Jul 19 Views (944)

Wildstar's biggest distractions is the challenge system

With a rock solid group portion of the game, even though that lacks innovation, Wildstar manages to establish its niche in the MMO space.

If you take the esthetics of Ratchet & Clank, World of Warcraft's content and Guild Wars 2's active combat system and throw them in a pot and serve the resulting brew for dinner, then you have Carbine Studios' new sci-fi MMORPG on the menu: Wildstar. Players frantically dart back and forth for cover as the telegraph system warns them that much of the screen is about to be taken up by lethal enemy attacks.

 

Wildstar distractions

 

Including 40-man raids in WildStar was something of a risky undertaking considering they haven't been popular elsewhere for half a decade, but the game is primarily aimed at old-school MMO fans, providing them with a stern test of the skills they have acquired over the years.

One of Wildstar's other biggest (and smartest) distractions is the challenge system. Let's say I had a quest to kill 10 space goats. As I struck the finishing blow on my first eternal foe, an overenthusiastic, omnipresent narrator would shout "CHALLENGE STARTED!" Now, in addition to my regular, story-driven quest to kill these grass-chewing menaces, I'd have an extra challenge with multiple levels of ranking and reward depending on how many goats I could kill within a time limit.

This system reacts brilliantly with the existing, more traditional quest system on multiple levels. Yes, I was stuck doing the same generic kill quests that exist in every MMO. But Wildstar provided motivation to do so faster, for additional rewards. As someone with experience in the genre and the desire to push through quickly, I felt like the game was recognizing my skill even in the earliest, easiest content.