After two beta weekends, I'd agree with the general statement that folks who like WoW will probably like Wildstar. I did not test any PvP or dungeons.
Pros - - I liked the Esper class and at low levels it is a lot of fun and feels very OP. - Decently large world to explore and get a little lost in. - Lighthearted story with lots of humor. - Flexible skill/talent system for on-the-fly changes. - Fluid combat with some great animations. - Housing is in a good place providing both fun and buffs. For just over 3g, I was able to claim my plot, build and furnish a house with a couple of upgrades, and build out two sections of the plot exterior - one which provided daily food. - Zone bosses! Every 15 minutes! Fantastic way to get quick xp if you can find a group.
Cons - - Path is a great idea but mostly ended up feeling like a chore since I never saw any rewards. Explorer especially is a huge and often frustrating timesink. - Crafting was disappointing because of the limitations. Alts will be required to get all the mats you need to make anything. - Cash flow was pretty tight. The cost to rez in place and repair rises quickly and if you don't notice it, you can go broke very quickly. - With tight cash flow, accessing housing features was very challenging. Maintenance costs seem high for a low level toon. - Time to level seemed very slow. Reasons include navigation/map challenges, run speed limitations, and quite possibly, having chosen the Explorer Path.
I was in the last 3 weekend Betas... and I fell in love with this game! I was soloing it the first two weekends, then got lucky enough for my boyfriend to get a key so we could both play this last weekend- and lemme say, Soloing Wildstar and Teaming Up in Wildstar were two totally different things. I had moments while soloing that I felt like a total badass, and then some other moments where I felt like such a n00b at MMO's...
All in all- I loved every minute I spent on Nexus, and am SO excited to throw my money at this game already. The only other MMO I've felt this way about was Secret World. The only difference is I didn't have the luxury of playing TSW before purchasing. While TSW isn't a bad game, by any means, I feel safe saying I will enjoy Wildstar more!
Worst Online Communities: WoW/WoD(the OG MMO Trolls), DayZ/WarZ, SMITE/LoL/DOTA, EVE Online, APB "Im ready for All the comparisons I think its dumb and its embarrassing Im switching off No longer listening Ive had enough of persecution and conditioning Maybe its instinct- Were only animal" - Lily Allen, Sheezus
Cons - - Path is a great idea but mostly ended up feeling like a chore since I never saw any rewards. Explorer especially is a huge and often frustrating timesink. - Crafting was disappointing because of the limitations. Alts will be required to get all the mats you need to make anything. - Cash flow was pretty tight. The cost to rez in place and repair rises quickly and if you don't notice it, you can go broke very quickly. - With tight cash flow, accessing housing features was very challenging. Maintenance costs seem high for a low level toon. - Time to level seemed very slow. Reasons include navigation/map challenges, run speed limitations, and quite possibly, having chosen the Explorer Path.
I'll preorder but probably will not sub longterm.
Edit: Added a Pro
I think a lot of people just have mis-conceptions about these things being intended or not.
Paths are there as additional content for people to do in their spare time, it is the same idea as fishing, or hunting for pets used to be, its just there to provide some extra content, rewards are not necessary.
Crafting is intended for people to "need" other people, so ya its by design that you can't do everything on 1 character.
Leveling time has always been reported as 150+ hours for the avg player, I don't think they have hit that mark yet, so it may be even slower at launch. This is intended for a sub game, otherwise people rush though and consume all the content in 1 month and then quit cause there is nothing to do.
I was quite looking forward to Wildstar until I played a beta weekend (the one before last). I played the whole weekend, tried 6 different characters, but that was the end of my enthusiasm. I had a key for the last beta weekend, and had every intention of testing, but somehow the time passed and I never got further than a brief login to build a new character.
The game feels too much like a "game" to me. Weird. It feels like a whole collection of quick little minigames that have all been melded together into an MMO. It's just too frenetic for my liking. I will never be immersed in Wildstar's world, because it appears to be hell-bent on reminding me that I'm playing a GAME every 2 minutes. You are bombarded with messages and announcements and prompts and sounds and numbers and flashy gfx and colours and... OVERLOAD !!
It looks like a well-made game, it has heaps of stuff to do and the housing looks like fun. I'm not worried about the bugs or performance, it's beta and they still have plenty of time to work on that. The game just didn't click with me.
Some people are going to love this game. I may play it at some point in the future, but that depends very much on what else is on offer. I still haven't played WoW either...
Originally posted by SpottyGekko I was quite looking forward to Wildstar until I played a beta weekend (the one before last). I played the whole weekend, tried 6 different characters, but that was the end of my enthusiasm. I had a key for the last beta weekend, and had every intention of testing, but somehow the time passed and I never got further than a brief login to build a new character. The game feels too much like a "game" to me. Weird. It feels like a whole collection of quick little minigames that have all been melded together into an MMO. It's just too frenetic for my liking. I will never be immersed in Wildstar's world, because it appears to be hell-bent on reminding me that I'm playing a GAME every 2 minutes. You are bombarded with messages and announcements and prompts and sounds and numbers and flashy gfx and colours and... OVERLOAD !! It looks like a well-made game, it has heaps of stuff to do and the housing looks like fun. I'm not worried about the bugs or performance, it's beta and they still have plenty of time to work on that. The game just didn't click with me.Some people are going to love this game. I may play it at some point in the future, but that depends very much on what else is on offer. I still haven't played WoW either...
