What are the best PC tank games 2020? Rolling into battle in a vehicle that weighs the same as ten elephants and can raze entire buildings with a single shot simply never gets old, but it’s not always easy to find a game that delivers the perfect tanking experience. If you’re looking for the best free tank games or the biggest triple-A armoured division sims, you’ve come to the right place.
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Tanks are brilliant because they’re immense hunks of killer steel, destroying all in their path with ease. But the tank is also synonymous with tense firefights and immense claustrophobia. The agony of reloading, the snail pace, and the fact that you’re the enemy’s priority target make tank games as nerve-wracking as they are empowering.
There have been countless greats to pick over the years; the genre has been knocking about since the Apple II days. From hyper-realistic, control-laden sims to arcadey, point-and-explode shoot-’em-ups, here are the best tank games on PC.
Download WWII Tank Commander Demo (390.9 MB) by Sylum Entertainment. Heart-thumping game from Microsoft featuring weapons and a first-person POV. A video game that emphasizes stealth and accuracy. Sniper: Ghost Warrior Demo. WWII Tank Commander Demo: It's World War II and you are a commander of an M4 Sherman.
The best tank games are:
WORLD OF TANKS
If it is a hardcore, lifetime-to-master tank game you are looking for, steer well clear of World of Tanks. This free-to-play titan offers fast and frantic gameplay with only a handful of realistic elements thrown in for good measure. This is one of the best tank games for casual gamers looking for an in-road to more tanking action, and yet one with enough depth and progression to keep gamers invested well into the later tiers of unlockable tanks.
Perhaps World of Tanks’ greatest strength is its roster of over 250 armoured vehicles, ranging from scout vehicles to battlefield behemoths. Better still, with the game featuring vehicles from France, Great Britain, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Soviet Russia, the United States and China, there is heaps of variation in what you will be battling alongside and squaring up to in World of Tanks.
Want to try World of Tanks? PCGamesN has teamed up with Wargaming to give a free US tank – the M22 Locust and 600 gold to any new players who sign up using this link:
War Thunder
A leviathan of free-to-play tank games, War Thunder favours hardcore tacticians, genius statisticians, and obsessive attention to detail. Unlike rival World of Tanks, War Thunder cannot make any claims to being accessible. There are a ridiculous number of tanks and branches of research; you can easily pour hours of your time into the wrong tank. Additionally, War Thunder boasts a complex and sophisticated armour penetration mechanic, which forces careful consideration before firing a single shot.
While War Thunder’s arcade mode does a good job of introducing gamers to some of the game’s core mechanics, you cannot consider yourself a War Thunder veteran until you have emerged victorious from a simulator battle. This stripped-back game mode restricts your view, turns off aim assists, and dramatically increases the time it takes to perform any action. Every encounter is a nail-biting tactical nightmare.
If you’re just starting out then be sure to check out our War Thunder Ground Battles tips and our guide to the best War Thunder tier 1 tanks. War Thunder also offers planes and ships to pilot, making it one of our best plane games, too.
Valkyria Chronicles 4
Tanks denote a feeling of power. You burst through battlefields encased in metal, blowing various buildings to smithereens. Not every game lets you get away with that, though. Valkyria Chronicles 4, for one, leaves you feeling exposed if you charge in all willy-nilly – making for an alluring blend of power and strategy.
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Sega’s tactical RPG puts you in the trench coat of an army officer tasked with guiding his unit through the grim reality of war. As you engage foes in turn-based battle, one of the units you call upon is a tank. Play it smart, and you’ll blast ‘em to bits in a cunning flanking manoeuvre; put a step wrong, however, and you’ll find your tank shut down by a Lancer.
Europe’s pre-WWI political climate inspires the setting of Valkyria Chronicles 4. Visually, however, it looks closer to an anime game, which gives it a visual charm in comparison to other tank-based games.
