ThinkTanks Review

A stream of bullets blast past you, narrowly missing your smoking wreck of a tank. You know just over that ridge is a health pick up, if you can just make it. Another hail of bullets gets perilously close as your hulk limps up the hill, you can hear the enemy tanks getting nearer, scenting an easy kill as you get closer still. You manage to get the health pick up and suddenly the tables turn! Dispatching shots left, right and centre and two tanks go down, flipping over to indicate their destruction. A warm glow envelopes you in the midst of your self made destruction. This is how gaming should be, this is ThinkTanks!

The first thing that impressed me about ThinkTanks was just how accessible it was and how easy it was to play. After a brief tutorial where the controls were explained, as well as some of the power ups, I was thrust into an exciting world of dog-eat-dog (should that be tank-eat-tank?) action.

Boasting both offline and online multiplayer game options, you certainly aren’t starved for choice and I jumped straight into a deathmatch mode against AI controlled tanks. Although movement itself is easy to get to grips with, the aiming is a different kettle of fish altogether. Essentially, you move the mouse over where you want to shoot and press the left mouse button. Sounds easy? Well think again as I found the aiming to be particularly sensitive and spent most of my initial time on the game being fodder for the ruthless AI tanks. After mastering the aiming I was able to claim some kills of my own and started shooting up the leaderboard.

To complement the action is a very light and bouncy soundtrack which at first may seem at odds with the action with almost a type of jungle beat providing the soundtrack to your fighting. However, the music is charming in an offensive way and it will quickly grow on you.

The game runs very smoothly and although graphically could certainly not be considered stunning, they are functional and the tanks are well drawn. Coupled with the music then this makes for a very fun looking and sounding game. Another big plus in this department is the fact that I encountered no lag whilst playing online.

The online game is what I consider to be the strongest feature of the overall ThinkTanks package. There is a good selection of servers available for you to play on, and helpfully they are split up into categories of difficulty allowing you to break yourself into the online game gently. I had the most fun playing a variant of capture the flag, where the flag would randomly appear in the level, provoking a mad dash by all the players to grab it and take it to the “goal.”

Overall I was thoroughly impressed with ThinkTanks. The game is pure fun, sorely missing in some of today’s blockbuster games, where realism rather then enjoyment seems to rule the gaming charts.

Edited by Phil Abram: http://www.phillabram.blogspot.com