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A lot of information has been made available about WildStar.
For those who are just now learning about this upcoming game, here's a
jumping-off point with a quick reference to all the major points of
interest.
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Carbine Studios, started by a group of former Blizzard Entertainment
employees, has been developing WildStar as far back as 2005, when the
studio was first founded, but the game wasn't officially announced until
2011.
The cartoony, stylized graphics may look simple and goofy like an
animated kids' movie, but the game is much deeper and more complex than
all that.
Sardu was so impressed by WildStar's appearance at PaxEast, he created
"
WildStar
Week" back in February. He wrote about nothing else for a solid
week.
According to
Sardu's
Venn diagram, WildStar falls somewhere between "Sandbox" and
"Themepark," with elements of each style.
WildStar uses traditional Classes to define a character's role. Here's
a profile of the Stalker, which is the stealth-striker class:
In addition to classes, which define a character's combat role, Paths
accentuate the player's personal style. For example, a player who likes
to find all the secret stuff, collect all the lore, examine every detail
and approach every situation analytically might also enjoy shooting
things with giant guns. His character could be a Warrior who is on the
Scientist path. Another player might prefer the "wild frontier" aspect
of things and wish to take part in the establishment of new colonies and
settlements - he would play a character on the Settler path.
Quests will be tailored to the character's Path. Explorers will have
exploration quests, Soldiers will have military quests, etc.
Combat is reactive and dynamic, in the style of Guild Wars 2 or
Neverwinter. Characters need to face their opponents to land attacks,
and move out of the way of enemy attacks to avoid taking damage.
Character movement uses the standard WASD setup, mouse-look strafing,
jumping, sprinting and dashing. But it also features the double-jump.
All attacks are "telegraphed" via AoE hot-zones. This includes player
attacks and heals as well as monster attacks. It will also allow for
automatic tab-targeting, but this will be slightly less effective than
judiciously-placed hot zones.
Dodging attacks can be accomplished in three dimensions - not just by
running back or sideways, but also by jumping.
Some areas of the game will have different levels of gravity, allowing
for super-high jumps.
The Dominion is the "evil empire" faction.
The Exiles is the "rebel pirates" faction.
Characters gain more rested XP when they log out at their home, and
the rate is even higher if their home is filled with swag and loot.
WildStar housing is pioneer-style. Characters don't just buy a prefab
house in some neighborhood filled with multiple copies of the same thing
- they have to clear their plots of monsters and tree stumps and angry
space plants.
Customization of players' houses is not just cosmetic. A sky plot has
"sockets" which can be filled with a variety of "plugs," like functional
crafting benches, ore mines, vegetable gardens and helicopter pads. And
some plugs give out daily quests.
Hover bikes pretty much always look like the driver is popping a
bitchin' wheelie.
Winner of our
Best
of E3 2013: Best Gameplay award.
WildStar is currently in closed beta, and is expected to launch
sometime in the second half of 2013.