Armored Warfare
While the tags of ‘MMO’, ‘free-to-play’ and ‘tank’ apply to Armored Warfare as well they do to World of Tanks, a number of key differences ensure both are worth the time of a tank games veteran. Transporting World of Tanks’ remarkably approachable gameplay to the more modern era, Armoured Warfare provides tankers with more equipment, newer tanks, and a selection of versatile tank tech that adds a great deal more variation to the core gameplay.
Additionally, Armored Warfare brings PVE to the fold, allowing you to team up with friends to take on AI enemies, progressing through the ranks of tanks without constantly losing out to highly skilled foes in PVP.
As a live game, Armored Warfare new tanks arrive frequently with updates that enhance and expand the game. You’ll never be short of a boomstick on wheels. On top of being one of the best tank games you can get, it’s also one of the best free PC games.
Steel Armor: Blaze Of War
What’s more fun than blowing stuff up and driving through buildings? Carefully micromanaging its crew and innards to the point where you forget you’re actually in a tank and instead begin to believe you’re a machinist in a factory… obviously.
Steel Armor: Blaze of War offers up new pastures where tank games are concerned, looking to the battlefields of the 1980s Iran-Iraq conflicts. Tank enthusiasts will adore the rampant attention to detail – there are only two tanks in the game, but both are rendered to staggering detail, inside and out. Despite being fiddly and at times inaccessible, Steel Armor’s dry ardour for military hardware makes it a must-play for tank game veterans and fans of war games who want a more modern setting.
Panzer Elite Action: Gold Edition
Bundling two classic Panzer titles into one Steam release, Panzer Elite Action: Gold Edition is hours upon hours upon hours of driving tanks around World War II battlefields and blowing stuff up – and that is exactly what we need sometimes. Incredibly user friendly, but full of engaging mechanics and unlockables, Panzer Elite Action is a tank game all about surviving famous historical campaigns to fight another day.
Speaking of: Here are the best survival games on PC
Playing on either the Allied or Axis side in a variety of famous conflicts, Panzer Elite Action gives you control of four-to-five tanks and sets you on your merry way blowing stuff up and cowering behind hedgerows for some semblance of cover. While it lacks the realism of its originator, Panzer Elite, the need to look after your crew and upgrade your equipment makes for a compelling experience from start to finish.
Arma 3
170 miles of pristine military sandbox await players heading into Arma 3 – it’s a massive open-world that lends your tanking an overwhelming sense of scale. Gone are the days of distressing close-quarters encounters in bombed-out cities, Arma 3 hands players a new source of anxiety in the form of having to constantly scan the horizons for new threats. Buildings and natural cover are scarce, meaning that survival, and indeed victory, rely upon being able to identify and destroy the enemy before they even know you are there.
While not strictly a tank game, Arma 3 possesses an incredible level of realism that brings the concept of modern tank warfare to life. Indeed, Arma 3’s realism means it has been mistaken for real war footage by news organisations. Playing as the armoured arm of a massive army is what Arma 3 does best: aiding ground assaults, hunting down enemy tanks and wreaking havoc on strongholds. Besides, when you hop out of the heavy armour you’ve still got one of the best sniper games around.
Battlefield 4
Careful positioning is key to surviving in most tank games. Battlefield 4’s tanks hate careful positioning. Battlefield 4’s tanks like going really fast, blowing helicopters out of the sky and making little ground people run away and cower behind buildings. Battlefield 4’s tanks are ridiculous.
Rampaging around the map causing untold damage and ruining the carefully laid plans of your fellow soldiers is the order of business in Battlefield 4. This is tank gameplay at its most empowering, allowing players to become Death on tracks and leave any veneer of tactics or strategy behind them as they romp around the map exchanging shells for XP.
Related: Check out our best simulation games list
If you prefer your tanks a little more old-school, you could hop over to Battlefield 1, or for the WW2-flavoured Battlefield 5 vehicles. Panzers, Churchills, and Sturntigers await!
Heroes & Generals
Forget the strategy-based metagame that accompanies Heroes & Generals’ engrossing ground battles and you have still got a hectic combined forces war game in which tanks play a vital role. Include the metagame and Heroes & Generals is the complete tanker’s package, offering everything from resource management to explosive first-person combat.