That's almost word for word my experience when I played a gw2 beta weekend. Weird how some mmos are so in your face.
Ive been in beta since last year and I just cant do it, I lost interest months ago unfortunately. I love the artwork and the humour but the game play and questhub system just didnt do it for me. Combat feels like an uncomfortable medium between traditional and action only to result in a confused mash-up. It almost feels like a third person action adventure game but instead of having crosshairs you have to hold down your right click the majority of the time you play. Quests felt exactly like any other generic mmo quests, go kill X amount of things, pick something up, click something, return to questhub. The class quests are the same exact missions youll find in any other mmo, they just made them exclusive to a specific class. So instead of doing what you want as a player they just fine tuned a way to have you follow an even narrower path. I hope it gets better for my sake and I hope people play it and enjoy it for Carbine's sake but most of all I hope im wrong when I say its nothing special and I dont think itll last. My two cents.
Experiences: Medic Lv40 (Exile), Engineer Lv21 (Exile), every other classes Lv15 (Exile & Dominion)
PROs
- Dungeons are impeccable. This will be Wildstar strongest trait.
- Housing. Once you rly get into it, it becomes rly good & a big time sink. Exceptionally good for RP players.
- Combat is very good. Responsive. A little twitchy so this will not fit everyone preference. Think a mix of wow & gw2.
- PvP Battleground is quite decent.
- music & ambient are good.
- Crafting. Deep. also a big time sink.
CONs
- Quests can get tedious at times (not including Adventures & Shiphands. those are pretty decent).
- Path. Not impressed. Rather skip except for a few abilities such as vendbot (for in dungeon armor repair).
- Tutorial areas could be improved (Exile area is a little better. Dominion is too structured for my liking).
Remarks
- Have not tried Warplot. Heard it need to be better optimized.
- wait & see how CREDD work out. some of my friends will play the game only if they dont have to pay sub fee.
- Dungeons are very very good. but im not sure if there are too few of them. I rly hope there will be enough contents in this area.
- Medic is very balanced & fun. Warrior good. Stalker some issue with dps after nerf. Esper good. Engineer ttk is low early game but gets better at higher lvls. SS dps abilities kind of generic. Heal SS is fun though.
- the game has great great potential. but the key lies in the first 2 big patches after release imo. that will tell which direction this game is really heading. wish there will be enough contents. the quality is here i hope the quantity matches it.
I have said it after the beta weekend ill only buy wild star and sub. if their is no other better mmos to play so its last on my AAA list.the game is fun but not great and not enough dungeons, subbed again to WOW just for dungeons and I have never reached top level.
and yes ill be level 50 or so when dreanor releases and when I buy it I will boost to level 90.
now its ESO then destiny then EQN maybe wow and shroud also so no time for subbing to average game.
they should have left the sub. like gw2 and they would have made out o.k
Ok, my quick few points on Wildstar, from my few times playing. I have mixed feelings on the game. Some classes are just flat out fun, others not so much, like Spellslinger. It sounds good on paper but in play was atrocious. At least at low levels.
Some races and questing zones are just bleh, and had me wanting a different feel. Fortunately, there are a lot of leveling paths to take and they all feel fairly different. So variety in this aspect is good. However, there is a ton of pain in the arse jumping puzzle type quests that just pissed me off and made me want to skip them. So quests are also a mixed bag
Music and sound are pretty good but this too can be mixed as some areas are fantastic and others just make me want to peel my eyes and ears off.
Combat...in PVE I hated it. I always felt underpowered and just kept having to jump around and dodge, which I've never liked much in PVE play, a la Tera and GW2. However, and just like those 2 games, in PVP it's a BLAST. Had a ton of fun just PVPing at low level in Wildstar, it surprised me.
Housing is odd at best but I didn't really delve into it much and when I did, it was many months ago on a much earlier build.
Lastly and my biggest pet peeve. The Path system. Complete waste of what could have been an awesome feature. It's basically just an extra way to "quest" and isn't really that rewarding nor innovative and felt more tedious and in the way of leveling than anything else. Especially Scientist which I was really hoping would be a fun collectable type of side game, but noooo, it's boring wait for a stupid droid to scan to bring a small piece of lore with no real rewards.
Explorer is disappointing too because people who choose this will already want to explore anyway and it doesn't really give them that much of a leg up into this gameplay that they don't already have originally.
So...TLDR, Wildstar is a mix of good and bad ideas implemented in good and bad ways and I find it very unlikely that I will resub for alt purposes or after I hit endgame. However, it has potential and I hope they can add tons of post launch fixes and content to make it worth subbing to.
Boy you are copy and pasting this all over the internet today aren't you, Bryan Cole..
A couple of thoughts regarding my WildStar experience.
The game looked decent, nothing spectacular. The art style certainly was different, but nothing too captivating. Performance-wise the game was terrible in many areas. I have the best single GPU in the world, an overclocked GTX 780 Ti, 8GB of overclocked RAM, an overclocked i5, and 3 SSD's, and could not run the game with decent FPS. It lagged a lot more than ESO, even if ESO had more players on screen and, in my opinion, better graphics. The animations were well done, though, and flowed quite nicely. The character movement seemed very polished, as did combat abilities. However, the UI was very intrusive and cluttered. There were so many boxes and UI elements on-screen that it was quite overwhelming at first, and detracted from the overall experience.
