I decided to just try out Wildstar since it's OB and I was curious.
The art style is actually easier on the eyes than I expected when you're actually in the game. I still don't like certain aspects of it (stick-thin arms and wasp waists especially) but it's not bad. The running animations for female characters, like someone mentioned before, are really, really weird. Especially when you stop running mid-stride, the transition is nonexistent. That's something, say, GW2 really gets right - while FFXIV is just as bad here, the running animations are less absurd, so I don't notice it as much.
My concerns about the character creation remain completely unchanged. This is particularly exemplified by how the body type that gives the character the smallest breast-to-chest ratio ALSO gives the character an enormous butt:
![[Image: JYUuW4g.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/JYUuW4g.jpg)
Sliders, or at least a bigger variety of body types, would help to mitigate this. There's also some notable omissions in the facial sliders (like no control over forehead or cheek shape, or any control over the lips whatsoever).
So what about the rest of the game?
The combat's alright. The animations are pretty nice. Obviously, since I'm nowhere near the level cap I can't really speak to how it all pans out when you have all your abilities, but even at low levels it's pretty entertaining, which is more than I can say for FFXIV or Tera.
The questing... well, there's not really much to say here. Same as your usual WoW-like, with the addition of the radio that lets you talk to your questgivers remotely. I found my eyes glazing over partway through the tutorial and just clicking through stuff, which isn't a good sign.
I kind of like the setting (space fantasy pretty much always gets me going), but, well, either character creation needs to be more robust or they just need to freakin' add female Chua already (and btw - the Chua as they are now are way too obvious an example of 'male is the default'), 'cause I wasn't able to find anything I was really happy with. I just settled with Aurin because they're the closest thing I could find to 'short + cute' out of all the racial options. I did enjoy the sight of hydroponic gardens in the tutorial ship. Living, mobile vegetables, not so much. I know it's space fantasy, but at least try to keep things a little bit grounded, yeah?
The music is actually pretty nice. Feels like a film soundtrack, which is fine in its own way. Doesn't really compare to FFXIV's or even Blade & Soul's though, but then, that is an extremely high bar to cross. Certainly more catchy than GW2's soundtrack (which I can't remember a single track from, it was that forgettable).
That's about all I can comment on at this point in the game. Will I explore further? Eh. If I can't get attached to my character (like I mentioned before, #1 priority for me), I can't really bring myself to play past the tutorial stages. They didn't manage to fulfill that basic requirement so I'm just going to have to pass it over. From what I've seen, it has potential, and I'm sure plenty of folks will find lots of entertainment from it, but it's just not for me.
The art style is actually easier on the eyes than I expected when you're actually in the game. I still don't like certain aspects of it (stick-thin arms and wasp waists especially) but it's not bad. The running animations for female characters, like someone mentioned before, are really, really weird. Especially when you stop running mid-stride, the transition is nonexistent. That's something, say, GW2 really gets right - while FFXIV is just as bad here, the running animations are less absurd, so I don't notice it as much.
My concerns about the character creation remain completely unchanged. This is particularly exemplified by how the body type that gives the character the smallest breast-to-chest ratio ALSO gives the character an enormous butt:
Sliders, or at least a bigger variety of body types, would help to mitigate this. There's also some notable omissions in the facial sliders (like no control over forehead or cheek shape, or any control over the lips whatsoever).
So what about the rest of the game?
The combat's alright. The animations are pretty nice. Obviously, since I'm nowhere near the level cap I can't really speak to how it all pans out when you have all your abilities, but even at low levels it's pretty entertaining, which is more than I can say for FFXIV or Tera.
The questing... well, there's not really much to say here. Same as your usual WoW-like, with the addition of the radio that lets you talk to your questgivers remotely. I found my eyes glazing over partway through the tutorial and just clicking through stuff, which isn't a good sign.
I kind of like the setting (space fantasy pretty much always gets me going), but, well, either character creation needs to be more robust or they just need to freakin' add female Chua already (and btw - the Chua as they are now are way too obvious an example of 'male is the default'), 'cause I wasn't able to find anything I was really happy with. I just settled with Aurin because they're the closest thing I could find to 'short + cute' out of all the racial options. I did enjoy the sight of hydroponic gardens in the tutorial ship. Living, mobile vegetables, not so much. I know it's space fantasy, but at least try to keep things a little bit grounded, yeah?
The music is actually pretty nice. Feels like a film soundtrack, which is fine in its own way. Doesn't really compare to FFXIV's or even Blade & Soul's though, but then, that is an extremely high bar to cross. Certainly more catchy than GW2's soundtrack (which I can't remember a single track from, it was that forgettable).
That's about all I can comment on at this point in the game. Will I explore further? Eh. If I can't get attached to my character (like I mentioned before, #1 priority for me), I can't really bring myself to play past the tutorial stages. They didn't manage to fulfill that basic requirement so I'm just going to have to pass it over. From what I've seen, it has potential, and I'm sure plenty of folks will find lots of entertainment from it, but it's just not for me.