There are few tank management features to pay constant attention to in Heroes & Generals, which means the focus is strictly on wreaking havoc. The combined forces element of Heroes & Generals lends your role as a tank commander some genuine potency on the battlefield, where your actions can make the difference for your fellow teammates, whether on the ground or in the air. If WW2 military hardware is your bag then Heroes & Generals is easily one of the best free Steam games you can get.
Red Orchestra 2
Tanks are not the focus of this realism-heavy Eastern Front shooter, but the way they seamlessly fit into its mud-and-guts gameplay make for some of the finest tanking moments around.
Red Orchestra 2 utilises a similar ballistics and armour penetration mechanic as War Thunder, ensuring that every encounter between two tanks is an adrenaline-fuelled duel where knowledge and precision triumph over brute force. The constant threat of instant, fiery death at the hands of enemy anti-tank troops is just part of what makes it one of the best multiplayer games on PC.
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Company of Heroes 2
Transporting the brilliantly refined RTS gameplay of the first game to the Eastern Front, Company of Heroes 2 is a SEGA game all about tactical ingenuity and making the best use of your tanks. Cover, line-of-sight and suppression are the keys to success in Company of Heroes 2, meaning you will have to direct your resources using genuine battlefield tactics if you want to repel the Axis threat.
Packing a devastating punch and able to turn the tide of any battle, the tanks of Company of Heroes 2 are a joy to send guns blazing towards enemy infantry units and watch as the casualties mount up. Like all good tank games, Company of Heroes 2 acknowledges the vulnerabilities of a tank, punishing players who send their armoured units into the fray without due caution.
Panzer Corps
Panzer Corps is old school turn-based strategy gaming at its absolute finest. Putting you in the boots of a Wehrmacht general, it is your job to oversee and manage operations across 26 gruelling Axis campaigns.
Ignoring the fact that you are fighting for the bad guys, the focus of Panzer Corps is firmly on leading your units to victory. There are over 800 unit types spread among 20 unit classes, which results in an endless array of attacking options for both sides. If that is not convoluted enough, every unit has roughly 20 parameters by which its strengths and weaknesses are judged – it is all a battlefield-mathematician could possibly ask for, making it one of the best strategy games around.
Panzer Corps 2
Almost nine years after the release of Panzer Corps, the Panzer Corps 2 release date has finally arrived. Besides the huge visual upgrade, the WWII strategy game sequel also expands on the tank battle experience, with the inclusion of over 1000 unique units (up from Panzer Corps’ 800) and an expansive campaign including 60 scenarios.
The multiplayer offerings are also numerous, with several ways to take the battle online against – or in cooperation with – your friends, and with extensive modding support and a powerful Scenario Editor, you’ll be able to orchestrate the tank-on-tank showdowns of your dreams.
Stand down, commander: your training is now over. You now know all the very best tank games you can play on PC, and are ready to run your own campaign of destruction. If you’d like a little out-of-tank action, you may also be interested to know we have training in the best WW2 games, too. But until next time, keep your eyes on the road and a shell in the barrel, and have fun tanking it up.
In WWII Tank Commander players join the battle as the commander of an M4 Sherman Tank in the Fourth Armored Division, under the legendary General Patton. The game features 30 missions in five levels, which follow the Allied advance from France into Germany and challenge players with assault, escort, defense, and rescue objectives. The budget-minded title is designed to appeal to a range of home computer gamers by blending historically accurate maps, equipment, and missions with fast action and a forgiving control scheme.
Commanding a Sherman tank in General Patton's Fourth Armored Division, you are saddled with the responsibility of turning the tide of war as you chase the Nazi's out of France and back to their homeland. Traveling over fields and through burned-out towns you will hunt the enemy down and destroy them where they stand. Unfortunately that's one of the game's biggest problems as the AI just stands out in the open taking shots at you while leaving themselves open to your cannon and machine guns. To make things more challenging, and less realistic, these infantry soldiers can actually damage your tank with their handheld rifles and machine guns.
