The first time I played World of Warships, I headed straight for the objective like a good captain would. Secure the objectives to win, right?
No. Wrong. Dead wrong. Dead, on fire, drowning in shark-infested waters, wrong.
In a matter of a few minutes (regular games last around 20-30 minutes) I was watching my smoldering husk of a ship slowly sink beneath the relatively calm seas. The American flag boldly flapping in the wind, the last part of my ship to sink beneath the surf. Happy Fourth of July, indeed.
Hey Tom, why were the seas calm? Isn’t this called World of Warships?? The trailer showed massive waves crashing all around the ships!
First off, the game will never be as intense as that trailer, ever. Those are what I like to call “hype trailers” and they show no gameplay footage, they just serve to get people hyped for a game. The trailer below is actual in-game footage, though it’s very cinematically presented.
But yeah, it is indeed World of Warships and not World of Tropical Island Sightseeing Tours. The reason the seas were calm around the objective is because I was the only one on my team stupid brave enough to mount a full-frontal attack into the capture point. While the mechanics of the game are still a bit of a mystery to me, I feel pretty comfortable in saying that if your team controls more capture point objectives, you’re probably winning. Also, if your team has more ships left afloat, that’s another strong indicator of impending victory.
What ends up happening is that the teams circle around the capture points for awhile, waiting for the other team to make the first move. It’s this weird game of cat and mouse that I’m still learning the metagame of, but at least I now know not to Leeroy Jenkins right on into the middle of the maps.
World of War-Upgrades
The big thing that initially deterred me from getting into World of Warships was my lack of knowledge about the “warships” themselves.
My WWII gaming experiences have taught me what weird words like Panzer, Messerschmitt, and kamikaze mean, —the latter of which is not an option in World of Warships. But none of the Medal of Honors or Call of Dutys ever really dealt with battleships, beyond naming them in general.
I didn’t know the difference between a cruiser and a destroyer, nor did I know the difference between a Benson and a Fletcher.
Luckily, I didn’t have to. The game channels all of the available ships into types (cruiser, destroyer, battleship, and aircraft carrier) and from their it layers them in numbered classes. The class system (to my understanding) helps keep the starter ships from ending up in battles with the more advanced players. So my Class I Canoe will never be matched up with a Class XXIVXL Super Star Destroyer, basically.
With each battle, you earn experience and upgrade credits which you will use to level up your account and upgrade your ships respectively. I honestly had no clue what I was doing in the menu half the time. My friends said, “Get this ship and upgrade this and that part,” so I did and I just kept saving up to upgrade the next bits. I’m pretty sure you’re stuck on a track when it comes to upgrades anyway, but it was nice to have a couple of people who knew how to play, there to guide me along.
Where were they when I charged headlong into my first battle??
Okay they were there, I just wasn’t listening to them. Full speed dead ahead!
I’ll probably have more to write about World of Warships later on, after I’ve spent more time in the Open Beta.
