Wildstar Preview

There’s certainly been a degree of hype surrounding Wildstar, especially with the development team housing a number of ex Blizzard employees who worked upon the current king of the MMO market, World of Warcraft.

Carbine Studios aren’t prepared to settle for second best in this market, oh hell no, they want to kick Warcraft off the throne and claim the seat of power for themselves, along with hopefully retaining the title of king of the hill for as long as WoW has.

So how does Wildstar intend to conquer the competition? Well, don’t expect anything groundbreaking here, a lot of what you see in the game has already been done by other titles in this highly contested genre. But what you can expect are ideas that have been merged and polished to a degree where it all seamlessly melds together into one amazing experience for the player.

The story behind Wildstar is a simple affair at first glance: two factions duke it out on a newly discovered planet trying to claim ownership of the technology from the now extinct inhabitants of said planet. Firstly we have The Dominion, a galactic empire of holier than thou types that think they are entitled to the planet Nexus and will eliminate anyone who does not agree with their views; much like Daily Mail readers. Then we have the Exiles, races that have been forced to relocate due to the Dominion claiming ownership of their homeworlds and have banded together to fight against their common foe.

However, as you progress through the game, you glean more and more information about the whole story surrounding Wildstar, the races of each faction and more about the Eldan technology that is hidden away. These are usually discovered via holocrons or datapads scattered around the zones, though you do also get some narrated dialogue at key points in your gameplay; a sort of tacky television series recap of the events. A neat trick to keep those lore loving players on board as they consume each new morsel of information with each area they discover and complete the quests held within.

The game has six classes available for the player to select:

• The tried and tested Warrior, preferring melee combat with big scary weapons, able to take a pounding while dishing out the punishment. Your first choice when it comes to tanking big things.

• The Spellslinger, a sort of intergalactic cowboy/girl that loves nothing more than whipping out the pistols and letting rip with a volley of quick shots.

• The Medic obviously heals people but can also go toe to toe with the best of them, enjoying a bout of melee combat themselves. With their healing abilities limited in range, these folk would be better suited at healing those who love to punch up close and personal.

• Stalkers are masters of stealth and subterfuge, employing optical camouflage in order to sneak up upon their prey before unleashing a flurry of attacks. They are also manipulators of their technological advancements, scanning the battlefield, looking for enemy weaknesses before striking, leaving a pile of corpses in their wake.

• Espers prefer to stay at range, unleashing devastating psychic attacks and horrifying illusions at the enemy. The class is also adept at healing and sustaining their allies from afar, allowing you more options when it comes to grouping up to tackle difficult challenges.

• Finally the Engineer, with a penchant for blowing shit up. This class loves heavy weaponry, robots and explosives. Tinkering with exo-suits, Engineers can also become capable tanks if you fancy some variety in your group.

The game also has ‘Paths’ available to the player, these are a separate choice to what class you want to rock on Nexus. These paths open up additional quests based upon the path the player chooses, these paths being Soldier, Scientist, Explorer and Settler. You can probably guess that the Soldier path will allow you to go hulk mode with additional quests to smash things into tiny pieces, while Explorer calls to those who prefer to wander the world, finding new routes only available to explorers and seeing things no other path could.

Scientists love to research and discover articles that explain more of the world around them and is a great choice for those wanting to dive into the core of the story behind Wildstar; while finally Settlers help others out by buffing allies, creating settlements, outposts and generally getting their hands dirty in the creation of social hubs within the gameworld.

The combat in Wildstar is definitely more fluid and action-packed than the more traditional MMO style. Following the trends seen in games such as Guild Wars 2 where abilities have visible indicators on where they’ll hit, allowing the player to dodge and reposition themselves in a more organic fashion. This makes dungeons a more exciting prospect as you’re now constantly shifting to the mechanics and attack indicators, meaning you don’t have to go to YouTube to watch some boss tactic following a fairly static and linear strategy but actually adapt your approach on the fly.

Moving to PvP then prepare to be channeling your inner Patches O’Houlihan as you dodge, duck, dip, dive and… dodge your way through all the enemy ability indicators on the ground while you attempt to eliminate them as fast as possible. Wildstar has some pretty interesting ideas for those more PvP inclined with the introduction of WarPlots, massive 40v40 battles where each side has their own customised base and has to either destroy the power generator of the opposition vessel or starve them of the resources out in the battlegrounds.

These resources in turn power the more… extravagant items of your base, from giant mechs to orbital laser cannons; hell you can even unleash a captured dungeon boss to help defend your WarPlot. Those looking for an earlier start in the world of PvP need only wait till they reach level six, this is when the first battleground opens up for players allowing you to get a taste of the hectic combat. Further expanding the options for duking it out is the arena which unlocks at level 30 enabling players to form 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 groups just like World of Warcraft.

To many it is quite a daunting task when you set out to topple the current king of any genre; Tera, Rift, RaiderZ and The Old Republic have settled into their own little corner of the market, gathering their own fans and happily co-habit the MMORPG world. Wildstar is definitely set on a direct collision course with World of Warcraft and from what we’ve seen so far, it has the firepower to make a huge dent in the old behemoth.

Wildstar is without a doubt the most intriguing MMO title to date and I cannot wait for the finished product to land.