In case you can't already surmise, WWII Tank Commander is not a sim. This is an arcade-style game with very little arcade-style fun. It's unchallenging and uninteresting. Driving the tank and shooting at things is the meat of the gameplay - and there are no vegetables or desserts served with this meal. There are 10 missions in all, which include escort, rescue, defense and assault. Because events are scripted there's no reason to play through them again as nothing will change. This is actually unavoidable since there are no save or checkpoint areas in the game. If your tank gets destroyed, you have to start the mission from the very beginning.
Although the tank takes on damage from infantry soldiers, it's pretty easy to keep yourself alive. There is a damage meter that lets you see how much more punishment you can endure but all you have to do is destroy an enemy tank and they will drop a health pack for you to drive over and increase your health on the meter. The AI is typically out in full view and the only way you're likely to get blown up is if you're not paying attention - which is easy to do considering how boring this game can be.
You will encounter the odd ambush and nest of enemy tanks that can do some quick damage to your tank. To counter this you can hide behind the fog of war and take pot shots at the enemy with your long-range tank gun and machine guns. Tanks in your division can take unlimited hits so it's advisable to hide behind them under such circumstances. Not that you have much of a choice because if you try to take the lead they will just jostle you back into position.
Virtually anyone can pick-up-and-play this game and for those that enjoy simple pleasures, this game will be a feast. There's no learning curve. Control-wise it's basically a first-person shooter. All you have to do is move, aim and shoot at enemy tanks, soldiers and installations. In some instances you can run over soldiers but other obstacles such as small wooden fences are impassible. Enemy tanks are destroyed in three hits while you can take a lot more damage. The machine gun has unlimited ammo and the cannon reloads itself in about three seconds. This would all be great if you had these features in real life, but in a game I need more of a challenge.
There is nothing offered beyond the 10 missions. Nothing to unlock, no alternate objectives, no difficulty levels and no multi-player. My entire take on the game might have been totally different had a multi-player mode been included. I would even settle for a two-player, though not a co-op. What this game needs is an intelligent opponent and therefore a head-to-head mode would be perfect.
Some of the textures are blurry and the tank models leave a lot to be desired but at least the game is able to convey a sense of depth to the environment. It's too bad that it becomes obscured by the fog of war, but when you're traveling to the next region it's really nice to see the authentically-rendered European countryside with its gentle rolling hills. The sound effects are decent but they aren't varied. You'll hear the same cannon blast and machine gun fire over and over again.
For a beginning gamer, WWII Tank Commander may not be a terrible choice. It's certainly cheap enough. A beginner may tolerate some of the game's shortcomings and may not mind having to replay through a scripted mission to learn where they went wrong. This extends the playing time, though artificially. An experienced gamer would find this under-stimulating and be able to blow through it in a matter of hours.
It's World War II and you are a commander of an M4 Sherman tank in the 4 th Armored Division, Patton's best and most elite division. From France to Germany, you will destroy opposition from the war's most fearsome tanks such as Panthers, Tigers and Hummels. Land on Utah Beach, cut off enemy forces at the Brittany Peninsula, smash Germans forces across the Moselle, relieve the besieged 101 st Airborne at Bastogne, cross the Rhine and chase the German forces into Czechoslovakia. Engage in non-stop military arcade action with authentic weapons. Multiple mission styles are included with objectives such as Assault, Escort, Defense, and Rescue.
People who downloaded WWII Tank Commander have also downloaded:
Wings over Europe: Cold War Gone Hot, Whirlwind over Vietnam, Wings over Vietnam, Panzer Commander, Pacific Fighters, B-17 Gunner: Air War Over Germany, M1 Tank Platoon 2, Red Baron 3D
Wings over Europe: Cold War Gone Hot, Whirlwind over Vietnam, Wings over Vietnam, Panzer Commander, Pacific Fighters, B-17 Gunner: Air War Over Germany, M1 Tank Platoon 2, Red Baron 3D
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