Like the countless alien adventurers already descending into the mystery of planet Nexus, WildStar is itself a stranger in a strange land. As the newest massively multiplayer roleplaying game in an already crowded genre, it has an uphill battle in winning a piece of that market – and further still, keeping it engaging enough to warrant the monthly subscription fee. To compensate, developer Carbine Studios has cast the widest possible net by striving to cater to both casual players and the hardcore MMORPG player, a sizeable feat rather deftly accomplished by sticking to the formula that’s found success, while fleshing out new ideas therein.

In that regard, WildStar is of course not the next evolution of the modern MMORPG. Instead, it’s much more the culmination of a decade’s worth of experimentation and design, cherry-picked and enhanced, and infused with Carbine’s twists and light-hearted flourish. While some may find the lack of bold new directions disappointing, that’s less a criticism of WildStar and more of the genre as a whole – WildStar isn’t rewriting the book, as much as it is penning the sequel.

Be Like Water

WildStar’s eight playable races are divvied up comfortably between two factions both vying for control of Nexus – the forgotten homeworld of the Eldan, a hyper-advanced race – which neatly sets the tone for a familiar two-sided confrontation. But even with the Dominion-Exile conflict now raging across the planet’s surface, your adventurer is the least interesting parts of this saga. The greater story lies in Nexus’ secrets, and while occasional bursts of dialog and quest text remind you of your heroic stature, WildStar ultimately falls prey to narrative issues common in MMORPGs -- painting you as the lone savior while you watch your same feats completed by a rotating door of adventurers.

Much of WildStar’s real story is locked away in voiced data recordings, welcome yet sporadic cinematics, and an in-game encyclopedia. There’s no shortage of lore should you go looking for it, but the finer points are easy to miss while leveling and eventually culminate into an anticlimactic finale (at least until endgame content and a future patch furthers the storyline.) Still, WildStar’s scattered story arc is less of a draw than the colorful, carefree personality on display in every fiber of the planet and the particularly excellent voice work and character animations. Loading

Nexus isn't necessarily geographically larger than most MMOs, but it gives a sense of mammoth scale: it's comprised of over a dozen independent zones across three continents and an orbiting celestial body. But Nexus instills a pervasive feeling of insignificance when facing the antiquated relics and natural wonders towering overhead, and it’s often stunning to behold from the tops of those vantages, overlooking its motley biomes and colossal setpieces. It’s bright and boisterous and ready to be explored – which is recommended thanks to the many hidden secrets and achievements stashed off the beaten path. Yet the planet is more than just a pretty face: every sloping hill is a potential hoverboard ramp; spontaneous tornadoes ready to whip you through the air and lingering pockets of radiation are environmental hazards to be avoided; and entire environments add new tweaks to the established physics, as is the case in Farside, an entire zone on Nexus’ moon where gravity’s grip is noticeably weakened.

It’s clear that mobility is a core tenet of WildStar, with so much emphasis on fast, fluid motions. Double-jumping and sprinting add interactive elements to movement, the benefits of which are exponentially noticeable atop a mount or hoverboard. Combat is similarly transformed into an action-oriented dance of precision target painting and chaotic dodges. While many MMORPGs rely on a passive skills to hit or miss based on the roll of the dice, WildStar’s attacks all occupy actual space and are visualized by colored telegraphs upon the ground. It can be challenging to juggle precise movements while lining up the shots of a hearty skill rotation, and dodging enemy attacks, but it’s entirely rewarding and prohibits combat from ever growing truly stale. Loading

It’s refreshing that such a seemingly basic ingredient as movement can be this engaging, since the bulk of the WildStar experience is a constant state of travel and combat within the now-customary questing system. Yes, you will fetch and harvest hundreds of items, and eventually lose count of the creatures you’ve slain at the behest of a golden question mark, but this too has been touched by Carbine’s penchant for accessibility. Some quests can be auto-completed out in the field, mitigating the drudgery of returning to the giver for the next link in the chain, and small interactive flourishes like quick-time events and color-sequence puzzles introduce a welcome action element to otherwise-mundane tasks. Standout quests that find you literally filling out paperwork for ProtoStar Corporation and running down space zombies on a supercharged motorcycle are but a few of the highlights that flesh out the traditional MMO fare with a tinge of WildStar’s clever personality.

Questing difficulty sharply spikes in the mid-30 levels, and it’s here that WildStar’s open tagging, easy-to-navigate quest tracking, and generally welcoming community are most important. Anecdotally, the community in WildStar is one of the best I’ve experienced, both out in the field and in the chat channels of the capital cities: mostly helpful, usually playful, and rarely cruel.

