As of today, the NDA on Wildstar was lifted as well as us being given a solid release date of June 3.
So, lets talk Wildstar!
As a person who has been in a few beta weekends and has been able to play the game whenever on my SO's full beta account I honestly can't stop gushing about this game. The looks, the feel, the classes, the races. Its almost exactly what I want out of an MMO and most definitely has me hooked until WoW can release its new expansion sometime in the next year. Still might play both dependin on how well Wildstar can roll out the content.
The aesthetic is absolutely gorgeous. Obviously some people will complain about the cartoony nature of Wildstar, but these people are wrong and dumb. The look and feel of the characters is absolutely amazin and everythin meshes perfectly with the rest of the world. The first time I was on my engineer and saw the adorable little happy face on my bots turn into the most horrifyin angry face ever I just fell in love. On top of that, because Wildstar didn't go with the ESO route of realistic graphics it'll still be beautiful to look at in 5-10 years. Example! Look at LotRO. At the time it was the tippy top of MMO graphics and they were proud of that fact. Now it looks like meh compared to games that have come out in the last few years. WoW on the other hand still looks great as long as you don't get too close to the scenery.
Back to Wildstar talk! The movement mechanics are really solid. Dashin is simple. Double jump is an absolute joy to the point that I actually get sad when I go to other games and can't double jump like a madman. It also plays really well into the exploration mechanics of just wanderin around and findin things to do, whether it be quests or path related things, or literally nothin other than seein if you can get up to that really big rock (you generally can).
Combat is an absolute joy as well. Attacks feel like they have weight to them. The telegraph system means that whether you hit a shot or not is entirely dependent on how well you can aim which is actually really nice comin from a WoW background. They do have a system involved that will center your attack on a target when you hit the button for people who can't aim too well, but it only works on the button click so if things get out of the telegraph before it finishes you have to reaim it before it fires or you miss.
On top of that, combat against npcs is actually fun as npcs have their own telegraphs that you really need to get out of or it really hurts. Normal attacks from npcs don't really do much other than tickle, but telegraphs were specifically buffed to make combat be more than just you standin in one place tankin the damage. You have to move and you have to actively pay attention to the telegraphs on the ground and use your dodge rolls well, which also means you need to be careful to not accidentally pull more than you intended to by rollin into somethin else while in combat. You would not believe some of the ridiculous pulls the SO and I had by sheer accident because we kept accidentally hittin somethin else while in combat then rolled into another pack because we weren't payin attention to where we were standin.
The path system is also quite interestin, though it isn't quite what I expected either unfortunately. At first I thought it was an alternative leveling experience, but its actually more like a secondary leveling experience. My main character I played was a Settler which has you wandering around the world picking up supplies like crystals and little rod things and goin back to supply depots to build buildings that give buffs to any player that clicks on them. Stuff like movement speed, health regeneration, stat buffs, etc. I was terribly drawn to it for whatever reason, but to be honest there wasn't much to it other than pickin stuff up and puttin stuff away. The buildings also only last a small amount of time, but other Settlers can add to it to give them more time. I think one of the starting area ones we had up to 12 hours at one point, which was pretty hilarious.
The other paths are most definitely more engaging than the Settler path, though not nearly as useful sadly.
The explorer path gives you little beacons you need to find that give you the general area you need to go to, then you basically need to figure it out from there where to go, generally its up. Its all quite fun, and there is always some nice buff you can get and others can get at the end of it, but its unfortunately doesn't last too long. It does have the nice benefit of showin you pretty much every little nook and cranny of the world though, and you get some really nice views out of the deal.
The Scientist path gives you this adorable little bot that you can name and customize (eventually) that scans things for you and gives you little blurbs about the world, as well as the usual useful buffs. Its great for the lore buffs, but not my cup of tea.
The Soldier path has you goin to things called holdouts and fightin mobs. Thats...about it as far as I can tell. They're fun and all and it does great really hectic when you start gettin to later waves because bigger packs come out over time, but yeah...also not my cup of tea.