The music had its ups and downs. Some areas had these weird tunes playing where it sounded like it came directly from some kid movie or something. Other areas had more acceptable sounds. The sound effects for certain class abilities did get rather annoying after a while, like the Stalker's claw slash ability.
Gameplay-wise, the combat was fun. It involved a good amount of mobility and felt rather similar to Guild Wars 2. Still, the quests were quite boring and unengaging. The beginner area was rather terrible, with quite a few Kill X amount of Y quests. The way in which the story was delivered was very unappealing and I had no interest whatsoever to read the small letters in the NPC chat boxes. The quests were all placed in hubs, and with the mini-map and UI elements pointing to exactly where I needed to go, it felt very linear. The path system was nothing too special, and felt more like additional quests with a bit of flavor (depending on your path) than anything else.
I did not get to try out housing, crafting, PvP, or instanced PvE as I did not stick around with the game long enough to do so. From what I did try, however, I did not find anything to be spectacular. I played WoW for a while, and while I am no longer a fan of the game, I don't see WildStar as being appealing enough to attract that game's veterans, which certainly have committed many hours into their WoW characters. I will not be purchasing the game.
I have to say, the biggest disappointment for me is the Path System. I agree, the concept has a ton of potential. But in reality it just adds another laundry list of chores to the already bloated questing system. Settler has its moments but the downside is you'll spend about 80% of the time just gathering resources. Which is the achilles heel of the settler path.
That said, I love the combat. It's very responsive, fluid, and fast-paced. I was quickly addicted to the combat style. There truly is no other MMO with combat like it on the market now. All the current "action-based" MMOs just pale in comparison as far as speed, fluidity, and twitch skill is concerned. And no, it's NOTHING like GW2 as some will like people to believe lol.
I'm happy that it rewards skill. Combat was a bit challenging at first, but became easier as I got the hang of it. Still ended up getting myself killed once in a while though.
The PVE game feels like it was designed for people who like PVP. You’re constantly moving and you get made fun of when you die. You usually start the fight, but the large BAF range (and/or the AOE nature of almost all attacks) means you still have to react to attackers you wanted to avoid. Some classes were much better suited to this combat style than others, but class balance can and will be tweaked.
I’ve been a fanboy for this title a long time. My friends and I played FireFall, TERA, and Neverwinter to get used to playing without tab targeting. It wasn’t necessary. Combat is like WOW, SWTOR, and RIFT with a lot more telegraphs and a lot less access to different combat abilities.
The game was buggy, but I blame my disappointment on the hype that said it was polished.
There are some race/class restrictions, but no racial bonuses for us min/maxers. You either play a hottie or a monster. Face and hair customization only.
Paths, challenges, and crafting feel like stuff you do after max-level. I never figured out costumes or housing. Path missions need to show difficulty based on your class level. Fan-made guides and addons are desperately needed.
Questing is hard. You will die and be mocked. Many quests become tedious because it takes so many kills to complete. Anyone helping you slows down your progress. Often there were so many people running around that there weren’t enough spawns. Even grouped, higher DPSers finish the quests faster.
I don’t like mini-games and a lot of quests have them. I want to play my abilities, not get temporary ones all the time.
Whether I play at launch or at all will depend on what my friends do, but without major improvements the main reason would be that we really dislike our other options.
-uninspired turorial, but then this has a tradition among mmorpgs.
- 6 classes only which all sort of play the same, thanks to a combat system that is build on cones and telegraphs. Everything is close combat, plays borderline console'ish.
-Graphics are worse than WoW (cant believe i say that). The graphics consist of very flimsy elements and then very clunky stuff on the other hand -it doesn't mix too well at times. Look at everything beyond where flora is rendered, the textures are bad, flat and washed out. Scaling is odd at times. It's like they didnt put much effort into anything beyond close range.
-UI overkill. Tiny inventory icons, tiny font, tiny frames, clutter everywhere, infos popping up left and right. I constantly got dragged out of the game to read or click something out of my face. Curious how much the new UI will solve of all this. Otherwise addons to the rescue.
-the path-system is a missed chance altogether, that's VERY sad.
-performance is unacceptable considering the overall design shouldn't be taxing a mid-range PC at all. I read they are working on optimisation for mid and highend PCs, while low end optimisation is finished.
All of this can be fixed however, so i haven't given up on the game yet, as there is somethign about it which i like.
Despite its many basic flaws the game seems to have more depth to it than anything else released post-WoW.
I guess Wildstar will live or die by whatever Carbine comes up with in the first 6 month. It will however have enough impact to weed out some mediocre games that are still somehow floating around atm.
I've been in beta since it started last year, so close to a year now.
I'm going to be honest I was super excited about this game for a long time and had been following it for 3 years, but the more I played the less I became.
I mean the combat is fun, and fast, but it gets boring after awhile. I love the setting and stylized graphics but that pretty much all.
