WildStar Preview

Considered how World of Warcraft is pretty much the game everyone thinks of when the MMO label gets mentioned, it’s far from surprising to see GameSpy compare Carbine Studios’ WildStar to it in this one-page preview entitled “an hour with WildStar”. Here’s a sampling:

0:11-0:25 (World of Warcraft): Take more quests. Realize that — while World of Warcraft: Cataclysm added some pretty cool story bits involving a dragon who’s also the apocalypse — you’re going to be killing and collecting a metric ton of things. Kill X number of some slightly tougher monster. Collect conveniently nearby objects by right-clicking them. Rinse, repeat.

0:11-0:25 (WildStar): Take more quests. Encounter a new enemy type and suddenly receive a Challenge: “Kill X number of this enemy in two minutes.” Break the world record for fastest genocide. Snatch up magically appearing reward loot. Continue on to your next quest: collecting ice crystals to fix your space computer. Realize that you’ve got some wiggle room as to how you harvest your crystal crop. Some light platforming, yeti slaughter, or both — it’s your choice.

0:26-0:40 (World of Warcraft): Marvel as Cataclysm’s neato phasing technology floods the area or somehow otherwise gives it a nice, utterly catastrophic makeover. Continue questing. Level up and realize that you’ve amassed quite a nice collection of squares to click at the bottom of your screen. Hold your ground, watch cooldown timers, and mash those squares like your life depends on it. Or like it will, you know, eventually. No real rush.

0:26-0:40 (WildStar): Marvel as WildStar’s neato phasing technology rids the sky of storm clouds and does away with that pesky murder blizzard. Continue questing. Encounter more quick, lucrative challenges. Level up. Begin to really get a good sense for combat’s rhythm, which involves figuring out enemies’ attack timing and then double-tapping in any direction to dodge — leaving your poor foe off-guard and open to a take-no-prisoners onslaught. An onslaught that is, of course, triggered by pressing squares.