Weapon of Choice

The choice in class is the first and largest decision you make on Nexus, and to Carbine’s credit, it’s impossible to go too far wrong. Each of the six classes feel mechanically unique and handle differently, though all are capable of holding their own when it comes to dishing out damage, as well as supporting a party in a healer or tank role. The secret is WildStar’s devious Limited Action Set system, which restricts your action bar to eight skills at any one time, forcing tough decisions tailored to each new fight revolving around how you’ll allocate points that increase those abilities potency and add new effects. I love the system for its easy-to-understand complexity, but its potential downside is its branching talent tree: The AMP system. Each AMP acts like a talent that modifies your character, and can be unlocked and purchased with AMP Points acquired with each level. The catch is the more powerful AMPs require a physical component to be found or purchased in the world before the AMP becomes available. As a Spellslinger, the sought-after physical component of the Trigger Fingers AMP commands an extortionate price in the auction house due to its low world drop rate, preventing me from getting the most of my class for now. Loading

Fortunately there are plenty of other ways to spend WildStar’s many in-game currencies, and crafting is chief among them. While the traditional tradeskills are all represented, crafting infuses puzzle and strategy elements to put some excitement and activity into its traditionally passive nature. For example, a Technologist crafts potions, boosts, and gadgets by purchasing ingredients that shift crosshairs on an X-Y plane, the goal being to “discover” or hit the craftable you’re aiming for, which is easier said than done. Initially complicated, especially once crafting talents and tech trees come into play, the system is actually rewarding for its depth and interactive elements, though it’s extremely expensive due to the trial and error inherent in the process.

Separate from the six playable classes, WildStar’s noteworthy Path system is comprised of four secondary occupations, each with their own tasks that pepper every zone with opportunities for a satisfying change of pace and near-constant distraction. As a Settler, my path maintains infrastructure and civic works through building repair and the construction of buff dispensers. Progression therein continues to reward me with deployable objects – restorative campfires, vending machines for impromptu repairs, and a portable crafting table when trade items are needed in a pinch. Yet each path feels distinctly different, and I’ll admit jealousy when I see a Soldier, Scientist, or Explorer engaged in their own unique path activities. Loading

WildStar’s depth of customization is arguably its greatest asset. Player housing in particular brilliantly combines open construction and aesthetic freedom with tangible benefits. Every player’s house grants them an array of daily buffs, seemingly endless variations of décor items to decorate the interior and grounds, and six open allotments on which pre-assembled structures can be placed. I find myself constantly tinkering with each aspect for not only the real benefits they provide in the form of harvestable resources, challenges, achievements, and portals to the distant zones on Nexus, but as a welcome creative escape. In the same vein, WildStar’s gratifying costume system allows you to cosmetically apply and dye the appearance of any piece of equipment in your inventory without having to remove your statistically superior gear.

This Is Not the End

Carbine Studios has always been adamant that WildStar would cater to hardcore players with its post-cap group content, most notably with the decision to include raiding in both the 20 and 40-man varieties – a trend MMOs have largely recoiled from due to their exclusive nature. And though I’ve yet to unlock these large scale group challenges even after all this time playing, the effort required just getting to that point is indicative of Carbine’s delivery on that promise. I’ve touched before on the satisfying difficulty in WildStar’s group dungeons and Adventures (similar to dungeons but with multiple choice-based branches), and I can confidently say that post level cap, those instances become some of the most consistently challenging engagements you’ll find anywhere. Loading

Rewards therein function a little differently from your traditional gear structure as loot quality is tied to group performance: gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively. On veteran difficulties, meeting the criteria for gold (and often even silver) can seem impossible at times due to strict requirements that demand near flawlessness. This perfection frequently results in party members immediately dropping from group at first stumble when a gold medal is no longer obtainable – which is uninviting and oppressive for new players trying to learn engagements for the first time. The attunement process for raiding actually requires most of this challenging content to be completed with medal, in addition to slaying world bosses, grinding reputation, and collecting endgame currency through daily quests.

Attunement is a daunting list that simply can’t be completed alone, and so finding a dedicated guild becomes a priority. Guilds play a large part in the endgame thanks to both the challenge of the instanced content and Warplots, which function as purchasable guild-versus-guild PvP death arenas that can be equipped with all manner of weapons, monsters, and boosts. Less than a month out from launch, few guilds have the resources to really invest in the Warplot system, and I’ve personally yet to find a guild that would allow me to tag along, but I’m incredibly intrigued by the possibilities knowing firsthand the level of customization Carbine Studios is capable of. Loading

That said, I’m less invested in the current state of PvP in WildStar, primarily the two battlegrounds, which both struck me as chaotic, imprecise experiences. I chalk this up mostly to the telegraph system, which I love in PvE, but feel doesn’t translate well into the mass-scale clashes between 20 players fighting over a single objective. As a mobile ranged damage dealer I’m less affected than, say, a warrior would be, but when a constant rotation of a dozen attacks congeal into a spastic red sea that players must wade through to touch each other, there’s little strategy at play. Hopefully the knowledgebase evolves and engagements become more calculated with time, which is more the case in WildStar’s arenas.

Like every MMORPG, the success or failure of WildStar will ultimately land on the shoulders of its endgame. WildStar’s wealth of existing post-cap content is both rewardingly, brutally hard, and varied enough that there’s something for everyone. With the next patch already introducing further endgame content, I believe WildStar has the legs to go the distance, and is absolutely worth the monthly subscription fee. To that regard, the much-touted C.R.E.D.D. system that allows players to buy/sell month-long chunks of playtime for in-game resources. Though the economy is still young and the price of C.R.E.D.D. will undoubtedly inflate, at the time of this writing, players can grind enough in-game currency to purchase a C.R.E.D.D. inside of a week: It’s wholly possible to play to pay.