Playable Pixar

Wildstar. This is a game, that I admit, I unfairly cast aside the first several times I heard it mentioned. I haven't truly played an MMO since Star Wars The Old Republic, and I burned out on that one pretty quickly. So when I heard about another MMO to come to the table, I just let it pass by for the most part.

About two months after hearing about it, IGN ran an article announcing applications for closed beta. Out of habit more than anything else, I tossed my application in. It faded out of my thoughts again until I received an email for a closed beta weekend. Unfortunately I would be out of town for it, so I deleted the email and once again let it leave my mind.

Finally about two weeks ago, all the gaming sites made the huge announcements about its open beta. Incidentally, my mood had recently turned back towards the MMO genre, and though I knew it wouldn't last, it coincided nicely with Wildstar's Open Beta. So I filled out the forms, linked my NCSoft Account, and got the game downloading. As it did, I actually took my first look into the game, and started to get excited for the download to complete.

One of my favorite game series is the Ratchet and Clank series. I am not one who goes back and plays old games once the generation is past (Sorry retro gamers, but with so many new games coming out, I rarely see a reason to look back). This series, however, inspired me to pick up the previous generations games and give them a play and I was not disappointed.

I have found this appeal mirrored beautifully in Wildstar. The art style, the game-play, the humor, all reminiscent of one of my favorite series. I was essentially hooked before I even created a character.

Disclaimer time. I have played up to level 8, on one single character, from one faction, over the course of three days in game. I am no expert on this game. I do not have any deep dark insights on the game, just my initial impressions....

This game is phenomenal. It is easily one of the best MMO's I have ever played, and I wish that I had more time to play it before open beta ended last weekend. But alas, life got in the way and just left me with the tantalizing taste of it. I've bounced back and forth on pre-ordering the game, knowing in my heart that my money is already spent, my wallet just doesn't realize it yet. As such, I expect this to be the first of many posts about this game.

The game takes itself nice and lightly. Not in an overly sarcastic manner which makes you feel as though you are playing a parody, but it makes the universe its own. In this manner, it really reminds me of Ratchet and Clank. It recognizes the overly insane weapon designs, the vast array of alien life forms both silly and fearsome, and the overall ambition of any game - to entertain, and wraps them all up nicely in some well placed humor. Each character I have met thus far add to this chosen style, and it really helps bind the universe they set forth together into a fun place to spend my time.

Upon logging in the first time, I was presented with the standard fare of MMO beginnings. Got to choose my faction, race, class, and customize my appearance.
Factions include the Exiles and the Dominion.
Races include:
Exiles-Human (Outcasts. Renegades. Scruffy), Granok (Rock-skinned. Fearless. Hung over), Aurin (Small. Scrappy. Tree-hugging), Mordesh (Intellectual. Morose. Decomposing)
Dominion - Cassian (Wealthy. Disciplined. Superior), Mechari (Calculating. Efficient. Remorseless), Draken (Savage. Bloodthirsty. Brutal), Chua (Tiny. Brilliant. Psychotic)
Classes include: Warrior (Melee DPS/Tank), Spellslinger (Arcane DPS/Healer), Esper (Psionic DPS/Healer), Engineer (Ranged DPS/Tank), Stalker (Melee DPS/Tank), Medic (Ranged DPS/Healer).

I went with an Aurin Stalker. The Aurin was honestly just because it seemed the most interesting visually at that moment in time, and stalker was a familiar archetype for me. Character created, I logged into the server.

My first joyful surprise?  No lag. Now, I had just upgraded my computer, but new MMOs, and especially Day One Open Beta, are usually MASSIVE lag-fests at spawn in. Once my computer loaded in all the textures, the game ran smoothly, even on maxed out settings. Another pleasant surprise? This smoothness did not come at the expense of polygons and graphics. The art is definitely stylized, and they are able to keep the polygon count low because of this style. In my opinion however, unlike WoW which attempted similar methods, they have found a beautiful balance point which doesn't make their characters look like they are all steroid abusing junkies with a love of massive shoulder ornamentation.
But I digress. The textures given to the world and characters is like a beautiful cartoon. Which leads me to the explanation of the title of this post. The style of animation, paired with the optimization which leads to smooth movement and game-play, makes me feel like I am playing in a Pixar movie.

Speaking of smooth movement and game-play, this is another point at which this game shines bright. Playing as a stalker, the ability to flow one ability into another and keep me feeling like I'm actually a stealth fighter taking on an opponent rather than a card board tank hitting a bit faster and harder, is no mean feat. The dynamic combat which clearly dictates what area the attack will land in as well as the fluid dodge mechanics that let you keep out of their attack areas while keeping them in yours keeps combat moving quickly and never feels like a grind. As a damager, I was able to use my stun abilities in conjunction with dodging to keep behind the target even when soloing them, allowing me to utilize my max damage abilities. This is something I have found very lacking in most MMOs. Usually, as a damager, I am not able to use my biggest heavy hitting abilities unless grouped up. Don't get me wrong, I love grouping in MMO's (otherwise I'd just play a single player game), but sometimes I want an equally enjoyable experience in the 10 - 15 minutes I have to spare in the game.

The talent mechanics are one side that I got only a very brief glimpse into. It looks like a nice little twist on the three tier talent trees that we see in all MMO's these days, but it is set up in a circular pattern, which allows them to guide your eye to which talents blend well with others, to best balance your class to how you want to play. I look forward to seeing this more in depth as I level my main character upon release.

With all the points above adding up, I am already in love with this game. But it just keeps on giving. In what has been described as the most feature complete MMO to hit the market, I was not disappointed to find a fully functioning alternative class system in place. In what they call Paths, they allow the player to tailor the non-combat exclusive game-play to fit their play style. They have broken these up into four Paths: Explorer, Soldier, Settler, Scientist. The only one of these I played with was Explorer, so I will leave the others to future write-ups when I can give them a fair assessment. For your Path, you get a second experience bar to fill, with Path specific quests in their own quest log to advance your progress.
For Explorer, I was tasked with lifting the fog of war from the entire map of the zone I was in, for starters. But it was more than that. There were viewpoints I could access and plant a beacon, which ticked off progress on another quest. The coolest aspect of this style quest was that to get to these viewpoints, you need to be an explorer. There are click-able rocks (in the ones I have done so far) that when clicked, expose previously hidden paths up to the summit. The last type of Explorer quest I experienced is the scavenger hunt. It tasks you with collecting a certain number of items, each of which has a clue to what you are looking for and will highlight on your map a general location in which to look.

As can be surmised from my lengthy post after only playing the first few levels, I am a convert to Wildstar. I am very excited for launch and very depressed at the money my excitement has already spent, but I will none-the-less be ready to play when servers open for head-start next weekend.

Take a look at their site, delve into the lore they have provided at depth for new players, enjoy the artwork and see if it seems to be up your alley.

Thanks for following!

-Mac

Wildstar Website