Premium Ship Review: Graf Zeppelin

[LittleWhiteMouse]

You're not getting a full review of Graf Zeppelin -- not at this stage.  This ship isn't ready and it's an insult to the player base that Wargaming did not have the courage to admit that.  Players there are being asked to fork out the equivalent of 13,500 doubloon to own this piece of garbage.  If you ever wanted to know what it was like to play test an unfinished ship, now's your chance. Wargaming is demanding that players pay for the privilege and the going rate isn't cheap. I can't promise you that the ship you'll be paying for will be any good when they finally get around to finishing it. Graf Zeppelin has had a very troubled development history and I do not have confidence that they can patch this ship to make it an enjoyable or compelling choice for players based on the design decisions so far implemented.

 

Currently, her AP Bomb drop mechanics are unplayable.  There's no UI feedback explaining the 6 second bomb-delay.  A player would feel rightly justified in believing that their system was lagging each time they attempted to launch an attack.  The Stukas are well on their way to returning to the ship by the time the explosions finally come.  Her HE bombs do work.  However, the game play being offered up is the equivalent of that of a gimped Air Superiority Lexington.  Her Bf-109T fighters are scarcely better than Enterprise's tier VII Hellcats but without the necessary reserves to out-muscle her opponents like the American premium.  This doesn't make for very compelling game play.

 

So one half of Graf Zeppelin's armament choice doesn't work. The other half is functional but mediocre at best. Any form of in-depth analysis is just not worth my time at this stage.  I will not humour Wargaming by treating this like a finished product.  Players are being asked to foot the bill for this ship's troubled development history.  In my opinion, apologies should be made.  Refunds should be freely issued when asked for.  The ship needs to be pulled and sent back into testing.  It's not ready yet.  We're very lucky that this wasn't simultaneously released on the NA server.

 

I urge players to keep their wallets closed.

 

[LittleWhiteMouse]

The original post on the WGNA forums had 424 upvotes; the highest of any I ever received from a single article.