New free-to-play online tank shooter launches on Steam with 12 tanks, 90% positive reviews

Tyr entered early access on Steam this week; it has been developed and self-published by San Francisco studio Stoke Games. The game is free-to-play and Windows-only, and currently holds a "Very Positive" rating across its first 326 user reviews.

Tyr pits two teams of eight against each other in a stylized sci-fi setting — you get both treaded and hover tanks in the roster. Its central idea is that deliberately made moves beat reaction speed: armor has a directional profile, so angling a hull to deflect incoming fire matters a lot, and shots can be aimed at specific components — for instance, you can disable tracks to leave an opponent stranded in the middle of the battlefield.

Vehicles are only visible within a certain range or when making enough noise. This means that a well-positioned light tank can spot enemies for its team while staying hidden. Each vehicle has a distinct ability, including a short-range blink, a sonar pulse that reveals nearby enemies, and an engine overcharge for ramming. Individual tech trees, ammo slots and component upgrades take care of progression — you also unlock keystone tech at max level.

The early access build ships with more than 12 unlockable tanks and five maps. Stoke anticipates roughly 12 months before a full release; there are more tanks, maps and systems planned. The dev also says that Tyr will remain free-to-play with all gameplay content unlockable without spending. A $15 Founder's Pack comes with a title, a charm and in-game currency — Stoke advises new players to try the game first before buying it.

Tyr's install size is just 4 GB, but the minimum spec asks for a GTX 1070 or RX 580 alongside an i7-8700K or Ryzen 5 5600X — the same CPU listed under recommended, where the GPU rises to an RTX 2060 and memory doubles to 16 GB.