I thought WS was going to be something much different than the typical 'WOW' or insert 'clone' here but from what I played it really isn't. It just feels like the same thing with a brand new coat of paint to make it look 'different', but in the end it's the same thing I've been playing for years now. Your typical get to end game and just grind instanced raids or grind instanced BG's, Arena's, or Warplots.
Yey NDA lifted.. so here's a quick Beta Review of a lvl 50 Engineer (+ lvl 24 Stalker and lvl 14 Medic):
First of all I wanted to say that I'm cheering for WildStar since 2011.. so I was kind of a fanboy until I was invited into the closed beta. I've read every article.. watched every livestream.. and so on. Well.. it's March 2014 and I couldn't be less interested in buying it. Yes.. this is gonna be a really negative review. And no.. I'm not hating. I'm just writing down my opinion.
Let's start with the few positive aspects of the game:
A brand new IP is always good.. I'm a little bit tired of all these big budget triple-A MMOs! (Although I'm gonna play ESO and this is a little bit of a contradiction..)
The different races are well designed and real aliens ("Hello Bioware! I'm looking at your different painted humans over there..")
The combat system is kinda refreshing and fun.. at least for the first 20-25 levels. I enjoyed dodging and aiming. But I'll have to say it gets old rather quickly. Nevertheless a positive aspect!
The Limited Action Set (LAS) is a good idea.. I really dislike the 100.000 abilites and icons on the screen as in World of Warcraft.. you just need a few skills to have fun!
Some areas are beautfiul designed (in my opinion: Algoroc, Galeras, Malgrave, Farside) and some NPCs are adorable ("What does the Lopp say???")
Dungeons are fine. It's nothing groundbreaking but the Boss mechanics are fun and challenging!
Housing is a neat mini-game.. there is some room for improvement but for the first implementation it's really cool!
While I like the crafting in ESO a little bit more.. it's brilliant in WildStar as well.
Now to the bigger part.. the negative aspects a.k.a. flaws of WildStar:
The quests are f-ing boring.. the whole leveling experience is a mess. Grindy, repetitve, bland. I'm so disappointed that Carbine invested more money and man-power in making creative and cool marketing videos instead of thinking about some other quest-ideas than "kill 50 of that and 100 of that. Afterwards you could kill 40 of these creatures". I know that these quests are a must-have in a MMO.. and that's fine! I like killing! But 9 out of 10 quests are either disguised kill quests ("Give this medicine to these creatures and kill them afterwards") or straight kill quests.
The questflow is equally bad. Strange quest-chains which make no sense at all. You come to a new zone, pick up 20 quests, go to the certain area and do them. After handing them in you get more quests in the same area. This repeats 1-2 times and due to the narrow mob placement you're doing the previous quests unintentional again.
The amount of quests is hilarious. 80-100 quests per zone.. awful because they're all the same basically.
Ok.. now to things which have nothing to do with the questing: path system! It's more of an occupational therapy than a new experience to your personal road from 1 to 50. Just a lot of f-clicking on accentuated items. I tried all of them and I can't decide which is the worst. For my lvl 50 char I went with Soldier because it's the least annoying one.
Immersion: The whole game feels like.. a game. Like a really bland mixture of a MOBA and a MMO. It doesn't matter which race I pick.. there are no race story arcs or some kind of impact on the game. It doesn't matter if I read the lore and quest texts because it's just a collection of semi-funny puns and stories for younger minds. It doesn't appeal to me at all. And it doesn't matter which path I choose.. no NPCs recognizes you as a famous Settler or a glorious Soldier. From the first moment WildStar feels like an Arcade Game.
Carbine promised a hardcore MMO. What did we get so far? A tedious game which isn't hardcore or challenging at all. The Mobs are beefy. Too beefy in my opinion. The huge chunks of white trash mob damage is hilarious. There are no animations. It just makes *plop* and 5k HP are gone. Even when you're dodging all the telegraphs you're dying because of this crap. It's punishing.. not challenging. The biggest flaws are the mini-games such as "click F at the right time" and "remember 4-12 colors in the right order". You can fail them and succeed anyways. What the fuck? Even if I'm clicking on the wrong colors intentionally I fulfill the task. I just get a little knockdown as a punishment. This.. is.. so.. lame. It feels like a game for kids.
PVP is mediocre.. not bad.. not good. It's basically the same you played before in other MMOs. While stealing Tiki Masks is kinda cool it's too much of a clusterfuck in my eyes. You can't kill somebody within 15-30 seconds so there is no time for a real 1v1 on such small maps. The HOTBS battleground is neat but I liked the SWTOR version more.
The Performance is a mess. I've got a relatively good PC (16GB Ram, 4Ghz Quadcore, GTX760) and I get around 15-25 fps at best. In a 20-man raid group around 2-5 fps. This can be fixed I guess.
Oh.. I forgot the classes and skills. While I like the different classes in their design I dislike the different abilites. There is no room for specialized builds. Each class feels the same and is able to do the same things. There are builders, spenders, snares, stuns etc. - no surprises. The classes are different in their animations, ranges and styles but not in their gameplay in general.
My final conclusion: PASS!
It's not the worst game I've ever played but it feels so shallow and old (in a negative way). Been there, done that before.. you might say. I really hope Carbine will work really hard on these points.. the official beta forums were full of similar concerns and criticisms. Sorry to give such a negative review but that's my opinion.
