Steel Armor: Blaze of War, besides having a cool name, was a very hard game to review. Not because it’s a bad game, because it’s not, but because it’s such a niche title that unless you’re extremely into this type of game, Steel Armor will be an almost impenetrable wall of menus, options and a needlessly over-complex tutorial that will leave you so unbelievably confused you’ll want to quit asap.
Gameplay
Steel Armor is a hardcore tank simulator. For those of you that don’t know, driving a tank in real life takes quite a bit of training. Likewise, Steel Armor also takes quite a bit of training that many people might not just get through. Part of this is because of the lack-luster tutorial. The tutorial is just a long amount of text dialogues with arrows that point at what it wants you to click. The worst part is that in some menus the same buttons repeat themselves, so the tutorial will reintroduce those buttons, even if it’s already done so that last few times. Add to that the insane amount of information it wants you to memorize, that’s without the repetitions, and the importance of the information it tries to impart, and you’ve got an entirely niche game that will turn off a vast amount of people.
Driving a tank in real life involves not a single person, as most games would have you believe, but a group of about 4 people: a loader, a gunner, a driver, and the commander. In Steel Armor you’ll be controller all 4 of these people, directing their actions. Driving the tank is the simplest part. The difficult part comes when you’re in combat. Firing a machine gun is easy, but directing a tank shell whilst being accurate is an entirely different matter. You’ll have to know your angles, how to use the tools that will assist you, and your different gun calibres in order to be successful. Veterans of tank simulators will have metric tons of fun with Steel Armor, but newcomers will have much more daunting time getting used to how complicated operating a tank might be. If you decide to skip the tutorial, which you’ll most likely do after an hour of non-stop text boxes, you’ll be equipped with just enough information to help you learn on your own. Yet true mastery will come for those determined enough to stick around and get good at the game.
Unfortunately, most people won’t be motivated to get back into the game after the atrocious tutorial. At first I wasn’t excited about playing Steel Armor during my first hour or so, but after I conquered the learning curve I found Steel Armor starting to grow on me. It wasn’t because of the fun factor at first but rather the game was so complex and strategic that I couldn’t fight the urge to come back just to show the game who’s boss.
