We went hands-on with the latest version of World of Warships: Legends last week at Wargaming's new Austin, Texas office in advance of the game's full release. Legends is the console version of the mega-popular World of Warships MMO and makes some changes while keeping the IP's core gameplay intact.
Developed mainly at Lesta Studio (Wargaming Saint Petersburg), World of Warships: Legends released in early access in on April 16 after many months of alpha testing and releases in full for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on August 12, 2019 as a free-to-play title.
Legends represents another major expansion of the franchise after World of Warships came to mobile last year with its Blitz release but what makes its release especially notable on consoles is that there's no other game like this that focuses exclusively on World War I and World War II naval combat. It's in a class of its own, and it totally works with the controller thanks to the game being built from the ground-up for these platforms.
What Makes Legends Different Than Regular World of Warships?
Outside of the basic fact that Legends is exclusive to PS4 and Xbox (with PSN Trophies/Xbox Achievements of course), designed for the console audience, there are many key differences that make this product stand out for the series. The core gameplay is similar but is based around 9v9 gameplay as opposed to 12v12. This is in part to make matchmaking quick and efficient for console players, and also seems to serve in slightly quickening the pace of matches.
The game features very familiar HUD elements, just rearranged. Most noticeably, the mini-map and speed throttle indicators are in different corners of the screen and of course each weapon or ability is assigned to a controller button, represented on screen. The slow pace of the naval combat of World of Warships will feel strange to players not accustomed to this unique type of gameplay and the expectation is that most players coming to Legends will be new to the series. The WWI and WWII naval battles aren't represented in other games like this on consoles so this is something uniquely refreshing, but it may be a slight shock if you've not played the console version of World of Tanks to know what to expect. That perhaps is why it's so worth checking out, especially since it's free. And even for veteran PC players who have a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, there are notable unique features even if there's less content overall. The official:
Experience epic naval action in World of Warships: Legends, a massively multiplayer online game where you can master the seas in history’s greatest warships! Recruit legendary commanders from maritime history, upgrade your vessels and stake your claim to naval supremacy with or against players around the world in thrilling and immersive battles.
World of Warships: Legends brings the online naval action loved by millions to home consoles for the very first time, alongside a host of content and features exclusive to the console experience.
Since entering alpha in April, World of Warships: Legends now has 15 maps and over 70 ships across four nations (USA, UK, Japan, and now Germany) and unique Commanders of which there are about seven per nation, with new Commanders added as part of events and the addition of new nations. Commanders offer a progression system where by using them, more skills can be unlocked and assigned to match your playstyle per nation.
Legends takes advantage of the 3D assets from the original game but was built from the ground-up with a dedicated development team just for consoles, hence the faster-paced gameplay and progression. By comparison however, the PC version has over 300 ships from 10 different nations, and 40 maps, but at least this bodes well for future content additions.
Legends supports HDR on the consoles and 4K is coming later this year, first for the Xbox One X. On the gameplay front more nations, commanders, maps, and the legendary battleship Yamato are all on the way alongside events.
To start there are only seven tiers of ships in Legends, to keep the playlists in line with the player counts, although Wargaming tells us that their 2 million players during early access surpassed expectations. And while they don't have specs on next-gen consoles just yet, they will make the game available on these. The same goes for cross-platform play between PS4 and Xbox which is something they're starting to look into. Whatever is best for the community is what's going to come to the game on these fronts.
Another note about World of Warships: Legends is that it only currently supports the three main classes of ship (destroyers, cruisers, battleships), meaning carriers (and their recent upgrades for the PC version) are not part of the game. There is potential for these to come in 2020 but that's not confirmed.
World of Warships: Legends Launches With A New, Big Campaign
When World of Warships: Legends launches on August 12, 2019 it does so with the Hunt for Tirpitz campaign - the game's biggest campaign yet - that runs until September 15, 2019. Premium currency is required (purchased or earned) to take full advantage and to claim the ultimate prize - The Tirpitz tier VII German battleship, the most powerful premium vessel in the game to date.
The concern here of course is the problem of premium players and their purchases vs. free-to-play players, and there's still the ongoing issue and stigma of loot boxes ("crates") of which World of Warships: Legends features.
However, the free-to-play version is a great way to get started and you'll see how the game supports all level of players. It can be played against other players but also against AI which is a great way to learn and practice with different ships.
Complete August 2019 Launch Patch Notes for World of Warships: Legends
Server maintenance will take place on August 12th, after which the update will be pushed to the consoles. Maintenance times:
- Xbox: 7:00 - 10:00 AM UTC
- PS4: 7:00 - 10:00 AM UTC
Update size:
- Xbox ~ 2500 MB
- PS4 ~2500 MB
The biggest campaign to date is coming to the game on August 12! This time we're looking at the most rewards we've had so far, spread over 100 levels, and the Tirpitz, tier VII German battleship that needs no introduction, as the crown jewel of it all. Please note, that getting the Tirpitz does require you to have an active Admiralty Backing, which you can purchase on the Campaign screen. Also keep in mind that Admiralty Backing is unique to each campaign and it does not carry over from the previous one. As before, if you're short on time but long on doubloons you can go ahead and unlock everything right away. That would require a total of 27250 doubloons.
Campaign trials this time offer the same amount of challenge but in a tiered way, so for example, before getting 150K damage in a battle you'll be faced with lower numbers that will gradually increase, so you can pass more milestones if you get high numbers but quite as high.
