World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks

"Let your Netherlandal side run rampant..."

OPENING STATEMENT
Most females in this world seem to think that males have an obsession with blowing stuff up, with power and destruction. Video games are hardly a medium of the entertainment industry that proves them wrong. Well, having movies like Mission: Impossible 2 gross $217 million hardly helps either. World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks is the perfect way to prove half of the world’s population right. The only downside is that you will have to listen to a lifetime of “I told you so!” And, girls, its the perfect way to be hypocritical.

GAMEPLAY--9
Simplistic gameplay is not always a bad thing, as World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks states so well. While there are different types of missions and objectives to complete, always at the core of your mission is the destruction of your enemies. And, trust me; Complete, absolute destruction of opposing tanks is a great way to exert some of that anger you have welling up inside of you from various sources. And be as audacious in your attacks as you want - the opposing tanks cannot actually hurt you!

In some missions, your only goal is to destroy your opposing tanks, or five enemy tanks. But, many times, there are other objectives that must be completed for you to pass the levels. One of the most common types of levels in the Tournament Mode is Capture the Flag. You need to capture your opposition’s flags, which is sometimes only one and it is other times five or more, and take them back to your base. But, as in capture the flag, you need to guard your own flag. But never fear! If an opposing tank steals your flag simply blow them up and carry it triumphantly back to your base. Sadly, unlike in Unreal: Tournament, you actually have to carry the flag back to your base. Well, oddly enough, another type of mode that you will find in World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks is called Domination. This is odd because, like Capture the Flag, this is also a mode in Unreal: Tournament. The funny thing is that I did not even make the connection until I was sitting here, at my computer, writing this review. Anyway, Domination is my personal favorite mode. In Domination, your goal is to control all of the emitters in a level, at one time. Most often there are six, but occasionally there are more emitters than that in a level. Once you control an emitter though, you need to guard it from your enemy’s tanks. They can steal your emitters by just resting on them for a few seconds. Luckily, you can steal unclaimed emitters or enemy emitters the same way. Controlling the emitters is not only important because you need to do so to beat the level, but because computer controlled bots come out of the emitters, and they are on whichever team is controlling the emitter at that time. Just make sure, once you have capture the emitter, that you are not still resting on it, otherwise no computer-controlled tanks can join your squadron from that emitter.

GRAPHICS--9
The graphics are for the most part spectacular. However, they can be a mixed-bag, not because they are bad, but because at times they don’t make sense. For example, in the level San Diego, I sailed through the barricade encasing the level (I failed to mention that most everything can be destroyed did I not?), knocked the Porta-Potties into the Pacific Ocean, and then I plunged in myself. I fully expected to see a giant splash then, since I was using Titan, the biggest tank. Instead, I was treated to a fantastic explosion. The explosion looked great, but it just didn’t make sense. Why would there not be a splash?

The explosions really are great. The fire effects look unbelievably realistic too. This game is truly a pyromaniacs godsend. The demolition of everything is so realistic, that it really enhances the overall feeling of the level. For instance, when you use Scorcher’s flamethrower on a building, it may begin to char, and to turn to ashes, before collapsing. If you are using Marauder and his machine gun, the building will probably begin to splinter, to fill with holes, and then collapse. Buildings also do not always fall in the same direction. They fall in the direction opposite from where they are being attacked. This is especially apparent with pillars. My only real gripe with the environments in World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks is that some of them, most notably Temple of Poseidon and Atlantis, look rather similar, and that the water effects could have been improved on.

The tanks, though, are the single most impressive, and important, feature graphically in World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks. First of all, all of the myriad of different types of tanks look completely different. One of the tanks, the one based in Denver, even has a patriotic paint job. These tanks come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, even though, for the most part, the tanks are various shades of gray. You can also clearly tell the difference in the weaponry on each tank, so you can better understand what you are dealing with. Basically, the developers really did an excellent job, and spent some long, hard hours studying these tanks.

MUSIC--7
SOUND--10
I am not really sure that there is such a thing as classic video game music. But, if there is, World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks surely has it. All of those action games on the original Nintendo had the exact same type of music, remember? Well, World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks has that exact same type of music, except for with it sounding just a little bit more modern, and the sound quality cleaned up a little bit. It’s hardly bad music, as I was always rather fond of that type of music. It really just is not innovative, or spectacular. But it surely gets the job done.

