After two updates to the game engine, Var Thunder has become more beautiful graphically, it has good physics of destruction of the surrounding landscape. However, the game has very bad physics in the movements of equipment, which is clearly controlled not by the game engine, but by scripts that work poorly and crookedly. The flight characteristics and performance characteristics of the equipment are set up very poorly, acceleration, dive, pitch-up are the same on all aircraft of the same group (pistons or jets), there is no difference between the acceleration of jets and piston aircraft, although the engines operate differently. When moving equipment, numerous unnatural movements are observed, such as tanks bouncing on invisible uneven terrain, and in airplanes, often after leaving the barrel with rotation, a skidding movement is observed (sideways at an angle to the direction of movement. Moreover, when airplanes fire at the enemy, they can turn at an angle to the movement vector and hit the enemy in pitch, the flaps clearly work differently at different times, for example, when the aircraft is moving vertically at the lower point during release. flaps and using pitch, the plane suddenly loses maneuverability, although it should be different. That is, at certain moments the plane turns into an uncontrollable log. Most often this manifests itself in arcade battles. But there are also realistic battles in the game. where all the planes turn into logs. It is completely unclear in what way their “realism” is manifested. Due to poor flight physics and incorrect configuration of the flight characteristics of the aircraft, all the speed numbers, the rate of climb and turn, which are indicated in the specifications for it, are completely empty and do not reflect reality. Tanks have a disgusting damage system. It feels like it depends solely on the randomness, and not on the player’s actions. When shooting at the same place, you may or may not penetrate (which happens more often). There is essentially no armor for equipment. Terrible balance. For example, one or a similar combat rating (b.r.) is assigned to equipment that differs by an order of magnitude in terms of flight characteristics and performance characteristics. As a result, she ends up in one fight. This applies most of all to air battles, mainly arcade ones. There, hypersonic and subsonic aircraft, those with and without thermal deflectors (thermal traps from missiles), those with missiles with enhanced deflection properties and those without, can get into the same battle. For example, Mig 15s b.r. 8.7 gets into one battle with Mig 21 with b.r. 8.7-9.0. The first is a subsonic aircraft without heat traps, without missiles, but the second has this. The difference between them is colossal in terms of performance characteristics and weapons (with the exception of course weapons). Mig 15 can neither catch up with Mig 21, nor outclimb it, nor escape from it, nor defend against its missiles. Mig21 has missiles with PARL, which hit the front hemisphere and have high speed. In this regard, the Miga 15 also has no chance in a frontal attack. They have the difference in combat capabilities as between the Mig 15 and the biplane of the 1920s. But they end up in the same battle because they have a similar BR. And there are plenty of such cases in the game. The same situation arises, for example, with saber (some species) and Harrier. Because of this, the game becomes simply unplayable. A lot of interesting technologies have been introduced into the game, these include missiles and flight training centers, the ability to bury equipment, reconnaissance drones and much more. But the problem is that they are applied haphazardly. As a result, the game has been turned into a cesspool of technology.
The game has a very good idea, which personally attracts me to it and makes it potentially interesting and realistic. This - The idea of "one-shot". However, for the game to become interesting, this idea must be implemented with the principle of allowing player influence on the gameplay. This principle is that the game should give the player the opportunity to win through their own "skill". This principle is very important for War Thunder, as you can be "one-shot" at any moment. The player should have the opportunity, through THEIR OWN SKILL, not only to "deliver" a "one-shot", but also to defend against it. This is not even close to being present in the game currently, after the change of game engines. For example, there are missiles in the game that can be countered with flares. The idea seems good and even wonderful, but when you start using flares against a missile, you find that they don't always work. You launch them on time, they should protect you, but they don't distract the missile. And this process depends more on randomness than on your actions. And here's the question — what's the point of such a game if you can't win through your skill? Another point, also concerning airplanes. You can master the control of the airplane perfectly, learning advanced aerobatics and principles of maneuver combat, but you will lose just because the physics in the game are terrible, with the flight characteristics of the vehicles being uniformly set (acceleration in a dive, speed loss in a climb, agility, etc.), preventing you from utilizing your skills, and you get shot down. Or you end up in a battle against a plane with higher characteristics (for example, MiG-15 and MiG-21), where you can't do anything. There are also other clumsy and incomprehensible things in the game. For example, the terrible visibility both on the ground and in airplanes. The poorly tuned overload system. For instance, any deviation from the course during flight, for example on a Sabre in a vertical maneuver, especially using flaps and pitch, immediately leads to severe overloads and loss of control, while other actions, like endless rolls, smeared rolls in different directions with sudden drops and climbs do not lead to such overloads. Another example, you make a maneuver using flaps, and the enemy on a different vehicle — without using them. Both of you are moving at the same speed and performing the same maneuver (vertical, horizontal — it doesn't matter which). The crews are the same. But during the maneuver, you experience extreme overloads, while the enemy does not. This is likely influenced by the use of pitch and flaps, indicating that the physics are based on scripts rather than the game engine. There are many other flaws in the game, which could be endlessly written about.
I want to separately mention the lag. In this game, lag is a very important factor. With high lag, you not only won't be able to shoot first in tanks, but also won't notice the sudden appearance of enemy vehicles, for example, from behind a house. With high lag, you won't be able to hit in a "head-on" encounter, or even from a boom-and-zoom. Moreover, you won't be able to win in a maneuver fight, as you won't understand where and how the enemy vehicle is positioned relative to your airplane. Lag is a scourge in this game. I played on three different computers, with three networks (4G, wired internet, fiber optic). Nothing changes, everything works the same. Every time I play on the minimum graphics settings. The first battle after logging into the game goes normally, with lag low enough to play. But from the second battle, suddenly high lag appears with a snap of the fingers. Почему, не понимаю, вроде все как обычно и вдруг, сильная задержка, ни в кого не попадаю. По ощущению задержка в 0,5-1 сек. При этом пинг обычный, потери пакетов нет. заметил, что при этом также частенько начинает скакать ФПС. Я думаю, что проблема здесь в плохой оптимизации игры, в плохом сетевом коде (который может неправильно работать с имеющимся игровым движком). Все это зачастую приводит к неиграбельности.
Я в игре — долгое время, с 2014 года, под разными аккаунтами, в основном летал на самолетах в аркаде и мне нравилась игра. Раньше. Сейчас это просто ужас. Играть в нее нет никакого желания. Не говоря уже про донаты. Плохая физика, отвратительная настройка ЛТХ и ТТХ техники, ужасный баланс приводят к тому, что в игре невозможно или очень сложно проявить хоть как-то свои навыки. Это привело к том, что весь геймплей в самолетах сводится либо к лобовой, либо к бумзуму. А в танках — к сидению в кустах и за камнями. Геймплей стал тупым и неинтересным.
Сейчас я оцениваю игру в 2 балла из 5 и только из-за идеи ваншота, ну и неплохой графики и разрушения ландшафта. Но все остальное — просто ужасно. Графика при отсутствии интересного геймплея быстро наскучит, как и разрушение заборов, скамеек и других элементов ландшафта. Сейчас игра представляет собой ширпотреб, игру с тупым, малоинтересным геймплеем с помойкой из технологий, в которую нет желания играть и тем более донатить.
Я НЕ СОВЕТУЮ игру сейчас.