“World of Tanks: Roll Out!” Comic Book Issue #1 and Premium Tanks Will Be Available on August 31
World War II-inspired story penned by legendary comic icon Garth Ennis advances to retailers
August 29, 2016 — Wargaming and Dark Horse Comics have announced that the highly anticipated first issue of the World of Tanks: Roll Out comic series will hit comic book stores and digital distribution on August 31. The first ever comic book inspired by Wargaming’s massively multiplayer online game World of Tanks brings all the thrills, tension and armoured conflict World of Tanks players demand. This hard-hitting story, written by Garth Ennis (Preacher, War Stories, The Punisher), is a historically-based war tale, skilfully illustrated by the renowned Carlos Ezquerra (Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, War Stories Vol. 2). Each issue is wrapped in the epic cover art of Isaac Hannaford (Halo: Reach, The Punisher) and bursts with the explosive action found in the panels of World of Tanks: Roll Out.
The premier issue of armoured combat debuts alongside the first in a series of in-game Premium tank bundles based on the iconic “hero” tanks from the comic book’s storyline. Now tank commanders can read the adventures of the valiant vehicles in the comic book and continue the campaign by playing the “hero” tanks on the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PlayStation®4 versions of World of Tanks.
Set during the epic tank battles of 1944, which proved to be pivotal on the outcome of the war, World of Tanks: Roll Out follows a crew of young British tankers as they push deeper into post-D-Day Normandy, toward a battalion of seasoned German armoured units. Flanked and tracked by the Germans at almost every turn, the inexperienced British tankers traverse a battle-scarred France while the danger around them escalates and the outcome of the war hangs in the balance.
“As we explored the idea of a World of Tanks comic book, the first priority was ensuring that we told an authentic and historically based tale of combat that was in line with Warming’s commitment to military authenticity,” stated Erik Whiteford, Wargaming’s Director of Marketing. “Having the leading writer in the war comic genre, Garth Ennis, and legendary illustrator, Carlos Ezquerra, as the creative team behind World of Tanks: Roll Out guaranteed the execution of a story in true Wargaming fashion; gritty and packed with realistic and pulse-pounding tank combat.”
As a part of the release of World of Tanks: Roll Out, the World of Tanks Premium Shop for console will be offering limited-time bundles featuring the British Cromwell, known as “Snakebite”. Pulled directly from the pages of the comic, the signature Tier VI British Cromwell light tank comes with the Snakebite Crew Skill, which improves overall accuracy. Nimble and highly manoeuvrable, this tank darts across the map, trading armour for speed, while still packing a powerful punch. Three individual Snakebite-themed bundles will be available on August 31.
World of Tanks: Roll Out comic issue #1 will be available, in English, digitally at Dark Horse Digital and in comic book stores in North America, Australia, Western and Eastern Europe on August 31, followed by four more issues of intense tank combat.
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About Wargaming
Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher and one of the leaders in the free-to-play MMO market. Founded as a privately held company in 1998, Wargaming has shipped more than 15 titles. Currently, Wargaming is focused on its team-based MMO war series dedicated to the mid-20th century warfare that will include the armored World of Tanks, the flight combat World of Warplanes, and the naval World of Warships. The three intertwined titles will form a common gaming universe integrated within the portal www.wargaming.net.
As part of its multiplatform line-up, the company has introduced World of Tanks on Xbox and World of Tanks Blitz on mobiles, tablets and Windows 10 PCs. Launched in 2014 and 2015, World of Tanks on Xbox introduced epic tank-on-tank battles to console gamers and offers the first cross-platform gaming experience between Xbox 360 and Xbox One. In 2016, Wargaming released World of Tanks for Sony’s PlayStation®4, continuing its console campaign.
About Dark Horse Comics
For 30 years, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. Founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, the company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent, such as Eric Powell, Mike Mignola, Geof Darrow, Brian Wood, Gail Simone, Stan Sakai, and Guillermo del Toro, and comics legends, such as Will Eisner, Milo Manara, Kazuo Koike, Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller, Dark Horse has developed its own successful properties, such as The Mask, Ghost, X and Barb Wire. Its successful line of comics, manga and products based on popular properties includes Dragon Age, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan, Tomb Raider, Halo, The Witcher, Serenity, Game of Thrones, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Today Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic book publisher in the US and is recognized as one of the world’s leading entertainment publishers.
Humanity has lived behind three immense walls that were constructed long before anyone can remember in an effort to keep highly dangerous manlike beings known as Titans from invading the last bastions of humanity. For well over a hundred years very few cared about what happened outside the walls until one day humanity was given a terrible reminder of the dangers existing in their world. With the appearance of a colossal Titan that could see over the walls, the outermost wall was destroyed with one kick and the rest of the Titans, ranging from 2M tall to over 15M began pouring through and eating anyone in sight.
For the most part Attack on Titan does a decent job highlighting some of the most important scenes of the game so fans will definitely appreciate these scenes being recreated but it is also worth noting that for newcomers this is a poor way to experience the story. I say this because while the “Attack Mode” that serves as the story does cover the basics and some of the OVAs that follow Levi’s group, it also glosses over many important events and story details that take place between the larger confrontations. Along those same lines the story mode comes to an abrupt end so those looking for something a bit more substantial to chew on will be out of luck outside of some extra unlockable missions compared to the source material.
The main tools players will have to worry about keeping upgraded come in the form of their blades, scabbards, and ODM, all of which come in different types that can be unlocked and further improved to increase various stats such as damage dealt, durability, amount of gas and acceleration rate, anchor strength and more. It is also worth noting that some stages place the character on the back of a horse so various horses can also be equipped with higher speed and stamina ratings. It is worth noting that since all equipment is carried over between Attack and Expedition modes and between characters that keeping yourself upgraded is essential.
Fast paced movement and strikes are essential to win against more difficult Titans as they can and will regenerate their limbs and even slowly recover health of moderately damaged areas. Although it can be rather difficult to get a grasp of the controls to begin with as the way the ODM controls is a bit unusual to start with, players are worked through the process of learning how to target specific body parts, swap anchors between points, boosting, and more in an effort to teach them the strengths and limitations of their equipment, such as how they cannot be used in areas where there is nothing to grapple to and how the amount of damage dealt to a Titan when attacking is based on speed and targeting.
Allied characters in the game also regularly are killed and eaten by Titans though named characters are only displayed as defeated and will leave the field of battle for story sake. This means if the player is running low on blade or fuel refills and a character that otherwise might be able to resupply them is killed, they will be forced to either head elsewhere on the map or hope to loot something useful from a fallen comrade that occasionally appears from a Titan’s vanishing corpse. Speaking of allies, players can recruit common soldiers to join them or complete various side-missions that appear as green smoke signals to recruit named characters to their party that can then be given various orders to Focus, Guard, and Fan Out.
It is worth noting that Koei Tecmo did not opt to provide an English voice track for the release of Attack on Titan but thankfully the Japanese voice actors have all reprised their roles from the anime series which is a great touch for fans. The soundtrack on the other hand does unfortunately miss out on some of the signature tracks contained in the series but does its best to mimic them and often helps deliver a solid fast paced tune to kill Titans to.
