Gaijin entertainment effectively monopolizes the simlite historical vehicle combat niche and they are determined to aggressively monetize that fact at the cost of player experience until the end of time.

War Thunder is the greatest waste of potential in gaming history - a technical marvel that sells itself out for whales, driving sane players to seek more balanced and grind-free experiences. But for this genre and control scheme, those competitors don't yet exist.

I have played on the standalone launcher for over 2000 hours. From my start in 2015 to May of 2019 I put over $1000 into the game. In the end I realized that paying or not, new player or veteran, there is no escape from the fundamental unfairness and hassle Gaijin have intentionally injected into every aspect of the War Thunder experience.

War Thunder could have been great. Instead, it's barely mediocre, and I advise anyone remotely interested in fairness or balance to never even try it. Hopefully we get a third person WWII air combat game with solid physics from another studio soon. But I've wanted that for 8 years and here we are with nothing but WT. If you are interested in tanks though, GHPC is worth a look.

Edit: Reposting to help with the latest outrage.

Edit 2: Everything I said in my initial review remains true. However, I must acknowledge that even deeply flawed and toxic games can be fun if you play with friends, and don't take any of it too seriously.