P.S.: 150-200hours to max level is a bad joke. I took my time and did it in about 80-90 hours. I skipped no single shiphand or dungeon.. and even did some rounds in PVP.
Originally posted by zelaex I really hope Carbine will work really hard on these points.. the official beta forums were full of similar concerns and criticisms. Sorry to give such a negative review but that's my opinion.
Were they? I know this is your opinion, and you were in beta a lot longer than most so have more than earned the right to express it, but I don't think it's fair to say the forums were full of these criticisms. Yes, certain concerns were raised similar to the ones you've listed but I thought the general vibe was very positive.
Originally posted by zelaex I really hope Carbine will work really hard on these points.. the official beta forums were full of similar concerns and criticisms. Sorry to give such a negative review but that's my opinion.
Were they? I know this is your opinion, and you were in beta a lot longer than most so have more than earned the right to express it, but I don't think it's fair to say the forums were full of these criticisms. Yes, certain concerns were raised similar to the ones you've listed but I thought the general vibe was very positive.
Well.. it's not literally full of it. But if you read the different sections carefully (General, Story & Lore, etc.) you will see that there are many threads or posts which are going the same route I'm going. The positive vibe came from the many short threads after the different stress tests which is no coincidence. The first experience up to lvl 15-20 is neat. It's a brand new game with a new IP.. hard to not enjoy it (although the tutorial zones are a little bit boring). But the longer you play the more you see the flaws. I really had to force myself to play from 35 to 50 and I did that just because I was a long-term fan of the game before joining the beta.
The first experience up to lvl 15-20 is neat. It's a brand new game with a new IP.. hard to not enjoy it (although the tutorial zones are a little bit boring). But the longer you play the more you see the flaws. I really had to force myself to play from 35 to 50 and I did that just because I was a long-term fan of the game before joining the beta.
I've seen several people say the opposite too, that they didn't care as much for the early levels, but once they got past 20, they really enjoyed it much more. In my opinion it really comes down to people who enjoy this type of themepark MMO vs others who are looking for an MMO that is very different than a typical themepark.
I believe some gamers enjoy hyping themselves up, and just talking on the forums about an upcoming game, more than they actually enjoy playing any certain game.
In my opinion it really comes down to people who enjoy this type of themepark MMO vs others who are looking for an MMO that is very different than a typical themepark.
I believe you are understating his concerns. As several posts have depicted already, the problem is not merely that it's a standard themepark. Read his post once more and you will see that most of the problems stated are not inherent to the standard themepark model.
Personally I found the game to be way more fun on paper and in videos than when actually playing it - but I wish the best for the Wildstar fans and hope you enjoy the game at launch!
Yey NDA lifted.. so here's a quick Beta Review of a lvl 50 Engineer (+ lvl 24 Stalker and lvl 14 Medic):
First of all I wanted to say that I'm cheering for WildStar since 2011.. so I was kind of a fanboy until I was invited into the closed beta. I've read every article.. watched every livestream.. and so on. Well.. it's March 2014 and I couldn't be less interested in buying it. Yes.. this is gonna be a really negative review. And no.. I'm not hating. I'm just writing down my opinion.
Let's start with the few positive aspects of the game:
A brand new IP is always good.. I'm a little bit tired of all these big budget triple-A MMOs! (Although I'm gonna play ESO and this is a little bit of a contradiction..)
The different races are well designed and real aliens ("Hello Bioware! I'm looking at your different painted humans over there..")
The combat system is kinda refreshing and fun.. at least for the first 20-25 levels. I enjoyed dodging and aiming. But I'll have to say it gets old rather quickly. Nevertheless a positive aspect!
The Limited Action Set (LAS) is a good idea.. I really dislike the 100.000 abilites and icons on the screen as in World of Warcraft.. you just need a few skills to have fun!
Some areas are beautfiul designed (in my opinion: Algoroc, Galeras, Malgrave, Farside) and some NPCs are adorable ("What does the Lopp say???")
Dungeons are fine. It's nothing groundbreaking but the Boss mechanics are fun and challenging!
Housing is a neat mini-game.. there is some room for improvement but for the first implementation it's really cool!
While I like the crafting in ESO a little bit more.. it's brilliant in WildStar as well.
Now to the bigger part.. the negative aspects a.k.a. flaws of WildStar:
The quests are f-ing boring.. the whole leveling experience is a mess. Grindy, repetitve, bland. I'm so disappointed that Carbine invested more money and man-power in making creative and cool marketing videos instead of thinking about some other quest-ideas than "kill 50 of that and 100 of that. Afterwards you could kill 40 of these creatures". I know that these quests are a must-have in a MMO.. and that's fine! I like killing! But 9 out of 10 quests are either disguised kill quests ("Give this medicine to these creatures and kill them afterwards") or straight kill quests.
The questflow is equally bad. Strange quest-chains which make no sense at all. You come to a new zone, pick up 20 quests, go to the certain area and do them. After handing them in you get more quests in the same area. This repeats 1-2 times and due to the narrow mob placement you're doing the previous quests unintentional again.
The amount of quests is hilarious. 80-100 quests per zone.. awful because they're all the same basically.
