Tank Warz! Demo

Although complexity is not always a requirement in the world of video games, it’s nice to have some sort of depth most of the time, especially if the goal is for the gamers to create some long-lasting memories. Hence, while RPGs and adventure games usually achieve this with a good story, simple arcade games focus on an addictive set of gameplay mechanics.

Tank Warz! is an arcade first-person shooter in which you control a tank as you try to contain an invasion of evil tanks, with the main mission being to stay alive and put an end to the incoming flux of enemies. Unfortunately, there are some gameplay issues that make the experience a tad too annoying most of the time, such as the movement, or even the shooting mechanics themselves.

To begin with, the demo map is about as boring as it can get, since there’s nothing to see but an open plain surrounded by impassable mountains. The play area is very small as well, so at least you do not have to worry too much about positioning. Naturally, your mission is to destroy the colored portals that allow enemy tanks to teleport to your location, while also dealing with the tanks that have already spawned around you.

Unfortunately, the movement is incredibly annoying, probably because you can only see the turret on the screen, yet the rest of the tank moves independently of the turret. Thus, it’s very difficult to know where your front is, which makes movement a chore. It’s worth mentioning that you can only aim on the horizontal axis, so it’s impossible to hit an enemy if it happens to be slightly lower/higher than you.

Finally, there’s the issue regarding level design, at least in the demo, because you can pretty much become bored with the small map from the first few seconds. Granted, the graphics are very basic to begin with, but that wouldn’t be a problem if you at least had options in terms of level exploration, or at least some places to hide or use as cover.

In the end, Tank Warz! is definitely not ready to hit the market just yet, given the fact that it does so many things wrong. However, most of the issues can be solved by the developers in the meantime, and we can only hope that they do so.