm sorry, but I'm simply just not going to play infantry. I can only imagine that once the fun gimmick of "oh it's modern guns and infantry in WT" wears off, it will sit mostly dead like Naval does. People play War Thunder for the Tank and Airplanes. If people want a modern FPS game to play, that has an actually fun gameplay loop. They're going to choose so many other games in an already very oversaturated market before they download War Thunder. I would not bother with infantry, and just focus on improving War Thunder at its core. What are the things Gaijin gets right? As I said before, I do like War Thunder at its core. The models are fantastic, the audio of vehicles seems to be improving again after deteriorating at one stage, though I still find myself using community made sound mods. I like the decals you can apply to make vehicles your own, or look historically accurate and I'm a big fan of the monthly decal series. I do use and like bushes for more cosmetic reasons, rather than placing them on completely broken angles that conceal areas that should not be possible, this does need to be fixed. The graphical overhauls of old maps are great, please keep these coming, but also consider that a lot of these maps are old and that the format of them maybe does not hold up still. We need more opportunities for flanking, where skill comes into the game rather than hurr durr fast and front combat where whoever has the most broken autoloaded premium wins. I really like some of the camouflages that nations get, but I feel like there could be more for certain vehicles rather than the base set of camos that the nation used during that era. I get that marketplace camos exist, but being on an Xbox account on PC is frustrating that I can't access these. Can we bring back account transfer? Or at least be given an update on when it may be returning, there has been radio silence on this topic and it affects a large portion of the player base. Conclusion and Final Thoughts I made this review because I'm really worried about the direction of War Thunder, in it's current state and protectory, this game WILL die. I say this because I used to get major FOMO when I didn't play War Thunder, but the game is so uninteresting, repetitive and greed driven at this point that I just don't care about missing out. Give me a reason to play the game, because when it's good I really enjoy playing it. I know this is a negative review in a sea of other negative reviews like "rah rah fix Russian Bias" and other memes, but Gaijin needs to understand that this really poor business model WILL kill the game eventually. Free to play games can live for lengthy periods, being live service games and all. Games like Fortnite, Roblox etc have a business model that keeps bringing people back. It's also worth noting the amount of live service games that die because they deteriorated over time, War Thunder will be no exception. The premium money will dry up when players become well and truly tired of the gameplay loop. If people aren't playing / enjoying the game (like me) they won't spend any money on it. Please listen to your community

I have been playing War Thunder since the early days, before it was on Steam, and honestly, the game is plagued with long-standing issues. For a new player, the first few tiers can be genuinely fun. The problems start once you hit certain BRs and begin moving higher in the tech trees. You might expect bigger and more tactical maps as vehicles become more advanced, but the opposite often happens: the higher you go, the smaller and more cramped the maps feel. Many top-tier ground battles end up playing more like Counter-Strike than tank combat, with constant close-quarters fights and very little room for proper positioning. The premium vehicle system feels predatory, especially toward new players. It encourages them to skip the learning process and jump straight to famous vehicles they like, such as the M1A1 Abrams, only to get thrown into high-tier matches where they are completely out of their depth. On top of that, Gaijin has recently been criticized for using AI-generated-looking content for things like skins and profile pictures, which makes the monetization feel even cheaper and more cynical. The worst thing a new player can do is buy a high-tier premium and jump straight into the grind. It is repetitive, unbalanced, and extremely punishing. You will often end up as free food for CAS, helicopters, BMPTs, and experienced players who already understand the game’s mechanics. A large part of many teams is made up of people who simply do not know what is happening yet, because the game does a poor job of teaching them and encourage throwing yourself at a high tier. The lack of meaningful game modes is also a huge problem. After all these years, most battles still feel like the same team deathmatch formula. Air battles especially could be so much better with proper objectives and more varied modes, but instead they often feel like chaotic team deathmatch with far too many planes. Ground battles suffer from the same issue. The grind is another major problem. It is slow enough that the game constantly pushes you toward buying premium time and premium vehicles. But once again, if you are a new player buying your way into high tier, you are probably going to get destroyed so you won't get anywhere anytime soon. At this point, the grind speed without premium should honestly be closer to what premium accounts currently get and full premium should just x2 the progress. Ground forces in particular take far too long to progress through, while air grind feels somewhat more reasonable. Vehicle modeling and balance are also frustrating. The director is pro russian and somehow like to do taxe evasion at the same time. If you expect your favorite vehicle to be represented fairly, prepare to be disappointed. Bug reports for NATO and other non-Russian vehicles often seem to require overwhelming documentation with no room for approximation, while Russian vehicles appear to receive more generous interpretation. I do not think approximations are automatically bad, sometimes they are necessary when exact data is unavailable, but the same standard should be applied to every nation. There is also a noticeable pattern where certain mechanics or features are said to be impossible, unsuitable, or reserved for later, only for them to eventually appear in a way that benefits Russian vehicles first. This creates the impression that the game is not applying its own rules consistently. Gaijin has also destroyed a lot of player trust by constantly contradicting its own past statements. They said there would be no modern vehicles then added them. They said there would be no modern premiums then added those too. At this point, many of their promises feel meaningless. And when it comes to approximations in vehicle modeling, this is not some conspiracy invented by players. Gaijin themselves have admitted that they use approximations when exact data is missing. The issue is that this flexibility seems to appear far more often for Russian vehicles, while NATO and other nations are held to a much harsher standard where even strong sources are dismissed for not being perfect. Many other shenanigans I can't fit here. In the end, War Thunder could be massively improved with bigger maps, more varied game modes, proper team-based objectives, fewer players per match, some kind of player rating system with a low bias just to get slightly more balanced games and maybe pair the noobs together, and a more consistent standards for vehicle modeling across every nation, not less “Russian bias” but a more equal treatment for everyone else. Ah yes, and NO AI.

as somone with 2000 hours on console and launcher, i'm tired of the slop and disregard for the community Kill the slop.

I highly recommend playing Russia unless you hate your life and want to smash your balls in a panini press. I've only gone through about 4 monitors while playing this game(i've never played russia). Game is more grindy then sandpaper dildos and I'd personally rather beat my peen with IcyHot then play this game. Nevertheless I play this game almost everyday and highly recommend it.

Too many premium vehicles released especially at a high premium. For example a Jet for 80€. Only a few gamemodes which can get repetitive. Events where you can earn a vehicle are very grindy, making it impossible to obtain for people that cannot play 8+ hrs a day. After reaching about rank 3 or 4 with Tanks for example, the grind becomes a snails pace. Which makes someone have to play for over a year to reach top tier. Unless they purchase a Premium vehicle or Premium Account Time.

If you have any self respect, dont play this game. However, if you have a true hatred for yourself, its a great game.