Ok.. now to things which have nothing to do with the questing: path system! It's more of an occupational therapy than a new experience to your personal road from 1 to 50. Just a lot of f-clicking on accentuated items. I tried all of them and I can't decide which is the worst. For my lvl 50 char I went with Soldier because it's the least annoying one.
Immersion: The whole game feels like.. a game. Like a really bland mixture of a MOBA and a MMO. It doesn't matter which race I pick.. there are no race story arcs or some kind of impact on the game. It doesn't matter if I read the lore and quest texts because it's just a collection of semi-funny puns and stories for younger minds. It doesn't appeal to me at all. And it doesn't matter which path I choose.. no NPCs recognizes you as a famous Settler or a glorious Soldier. From the first moment WildStar feels like an Arcade Game.
Carbine promised a hardcore MMO. What did we get so far? A tedious game which isn't hardcore or challenging at all. The Mobs are beefy. Too beefy in my opinion. The huge chunks of white trash mob damage is hilarious. There are no animations. It just makes *plop* and 5k HP are gone. Even when you're dodging all the telegraphs you're dying because of this crap. It's punishing.. not challenging. The biggest flaws are the mini-games such as "click F at the right time" and "remember 4-12 colors in the right order". You can fail them and succeed anyways. What the fuck? Even if I'm clicking on the wrong colors intentionally I fulfill the task. I just get a little knockdown as a punishment. This.. is.. so.. lame. It feels like a game for kids.
PVP is mediocre.. not bad.. not good. It's basically the same you played before in other MMOs. While stealing Tiki Masks is kinda cool it's too much of a clusterfuck in my eyes. You can't kill somebody within 15-30 seconds so there is no time for a real 1v1 on such small maps. The HOTBS battleground is neat but I liked the SWTOR version more.
The Performance is a mess. I've got a relatively good PC (16GB Ram, 4Ghz Quadcore, GTX760) and I get around 15-25 fps at best. In a 20-man raid group around 2-5 fps. This can be fixed I guess.
Oh.. I forgot the classes and skills. While I like the different classes in their design I dislike the different abilites. There is no room for specialized builds. Each class feels the same and is able to do the same things. There are builders, spenders, snares, stuns etc. - no surprises. The classes are different in their animations, ranges and styles but not in their gameplay in general.
My final conclusion: PASS!
It's not the worst game I've ever played but it feels so shallow and old (in a negative way). Been there, done that before.. you might say. I really hope Carbine will work really hard on these points.. the official beta forums were full of similar concerns and criticisms. Sorry to give such a negative review but that's my opinion.
P.S.: 150-200hours to max level is a bad joke. I took my time and did it in about 80-90 hours. I skipped no single shiphand or dungeon.. and even did some rounds in PVP.
You should post a full review like this as a new thread in the Wildstar forums.
Comments
After two beta weekends, I'd agree with the general statement that folks who like WoW will probably like Wildstar. I did not test any PvP or dungeons.
Pros -
- I liked the Esper class and at low levels it is a lot of fun and feels very OP.
- Decently large world to explore and get a little lost in.
- Lighthearted story with lots of humor.
- Flexible skill/talent system for on-the-fly changes.
- Fluid combat with some great animations.
- Housing is in a good place providing both fun and buffs. For just over 3g, I was able to claim my plot, build and furnish a house with a couple of upgrades, and build out two sections of the plot exterior - one which provided daily food.
- Zone bosses! Every 15 minutes! Fantastic way to get quick xp if you can find a group.
Cons -
- Path is a great idea but mostly ended up feeling like a chore since I never saw any rewards. Explorer especially is a huge and often frustrating timesink.
- Crafting was disappointing because of the limitations. Alts will be required to get all the mats you need to make anything.
- Cash flow was pretty tight. The cost to rez in place and repair rises quickly and if you don't notice it, you can go broke very quickly.
- With tight cash flow, accessing housing features was very challenging. Maintenance costs seem high for a low level toon.
- Time to level seemed very slow. Reasons include navigation/map challenges, run speed limitations, and quite possibly, having chosen the Explorer Path.
I'll preorder but probably will not sub longterm.
Edit: Added a Pro
I was in the last 3 weekend Betas... and I fell in love with this game! I was soloing it the first two weekends, then got lucky enough for my boyfriend to get a key so we could both play this last weekend- and lemme say, Soloing Wildstar and Teaming Up in Wildstar were two totally different things. I had moments while soloing that I felt like a total badass, and then some other moments where I felt like such a n00b at MMO's...
All in all- I loved every minute I spent on Nexus, and am SO excited to throw my money at this game already. The only other MMO I've felt this way about was Secret World. The only difference is I didn't have the luxury of playing TSW before purchasing. While TSW isn't a bad game, by any means, I feel safe saying I will enjoy Wildstar more!
Loves: SMITE, WildStar, Project Zomboid, PSO2, DCUO,
Worst Online Communities: WoW/WoD(the OG MMO Trolls), DayZ/WarZ, SMITE/LoL/DOTA, EVE Online, APB
"Im ready for
All the comparisons
I think its dumb and its embarrassing
Im switching off
No longer listening
Ive had enough of persecution and conditioning
Maybe its instinct- Were only animal" - Lily Allen, Sheezus
I think a lot of people just have mis-conceptions about these things being intended or not.
