How does one review an MMO without having played all of it? I’m not saying you can’t judge whether or not you like it within a few hours; that’s certainly long enough to form a decent opinion. But to provide a full review? I don’t think I’m skilled enough to fully encompass every aspect to an acceptable degree. I certainly don’t have the time to play all of those aspects. My gaming backlog keeps staring at me, asking why? Why do I play this other game when all of us have been sitting here for months? Waiting. Judging.

Still, my friend got me a Free Trial code for WildStar and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try it out. As a veteran of many MMOs, I was quick to judge. Comparing it against every other MMO I’ve played to see where it excelled and where it fell short. Of course, I’ve only really become absorbed into a handful of these ever-more prolific titles, so once again, my judgement may be premature. I’m not about to praise or condemn WildStar forever based on a free trial. However, a first impressions article is well within this remit.

With this in mind, I’ve decided to do a two-part article – a twoparticle, if you will – cataloguing how my impressions of WildStar were to begin with, how they’ve progressed and (later this week) how they end up at the end of the trial. Will I be swayed by aspects? Will I cave and buy yet another fucking MMO? Or will I be more inclined to leave it until its likely F2P transition? Let’s find out.

First thing’s first: I’m not about to break this down into categories. I’m coming at this from a purely “I like this / I don’t like this” perspective, meaning you’re not going to get in-depth analysis on the merits of one class versus another. This is more of an anecdotal account of my personal experience in WildStar, so your mileage may vary.

Firing up WildStar for the first time, I was presented with very little in the way of background story. Unlike a relatively-established lore-scape (that’s a word now) like the Warcraft Universe, WildStar is an entirely new canon. Pushing this frustration aside, I was confronted by the character creation screen. I was pleased with the amount of options available for customising your character, but rather pissed off that you seem to be stuck with Dreamworks characters no matter what you do. I’m serious, everyone has that fucking Pixar / Dreamworks face. That sort of smug, one-eyebrow-raised, pouting smile. The art style isn’t BAD, per se: it just pisses me off.

In an odd juxtaposition, the music that plays when creating your character was very good.

After creating a ridiculously-proportioned Exile Human Medic, I was thrust into the game. Well, I say thrust… more like bump-started. The cut-scenes tended to lose sync with the audio, resulting in some eerily silent scenes, followed by a cacophonous blare of trumpets or some-such. Stuttering onwards, I was given control of my character.

Immediately, I was reminded of Guild Wars 2 in terms of actual controls. The dodging, the sprinting, the focus on overall motion: all very familiar. Later, I would discover that the “Limited Action Set” toolbars only added to this similarity. What was slightly different was the way that all moves – both player and NPC – are telegraphed via area of effect markers on the ground. My initial Medic move, for example, was a frontal cone attack. One of the first things I had to do was dodge some circular areas of impending damage from exploding relays. While an interesting idea in theory, I wasn’t sure it would perform all that well in reality.

To my surprise, combat turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. When it works, it works well. You feel fluid and agile; a far cry from your typical hotkey MMO. But when it flops, it does it equally hard. For example, good luck playing this game if you like using WASD to move and the mouse to click on abilities. In my experience so far, not using the mouse to directly aim your abilities AS YOU CAST THEM means that you’re going to miss. A lot. Enemies don’t stay still and nor should you. The game actively encourages you to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge, meaning mouse control is pretty much required. I never got the hang of using the number keys to use my abilities: in WoW, it was either click or mouse-over macros. WildStar doesn’t appear to be friendly towards either approach.

But I soldiered (or perhaps, Medic’d) on. I experienced quite a few more bugs, most associated with cut-scenes and loading screens. Some scenes seemed to finish before the text was done, like it ran out of animation. Others were horribly out of sync, but a few managed to play without issue. It makes me wonder just how well optimised the game is at this early juncture; I mean, they had plenty of time in beta, but I’m willing to forgive a lot around launch. Say what you want about WildStar, but in comparison to some MMO launches, this has been practically butter.

But the bugs weren’t JUST in the cutscenes – they were in the gameplay as well. The dislike in using the mouse for movement became all the more prevalent with extra skills. Little things began to annoy me more and more. The text boxes are tiny. The entire “Settler” path seems redundant, since others have already “improved” areas before you even get there. Cast-area abilities didn’t cast where I clicked, resolutely plonking themselves about three feet in front of my character, no matter what I tried. WildStar seemed determined for me not to like it.

Not off to a great start, then. However, my friend insisted that I give it another go. I started again, this time as a different class and grouped up with him after racing through the starter-area content once more. With my previous experiences in mind, I chose a different path and a different playstyle, though my character is still ridiculously-proportioned.

My trial is only for seven days. Later this week, I hope to have a fuller appreciation for what WildStar has to offer. As it stands, I’m not overly optimistic about its chances of gaining my favour, but I have been surprised before. Check back on Friday to see if my opinion has changed.

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