Well, of all of the PlayStation 2 games that I have played, World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks is the most impressive in the sound effects department. (And I have played more PlayStation 2 games than I have reviewed, do not worry.) First of all, not only do the explosions look spectacular, they also sound wonderful. And the two announcers in the Tournament Mode crack me up. While I wish that they could have thought up a few more starting the match phrases, and say more about your tank than “And here is the challenger!” those are such minor gripes in the great scheme of World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks audio that I’m hardly going to lower the score. When the developers can find that many different weapon noises for a game, you know that 3DO is doing something right. The announcers alone warrant a perfect ten in this category. The male announcer, is an obvious parody of Jesse Ventura, my moonlighting-job challenged governor, and he is hilarious in doing so. I would describe the female announcer’s personality and announcing type as that of a female Bob Costas. So, she may be a horrible announcer, but her caginess is rather amusing. And, it is quite obvious that 3DO intended for her to be awkward. Basically, when those two colorful characters are teamed up, you seemingly cannot lose.

CONTROL--7
Controlling your tank in World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks could possibly be the weakest link in this sturdy chain. The game really seems to work better with the Nintendo 64’s Controller, which does not surprise me since the 3DO made the excellent controlling Battle Tanx games for that Nintendo console. Movement can be done either with the Control Pad, or with the Analog Dual Shock Sticks. But, there really is not one of the two that works better, which you would think is a good thing but it is not. Instead you will find yourself hesitant to choose one of them to move. If one of the options worked better than the other one, your reflexes would be better, and you would be able to control World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks a lot easier. Did you understand all that? Other than the odd movement patterns, all of the buttons in World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks seem to be set up for logical actions.

FUN--10
Call me primitive, call me typical, but endless destruction of everything in a level is certainly fun for me! Just the act of destroying everything in ever changing environments would be enough of a game for me, but with the wonderful multiplayer capabilities that 3DO has included, it just gets better and better! First of all, if you can, or will, do a type of level in Tournament Mode, you can do that level in one of the Multiplayer Modes. You can also do co-operative play in multiplayer Modes, but, sadly, I could find no way to find a co-operative Tournament Mode. However, in a game like World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks with tons of short levels, simply alternating between level attempts worked well for me. The only thing that you really need to do to make World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks fun is to, nearly, constantly hold down L2 so you can use the three/fourths view. Otherwise you can find yourself in some tight jams looking dead ahead, and you will not always be able to see the locations of important things like emitters.

CHALLENGE--MEDIUM TO HIGH
World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks starts of slowly in the challenge department, but it picks up rapidly with each of the three sub-leagues that you will have to progress through to reach the tournament championship. By the last couple matches in the third and final sub-league, you may be pulling your hair out trying to cope with the insane difficulty level. I tried dozens of times to get past one Capture the Flag level in the Temple of Poseidon in that sub-league. It may start out easy, and at a slow pace, but do not let that fool you. World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks gets real frantic, real fast.

REPLAY VALUE--MEDIUM TO HIGH
I was kind of hoping for the endings to be as entertaining a those in the early days of the Twisted Metal series. If they were that entertaining, World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks would have surely scored a perfect score in the replay value section. But, although the endings are satisfying, they do not reach that level of entertainment, so that prevents that high rating. The enormous amount of multiplayer capabilities will surely keep you playing World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks for weeks and weeks. And, chances are, that you will want to beat the Tournament Mode with each type of tank as well.

PROS
*Pure mindless destruction fun for everyone.
*Graphically, one of the most impressive PlayStation 2 games.
*An absolute wealth of multiplayer capabilities.

CONS
*Control could have been more accurate and on the ball.
*The music could have used some more thought.
*In the later stages, nearly impossible to progress.

CLOSING STATEMENT
World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks may not be the most hyped, or most talked about PlayStation 2 game. But, in an era in the PlayStation 2’s history that really does not have any must have games, when the Dreamcast had quite a few at their point in history, the PlayStation 2 needs more solid and fun titles like World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks.

OVERALL--9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/01, Updated 07/18/01