During our meeting with NCSoft at Gamescom we got to check out the latest developments of WildStar, tongue-in-cheek fantasy meets sci-fi with a battle over the planet Nexus between the forces of the Dominion and the Exile. WildStar is now a little over a month after its official launch, and players have already been able to experience the game’s first content patch with the Strain, a biological mutation that has begun to grow underneath the planet’s surface and spread a deadly contagion.

The expansion is already in full flow and many players have checked out the new content already, however, we got a sneak peek into a few areas that will be coming out soon showing that the developers are definitely trying to churn out as much quality content in as short amount of time as possible.

The Defile

This new level 50 zone is the culmination of a number of in-depth story lines and seeing how, in particular the Entity and Drusera story is resolved. The new area was absolutely huge, made up of huge towering spires as well as off the beaten path areas for players to discover and explore, including a Strain Maw, showing just how far the Strain has spread and further tying in all the storylines, but this was an optional area that some players might easily overlook. **If you don’t want spoilers then skip to the Protogames heading.**

Guided by Drusera throughout the zone you are informed about a scientist corrupted by the Strain that has managed to gain access to an Elden focus, creating a Black Focus, that the players obviously have to bring down by destroying some elemental transformers. The ultimate battle will face off against the corrupted scientist high up on a tower where up to 5 players will get hints and tips from Drusera on how to kill him, focusing primarily on a phased battle with “the Defiler” such as using the technology nodes around his platform to imbue himself with specific elements and the players must then imbue themselves with the opposing element to do damage to him. With the Defiler dead players will destroy the Black Focus (which implodes into a handy little block that you can decorate your house with) and stops the spread of the Strain in the area.

Also in the area is some 20 man content (per faction) with the Lightspire that allows players to man their own attack ships from a faction base where they must fly around trying to bomb huge Strain made cannons that are trying to destroy the Lightspire. It is a public event with five stages that starts with a bombing run on an automated path where players must destroy pods on the back of the Strain canons. This follows onto a holdout, then destroying a huge power source, battling “Arch-Fiend” mini bosses and leading to a final Dreadwatcher boss, who is a 20 man boss. He’s a huge winged creature with some unique mechanics that allow him to cocoon himself where he regenerates and forcing the players to destroy the cocoon.

Once destroyed played progress to the end of the zone where all the answers to their questions are given and the many story-arcs are wrapped up.

Protogames

The Ultimate Protogames is a level 50 dungeon linked to a sci-fi future alien gameshow where players earn points as they progress through the dungeon. With nine event rooms and a final boss room, each room loading dynamically and randomly meaning players will have to play through them multiple times to full experience and master them.
In a similar vein there is the ProtoStar Academy that is a level 10 dungeon that allows players to learn new tactics that they will incorporate into their first dungeon at level 20 showing the developers are adding both early, mid and late game content.

New Arena “The Icebox”

The “Icebox” is the working title for the new PVP arena that is the second arena released in the game for PVP and is a multi-dimensional battle arena are with different levels that players can fight on using holes in the upper platform that will lead to a lower level. Players can fight 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 against the opposing faction, using the PVP matchup system.

Seasonal Events – Shade’s Eve

The first seasonal realm wide event where players can work together to progress the story/event where players build effigies for Jack Shade, the patron of the Halloween themed festival. As players work together to progress the story the landscape and cities will change and become decorated for the duration of the event with all manner of lights, statues and decorations. This is the first sign that there will be constant seasonal events within WildStar.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2014 at 2:53 pm and is filed under MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.