TL;DR: Overwhelming amounts of grind, terrible forum moderation, developers completely out of touch with the player base, P2W.

Preface: My Steam game time is not the representation of my experience with the game; I have been playing this game on and off since February 2013 and Gaijin somehow manages to make the game worse and worse with each update. Every patch could be summarized as “One step forward, two (or more) steps backwards”.

I started out after patch 1.27 came out. I admit. back then matchmaking was pretty unforgiving but the game was a lot of fun. It was easy to make credits, easy to progress, good times overall.

Then, patch 1.29 came. This patch made earning credits much harder. This made a lot of players switch to "Historical battles" mode, which had a much higher cap on credits earned. But because the earnings were still low, players were buying this plane called "Dora". High tier German fighter. Many players were playing it, which led to horrible matchmaking, where this plane would often get matched with low tier planes.. I remember facing it in my tier 4 Spitfire (the Dora was rank 13 at the time).

Next patch remedied this somewhat, but they added this stupid feature called "Battle trophies". Basically a random chance to get some credits after a match. Pure randomness. Gaijin actually thought this was a good solution.

Sometime after that, they introduced upgrade system. This is where the "World of Tankification" started. Before this, planes had no upgrades save for two, which had a very tiny impact on the performance. But now, fully upgraded plane was about 30% more powerful than stock one. So you had to go back and grind out all of those upgrades if you wanted to be competitive. To be fair, we also got ammo belts in this update, but still - one step forward, two steps backwards.

Then came the dreaded patch 1.37. Prior to this patch, you would gather XP into a big pool of 20 levels, after the bar was full, you would unlock a bunch of planes. With the new system, the progression was changed into 5 levels, where you have to unlock 6 planes of one level before you can move on. This made the grind about 4 times longer while devaluing the XP conversion for real money at the same time. Gaijin also lied to the players when they said you would be able to just go down one plane line (bombers, naval fighters, etc). This was not true, the only point of the new system was to get people to pay more money. This update was also accompanied by new matchmaking system called Battle Rating. Each plane has its BR value, which is determined not by plane performance, but by player performance in that plane. This is just as stupid as it sounds and even to this day, there are some hilariously under tiered planes. Such as premium P-47 that can actually go up against biplanes.

Then, there were tanks. Of course, they introduced expensive packs for early access into the tanks.To be fair, this was the only time when the game was fairly balanced. And it was fun too - you only needed 2 tanks to advance to the next tier.
After full tank release, the XP gain was really low compared to planes. Gaijin again lied about this - first they said the XP gain would be adjusted as more tanks are added, but it has remained the same to this day. Unlocking a tank tree takes about 4x longer than unlocking an air tree.

Then there was the P2W. Tiger II is too good? Here's a T29! Only 40 dollars!
Oh, Soviets don't have any good heavy tanks? Here, IS-6! Only 40 dollars!
Oh no, the IS-6 is giving you hard time? Here's Ru-251! With ammo that can slice through the frontal armor! Only 40 dollars!

They also introduced Bushes for IRL currency. First, they costed 1000 GE (I think) for a pack of 6, then Gaijin claimed this was a sale and now they cost 500 GE per piece. Now, these bushed give you a pretty big advantage in battle - not because they make you harded to see, but because they hide your weak spots, which is a big deal in a game mode with no markers.

Then they denied cheating was even possible in War Thunder, and when a youtuber uploaded a video of these cheats, they came out and said asked the community if they would rather have them ban anyone who mentions these cheats, or completely ruin the game mode by adding markers so that cheats are less effective. No word about combating these cheaters though. They have started banning them though, but people at Gaijin tend to be very dense.


Now, the 1.71 patch. While it did nothing inherently bad, they introduced a new tier of tanks along with 50 dollar premium tanks (starting to see the pattern here?). This update is only for whales since 95% of the player base will never get to these tanks because of the intense grind required.

The forum mods are always on powertrip. They just keep making up stupid forum rules, so they have even more ways to ban you for criticism, disagreeing with moderation and even reporting bugs and making suggestions.

Back to the grind in tanks - you need to research two separate modules if you want to put out fires and repair your tank in battle. Gaijin defended this with stupid claims such as "it creates tension" and so on. Just to illustrate how stupid it is - imagine starting out with 50 health in CSGO and having to kill a certain amount of enemies before you can even have 100 health. And you would have to do the same before you could buy Kevlar vest and a helmet. Seriously - what other game has such a stupid mechanic?

I have almost 300 battles in Leopard A1A1 and I still have not unlocked all the upgrades. And that is with a premium account.

The developers do not care about what the community wants - they will make the game they want to make, and hopefully it will be the same game players will want to play.

The graphics and core game play are both very nice, but that is not enough to save War Thunder.

Unfortunately, this game is merely a shadow of its former self - the best time to play was 3 years ago. Now they are just milking the player base as much as they can.

Overall verdict - 5/10. Do not play this for more than a few hours, and certainly do not spend any money. There are many better games that you could be playing, even for free.

