Just hearing the name Tank Riders 2 makes you think of a full on action mobile game where you pilot a tank and take on the world, just you, yourself and your tank. In reality Tank Riders 2 takes a more laid back approach that utilizes more strategy and careful thinking than just guns a blazing movie theatrics. However, do not get me wrong. I am not complaining about the lack of full on action in Tank Riders 2 as the way it is actually presented is rather interesting and I prefer games that require more plotting than a tapping frenzy.
Time Your Shots Carefully
So with all my beating around the bush, how exactly is Tank Riders 2 played? The overall gist of it all is you pilot a single take and shoot other tanks to complete objectives. Where the game turns more strategy and less full on action is that every level has a specific setup that sort of has a “best” way to approach it. Also the levels have a limited number of enemy tanks and even have puzzle aspects involved. For instance, in one level you need to hit specific switches to open a gate to leave. Another has you killing precariously placed tanks before winning. This is a real good thing, though, for Tank Riders 2 as there are a variety of level styles and each level is a miniature hand crafted level that you can think about and take on how you want. There is also a ton of levels in general so you’ll have a lot of playtime.
Wrapped In A Casual Package
The whole atmosphere of Tank Riders 2 is fairly casual…and you can take that to be a good or a bad thing. What I mean by it is that in the graphics and generally gameplay Tank Riders 2 seems to be aimed at a younger more casual audience. Graphics are the typical 3D slightly blocky that you see all over the Google Play store and are brightly colored to boot. I will give it to Polarbit that the levels are well crafted with a great variety in environments and features but it does give off that heavy casual vibe. Gameplay is a toss up for me because inherently it is a simple concept that Polarbit tried to make more interesting (which it succeeded partly) but then it seems they took a bad turn somewhere that makes it slightly unfair and frustrating.
An Uphill Battle
By “unfair” I mean that it is way too easy to die in Tank Battles 2. Starting early on you’ll encounter multiple enemy tank types that can easily one shot kill you with blasts that have large radiuses. All the planning and strategy in the world doesn’t help you when you can be blasted from across a level with an attack radius five times as large as you. The only reason I can think of this artificial difficulty boost is in an effort to curb IAPs to buy instant revives and level skips. Now, I’m not saying that IAPs completely ruin Tank Battles 2 as that is not the case but I do see a slight trend of IAP unfairness which I absolutely hate in mobile games. Overall though, Tank Battles 2 is an interesting game where you get to rely on slight strategy rather than total gungho-ness.
