World of Warships is a free-to-play naval warfare-themed massively multiplayer online game produced and published by Wargaming, following the earlier games World of Tanks and World of Warplanes. Players can battle others at random or play cooperative battle types against bots or an advanced player versus environment battle mode. For the most skilled players, two seasonal competitive modes are available. World of Warships was originally released for Microsoft Windows and macOS in 2017. The computer version was followed by the iOS mobile game titled World of Warships Blitz in 2018. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console versions, titled World of Warships: Legends, followed in 2019.
Gameplay
World of Warships is a tactical, slow-paced shooter with two basic types of armament: ship guns and torpedoes. The gameplay is team-based, and allows players to work as a team. Within a team divisions can be established to allow a group of up to three players to join and fight battles together. The player's team can fight against other players or against the AI in three battle modes: Standard, Domination, and Epicenter. Each mode is scored on a points system. The warships presented in the game cover periods from the early 20th century, at the dawn of dreadnought battleships, up to warships from the 1950s, including ships that were planned but never put into production. The game has four different types of ships: destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers. Submarines have been added to the game as part of testing as of update 0.9.4 The game features navies of major naval power nations including the United States Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Royal Navy, the French Marine Nationale, the Imperial German Navy, the Italian Regia Marina and the Imperial Russian Navy. Commonwealth, Pan-European, and other smaller European navies are also represented, along with a Pan-Asian tree featuring ships from various East and Southeast Asian navies. Players can progress through the game through research of each ship from each tier. Each specific ship has a number of modules that can be accessed through experience. This experience is used to unlock modules and, once a ship's modules are completely researched, the player can continue to the next ship. The previous ship, if fully upgraded, gains Elite status. Warship elements such as commanders with skill trees and unique perks can be further customized, as well as modification kits and mounting consumables like signals and ship camouflage. Players can also receive a multitude of rewards by watching World of Warships Twitch and YouTube streams. The game features combat missions, challenges, campaigns and collections for the sake of creating extra goals, rewards and a meaningful progression for players during their time with the game. These systems also give an opportunity of creating a storytelling inside or outside of the military or historical genres. Some special Halloween, April Fools, or other holiday battle modes appear in the game. The secondary goal of the "holiday modes" is to test new game mechanics. Battles take place on a limited number of specific maps, each depicting a certain location with different geographical layouts mostly based on locations of historical naval battles. Most part of maps have a static or dynamic weather system to make battles more diverse. Moreover, some maps are unique for a certain game mode, e.g. PvE scenario battles based on historical events such as the Dunkirk evacuation. Scenarios is a PvE game mode where players cooperate and complete tasks. They include a number of operations, each with separate stories, objectives, secondary objectives and rewards. To finish the scenario, players need to team up and complete the primary objective. On completion of the secondary objectives, they receive an additional star. In addition to Ranked Battles, Clan battles were introduced as another competitive mode that is played in the season format. Players can only participate in Clan Battles as a team, as opposed to Ranked battles where individual players compete against each other. World of Warships: Legends was rebuilt to support console gameplay, sharing the same core gameplay loop of the computer version. However, it was designed to have faster paced battles, faster progression, and had several systems revamped to fit console players.
Release
On August 16, 2011, the company website of Wargaming, developer and publisher of World of Tanks and World of Warplanes, announced World of Battleships, a free-to-play naval action MMO, intended to complete the World of war trilogy developed by the company. On August 2, 2012, the game was renamed World of Warships. After a petition opened by South Korean players was signed 40,000 times, Wargaming removed the Rising Sun Flag from Imperial Japanese warships in July 2013. After that, more than 12,000 signatures were gathered requesting reimplementation of the Rising Sun Flag, but the decision was not overturned. On November 14, 2013, the game entered closed alpha testing. Closed beta testing for World of Warships started on March 12, 2015, shortly after closed alpha ended, with the non-disclosure agreement covering the alpha being lifted at the same time. On April 9, 2015, pre-order packages consisting of premium warships and access to the closed beta test became available for purchase by players. Open beta testing for World of Warships started on July 2, 2015, as the final step prior to the game's formal launch. As of the open beta test, approximately 85% of the core game development have been completed and there were future plans to introduce weather effects and night battle after the game's official release. On September 3, 2015, Wargaming announced that the game had exited open beta. The game was officially launched on September 17, 2015, and later released through Steam and Microsoft Store on November 15, 2017. An iOS and Android version titled World of Warships Blitz was released by Wargaming Mobile on January 18, 2018., A console version of the computer game, World of Warships: Legends, was announced on June 20, 2018, and was released in Early Access and Game Preview for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on April 16, 2019. World of Warships: Legends fully released on August 12, 2019. According to Malik Khatazhaev, the general manager of Lesta Studio, in May 2019, World of Warships MAU exceeded 1,000,000 worldwide actively playing audiences.
Reception
World of Warships has a score of 81/100 on Metacritic. IGN awarded it a score of 8.3 out of 10, stating that the combat feels good and that the game's teamwork is satisfying. GameSpot awarded it a score of 8.0 out of 10, saying "The thrills that await, along with the promise of unlocking advanced ships down the road, make World of Warships an enticing expedition into the sometimes turbulent waters of free-to-play games." The Escapist awarded it four out of five, saying "With its tense naval battles and huge array of historical vessels, World of Warships is the free-to-play MMO that can make a wargamer out of anyone."
