Total Tank Simulator Preview

Total Tank Simulator is a strategy game that has you controlling over 300 units on the battlefield. TTS is being developed by Noobz from Poland, and published by 505 Games. I got to play a preview build that allowed me to use two armies: the USSR and Germany.

There are two main options to play in TTS. You can either play a campaign, which allows you to fight multiple battles as one side, or you can go into a sandbox battle. The sandbox battle allows you to fully customise the map and how it plays. For example, you can pick one of the many included layouts, and add in some changes, such as snow to add a little more complexity.The whole process is incredibly simple, with a plethora of options available.

The other side of the game is the campaign mode, which takes you through a series of battles. The difference here from sandbox mode is that you have limited money, troops and resources which is really where the game challenges you. In one scenario you may have to defeat over 300 enemy units when maybe you have only 50 units, because they are the best units available and cost you all of your money.

When in a battle you can control the individual units. However, when playing I found that I didn’t enjoy playing as units, as when I did the game was tanking horribly, which was my main issue with the preview in general. On my PC, running with a Ryzen 2700X and an Nvidia 2070 Super, at 1080p medium settings I was getting an average of 20FPS, much lower than I should be expecting from a game like this. This game is still a work in progress and may need some optimisation, but I couldn’t write this preview without stating this, as my experience may be a lot different to yours when the game finally launches later this year, but the performance issues really hindered my enjoyment of the game.

When playing the campaign mode, you have a tech tree that allows you to upgrade your units and unlock new vehicles to unleash a whole new kind of mayhem upon the opposing side. There is so much to unlock in the preview build but there were only two sides available to play as. While there are some great options along the tech trees I didn’t get to use them as I didn't have enough skill points.

The overall art style of this title is a cartoony style that doesn’t look great especially in this genre. While it’s different from military games like Call of Duty or Battlefield, there’s a reason these military style games don’t adopt the art style; it really doesn’t fit the overall theme of the game and just doesn’t look good at all.