Summary & Thoughts:
Wildstar is an alien adventure MMO developed by Carbine Studios. At launch it was a $60 title, but now can be played for free. There are a lot of things to look at when judging a new MMO. What’s different about it? Is it worth the price? Does it have a good pace? Is it pretty? Does it have good game mechanics? How much content is there? These are all viable questions, and with a flourish of new MMO’s popping up around every corner, they are well worth asking. The last thing you want to do, is invest time and money into a terrible game.
Starting with character creation, Wildstar does a great job. There are 8 races and 2 factions to choose from. There are preset looks, and custom slide bars. There are a handful of diverse classes to choose from, and the whole process is colorful and fun. I chose to start as an Exile, and after creating my Aurin(fox like) Esper(mage) was shown some intro footage of a crazy colorful universe.
Waking up from being frozen in a tube, you are immediately introduced to Deadeye. He needs your help with rescuing his wife. As I played through the first half hour, the story started to unwind a bit. You learn that you are part of a group known as the Exiles, and you are setting out to explore a forgotten planet. Jumping from quest giver to quest giver, you start to understand a bit more about the world around you. But after a few hours, you still don’t get all that much lore knowledge. As you play further into the game, you can get deeper into the lore by exploring, and reading blocks of text, but it never really throws anything in front of you. The main story kind of pulls you through in a click click text block fashion. It really wasn’t the most engaging story telling I have seen.
The combat of Wildstar feels good. You can run and cast abilities, and can even jump around like a crazy person. It is a very freestyle version of combat, where almost every enemy has attacks that can be dodged. The abilities feel and look unique, but at low levels have a sort of lack luster to them. I feel this game does a good enough job at combat.
The real thing that makes Wildstar stand out is the comedy. The characters have funny one liners, and silly animations. The whole world can’t be taken seriously, and even boss fights have a sort of funny take to them. The game is silly, lighthearted, and fun. The leveling speed seems a bit slow, but that could just be because I play a lot of MMO’s.
Overall, I am fine playing Wildstar for free. Had I purchased it for $60, I would have returned it. Wildstar does a good job, and is a fun game, but there are so many other great MMO’s out there. The game doesn’t look or feel new. It feels like a free to play game. I would recommend giving it a download and play if you get bored, and are looking to change things up. But it’s definitely not a “must play”.
Release Date: June 3rd, 2014
Rating: T
Price: Free (Optional Subscription)
Platform: PC
HFR Rating:
