As you could probably guess from my initial write-up forWildstar, it has captured my interest just a bit. This past weekend marked the
start of the head-start event and the official launch. I had a busy weekend
away from my computer, but I managed to set aside a decent chunk of time to
enjoy the comic goodness on Nexus.
My first instinct was to roll a different class than I had
in beta, so I rolled a Granok Engineer. Huge difference from my Stalker, and I
definitely was enjoying it. Made it through the first ship teaching grounds
before deciding I like to hit things hard and fast when playing a game, so I
knew that my main should be a Stalker. I have my Engineer waiting for me, and I
look forward to his hard hitting, slow deliberate, bot enhanced game-play, but
for now, I will explore with my fast DPS Stalker.
I put a bit of thought into which path to choose this time, and decided to embrace the hitting hard and fast aspect fully, choosing Soldier. I definitely enjoyed Explorer back in beta and will be choosing it on an alt before too long, but I really do feel that the Soldier path fits my “Kill Everything in sight” mentality as a Stalker.
Character rerolled and decisions made, I was ready to play.
I hopped in and burned through the starter ship as quickly as I could; having
enjoyed the flavor text in Beta already. I was sad to see gold spamming had
already begun. I knew it was coming, but day one of head-start seems a bit
ridiculous. I went to report the spammer and was greeted by my desktop. Seems
that tool crashed the client. By now, I am very used to MMO launches so this
didn’t surprise nor bother me, though I did find the irony amusing. What did
surprise me was that a customer service rep was in the general chat replying to
early complaints and that a patch hit the next day to remove this and several
other bugs. There are still a good number of bugs to squish, but they
definitely are doing well inspiring confidence in their commitment to getting
gameplay perfect.
I still haven’t done much research into the game on the “greater
internet”, just enough to build up my anticipation a bit. Upon leaving the
ship, I expected to wind up back in the Northern Wilds but instead was pleased
to find there were in fact multiple (2 per faction) leveling paths for the
different races. I landed in Everstar Grove and was greeted with brand new
quests to enjoy; an unforeseen bonus to rolling a different race. The ship
every character starts in is great. It teaches some essential skills for
newcomers to the genre, but I can see getting very tired of it if you are an
alt’o’holic. The variety in leveling paths will lend itself well to keeping the
early levels at least a bit fresher.
I have been paying attention to most of the quest dialogue
as I play, wanting to take my time and to appreciate the humor and beauty that
is the game, but I admit to being guilty of burning through some of the text
just to keep chugging forward. I’ve made it up to level 10 so far; though I
logged to go to bed as soon as hitting the level so I haven’t touched trade-skills
yet. That’s this evening’s goal. So far, I am still in love with the game. The
only danger I have come across is that time seems to slip by as I play it, and
suddenly its 2 AM. I blame the wizards at Carbine for this sorcerous trick…..
Quests are categorized as Regional Stories and Tasks, so you can easily differentiate the
ones you need to focus on to progress and the ones there for loot, experience
and general fun. There are also challenges that pop up as you enter different
areas, or kill different mobs. Some people find this obnoxious; I find them to
be a nice flavor addition. They generally involve requiring you to kill X mobs
or jump through X objectives or something similar within the given time limit.
I’m not always in the mood to indulge in their demands, but when I am, the
added time limit gives me a fun sense of urgency to not only beat the timer,
but to do so in such a time that it makes the time given seem like an eternity.
I don’t always succeed. I have heard tell that completing these can yield some
pretty awesome rewards, so I will have to focus in on them a bit more in the
coming days.
The other carrot that keeps the game-play fresh is the Path
quests. There are eight different types of these that appear for Soldiers. Four
are just simple variations of each other; given a starting point, defend the
point/people around the point/against a LOT of attackers/quickly. There is also
Assassination, Rescue, Demolition (which are all exactly what they sound like)
and then S.W.A.T. This last mode gives you a shiny new weapon to go test out on
the surrounding enemies. It’s basically just another kill quest, but the
addition of a usable item as a new way to do it makes it a blast.
The last thing I got to experience this weekend was the
basics of a guild. I hopped on board a community based guild as soon as I got
word it was active, knowing that a big difference between MMOs I have stuck
with and loved and those I have dropped quickly is the community immersion I
experience. The interface seems good, from a member’s standpoint, though I haven’t
had the chance to pick it apart just yet. It’s been a while since I have really
participated in a guild and paid attention, so a feature like the Guild Tax is
new to me. I like it and think it can be
a good help for end game guild play, especially with the PVP options offered.
The one thing that weirded me out at first but I grew quickly to like was the
way your guild crest was displayed. Some games just tag your name-plate and
some add a cape or something of the like. Wildstar adds a set of projections
from your shoulders and back. You can turn them on and off individually and
toggle between near projection and far. I love it. I think that it fits the
style perfectly.
The game has its bugs, and it has its faults, but for an MMO
in 2014, I think it hits its mark quite strongly. The art design is beautiful,
the character fluidity is up to par for modern game-play, the attention to
detail is amazing, and the game is just downright fun. I can’t wait to delve
into the content I have yet to see including, but not exclusive to, trade-skills,
dungeons, furthering the Amp tree. I also anticipate my Stalker and Soldier
class progressions will keep me plenty entertained for months to come.
I truly love the game, and highly recommend it for anyone
looking for a new MMO, or just a good, fun, cartoon-y, over the top humor game.
I plan to keep up with the Wildstar posts approximately
weekly as long as I play the game, and will have more focus in future posts.
Check back in, and let me know in the comments if you think I should focus on
anything in particular! I’ll happily tailor at least a portion of my playtime
to explore what the community is interested in!
-Mac
--Sociopathic Score--
It only rates this high because it verbally rewards you for
killing multiple mobs in rapid succession. I can see using this as a challenge
to see how many I can kill how fast in the coming months.
--Sophomoric Score--
More cartoon-y humor; Ratchet and Clank style as I have
mentioned. Haven’t encountered them yet, but fully expect actual poop jokes…
--Strategic Score--
So far, haven’t completed dungeons, raids, or upper level
content, but judging off of the build structure of classes, and knowing how
detail oriented the game is up to this point, I foresee upgrading this greatly
as I reach end game.
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