Quest design is pretty standard fare for MMO's. Go here, kill some things, use weird item that does weird thing to weird mob. The one thing that sets it apart are the random challenges that pop up in the world. Some are just kill x amount of mobs in the time period, but others have you doing extra things that you normally wouldnt bother with except for funsies. At one point I got poisoned by a spider that made the edge of my screen glow green and my character to turn kinda green. A challenge then popped up where I had to pick up this weird gold residue that I could only see while poisoned. The poison doesnt last very long though so you had to engage a mob, let it live long enough for you to get poisoned, kill it, then frantically try to find the gold residue on the ground. Another challenge made me have to jump on these geysers so they could launch you in the air. Another one had me in an area where you could jump a lot higher and you were supposed to jump through as many of these floaty blue crystals as you could within a time limit. Fun little things that were a really nice change of pace from all the killin. Beating a challenge gave you a nice chunk of xp and a random thing between an item, some craftin mats, a bigger bag, or other random stuff. You wont level specifically off challenges
End game looks solid, though I didn't get a chance to try it out. I also am sad to say I never got a chance to test out adventures, but those look really interestin as well. If any of you have played scenarios in WoW they're kind of like that, except there are branching paths you can take with tons of variation between each path, between enemy compositions to different environments and rewards. Looks like fun and I really hope to try it out next beta weekend.
Complaints are few and far between honestly. The class restrictions are kinda bull, but they've outright stated that they don't think they like the idea of them either and would like to make it so any race can play any class in the future, but that might be a ways out since they'd have to do animations for every class/race combination which could take a while. The lack of any body sliders is a minor nitpick, but they've also said they plan to add those in some time after launch as well so that's a moot point for me. I also wish stats were a bit more intuitive. They have adorable names like Moxie, but there's not really any way to see what your primary stat is without lookin it up online. Part of that's because I'm used to WoW that just outright states "Hey, this is your stat and this is how much hit you need to not miss" but it still feels a bit wonky to have to look things up outside of the game.
All in all though, very excited for this and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.
So, lets talk Wildstar!
As a person who has been in a few beta weekends and has been able to play the game whenever on my SO's full beta account I honestly can't stop gushing about this game. The looks, the feel, the classes, the races. Its almost exactly what I want out of an MMO and most definitely has me hooked until WoW can release its new expansion sometime in the next year. Still might play both dependin on how well Wildstar can roll out the content.
The aesthetic is absolutely gorgeous. Obviously some people will complain about the cartoony nature of Wildstar, but these people are wrong and dumb. The look and feel of the characters is absolutely amazin and everythin meshes perfectly with the rest of the world. The first time I was on my engineer and saw the adorable little happy face on my bots turn into the most horrifyin angry face ever I just fell in love. On top of that, because Wildstar didn't go with the ESO route of realistic graphics it'll still be beautiful to look at in 5-10 years. Example! Look at LotRO. At the time it was the tippy top of MMO graphics and they were proud of that fact. Now it looks like meh compared to games that have come out in the last few years. WoW on the other hand still looks great as long as you don't get too close to the scenery.
Back to Wildstar talk! The movement mechanics are really solid. Dashin is simple. Double jump is an absolute joy to the point that I actually get sad when I go to other games and can't double jump like a madman. It also plays really well into the exploration mechanics of just wanderin around and findin things to do, whether it be quests or path related things, or literally nothin other than seein if you can get up to that really big rock (you generally can).
Combat is an absolute joy as well. Attacks feel like they have weight to them. The telegraph system means that whether you hit a shot or not is entirely dependent on how well you can aim which is actually really nice comin from a WoW background. They do have a system involved that will center your attack on a target when you hit the button for people who can't aim too well, but it only works on the button click so if things get out of the telegraph before it finishes you have to reaim it before it fires or you miss.
