PAX Prime 2011: WildStar Impresses With Debut Gameplay

NCSoft recently unveiled their new MMORPG, WildStar. The stylish trailer showed off three characters; a bubbly bunny eared sorceress, a hulking sword wielding brute and a smug gun wielding pretty boy. No footage of gameplay was shown– that is until now, and we got some hands on with it.

The trailer pretty much revealed the three characters that you’ll be able to play as. The customization doesn’t end there as each of the classes can also pick one out of four specializations. Since dual gun wielding Spell-Slinger had the coolest moves in the trailer, I had to put him to the test. I wanted to see if he could pull of that crazy cool teleport move in game as well. Much to my surprise, it was available right from the start!

The game controlled much like any other standard MMO, with your hotkeys being your primary means of attack. I could fire a burst shot, a sustained shot that dealt damage over time, a stunning shot which left the enemy unable to move and then the awesome teleport move which closes a gap between you and the enemy, as well as giving them a quick stun so you can get some extra damage in.



The combat was fast paced, with cool downs that reset pretty quickly to keep the action going. Your character can also dodge incoming attacks, which are indicated by a red marker on the ground. Though dodging reduces your stamina meter, so dodging everything is definitely not possible. All in all though the movement is slick and fluid with some stylish moves that make it more entertaining to look at.

Not much else was revealed about the game however. The pricing hasn’t been detailed; whether it will be free to play or have some sort of payment model. Given NCSoft’s secrecy about this game however, I was absolutely surprised at how much polish the game already had. I felt like I was playing a near finished build, with everything working and looking quite incredible.

WildStar is definitely one MMO to keep a look out for. It’s got the makings of an extremely fun title, but it will have quite a lot to prove since it will be going against other big MMO’s this and next year.