So some background first, I was a part of the closed alpha, the closed beta, and the open beta over the past almost three years now. I've obtained almost every vehicle in the game and am currently working on obtaining the rest, as new vehicles seem to get added every few patches. This is not my first tank game, I've also played World of Tanks, World of Tanks Blitz (Both phone and PC), and War Thunder to some extent. Yet, I keep coming back to Armored Warfare to play, here's why.

Vehicles:
Let's start with the vehicles. This game's vehicles are modern. (Oh really? Stay with me here) The earliest existing vehicles are from the late 1940's onwards, which means that the "One tank for all roles" idea is ingrained in tank development, therefore; all vehicles in the game feel mobile and the majority of the guns are very accurate. This creates a much more fast-paced combat experience, where speed is available to all players in a game, encouraging movement, and if you hold still; all of the other tanks are accurate enough to root you out of your comfy camping spot if they know where to shoot you. Add on top of this the inclusion of wheeled vehicles, and now you have a battle experience that moves rapidly and has vehicles for all play styles and skill levels. Each tank I've played has had its strengths and weaknesses some tanks are great at close range and brawling tactics, some are better snipers and flankers, others are good at finding targets and providing support fire, and more are very good at finishing off targets that are isolated from the rest of thier team. I can honestly say that I have never played a tank that was ever weaker than other vehicles at it's tier. There are ones that are easier to do well in, but there is no tank I can think of that cannot hold its own in a fight in the hands of a capable commander. That alone is worth a significant amount of respect from me. If you like to play a certain way, there is a vehicle for you, and you will not be punished for your playstyle.

Now for the gamemodes:
PvP - It's your standard 15 vs. 15 player vs. player gamemode, can be played alone or in a platoon of up to 3 players. The maps for this mode are larger than I expected, which is very welcome. I never feel as though i'm limited in my options for where to go, and once again the high average speed of vehicles in the game allow you to reposition on a whim. This prevents me from ever feeling like i'm stuck having to defend a flank.
TL:DR: Nothing special, but nothing bad either

PvE - This is a 5 players vs. a single mission. This also can be played either alone or in a platoon, but the platoons can consist of up to 5 players. So you can pick your team, roll out and take on AI opponents doing their best to prevent you from completing your objective. Due to beta status, the AI can sometimes be the dumbest sack of rocks on the planet, or they can send you to an early grave in an unforgiving amount of time. Their biggest flaw currently is their innconsistency when using missiles. Some AI vehicles mounted with missiles either end up cannon fodder or the largest threat to your team on the map, there is no in between.
TL:DR: Very good for when playing in larger groups, or when you just want to relax
while mowing down targets. It's AI can be brutally unforgiving at times.

GLOPS - (Global Operations) This mode is BY FAR, the crowning achievement of this game. You play just as you would a PvP mode, but everything else changes. The maps are larger, and there are multiple capture points around the map, each point is guarded by a small garrison of AI-Controlled vehicles, which will attack both teams, either damaging enemies for you or preventing you from capturing a point. Every few minutes the locations of the capture points change, forcing the teams to move into attempting to capture and hold different portions of the map, preventing camping. To further add some madness to the conflict, special abilites called wildcards may spawn around the map, capturing these activates an ability for whichever player captured the wildcard. These range from building ATGM bunkers in key areas, providing a scout drone to spot enemies for your team, and calling in a bomber to carpet bomb some enemies that have you pinned down. To top it all off, if you make a mistake or just get unlucky and die early on in the match; you can respawn and get back into the fight within a few seconds, don't play too carelessly though as the respawn timer gets longer the more times you die. This mode is absolute chaos and is the most fun I have had in any tank game. The only catch is that it is only available to vehicles tier 5+ (For now), which takes almost no time at all, and basically forces players to train a bit before throwing them into the madness.
TL:DR: The best mode in the game, this gameplay is what you see and get in the
trailers, though you do need to get tier 5+ to play it (For now), which is a
small time barrier.

Technical Aspects:
This is still a beta and it can show. Tank stats and balancing changes consistently, so if you like a tank, it may be changed in the future. The good news is occationally players are allowed a "Progress Reset" This refunds you EVERYTHING you spent on every tank, research, purchase, and equipment at once. (You keep your insignias, and boosts, premium tanks are refunded for gold) Allowing you to speed up another vehicle tree if the one you were currently on gets turned into a different playstyle. Framerates can take a dive on certain maps and visual bugs occur from time to time. As for audio, besides for some minor issues, every gun and engine sounds different and amazing. There will also be an occational game crash, but if you relaunch the game fast enough, you will be reconnected to the match you left. The frequency of crashing improves over time, but always takes a little spike right after each patch is launched.

Other: A few Things that don't fit a category, but should be mentioned

-World of Tanks players rejoice! Artillery cannot be played in PvP or GLOPS, it is restricted to
being played in PvE only, acting as a purely support class; and the AI cannot use it. So artillery's entire existance is to be on your team to help, or to not exist in a match at all.

-Pay to win? Nope. several premium vehicles have had thier tiers changed, been nerfed, and
some outright never sold again because they were too good. Most of the premium vehicles
are just reskins of vehicles that can be researched for free.

-Are loot crates intrusive here? No, most of the crates CANNOT be bought directly, almost all crates are earned from finishing daily missions or for your performance in a match. The crates themselves only contain boosts to your rewards after battle, speeding progression. Nothing they give effects gameplay. (New crates that drop high tier premium vehicles and can only be purchased are becoming significantly more common, this point may need to be revised soon.)

Current State: A Section for any notes exclusive to a recent patch or decision in the game's development
Thanks to multiple micropactches, about 95% of the bugs initially problematic with the launch of the game on steam have been resolved.
It has been announced that a single player mode will become available soon, called battle paths. Its content is supposed to take between weeks and months to complete, hinting at this being a very large collection of content.

Conclusion:
This is the tank game I have been looking for. I have tanks to match all of my playstyles, gamemodes for when I'm feeling competative or just want to cause havoc amongst AI. It's not perfect, and the small player base it has burdens it. But it is definately fun and I recommend any action game player to hop into a tank and engage in Armored Warfare themselves.

9/10