We got in the trenches with the World of Tanks Beta and prepared a full battle report!

Success in combat is also dependent on team work. Without an SPG, a light tank is low on the food chain, and without a light tank, an SPG is blind. A competitive shooter lives and breathes on the variety and balance of its weapons, and World of Tanks isn't just giant metal bumper cars.

SPGs are those massive guns that can shoot across entire battlefields and are a wonderful addition to World of Tanks' surprising combat depth. It's almost like WoT's version of a super powerful sniper rifle, or some sort of long range threat. Aiming an SPG takes you to an aerial view of the battlefield, and landing as little as one hit will many times be enough to put a tank down.

However, in order to shoot at the enemy, you need to know where he is, which is where the faster, lighter tanks come in. Many times you can contribute to your team just by driving around and spotting the enemy's position for long enough for an SPG to land a kill shot, which they can do from an entire map length away. But if your SPG finds itself in a battle with a tank up close, you'll be dead in no time.

We also piloted tank destroyers which pack a more powerful punch than regular tanks, but give up maneuverability due to their lack of a rotating tank turret. So if the enemy is coming down a crowded street, a tank destroyer is a great option, but out in the open, when tanks circle around each other, a tank destroyer will have a hard time keeping up. All this to say that the combat is unique and deeper than we would have expected.

World of Tanks still gets bogged down in the mud a little though. One has to wonder if SPGs are bit overpowered as they do get most of the kills in most games. We also wish the game had more destructible environments and more traversable terrain. We want to climb up a mountain and run our tank right through a house if we please! We found our tanks doing very un-tank-like things like getting stuck on trees and bouncing off of walls. They also struggled with gradual inclines and generally moved way, way too slowly.

Upgrading is very deep but is also set up in multiple menus in an overly confusing way. You have to earn experience to unlock upgrades and then you need to spend credits to equip the upgrades, but there are also rare tanks and ammo that can only be unlocked by purchasing them with real money.  Hopefully there will be more options to customize our tanks a little bit. We're not talking like, "Pimp My Tank," but some flames or being able to name your tank would have been nice. We just got done playing APB, so, just sayin'.

World of Tanks is as gutsy and unique as the WWII tanks it praises. It's a gutsy concept that has never been tried before, with gameplay that's different than gamers are used to. Not everything is polished and pretty, but it works and deserves to be noticed. Playing World of Tanks as a game reviewer is probably a little bit like seeing a tank for the first time as a WWII soldier. You've just got to say, "Whoa, what is this?"