Surprisingly good graphics and fun gameplay, plus a good approach to the freemium game model.
Premise - the game is pretty simple. Some sort of world "event" has happened, and "The Agency" is sending you out to take on private armies by destroying their tanks and armored assets. There are three campaigns, and each has various missions you can play in addition to a fun (albeit short) series of campaign missions you need to win. The missions range from border patrol and search and destroy to a daily challenge using random tanks that gives you a bonus in money every day you complete it. For the most part, these missions are there to make you money; you'll need it for several reasons, which I'll get to shortly.
Graphics - absolutely outstanding. The tanks and their environments look as real as anything you'd see on a console, and the physics are very real as well; the tanks move like the real thing, with the road wheels jouncing over rough terrain, and the tank speeding up as it goes down hill and jolting to a stop as you hit bottom. As someone who served on the real thing for over a decade, I can say I'm very impressed with the realism shown here. The explosion effects look great, as do the gunfire effects and the effects you see when your own tank is hit. Really top notch.
Sound - again, top shelf stuff. They used real tank sound effects for the tank movement, and you can hear it. When a tank moves slowly, it sounds differently than when it moves fast. You can hear the click-clack of the tracks in the sprocket, and the squeaking of road wheels. The gunfire effects are good, as are the explosions. I'll grant that the voice saying "fire" or "ready" is pretty basic, but overall the sounds are a great companion to the graphics.
Gameplay - really quite simple, and that may be a problem for some. You don't drive these tanks. Each battle begins by showing your tank drive into the area, and then showing your opponent. You then have a few seconds to "aim" by putting the reticule on the target, but once you get a lock, that's all there is to that part of the battle; you never have to aim again. Now it's just a matter of hitting him with more damage than he does you. When a round is loaded, the damage bar starts zipping back and forth; the closer to the center you stop it to fire, the more damage you do. In addition, the longer you wait, the more power your shot has. So it's a strategy question; do you fire quickly with less damaging shots, or wait a second or two and hit with a full power haymaker? Up to you, and it depends on what type of tank you have, and what type the enemy has. Each battle lasts no more than ten seconds, so it's fast play. You use up fuel for each battle, but you get a good amount so you can play a decent number of battles before you have to take a break.
Upgrades - hardly a game is made that doesn't allow for upgrade purchases, and Boom Tanks is no different. You have four basic category of upgrades/purchases you need to make:
1: Tank buying. Each campaign has to have a separate tank, so that fully upgraded tank you have for the first campaign can't be used in the campaign game for the other campaigns. You can use any tank for border defense and search and destroy, but to beat the campaign you have to use a campaign appropriate tank...and that means spending your earned money on a new tank and it's upgrades.
2: Tank upgrades. You have six levels of upgrades for each of your tank's systems, including the main gun, ammunition, aiming, loading, armor, and defensive systems. The first few upgrades are cheap and delivered pretty much right then; in the later stages, they get very expensive and are delayed before delivery. How long? At most, an hour, so it's not as bad as in some other games that might hold your upgrade for 72 hours. You can spend gold to get instant delivery, but gold is rare; you only get it sparingly, so don't blow it. But upgrades are essential; without them, you won't beat the campaign easily, if at all.
3: Paint jobs and camo. Part of the fun of the game is customizing your tank's look. There are a myriad of paint schemes (three colors) and camouflage (patterns) you can pick from and mix/match. Some schemes cost gold, some don't. Some give cash bonuses for every mission, but cost money up front. They don't do anything more than that, and you can play with a plain color tank with no penalty, but where's the fun in that?
4: Tune ups. These are basically one-time upgrades; use a tune up in a match, and get a healthy bonus to your abilities. The trouble with these is you buy them in sets (minimum of three) and can't control when they're used; if you buy three, you'll use one in each of the next three matches you enter, regardless of difficulty. So you can't buy three and save them up for, say, the three campaign end matches. Would have been much more player friendly to let you use them when you want.
Freemium content - could be worse, for sure. As usual, you have cash and gold, and can purchase either from the store. Pricing is reasonable, so it's not as bad is could be. And, in truth, you don't HAVE to pay for a thing; you can get buy without it, if you're willing to grind it out in seek and destroy missions to earn the money. There is one thing that's worth buying, though, and that's the VIP membership. It gets you a better tank with a premium paint job, and that's pretty sweet. But the big reason to buy the VIP members ship is the extra fuel you get. You get four more fuel points, which means four more matches you can play before taking a break...and when you level up, those refill just like the "normal" fuel points do, so it's a nice perk. Also, one of the battle types is the "daily mission" which will give you a bonus that increases each day you finish it...and with the VIP membership, you get an extra mission each day. Since you can get the VIP membership with ANY cash or gold purchase, go ahead and spend the $1.99 on some gold or cash...it's worth it.
What's Lacking - not much, to be sure, but there are a few things I think the game could benefit from. For one, it's short. There are three campaigns and each only has 7 missions. Since a mission lasts about 10 seconds, the total time needed to beat all three campaigns is less than four minutes. Sure, you can play the other missions like border patrol, tech challenge, daily missions, etc...but the heart of the game is the campaign, and they're over pretty quickly, especially considering that you have to buy a new tank for each. Also, some variety in gameplay would be nice. The simplicity is good, but breaking it up a bit would be fun; a wave mode with progressive bonuses would be fun, or taking on more than one tank in search and destroy for more money would be nice. The single tank matches are good, but after awhile, you want a bit more.
Overall - A really fun little game. Simple, yes. A bit repetitive, sure. But it looks absolutely gorgeous, and is an engaging game with a surprising attention to realism in not only how the tanks move, but in how they look. They really paid attention to details here, from the spare road wheel mounted on the back bussel rack of the M1 to the water cans mounted on the fenders of the Challenger, they made the tanks look as much like the real thing as possible. I recommend the game, and am looking forward to the upcoming new campaigns and tanks. Try it out; you'll be glad you did.