Paths are there as additional content for people to do in their spare time, it is the same idea as fishing, or hunting for pets used to be, its just there to provide some extra content, rewards are not necessary.
Crafting is intended for people to "need" other people, so ya its by design that you can't do everything on 1 character.
Leveling time has always been reported as 150+ hours for the avg player, I don't think they have hit that mark yet, so it may be even slower at launch. This is intended for a sub game, otherwise people rush though and consume all the content in 1 month and then quit cause there is nothing to do.
I was quite looking forward to Wildstar until I played a beta weekend (the one before last). I played the whole weekend, tried 6 different characters, but that was the end of my enthusiasm. I had a key for the last beta weekend, and had every intention of testing, but somehow the time passed and I never got further than a brief login to build a new character.
The game feels too much like a "game" to me. Weird. It feels like a whole collection of quick little minigames that have all been melded together into an MMO. It's just too frenetic for my liking. I will never be immersed in Wildstar's world, because it appears to be hell-bent on reminding me that I'm playing a GAME every 2 minutes. You are bombarded with messages and announcements and prompts and sounds and numbers and flashy gfx and colours and... OVERLOAD !!
It looks like a well-made game, it has heaps of stuff to do and the housing looks like fun. I'm not worried about the bugs or performance, it's beta and they still have plenty of time to work on that. The game just didn't click with me.
Some people are going to love this game. I may play it at some point in the future, but that depends very much on what else is on offer. I still haven't played WoW either...
Ive been in beta since last year and I just cant do it, I lost interest months ago unfortunately. I love the artwork and the humour but the game play and questhub system just didnt do it for me. Combat feels like an uncomfortable medium between traditional and action only to result in a confused mash-up. It almost feels like a third person action adventure game but instead of having crosshairs you have to hold down your right click the majority of the time you play. Quests felt exactly like any other generic mmo quests, go kill X amount of things, pick something up, click something, return to questhub. The class quests are the same exact missions youll find in any other mmo, they just made them exclusive to a specific class. So instead of doing what you want as a player they just fine tuned a way to have you follow an even narrower path. I hope it gets better for my sake and I hope people play it and enjoy it for Carbine's sake but most of all I hope im wrong when I say its nothing special and I dont think itll last. My two cents.
Above comments are subject to change.
Winter (Closed) Beta participant:
Experiences: Medic Lv40 (Exile), Engineer Lv21 (Exile), every other classes Lv15 (Exile & Dominion)
PROs
- Dungeons are impeccable. This will be Wildstar strongest trait.
- Housing. Once you rly get into it, it becomes rly good & a big time sink. Exceptionally good for RP players.
- Combat is very good. Responsive. A little twitchy so this will not fit everyone preference. Think a mix of wow & gw2.
- PvP Battleground is quite decent.
- music & ambient are good.
- Crafting. Deep. also a big time sink.
CONs
- Quests can get tedious at times (not including Adventures & Shiphands. those are pretty decent).
- Path. Not impressed. Rather skip except for a few abilities such as vendbot (for in dungeon armor repair).
- Tutorial areas could be improved (Exile area is a little better. Dominion is too structured for my liking).
Remarks
- Have not tried Warplot. Heard it need to be better optimized.
- wait & see how CREDD work out. some of my friends will play the game only if they dont have to pay sub fee.
- Dungeons are very very good. but im not sure if there are too few of them. I rly hope there will be enough contents in this area.
- Medic is very balanced & fun. Warrior good. Stalker some issue with dps after nerf. Esper good. Engineer ttk is low early game but gets better at higher lvls. SS dps abilities kind of generic. Heal SS is fun though.
- the game has great great potential. but the key lies in the first 2 big patches after release imo. that will tell which direction this game is really heading. wish there will be enough contents. the quality is here i hope the quantity matches it.
I have said it after the beta weekend ill only buy wild star and sub. if their is no other better mmos to play so its last on my AAA list.the game is fun but not great and not enough dungeons, subbed again to WOW just for dungeons and I have never reached top level.
and yes ill be level 50 or so when dreanor releases and when I buy it I will boost to level 90.
now its ESO then destiny then EQN maybe wow and shroud also so no time for subbing to average game.
they should have left the sub. like gw2 and they would have made out o.k
I have to say, the biggest disappointment for me is the Path System. I agree, the concept has a ton of potential. But in reality it just adds another laundry list of chores to the already bloated questing system. Settler has its moments but the downside is you'll spend about 80% of the time just gathering resources. Which is the achilles heel of the settler path.
That said, I love the combat. It's very responsive, fluid, and fast-paced. I was quickly addicted to the combat style. There truly is no other MMO with combat like it on the market now. All the current "action-based" MMOs just pale in comparison as far as speed, fluidity, and twitch skill is concerned. And no, it's NOTHING like GW2 as some will like people to believe lol.
I played in three beta weekends.
The PVE game feels like it was designed for people who like PVP. You’re constantly moving and you get made fun of when you die. You usually start the fight, but the large BAF range (and/or the AOE nature of almost all attacks) means you still have to react to attackers you wanted to avoid. Some classes were much better suited to this combat style than others, but class balance can and will be tweaked.
