First good point for Wildstar: the game spares us one more medieval fantasy universe, and prefers to take us to the side of science fiction, more humorous than scientific by the way. The storyline revolves around the discovery of the planet Nexus, once inhabited by the Eldans, who left behind many remains to explore and multiple technological secrets to uncover. Source of all covetousness, this new El Dorado attracts both the good Exiles, in search of a new place of residence, and the Dominion camp which, as its name suggests, seeks above all to extend its power and its affecting. Choose your side, fellow player! Thereafter, it will naturally also be necessary to retain a character class, to be chosen from among the powerful Warrior, the discreet ranger, the generous Doctor, the ingenious Engineer, the summoner Esper and finally the Arcanero, who acts as a magician of the modern times. To these six classes are added eight races and four vocations (explorer, settler, soldier, scholar, each of these statuses bringing its share of specific quests) which gives us a very high number of possible rerolls. Whichever character you level up, you are sure to do so in a good mood since the game multiplies humorous situations and dialogues, even totally crazy. A characteristic that is also reflected in the graphics, whose cartoonish aspect cannot leave anyone indifferent. Absolutely irreproachable (unless you are absolutely refractory to the genre), the artistic direction hits hard and brilliantly assimilates various influences, such as World of Warcraft, Ratchet & Clank or even Team Fortress 2. The result is clear: we regularly have the impression of being immersed in a real cartoon. This fits perfectly with the general atmosphere of the game, but also with its gameplay, much more dynamic than the average.
A 5 star MMO?
First of all, most attacks require positioning yourself correctly in front of our target, or even following it in its movements so as not to miss its shot. But above all, the game uses and abuses areas of effects, here called telegrams and represented on the screen by a projection on the ground of varied and colorful geometric shapes. These indicate, for example, a healing zone or, on the contrary, a future devastating impact. This may seem trivial at first, but in practice, this trick greatly enhances the interest and dynamism of the fights. During the encounter with certain bosses, we even sometimes have the impression of playing a shoot 'em up or a Dance Dance Revolution as we have to show agility and reflexes to avoid certain telegrams and try to set foot on others. Suffice to say that Wildstar sounds the death knell for the MMORPG daddy, which allowed you to play softly with one hand by simply clicking on a spell icon from time to time. Conversely, the creation of Carbine also knows how to take over the good recipes of yesteryear when necessary. Thus, we are entitled to raids that do not usurp their name since they can bring together up to 40 players. We will remind the stunned that World of Warcraft offered such adventures in its infancy, before reducing the maximum number of participants to 25.
Even better, Wildstar has some features right off the bat that haven't made it to Blizzard yet. We think in particular of housing, which allows you to obtain land and build the house of your dreams on it, since the customization options are very numerous. To tell the truth, Wildstar does not leave out any major functionality. Crafting, raids, dungeons, PvP, PvE, random adventures, there are dozens of different ways to have fun and none of them has been botched. The ultimate proof of the care shown by the conscientious developers of Carbine comes from the presence of real high-level content, right from the launch of the game. The fastest players have nothing to fear: there is what to do once you reach level 50! We particularly recommend the Warlands mode, which allows two teams of 40 players to compete, after having personalized their defense systems (turrets, mines, etc.) and attack (possibility of enlisting replicas of the bosses previously defeated in dungeons). The global playing field is indeed made up of the meeting of the two opposing war fields, each team then seeking to reach and destroy the enemy generator. To win, you must therefore not only correctly dose your attack and your defense, but also have shown good judgment and strategy beforehand, when creating the terrain.
Model to follow ?
Arrived at this stage of the test, some of you are certainly asking questions about the economic model of the game. Monthly subscription or free? Well the choice is yours. If you want to play the simplest way in the world, all you have to do is pay the classic monthly tithe. But you can also use the CREDD system. These are virtual items that can be purchased using in-game currency, and which also provide a month's play time. To top it off, these CREDDs can be bought and sold between the players themselves, via an exchange. The law of supply and demand will therefore set the price of these items... which can also be purchased with real money, in particular to be subsequently resold to other players for virtual currency. Sound complicated? So just remember that once the game box is purchased, you should be able to continue playing without spending real money if you wish (by farming like a pig, if ever the price of CREDDs were to soar). If this economic system is relatively daring and if the game appears to be extremely complete, we can still blame it for a certain classicism. Wildstar isn't reinventing the wheel, so some quests feel like they've already been played. The interface also deserves a little polish, especially with regard to the quest log. These little trifles aside, Wildstar is immediately ranked among the best MMORPGs!