On top of that, combat against npcs is actually fun as npcs have their own telegraphs that you really need to get out of or it really hurts. Normal attacks from npcs don't really do much other than tickle, but telegraphs were specifically buffed to make combat be more than just you standin in one place tankin the damage. You have to move and you have to actively pay attention to the telegraphs on the ground and use your dodge rolls well, which also means you need to be careful to not accidentally pull more than you intended to by rollin into somethin else while in combat. You would not believe some of the ridiculous pulls the SO and I had by sheer accident because we kept accidentally hittin somethin else while in combat then rolled into another pack because we weren't payin attention to where we were standin.
The path system is also quite interestin, though it isn't quite what I expected either unfortunately. At first I thought it was an alternative leveling experience, but its actually more like a secondary leveling experience. My main character I played was a Settler which has you wandering around the world picking up supplies like crystals and little rod things and goin back to supply depots to build buildings that give buffs to any player that clicks on them. Stuff like movement speed, health regeneration, stat buffs, etc. I was terribly drawn to it for whatever reason, but to be honest there wasn't much to it other than pickin stuff up and puttin stuff away. The buildings also only last a small amount of time, but other Settlers can add to it to give them more time. I think one of the starting area ones we had up to 12 hours at one point, which was pretty hilarious.
The other paths are most definitely more engaging than the Settler path, though not nearly as useful sadly.
The explorer path gives you little beacons you need to find that give you the general area you need to go to, then you basically need to figure it out from there where to go, generally its up. Its all quite fun, and there is always some nice buff you can get and others can get at the end of it, but its unfortunately doesn't last too long. It does have the nice benefit of showin you pretty much every little nook and cranny of the world though, and you get some really nice views out of the deal.
The Scientist path gives you this adorable little bot that you can name and customize (eventually) that scans things for you and gives you little blurbs about the world, as well as the usual useful buffs. Its great for the lore buffs, but not my cup of tea.
The Soldier path has you goin to things called holdouts and fightin mobs. Thats...about it as far as I can tell. They're fun and all and it does great really hectic when you start gettin to later waves because bigger packs come out over time, but yeah...also not my cup of tea.
Quest design is pretty standard fare for MMO's. Go here, kill some things, use weird item that does weird thing to weird mob. The one thing that sets it apart are the random challenges that pop up in the world. Some are just kill x amount of mobs in the time period, but others have you doing extra things that you normally wouldnt bother with except for funsies. At one point I got poisoned by a spider that made the edge of my screen glow green and my character to turn kinda green. A challenge then popped up where I had to pick up this weird gold residue that I could only see while poisoned. The poison doesnt last very long though so you had to engage a mob, let it live long enough for you to get poisoned, kill it, then frantically try to find the gold residue on the ground. Another challenge made me have to jump on these geysers so they could launch you in the air. Another one had me in an area where you could jump a lot higher and you were supposed to jump through as many of these floaty blue crystals as you could within a time limit. Fun little things that were a really nice change of pace from all the killin. Beating a challenge gave you a nice chunk of xp and a random thing between an item, some craftin mats, a bigger bag, or other random stuff. You wont level specifically off challenges
End game looks solid, though I didn't get a chance to try it out. I also am sad to say I never got a chance to test out adventures, but those look really interestin as well. If any of you have played scenarios in WoW they're kind of like that, except there are branching paths you can take with tons of variation between each path, between enemy compositions to different environments and rewards. Looks like fun and I really hope to try it out next beta weekend.
Complaints are few and far between honestly. The class restrictions are kinda bull, but they've outright stated that they don't think they like the idea of them either and would like to make it so any race can play any class in the future, but that might be a ways out since they'd have to do animations for every class/race combination which could take a while. The lack of any body sliders is a minor nitpick, but they've also said they plan to add those in some time after launch as well so that's a moot point for me. I also wish stats were a bit more intuitive. They have adorable names like Moxie, but there's not really any way to see what your primary stat is without lookin it up online. Part of that's because I'm used to WoW that just outright states "Hey, this is your stat and this is how much hit you need to not miss" but it still feels a bit wonky to have to look things up outside of the game.
All in all though, very excited for this and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.