I’ve been a fanboy for this title a long time. My friends and I played FireFall, TERA, and Neverwinter to get used to playing without tab targeting. It wasn’t necessary. Combat is like WOW, SWTOR, and RIFT with a lot more telegraphs and a lot less access to different combat abilities.
The game was buggy, but I blame my disappointment on the hype that said it was polished.
There are some race/class restrictions, but no racial bonuses for us min/maxers. You either play a hottie or a monster. Face and hair customization only.
Paths, challenges, and crafting feel like stuff you do after max-level. I never figured out costumes or housing. Path missions need to show difficulty based on your class level. Fan-made guides and addons are desperately needed.
Questing is hard. You will die and be mocked. Many quests become tedious because it takes so many kills to complete. Anyone helping you slows down your progress. Often there were so many people running around that there weren’t enough spawns. Even grouped, higher DPSers finish the quests faster.
I don’t like mini-games and a lot of quests have them. I want to play my abilities, not get temporary ones all the time.
Whether I play at launch or at all will depend on what my friends do, but without major improvements the main reason would be that we really dislike our other options.
-uninspired turorial, but then this has a tradition among mmorpgs.
- 6 classes only which all sort of play the same, thanks to a combat system that is build on cones and telegraphs. Everything is close combat, plays borderline console'ish.
-Graphics are worse than WoW (cant believe i say that). The graphics consist of very flimsy elements and then very clunky stuff on the other hand -it doesn't mix too well at times. Look at everything beyond where flora is rendered, the textures are bad, flat and washed out. Scaling is odd at times. It's like they didnt put much effort into anything beyond close range.
-UI overkill. Tiny inventory icons, tiny font, tiny frames, clutter everywhere, infos popping up left and right. I constantly got dragged out of the game to read or click something out of my face. Curious how much the new UI will solve of all this. Otherwise addons to the rescue.
-the path-system is a missed chance altogether, that's VERY sad.
-performance is unacceptable considering the overall design shouldn't be taxing a mid-range PC at all. I read they are working on optimisation for mid and highend PCs, while low end optimisation is finished.
All of this can be fixed however, so i haven't given up on the game yet, as there is somethign about it which i like.
Despite its many basic flaws the game seems to have more depth to it than anything else released post-WoW.
I guess Wildstar will live or die by whatever Carbine comes up with in the first 6 month. It will however have enough impact to weed out some mediocre games that are still somehow floating around atm.
Widlstar would be a killer at 6,99 sub.
I've been in beta since it started last year, so close to a year now.
I'm going to be honest I was super excited about this game for a long time and had been following it for 3 years, but the more I played the less I became.
I mean the combat is fun, and fast, but it gets boring after awhile. I love the setting and stylized graphics but that pretty much all.
I thought WS was going to be something much different than the typical 'WOW' or insert 'clone' here but from what I played it really isn't. It just feels like the same thing with a brand new coat of paint to make it look 'different', but in the end it's the same thing I've been playing for years now. Your typical get to end game and just grind instanced raids or grind instanced BG's, Arena's, or Warplots.
Yey NDA lifted.. so here's a quick Beta Review of a lvl 50 Engineer (+ lvl 24 Stalker and lvl 14 Medic):
First of all I wanted to say that I'm cheering for WildStar since 2011.. so I was kind of a fanboy until I was invited into the closed beta. I've read every article.. watched every livestream.. and so on. Well.. it's March 2014 and I couldn't be less interested in buying it. Yes.. this is gonna be a really negative review. And no.. I'm not hating. I'm just writing down my opinion.
Let's start with the few positive aspects of the game:
Elite: Dangerous - Space Exploration & Trading.
Were they? I know this is your opinion, and you were in beta a lot longer than most so have more than earned the right to express it, but I don't think it's fair to say the forums were full of these criticisms. Yes, certain concerns were raised similar to the ones you've listed but I thought the general vibe was very positive.
Well.. it's not literally full of it. But if you read the different sections carefully (General, Story & Lore, etc.) you will see that there are many threads or posts which are going the same route I'm going. The positive vibe came from the many short threads after the different stress tests which is no coincidence. The first experience up to lvl 15-20 is neat. It's a brand new game with a new IP.. hard to not enjoy it (although the tutorial zones are a little bit boring). But the longer you play the more you see the flaws. I really had to force myself to play from 35 to 50 and I did that just because I was a long-term fan of the game before joining the beta.
Elite: Dangerous - Space Exploration & Trading.
I can't think of any MMO more boring to me than WoWStar.
I tried soooo hard to like it when I finally had the chance to play.
I was extremely hyped about the game prior to getting in beta.
Reality is quite the bitch.
I've seen several people say the opposite too, that they didn't care as much for the early levels, but once they got past 20, they really enjoyed it much more. In my opinion it really comes down to people who enjoy this type of themepark MMO vs others who are looking for an MMO that is very different than a typical themepark.
I believe some gamers enjoy hyping themselves up, and just talking on the forums about an upcoming game, more than they actually enjoy playing any certain game.
I completely agree.
I believe you are understating his concerns. As several posts have depicted already, the problem is not merely that it's a standard themepark. Read his post once more and you will see that most of the problems stated are not inherent to the standard themepark model.
You should post a full review like this as a new thread in the Wildstar forums.