WildStar development started in 2005, after 17 former members of Blizzard Entertainment founded Carbine Studios. At the time, the seventeen former members of Blizzard Entertainment had a desire to “do anything but World of Warcraft “In fact, most were excited and overjoyed to try and start over, this time, not making the same mistakes that might have been made before.”
Grabbing players with the promise of everything they like about MMORPG with none of the content they hate about others, WildStar delivers with an out of this world story. Split into 2 factions, The Dominion and The Exiles you pick your party. Become a tyrannical leader with desires of universal domination with the Dominion. Or become the ragtag band of rebels just looking for a place to call their own and freedom to live without the iron fist with The Exiles.
Dominion faction races:
- Cassian, a race of humans from the planet Cassius chosen by the Eldans as their successors. They are the leaders in the dominion, speaking with a distinctly British accent and often look down on other races.
- Draken, a reptilian, warlike race that serves as the Dominion’s main combat force.
- Mechari, a race of robots created by the Eldan to support the Dominion.
- Chua, a race of rodent-like creatures that torched their own planet in pursuit of rapid industrialization. Most chua have little regard for the safety of others, and they strive on building inventions that are efficient at eliminating enemies.
Exile faction races:
- Exile Humans, a group of Cassians that rebelled against the Dominion. Speak primarily in a Southern US accent.
- Granok, a rough-and-tumble race of stone creatures that love drinking and brawling. The Granok’s home planet was invaded when they refused to join the Dominion, and after fighting a losing war, some of their young decided to steal Dominion technology and use it against the invaders. They were exiled for breaking tribal customs, and joined up with the Exiles as their primary military force.
- Aurin, a race of people with animal ears and tails. The Aurin were once a tribal race that assisted the Exile Humans out of kindness, giving them food and shelter on their home planet. This led the Dominion to seize and raze their home. Some of the remaining Aurin escaped — including their queen — and have joined with the exiles. Since their exile, the Aurin developed an interest in science, and are often found in the exile research facility along with the Mordesh.
- Mordesh, a race of formerly beautiful creatures with a penchant for alchemy. Once allied with the Dominion, their research into immortality led to the entire race’s permanent sterility and metamorphosis into partially decayed, zombie-like creatures. Quarantined by the Dominion, they joined up with the Exiles, offering their knowledge of science and alchemy while frantically searching for a cure for their condition.
With a history of war and hate, these two sides clash at every turn in the story driven online rpg. Along with this race group is the class group. These consist of tanks, DPS and healers, but not in the typical sense.
The Warrior – A melee class, wielding a broadsword as well as a number of other combat tools. Warriors build up kinetic energy using “builder” skills and unleash them with other, more powerful skills.
The Esper – A ranged class akin to mages, utilizing illusions to damage enemies and heal allies. Espers use psyblades – a large shuriken-like weapon – although it is not actually used to attack enemies.
The Spellslinger – Uses dual pistols combined with magic. Spellslingers have a “spell power” resources that regenerates with time and can be used to power up or give additional effects to their spells.
The Stalker – Uses dual claws and stealth. Stealth grants a number of benefits in addition to invisibility, and allows the stalker to hit for extra damage.
The Medic – Wields resonators into combat. Despite the name, medics can serve as an excellent DPS class.
The Engineer – Summons robot pets to aid in combat. Engineers use heavy weapons and manage a resource called “volatility”.
Each class is able to fulfill the role of DPS as well as one of the support roles, tank or healer.
The final “branch” in the WildStar universe is an additional path option, which adds specific in game quests, rewards and added features usable by other players in the environment.
The four available paths are:
- Soldier – Soldiers are the primary military force in charge of defending their faction’s interests from hostile forces. Their path quests involve assassinating dangerous creatures, rescue missions, defending bases from invaders, and weapons testing.
- Explorer – Explorers are charged with discovering and mapping the strange and unexplored areas of Nexus. Their path quests promote world exploration, such as climbing otherwise unscalable mountains and finding treasure atop giant statues.
- Settler – Settlers are charged with making Nexus habitable for their respective factions. Their path quests requires them to set up various structures in Nexus, including coveted buffing stations that can be used by anyone, as well as gathering others to hunt some of the most dangerous beasts in the area.
- Scientist – Scientists are responsible for discovering the lore and creatures of Nexus. Their path quests requires them to find data entries left from Eldan experiments, as well as scanning/analyzing the flora, fauna, spiritual symbols, artifacts, mechanical beings, Eldan-augmented abominations, and other assorted curios of the new planet.
As a player of many MMORPG games I have a vast love for this game. The artistic style that was decided on is unlike most games that are looking for the realistic art. WildStar developers went with a more cartoon/comic book style art. It was a fantastic choice in my opinion.
With open world PvP and some a-typical battlegrounds options the PvP aspect of WildStar resembles the idea of two countries at war. These skirmishes can happen in large groups or with just a single soldier from either faction wondering into the wrong bar.
