WildStar Reviews
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It's been less than one day since WildStar's launch (a few days if you include the pre-order soft launch), and Carbine's MMO is already the subject of an array of review diaries from the usual suspects, though I have to note that MMOGames bucked the trend and already published its scoreless review. Here's a snippet, before we move on to the review-in-progress pieces:
WildStar is visually stunning, fun to play, and just feels new. Despite the overwhelming number of systems it has an incredibly easy learning curve, and is overflowing with entertaining content.It's clearly the first real step towards the necessary evolution of the genre.
Ultimately this game may not satisfy everyone that tries it, but everyone that has played or will play MMOs really does need to try it.
Early game in WildStar is instanced (like every other MMO these days), which serves two purposes -- to acclimate you to the game in a controlled environment, and ease the load of everyone jumping into the game at the same time. You'll learn the general setup of the the game and the planet Nexus, why both factions are warring, and so on. It's a short hour or so intro before you head off to Nexus' surface, which will happen around level three.
It's here that WildStar starts to show off its openness in terms of the leveling process. In addition to PVP, instanced dungeons, and open-world questing, you'll also be able to choose a "path" -- like exploration or combat -- that helps you earn new abilities and special path levels separately. If you just like combat, you can be a Soldier and do more quests that way, or if you're sick of fighting things constantly in every game, you can do other activities like running around and finding new locations. It's not a game-changer, but it's a refreshing change of pace from other MMOs that mostly feel like combat grinds. There are also fun world events in the form of challenges and group bosses to help mix things up.
Having said that, regular questing feels very standard, and it almost all consists of kill and gather quests. Carbine has made some concessions to the formula by giving you more "credit" towards quests by killing stronger enemies -- so you don't have to keep killing the same thing over and over -- but at the end of the day it's the same result. There really isn't a whole lot of leeway here, and after level seven things really started to feel like a standard MMO grind. The good news is you can level in other ways, most notably in PVP.
If you leave this diary entry with one lasting thought about WildStar, let it be this: The combat system is one of the genre's best. Here's how it works. See the blue area on the ground? That's the attack reticule for one of our heroine's abilities. When you press the hotkey for an ability, the reticule instantly appears, showing you where your attack will hit. But the attack itself doesn't trigger for a second or two--meaning you've got time to readjust your attack's area of effect for maximum results.
Some abilities add extra wrinkles to it, too. The Spellslinger's Charged Shot, for example, lets you wait for a few seconds to charge the ability (hence the name!). One simply taps the hotkey again to let off the charged deathray. These kind of considerations help combat feel lively and interactive.
IGN:
WildStar is by no means a totally new, never-before-seen experience. After a series of cinematics and a lengthy faction-based introduction, you're thrust into the invasion point, where many aspects of WildStar's structure and mechanics are immediately reminiscent of earlier MMO giants. But that in itself isn't a bad thing. Hardcore MMO players should find much of WildStar familiar enough to become quickly acquainted, while easily spotting the excellent evolutionary steps Carbine has taken in its own homebrewed formula.
The progression system in WildStar, for example, might be the best I've played in recent memory. There's a constant stream of varied things to do, so much so that it's easy to get distracted from the task at hand and get pulled off course for one legitimate reason or another. As someone who regularly resists leaving an area until every stone has been overturned, WildStar's streamlined questing and quick pace had me so engrossed in knocking out tasks that I had traversed half the map in a daisy-chained questing extravaganza without even realizing it. This is particularly noticeable in the many quests that can be completed remotely, so being forced to make the long trek back to that hermit in the middle of nowhere just to update a quest and return to your hunting grounds is a rare occurrence.
Much of that constant pace has to do with the Path system in WildStar, which acts as a sort of secondary job or expertise. My chosen path of Settler allows me to repair the many outposts and villages that have sprouted with the Dominion's arrival. But my favorite part of this path is the ability to use Settler-specific resources to create objects that are actually useful to others: buff dispensers, crafting tables, mailboxes, and even experience boosts. And when I saw unknown players shout over zone chat (I love you Settlers,) on more than one occasion, I quietly nodded and felt connected to this fledgling community.
By the end of Levian Bay, I'm getting a basic feel for combat. It's this that seems to make Wildstar stand apart from its rivals. The fighting is almost as fast and fluid as Guild Wars 2, but has the advantage of a direct-attack system that contains no tab-targetting. Attacks are still hotbar driven, but even my Stalker's basic melee swipe sends an AOE telegraph that needs to be aimed at my enemies. After a few levels, I'm able to stealth-sneak to my target, hit them with a backstab, and use a basic stun move to reposition behind them for a follow-up.
Those enemies don't flag all of their attacks if you're fighting one-on-one, you'll sustain the occasional unannounced hit but red cones, lines and circles will pre-empt their special abilities, making combat a responsive and engaging game of position and manoeuvring. It also offers a great degree of diversity. I'll touch on this more in a future update, when I've had the chance to see the scope of each class, but already I can start to spec my Stalker along DPS, tanking and hybrid paths. Just looking at the AMP screen the customisable grid of passive stat boosts confirms that theorycrafters will be in their element.
For all the clever touches that go into the combat system, its best part is something far simpler: it has a mega-kill announcer. As you rack up kills in quick succession, a voice is intoning "double-kill," "triple-kill," "super-kill", etc. It turns out that this is the perfect fit for an MMO, and it his an effect on how I play. I've started taking on bigger groups, just to hear an excitable man tell me how well I'm doing. Given how abstracted MMO combat can be, feedback is essential to giving it a sense of weight and import. It's in this area that Wildstar absolutely excels.
