Wildstar (FTP Update) – Review
After a long time of preparing and altering things, Wildstar has become free to play. During the beta, people got the chance to give their opinion, so the developers had the opportunity to change some things. Let’s take a look, shall we?
For the gamers that don’t know the game, a quick update (you can find the full review here). We’re sucked into a world where there are two factions: The Dominions and the Exiles. Due to certain circumstances during history, the Exiles were driven away by the Dominion. As they were looking for a new place to call home, they stumbled across the lost planet of the Eldan. The Dominion soon finds out about this empty vessel as well and the battle commences again.
Updates
There are so many updates and alterations, we’ll only give a small summarization. If you want to browse the changes, you can check these links.
Content-wise, there are some other elements, which might please new players but might confuse the veterans. Some vendors have been removed to improve the gameplay, while there have been placed more banks around Illium and Thayd. There are extra quests to introduce players into support roles like Tanking or Healing. These roles are very needed in Adventures and Dungeons, which are now all available with the group finder. No more searching the entrance of an adventure! Before you jump into one of these instances, it is a great idea to check your Rune Sets as they’ve been adjusted.
Wildstar has updated their customization possibilities as well. This means that players can dye their clothes a lot sooner and that deprecated items can still be used in assembling costumes. Even more, costume items can now be unlocked even though if you cannot use it.
The Housing possibilities have gotten a boost as well. For instance, the lighting has been altered, some items have been renamed and you can now toggle if you want to see ‘neighbouring’ Skyplots. Even more, you can now buy an Exile or Dominion houses as they are no longer bound by their faction. Killing rare mobs or world bosses might give you some decor items, which is always great. The Fabkits are still available as well, but have gotten some changes. It might be that you were looking for the daily housing buffs, but they are gone. Don’t worry though, they will be replaced by something special.
Taking a look at the combat and character changes, there are so much tweaks. Every class has gotten a fresh new feel while combat has changed a bit. Since this is so extensive, you can go the patch notes and find your wanted class.
The levelling system has gotten a reboot and every class has been checked and altered if necessary. This means that you might get back to a character that has quite some changes. Overall, abilities are now free to unlock and the ability rollout has been reworked. Even more, the ability slots now unlock at other levels (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10). The AMPs have gotten a revision as well, as the Deflect Critical Hit has been replaced by a Critical Mitigation and some of the other ones have gotten different values.
Next to all these alterations, the developers added loads of tutorials as well. For instance, the tutorial zone in the starting Arkships have been changed to give new players the chance to learn the tricks of the trade or to get veteran players up to speed. Next to that, the housing tutorial has been updated and some minor bugs have been deleted. There are also some extra quests to get into some special mechanics, like the usage of runes for instance.
Nobody likes bugs in a game and it seems that the developers have gotten rid of some minor ones. For instance, players will not be able to redeem an item from their pending inventory when they have already collected it on that account (multi-redeem). Duels can now be initiated, won and lost without any error. The Housing sector has gotten some bugfixes as well, like the scaling of the map.
Although the game is free to play, there are also possibilities where you can get a special service or ‘Signature’. These players will receive a lot of bonuses. For example, they will have 30 active auctions and bids instead of the normal 3. Currency is gained 25% faster, 10% more proc chance when gathering and some extra reputation perks. If you want to see all the advantages, it is a good idea to check their website. Next to these payment option, you can also buy NCoins. This currency can be used to buy boosts, bonuses and cosmetic items. If you’re interested in a Guild, you will need to have a Signature account as well. This isn’t necessary for a Circle, although you can only enter one when you have a free account.
Also, when you’ve purchased a box, you will have some extra perks in comparison with free subscribers. For instance, you will have 2 character slots, while boxed editions will have 12 spots. The same goes for the bank slots (2 versus 5), costume slots (4 versus 6) and the amount of decor items (1000 versus 2000).
Conclusion
Overall, the developers did their best to give everyone a better gameplay experience, although a lot has changed which might not be that pleasant for veteran players. They have to ‘relearn’ the game a bit, which might demotivate them. The feel of the game has increased, so if you’re interested, it might be a good idea to check it out once more.
Wildstar (FTP Update) - Review,
No Comments