Ok – E3 is
over, I didn’t get as much of it covered last week as I would have liked, but
it gives me something to strive to improve on next year. I will get at least a
wrap-up done within the next week with games that sparked my interest most. For
now back to my usual ramblings.
WildStar
I am taking my
time with WildStar, partly due to a busy life lately and partly so I don’t burn
out on it in one binge. Made it to level 15 over the weekend and after getting
my skills settled, buying my mount, and exploring my housing a bit…I went to
bed. The next day however, I set myself up for a bit of game time and entered
the queue for my first adventure – The Hycrest Insurrection. Adventures are
instances for 5 group members that follow a “choose your own adventure” format.
At each junction, you are given three paths to choose from, and the choice that
obtains the highest number of votes wins for the group’s choice. There is a
final boss to fight, and everyone gets rewarded for their efforts, plus
reputation to spend at the vender at the instance entrance. A major difference
between this and a dungeon is the lack of exp awarded for monster kills here.
And that I have heard dungeons are far more difficult.
The fact that
dungeons are more difficult both excites and scares me, because the adventure
wasn’t a walk in the park. Starting off in a hover-copter, we listened to a
briefing and then jet-packed down to Hycrest, a territory currently heavily
under Dominion control. Our job was to help them successfully rebel and throw
out the oppressing forces. We hunkered down with a leader of the insurgency and
were presented with our first choice. The choices range from outright rebellion
and target elimination to collection and destruction of resources.
My group went
with the latter, and we set out killing the guards and destroying their
property as smooth as can be. The only stumbling blocks we came upon were the
constant artillery barrage as a group member carelessly stepped into the
warning reticules scattered about and the annoyance of the snipers knocking us
down as we ran around.
At our next
juncture, we set out to free some prisoners, and were presented with some
heftier enemies to take down. At this point I let my enthusiasm get the better
of me, forgot to watch my threat level, and bit the dust. Up on my feet again,
we pressed on and finished the objective smoothly. We did encounter a bug of
not being able to see one another until we met at the rendezvous point, but it
cleared itself up. We finished our last mini quest and went on to tackle the
adventure boss. Here we wiped a few times, all new to the experience and not
knowing the tactics. These aren’t the hardest bosses in the world, but they
still require a fine level of tactics and finesse.
Overall, I
love the idea of adventures. As I understand it, your story sculpts visually
depending on the paths you choose, including more or less friendly NPCs,
destruction, etc. I am excited to grab another group and try again, choosing
different paths this time. I love the change of pace from normal exp grinding
without the insane challenge I have heard the dungeons present, though I look
forward to those just as anxiously. It’s definitely a unique take on group
content, and it helps keep you engaged in the world’s storyline in a fun new
way.
Carbine
Studios is doing awesome so far, and though we are plagued with gold spammers,
what MMO isn’t? Patches are coming rapid-fire, fixing bugs and rebalancing what
needs rebalancing. I love where the game is, and can’t wait to see where it
goes.
If you still haven't jumped on the WildStar bandwagon, get on board!
-Mac
No comments:
Post a Comment