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Comic for: July 18th, 2014
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Wildstar: "By the Nose"
Posted: Friday July 18th, 2014 by

Not having an idea when I went to bed last night, I loaded up the freshly installed Wildstar this morning and playing for a couple of hours. The game is beautiful and the UI is nice, though I did feel a bit lost trying to navigate it all. I've been playing MMOs for 15 years now though, so figuring it out ain't that tough. But if someone put the screws to me and demanded that I give them an initial impression, I would have to say that it feels (at least the first 4-5 levels) like an MMO on rails. Or, as I hint at in the comic, like I'm being lead around by "the nose".

Now an MMO holding your hand through the first 10 levels or so is nothing new. I mean, it's one of the things that made WoW shine. But there doesn't currently feel like there's enough freedom. From the Orc starting area in Durator, as a level one character, I could just kind of wander off into all manner of places I shouldn't be if I wanted to. The explorer in me makes that kind of possibility delightful. Like I can go anywhere. In Wildstar, I can move from one section to the next without completing a sequence of quests that gradually have me re-establish the transporter to move on to the next area.

Try not to take this as too much of a complaint though. It's like a tutorial built directly into gameplay. Follow the quest line and you start to "get it" all. Now, when I built my guy, I chose the Explorer path. So I am rewarded for running around the zones looking at everything. Reading the previous paragraph you know this appeals to me. And maybe my whole outlook will change as I move out into the wider world and there's more space to just roam free. I've got a month before the subscription fee kicks in. I imagine you'll read more about my adventures leading up to that point.

I'm currently playing an Exile - Granok Warrior/Explorer named Vrec on Avatus if I'm around and you want to say howdy.

- Special Thanks to Alq for sending me a key so I could start playing -

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