TL;DR: Overwhelming amounts of grind, terrible forum moderation, developers completely out of touch with the player base, P2W. Preface: My Steam game time is not the representation of my experience with the game; I have been playing this game on and off since February 2013 and Gaijin somehow manages to make the game worse and worse with each update. Every patch could be summarized as “One step forward, two (or more) steps backwards”. I started out after patch 1.27 came out. I admit. back then matchmaking was pretty unforgiving but the game was a lot of fun. It was easy to make credits, easy to progress, good times overall. Then, patch 1.29 came. This patch made earning credits much harder. This made a lot of players switch to "Historical battles" mode, which had a much higher cap on credits earned. But because the earnings were still low, players were buying this plane called "Dora". High tier German fighter. Many players were playing it, which led to horrible matchmaking, where this plane would often get matched with low tier planes.. I remember facing it in my tier 4 Spitfire (the Dora was rank 13 at the time). Next patch remedied this somewhat, but they added this stupid feature called "Battle trophies". Basically a random chance to get some credits after a match. Pure randomness. Gaijin actually thought this was a good solution. Sometime after that, they introduced upgrade system. This is where the "World of Tankification" started. Before this, planes had no upgrades save for two, which had a very tiny impact on the performance. But now, fully upgraded plane was about 30% more powerful than stock one. So you had to go back and grind out all of those upgrades if you wanted to be competitive. To be fair, we also got ammo belts in this update, but still - one step forward, two steps backwards. Then came the dreaded patch 1.37. Prior to this patch, you would gather XP into a big pool of 20 levels, after the bar was full, you would unlock a bunch of planes. With the new system, the progression was changed into 5 levels, where you have to unlock 6 planes of one level before you can move on. This made the grind about 4 times longer while devaluing the XP conversion for real money at the same time. Gaijin also lied to the players when they said you would be able to just go down one plane line (bombers, naval fighters, etc). This was not true, the only point of the new system was to get people to pay more money. This update was also accompanied by new matchmaking system called Battle Rating. Each plane has its BR value, which is determined not by plane performance, but by player performance in that plane. This is just as stupid as it sounds and even to this day, there are some hilariously under tiered planes. Such as premium P-47 that can actually go up against biplanes. Then, there were tanks. Of course, they introduced expensive packs for early access into the tanks.To be fair, this was the only time when the game was fairly balanced. And it was fun too - you only needed 2 tanks to advance to the next tier. After full tank release, the XP gain was really low compared to planes. Gaijin again lied about this - first they said the XP gain would be adjusted as more tanks are added, but it has remained the same to this day. Unlocking a tank tree takes about 4x longer than unlocking an air tree. Then there was the P2W. Tiger II is too good? Here's a T29! Only 40 dollars! Oh, Soviets don't have any good heavy tanks? Here, IS-6! Only 40 dollars! Oh no, the IS-6 is giving you hard time? Here's Ru-251! With ammo that can slice through the frontal armor! Only 40 dollars! They also introduced Bushes for IRL currency. First, they costed 1000 GE (I think) for a pack of 6, then Gaijin claimed this was a sale and now they cost 500 GE per piece. Now, these bushed give you a pretty big advantage in battle - not because they make you harded to see, but because they hide your weak spots, which is a big deal in a game mode with no markers. Then they denied cheating was even possible in War Thunder, and when a youtuber uploaded a video of these cheats, they came out and said asked the community if they would rather have them ban anyone who mentions these cheats, or completely ruin the game mode by adding markers so that cheats are less effective. No word about combating these cheaters though. They have started banning them though, but people at Gaijin tend to be very dense. Now, the 1.71 patch. While it did nothing inherently bad, they introduced a new tier of tanks along with 50 dollar premium tanks (starting to see the pattern here?). This update is only for whales since 95% of the player base will never get to these tanks because of the intense grind required. The forum mods are always on powertrip. They just keep making up stupid forum rules, so they have even more ways to ban you for criticism, disagreeing with moderation and even reporting bugs and making suggestions. Back to the grind in tanks - you need to research two separate modules if you want to put out fires and repair your tank in battle. Gaijin defended this with stupid claims such as "it creates tension" and so on. Just to illustrate how stupid it is - imagine starting out with 50 health in CSGO and having to kill a certain amount of enemies before you can even have 100 health. And you would have to do the same before you could buy Kevlar vest and a helmet. Seriously - what other game has such a stupid mechanic? I have almost 300 battles in Leopard A1A1 and I still have not unlocked all the upgrades. And that is with a premium account. The developers do not care about what the community wants - they will make the game they want to make, and hopefully it will be the same game players will want to play. The graphics and core game play are both very nice, but that is not enough to save War Thunder. Unfortunately, this game is merely a shadow of its former self - the best time to play was 3 years ago. Now they are just milking the player base as much as they can. Overall verdict - 5/10. Do not play this for more than a few hours, and certainly do not spend any money. There are many better games that you could be playing, even for free.