Bandai Namco Gets Into The Tank Game With Battleline: Steel Warfare

Yes, it's another tank-battling game. But this one at least offers something a little different.

Bandai Namco has just announced Battleline: Steel Warfare, which sounds on paper like most other tank games: There will be tanks (duh), advancement and customization, various game modes, guilds (called divisions), and even a meta-game played over a wide-ranging map. Pretty standard, so far.

A couple things seem to set Battleline apart. First of all, the game will draw from tanks from a wide range of eras, from WWI tanks to modern-day rolling death machines. Interesting, but how will balance work?

That might be answered a little bit when you take a look at the trailer video. Battleline isn't aiming for ultra-realism, like other games in the genre strive for. The game looks more RTS/MOBA-like, with special abilities you can activate. That might help with obvious imbalance issues that come with pitting tanks 80 years apart historically against each other. It's probably a smart direction to go, too. World of Tanks, War Thunder, and eventually Armored Warfare have the simulation game pretty well locked up, so you might as well go with an arcade-y feel.

You can sign up for the Battleline: Steel Warfare closed beta on the game's website. The beta is scheduled to start in early November, with a full launch by the end of the year.