At face value, it didn’t seem all that different, but once I got to sit down and give Legends a go, it all just clicked. Far more than just a pared down port of the complex PC experience, World of Warships: Legends is very much its own beast, and the developers at the Wargaming office in Austin emphasized this. World of Warships: Legends is Wargaming’s answer to the call to bring the popular naval warfare title to consoles, and they’ve answered in a big, surprising way. Their fanbase skews older, as often happens with slower, military-sim-lite games, but Wargaming is always looking for avenues to expand that player-reach.

After spending two days at Wargaming, it was easy to see how important their community is to them, and how they regularly listen to fan feedback. Since then, the title has grown and fostered its ever growing fanbase with period-accurate ships from various nations and navies, regular updates, fun one-off events (take last year’s Halloween event, for example) and regular community events. Wargaming, best known for the ever-popular tank-based multiplayer experience World of Tanks, first launched World of Warships on PC in 2015. While the air outside was heavy with a dry heat, my mind was transported to various oceanic settings of war from World War II-the Pacific, straits off of some archipelago, and ice-pocked northern seas booming with cannon-fire. But the heat was never a problem because I spent the majority of my stay in Austin at Wargaming’s studio checking out World of Warships: Legends-the console version of the PC-centric World of Warships, as well as the soon-to-be-tested-in-the-wild submarines.

Heat-waves made the distance look wobbly and a bottle of water was always in my hand. It was over 100 degrees in Austin, Texas a few weeks ago.

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