World of Tanks HEAT preview: Adding a pinch of hero shooter to the recipe

My heart sank a little bit when I heard that Wargaming’s next title would be a hero shooter — the studio’s latest attempt at the genre, Steel Hunters, was announced to be shut down only months after launching into Early Access, after all. Having played a bit of the upcoming World of Tanks HEAT at Gamescom 2025, though, I’m a little more optimistic about its chances of success. 

First of all, it’s not an extraction shooter, which is a major plus in my book. Instead, you can dive into more traditional game modes, such as good, old-fashioned Conquest, where you fight over strategic points on the map. It’s something every shooter player will immediately be familiar with.

Familiarity, in general, is something the developers hope will work in their favor. HEAT running under the World of Tanks IP and therefore speaking to an existing community is one of the big advantages the developers believe it to have over Steel Hunters, which was completely fresh.

So it’s not mechs you’re hopping into and steering over the battlefield, but the familiar tanks the entire company’s fortune is founded on. Unlike the main game, which tries its best to stick to historical designs, HEAT is set in an alternate universe in which the Cold War has erupted into a hot conflict shortly after World War 2. Technology is a bit different in this alternate history, giving the developers a bit more leeway when it comes to designs.

HEAT’s vehicle designs, the developers told me, will follow a ratio of 70:30 between realism and creative license. Monetization will largely revolve around customizing these tanks visually, while the game will be free-to-play.

However, there will also be gameplay-relevant vehicle customization. All of the tanks available in the game are modular, so you can swap in and out various parts to change their base stats, and therefore modify them in a way that suits your personal playstyle — at least inside the game’s class framework, which itself heavily influences playstyles.

Tanks – and their drivers – belong to one of three classes: Assault, Defender, and Marksman. Defenders excel at durability and are more suited to slugging it out at close ranges, while the Marksmen are designed to deliver firepower over vast distances while being more squishy. In between them are the Assaults. It’s what we’ve come to expect from hero shooters.

Drivers are the other crucial aspect of what makes a “hero” in HEAT. Each driver comes with a signature tank – though you can unlock alternate options for many of them – and abilities that can be activated during combat. You can’t freely combine any driver with any tank.

During my hands-on time with the game, I played Hound, a Marksman driver, with his Leopard 1A6A1. This tank isn’t very tough, but great at taking out targets from the backline. Hound has abilities that complement these characteristics, being able to place a dummy copy of his tank onto the battlefield to distract enemies and divert some fire, as well as loading a shell that stuns targets temporarily. His ultimate ability enhances the tank’s sensor suit, revealing the vulnerable parts of enemy tanks and enhancing his own machine’s reload speed to deliver a quick salvo of decisive blows.

Which brings me to two important aspects of the game. First, those modules I mentioned earlier, when I talked about vehicle customization? You can target those during a match to great effect. Hitting an enemy tank’s arsenal will deal extra damage due to the ammunition cooking off. 

Second, World of Tanks HEAT is using a similar physics-based combat ruleset as WoT, which means that the angle and speed of a shot, the type of shell used, and the precise location of the impact all play a role when it comes to deciding if a shot penetrates a vehicle or is deflected by its armor.

The developers want HEAT to be just as deep as WoT, but more accessible at the same time — which, to be fair, isn’t too difficult, given the age of the original game and the major advantages any veterans have over new players. HEAT evens the playing field and is more accessible by default.

All of this combined to an experience that was quite enjoyable. The abilities players have at their disposal are no doubt powerful and impactful, but they aren’t so outlandish as to break the basic tank fantasy the game is going for. Both the controls and shooting felt pretty good — particularly when hitting the weak point of an enemy tank, which was satisfying.

Although I only got to play 10v10 with some bots, I could see how a good team could strategize around its various vehicles and abilities to exploit specific points on the map. Positioning will be crucial.

Visually, HEAT is definitely hitting the mark, Wargaming’s engine delivering spectacle that isn’t detracting from the gameplay and keeps your vision clear even in, dare I say, heated moments.

My biggest point of criticism from what I’ve seen so far would be that the design of the drivers can only be called generic at best. Which is almost okay, since you don’t actually see them a whole lot. The generic ones are still better than the really bad ones, though — Hound, the one I played as, wears the cringiest Call of Duty cosplay (well, from back when it still tried to be a military shooter) I’ve ever seen, complete with sunglasses, cheap-looking ghillie suit hood (my guy, you’re driving a tank, what’s the camo for?), and a skull face mask.

World of Tanks HEAT is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

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