Could WildStar be the Next Big MMO?
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VG247 has published a new preview for Carbine's upcoming sci-fi MMO WildStar, based on some hands-on time with the title's beta. Here's a snippet:
What I realised early on is that WildStar takes several facets of MMO play and makes them more interesting. While you're still clicking on enemies and hitting hotbar commands to dish out pain during combat, the move-set is chunky and satisfying. My Soldier class human is capable of sticking his boot in and knocking down whole packs of foes with one kick, before slicing them up with a sword air combo. The inputs are the same as other MMOs, but the result looks and feels more satisfying.
Even traversal benefits from the simple inclusion of a double jump, which comes in handy when exploring the colourful Nexus terrain, while an early quest sees your avatar imbued with an anomalous material that enables them to jump about four times higher than normal. There's some great displays of imagination here that break the monotony of simple tasks, such as fetching an item or killing so many of one enemy type. Those filler missions still exist here, but feel less redundant due to the range of mechanics and XP challenges at play.
One challenge saw me roaming the plains of Tremor Ridge, deactivating a series of landmines in the quickest time possible without taking damage, which was hardly ground-breaking but still a departure from bog-standard quests. There are varied challenges in each zone, which are bolstered further by class-specific '˜Path' quests. During character creation you can set your avatar's vocation, and in my case I went for the Solider Path due to its focus on combat. I like hitting things, basically.
