With the Dominion announced as WildStar's second faction, Gareth "Gazimoff" Harmer gives a hands-on perspective on playing for the bad guys.

As Michael “Ragar” Branham already pointed out in his own hands-on, the system of tells and telegraphs is used with every mob that I fought, from the simian razortails to the massive gorganoth. I wasn’t just facing simple circles and stripes either – cones, crosses and cowhide mottle patterns all made it into the range of attacks that mobs could deliver. It meant that, although I could double-tap (or ctrl-tap if you prefer) to dodge and keep mobile, combat wasn’t repetitious. Bonus XP is up for grabs if you pull off particularly stylish moves, with double-kills being one example.

The environment also lends a hand in interesting ways, with spike-shrooms and exploding barrels providing further ways for you to imaginatively dispatch clumps of mobs. While double-jumping provides a neat way of moving around mobs and bounding around obstacles, the Spellslinger can also use a portal dash to teleport forward, dazing creatures in your path and putting you behind them to unleash devastating attacks.

The Spellslinger itself is a little unusual, using pistols to shoot bolts of energy in a way that seems more sorcery than science. From what I understand, it’s all to do with harnessing primal energies; Espers can pull on these forces with their minds to create spectral swords and arrows, while the Spellslinger uses specially tuned weaponry to deliver various types of elemental and arcane damage. Although they have a clutch of snares and stuns at the low level I played, they can also soak a good amount of melee damage as long as you keep mobile.

Galaxy Quest

Although WildStar uses the traditional questing approach of speaking to an NPC in many areas, getting a quest, doing something and getting a reward, only some of that content is generic; the rest is tailored to your particular path. After taking the Bartle test, I knew that I had a preference for exploring, with the lore-craving Scientist and social Settler running an equal second, and the killing-spree Soldier a distant fourth.

What I didn’t expect was how effective the path would be at pulling me in. At some point during the preview, I abandoned all pretence of questing, disabled the UI and started exploring. The explorer path encouraged me, pointing out particular sights or vistas, or granting me access to underground tunnels. I was doing what I’ve enjoyed in so many other games, only this time I was being rewarded for it. As the last speck of cynicism fell away, I admitted it to myself – I was having fun.

The high vantage points gave me a chance to look on Nexus in a different way than the screenshots and videos I’d seen previously. The world is deliberately crafted, either by the Eldan or more recent settlers, with artistry embedded in everything from patterns in the grass to shaping the trees. It’s a style that has as much in common with Rayman or Super Mario Galaxy as it does World of Warcraft; they all share a common stylistic ancestry rooted in comics and cartoons, but they take it in different directions. 

Artistry aside, Nexus isn’t just host to the conflict between the Exiles and the Dominion – it seems that every hoodlum in the vicinity has arrived on the planet to make a fast buck. For the Draken, it’s the poaching problem that is the most problematic. After all, there’s nothing worse than going out on the hunt, only to find that a bunch of tourists has been stealing your kills. Their scientific solution: strap a large amount of explosives to a rhino-esque being, then use a mind-control device to send it into the poacher camp. Now, if only I could use it in PvP.

My only concern with questing was the various challenges that popped up. Kill a mob and you might be presented with a challenge to kill several more within a specific time limit. These tests of rapid-fire slaying are optional and repeatable, but I was left wondering how effectively they’d scale with an army of fresh Dominion players killing everything in sight. After their nauseating overuse in Rift: Storm Legion as Carnage quests, I was also silently hoping for an option to disable them completely, rewards or no.

Nostalgic, Yet Unique

At the moment, it’s clear that Gaffney and his team are building WildStar as a bridge between more traditional MMOs and radical new concepts. There’re enough nostalgic tropes that Nexus will feel familiar to MMO veterans, but every single one has been refined or evolved by a team that’s been working in the genre for over a decade. Foundations like the active combat system packed with telegraphs and tells, and flourishes such as the flying mount-ready landscape, show that Carbine has been listening to what gamers find fun.

It’s many of these newer concepts that we’re excited about, but have also yet to experience: the new approach to player housing, and extensions such as Warplots and Guild Fortresses; how the paths will interact with dungeon and raid content; and what world-changing events will actually look and feel like. There are also systems yet to be revealed, such as crafting, trading and much of the social glue that will pull players together.

That said, there’s still plenty of time for more information to emerge as WildStar enters closed beta in a few months’ time. Selected players will also get the chance to experience and feedback on much of the game during Arkship events planned for the coming months.

One thing is clear: WildStar isn’t a game about bullet-point features or vague concepts that don’t fit. It’s about doing what you enjoy doing, having fun while you’re doing it and making Nexus a place where you and your friends want to spend time. Gaffney has an uncompromising determination to deliver that dream; here’s hoping he manages it.

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Senior Contributing Editor