As we've divulged in the previous patchnote, German destroyers become fully available for research, while the Battleships enter early access. The mechanism for unlocking them is similar to destroyers during the Search and Destroy! campaign: you earn a currency, Thalers, while moving through campaign levels and completing combat missions.
Thalers can be traded for German crates in the Admiralty and those crates give you a chance to unlock a battleship, from tier III Kaiser to tier VI Gneisenau. You can also grab some golden German crates with increased chance of unlocking those ships and improved contents otherwise from the store for doubloons. Full access to battleships is coming with the next update. Other than Thalers you'll have a variety of goods to aid your battles, such as camouflage, boosters, experience, credits, as well as promotion orders and insignia.
Important addition in this version is the permanent camouflages available for tier IV German ships for 1000 Thalers each. More permanent camouflages will become available as we progress through the updates. The free side of the campaign will culminate in a German Commander crate.
If you have any Deutschmarks left from the Search and Destroy! campaign, you can still spend them in the Admiralty. When the September update comes both leftover Deutschmarks and Thalers will be compensated with credits at a rate of 7500 credits per Deutschmark/Thaler.
Any of the battleships that you receive from crates will stay on your account, unless you decide to sell them. These battleships rely on their turtleback armor showing impressive results in close quarters, underlined by their capable secondary guns. And while their main battery caliber may not be the highest among their peers, they compensate well with their ability to stay afloat.
The ships that you can get access to are:
- Tier III Kaiser
- Tier IV König
- Tier V Bayern
- Tier VI Gneisenau
The tier VII Bismarck will be available together with the next update once the battleship line becomes researchable.
Boosters
We've added a new type of boosters, the "epic" kind, obtainable by combining 3 rare boosters. Common boosters can be combined into rare boosters too by transforming 4 of common kind into a single rare. So, essentially 12 common boosters can become a single epic one. Epic booster percentages are double of those of rare quality (valid for economic boosters), while epic battle booster receives extra 3% to shooting range.
Economic boosters get the following percentages:
- Ship XP: +100%
- Commander XP: +200%
- Global XP: +400%
- Credits: +40%
You can convert boosters to higher quality in the boosters menu of your ship loadout.
Platform achievements
We're happy to finally unveil the WoWs: Legends the platform achievements. Most of the achievements are going to be retroactive, save for those that require particular performance in one battle, meaning that any of the requirements you've already fulfilled will be automatically accounted for.
Xbox will have a total of 1000 points to collect, while Playstation includes a platinum trophy, bringing the total up to 1050.
Gameplay improvements (introduced on July 29th)
- Nürnberg's rear turrets receive a wider shooting angle. The ship will not become a floating fortress but the room for maneuvering when using all of the main battery turrets is certainly improved.
- The binocular view should now feel more comfortable, particularly for ships like Atlanta and many destroyers. The "waterline drop" should not be something you experience while aiming anymore.
Sound improvements
- Changed the sound for leveling up the Campaigns.
- Added a sound for gamepad stick presses.
- Added a sound for moving sliders.
- Added a sound for switching between cards of combat missions.
- New sound settings, two sliders for dock/battle music control instead of one general music slider and two checkboxes
- Music both in port and battle is now controlled by a single slider and there are now checkboxes for enabling/disabling music in either battle or port.
- Added sound for switching between tabs.
Graphics improvements
- Various improvements to reflections
UI improvements
- Consumable icons are less opaque when they cannot be used or should not be used (like Damage Control Party when there are no floods or fires)
- Damage Control Party becomes more animated if you have more than one fire
- Free camera in spectator mode now has a tooltip
- Added a tooltip for tactical map in the beginning of the battle
- Control areas now have tooltips for defense and capture
- Added a reticle indication for armament switching.
- Added new UI icons for different torpedo angles.
- Included additional stats for ships that were not visible before, like all of the secondaries for Scharnhorst, some of the turrets that were shared between secondary and AA armament, as well as visibility rating after shooting from a smokescreen.
- Default detection icon was changed from a ship to an eye. Also the caption for instances of being detected by ship or plane was changed to "spotted" from "detected"
Miscellaneous
The daily boost is back! Actually for a couple of weeks already but it is worth mentioning. Hope you like the new format!
Added gamepad haptic feedback for some menu actions.
Client version number added to most menu screens. (bottom right of the screen).
Burn it Down XXL skill is now simply called "Burn it Down" since it was caliber-agnostic starting from last update. The description text is corrected accordingly.
Tier 1 ships can now be sold.
Medals now award common boosters! Note that each medal can reward you with them only once a day, even if you receive one several times.
- Kraken Unleashed! - ship XP booster x 10
- Confederate - Commander XP booster x 10
- Solo Warrior - Global XP booster x 10
- First Blood - credits booster x 1
- It's Just a Flesh Wound! - credits booster x 10
- Dreadnought -battle booster x 10
- High Caliber - battle booster x 10
- Witherer - battle booster x 10
- Close Quarters Expert - battle booster x 10
- Detonation - battle booster x 10
- Double Strike - battle booster x 10
- Fireproof - battle booster x 10
- Die-Hard - battle booster x 10
- Liquidator - battle booster x 10
- Unsinkable - battle booster x 10
- Arsonist - battle booster x 10
Important note: We're not enabling the 4K definitions for either console yet, closed testing showed that further polishing is required before we're content with its quality. Also please note that rolling the feature out on PlayStation will take us longer than it does on Xbox, but we'll keep you posted.
World of Warships: Legends releases on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on August 12, 2019.
Sources: wowslegends.com, Wargaming