wild star game review
TRANSCRIPT
WildStar – Game Review
http://www.gamebasin.com/news/wildstar-game-review
Massive multiplayer role playing games are everywhere now. Every one of them is trying or
claiming to do something new and different, and attempts to convert well‐known franchises into
MMO games are rife as well. Carbine Studios and NCSOFT’s brand new entry in the genre, WildStar,
is an ambitious take on the now familiar formula, dipping its fingers in a lot of pies. What I mean
by that is that it’s nothing new mechanically, but it still manages to feel fresh thanks to its
distinctive presentation. You embark upon the planet Nexus to uncover its secrets – including some
of the most unusual races I’ve seen in a video game. Nexus, known to be home to a mysterious and
powerful race called the Eldan, finds itself suddenly abandoned, with two races battling it out for
possession of its resources and any powerful artifacts left behind. The Exiles and the Dominion are
at war, and it’s up to you to help either side gain the upper hand. It’s a basic premise, but thanks
to the cartoony Ratchet and Clank/Jak and Daxter aesthetic, WildStar holds a lovable charm. Each
and every race, whether it be a strapping human or a robot‐like Mechari, look like they have been
ripped straight from a Saturday morning cartoon – which is something that makes WildStar literally
shine bright among the traditional Elves and Orcs type of game. The story is told through a set of
visually pleasing cutscenes, though the sound is a bit broken at times. Sometimes a scene starts
and the dialogue overlaps due to a delay, even though the character’s mouths are moving. This
happened a lot during my experience – and I hope it gets patched up soon. WildStar plays identical
to the likes of World of Warcraft. You control your created character, choosing one of six classes
and eight races – each of which are just buttered‐up mages, warriors or sneaky rogues. Then you
must select one of four paths, which is where the game starts to become a little different. The path
you choose determines the type of side quests you will encounter throughout your time on Nexus;
each are distinct and unique to one another. The path system is a fantastic means to replay the
game, as different paths means different item pickups and quest types, and it can take quite a while
to be satisfied with your choice. Once you have created your guy or gal, you’re then packed off
to undergo a few introductory quests before being left to your own devices on the vast
planet. WildStar takes on a third person perspective, the traditional viewpoint, with keys assigned
to make your character sprint or jump, as well as hotkeys for different special attacks. The mouse
is used for the direction of travel, with the mouse buttons being used for the action buttons, so
MMO vets will be right at home here. WildStar’sinventory, mailing and banking system works
almost identical to that of World of Warcraft, as a window pops up when needed which shows a
grid of your collected items, which can be exchanged via mail or deposited in the bank. It’s all
familiar ground for MMO veterans, and for newcomers it’s really simple to get your head around.
Mission types however are dominated by grinding ‘kill a ton of these’ and ‘deliver this to there’
quests, which soon become mundane – not least because of the huge amount of text to read
through in linking them together.
Like all MMO titles WildStar opens up when you’ve reached max level, and this is when you can
traverse dungeons with other players as you take on two of three available roles, whether it be
healer, damage dealer or tank. Each of you has to keep to your role, otherwise you will die quickly
– as enemies in dungeons are much tougher. The battle system takes on a simple mechanic of
telegraphing, which shows ahead of you the area of effect of any attack you choose, in a kind of
shaded rectangular box. Any enemies in that area when you unleash your attack will be affected.
There is a key you can use to auto aim, but it’s not entirely effective when in large scale battles. An
optional feature in WildStar which I must recommend is the Sky Plot housing system. These don’t
come cheap, but they allow you to create your own base, which has some cool rewards like your
very own workbench to indulge in WildStar’s extensive crafting system among other useful
features, and logging out in your plot also gives you a rested bonus – earning you extra experience
whenever you log back in. Again, a previously used mechanic, but well executed here. The
characters are brimming with visual personality, making it easy to see who are the ‘good guys’ and
who are the ‘bad guys’, with the Dominion races looking more menacing and fearsome than the
angelic‐seeming Exiles. With the graphics ramped up the detail is nice and sharp on each character
model. By contrast, the world however is vast but textureless most of the time. Some of the
locations like Algoroc look featureless, though the floating islands are a nice sight from afar. There
is lots to do in WildStar if you’re looking for a new MMO to sink their teeth into, and it’s worth a
look if you’re willing to pay the dreaded subscription fee. There’s a ton of side quests, storyline
quests, challenges and, of course, player versus player battle scenarios to test your mettle – and
they’re often pretty exciting when working as a team
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