PowerGamers

Gameplay

The game is set to contain aircraft, armored vehicles, and ships from the pre-World War II era to the early Korean War era. Most maps in-game are either directly or indirectly based on real-life battles of the era.

The average size of maps in the game currently range from approximately 65 km x 65 km to 100 km x 100 km to 200 km x 200 km, although the engine powering the game is likely to achieve larger map sizes in the future, estimates are said to be about 300 km x 300 km.

 

Arcade Battles 

In arcade mode, the game draws two teams of players (up to 32 people) with planes of different nations with close levels. It is possible to see war machines of the same type in different teams. Damage and physics are greatly simplified (e.g. in very high speed dives, planes do not have their wings ripped off and are still controllable), but retain some realism (e.g. bombers are not as maneuverable as fighters, etc.). The Arcade Mode games are played in either "Ground Strike," where in order to win you must destroy all enemy ground units or "Domination", which consists of seizing enemy airfields, causing the enemy team to lose points.

 

Realistic Battles

This mode is designed for more advanced users. More realistic damage models makes long-range "sniping" difficult, and due to realistic g-forces, making tight maneuvers at high speeds can cause pilots to black out or their planes to rip apart. In this mode, unlike the arcade game, players are selected for each teams nation, making it possible to recreate a real scenario, such as the Battle of Stalingrad between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich.

 

Simulator Battles

This mode is based on the most realistic simulation settings; only the first-person view in the cockpit or turret gunner views are allowed, and flight physics are at their most realistic settings, reflecting the attributes of the real world airframe to a fairly accurate level. The story mode is similar to the realistic battles - two teams of different nations are fighting each other for dominance in the sky, but the realism of the game at this level is even higher. Full Real setting also requires players to play with a joystick as opposed to a mouse and keyboard.

 

Development

The development of the game as World of Planes began in 2009. Gaijin Entertainment used its experience with its previous flight games such as IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, Apache: Air Assault, and Birds of Steel in its development. The name was later changed to War Thunder due to confusion with the similar competitor World of Warplanes, as well as other reasons due to Gaijin, the developers of War Thunder, wanting the game to not just be focused on aviation anymore.