Story
Aboard the Gambler's Ruin
-Cassians brought a Warbot on board the Exile ship. Cassians are like the snobby "Imperial" humans of Star Wars. A Warbot is... not sure, but I'm sure I'll soon see and I'm sure it'll be a robot for war.
-The Chua are kind of cute! In a murderous sort of way.
-Ah. That's a Warbot.
Yeah, those are big af.
-The music here is just... YES!! Especially starts kicking ass around the one minute mark.
Very "Firefly."
-Queen Myala said "By the Weave!" as an exclamation. Aurin religion maybe?
-Politically, the Aurin Queen doesn't have a king, she has a "First Consort."
Get it! Hurray for Aurin gender politics. :D
-Now that stuff's cleared upon the ship here, the game lays out its primary mystery: what happened to the ancient Eldan race that used to live on the planet Nexus? Where did they go?
-Time to head down to the planet. I can start in the Northern Wilds or Everstar Grove. I choose Everstar Grove since it sounds more nature-y, and I'm an Aurin after all.
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Everstar Grove
-Arrived on the planet and nature is running rampant, going wild. We gotta figure out why.
-The "XAS" is the Exile Science Academy.
Professor Rhoda Wellspring (pictured above) is the main contact here, next to...
-...an Eldan datacube. The Eldan left datacubes, which are like journals. Neat way to see what they were up to. The first one I encounter speaks of a "Nexus Project." The central mystery here. The XAS calls the mission to learn about the Eldan "Secret Ops."
LOLOLOL: "The Secret Ops team is aware that announcing its existence makes it considerably less than 'Secret,' and does not need to be reminded again. It's the name approved by the committee."
Bless Wildstar's humor.
-The game scatters lore books around the world. Like, I just found a journal of an Aurin describing the flight from the homeworld. Nice.
-I assumed the Mordesh were undead, but instead they're plagued. Dr. Victor Lazarin created some contagion accidentally that turned them into Mordesh... hee! And now he's a huckster trying to sell them salves to make their contagion more comfortable.
-Dr. Lazarin's daughter, Lucy Lazarin, is a quest-giver here in the Grove. She's here to get alchemical supplies from the Elderoot, a tree chemically enhanced by the Mordesh. (I get the sense that I'll use that phase a lot. "An <insert thing here> chemically enhanced by the Mordesh.")
-The Eldan left work areas around called Exo-Labs. The first one I reached is "Exo-Lab 71: Arboretum," and it looks SO. FRIGGING. COOL.
Super creepy abandoned nature lab. Yikes.
-Finished up in Exo-Lab 71 and hit level 4.
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Mechanics
-I really appreciate that upon leveling up, the game gives me a list of new stuff that opens up. Not just new skills and spells, but EVERYTHING!
-Got access to dueling, mounts and mount customization, HOVERBOARDS MARTY!, a Holo Wardrobe...
Wait. Let me stop there for a second. Just checked this out and it looks like an awesome cosmetic system. It seems like I can unlock an item's look when I get it, and then even if I sell it I can equip the look of the item in the Holo Wardrobe. How awesome is that? I don't need to store up items eternally and hoard them in my bank. Diablo-style.
-Got Crush, a knockdown. Probably like a counterspell kinda deal... yup. It's also the first ability I have in the "Utility" tree.
-If I interrupt an enemy while it's using an ability, like with Crush, I get a "Moment of Opportunity" where I briefly do more damage to it. Nice incentive for me to watch the enemy and really engage.
-Oh Lord, bestill my completionist heart. Wildstar provides a list of zones sorted by level range and what percent of stuff in them is complete in them. Yes.
-Wandering into a new area gave me my first soldier mission. A "King of the Hill" style defense where I have to fight off waves of attacks.
A bit straight-forward, but not bad.
-Speaking of random stuff: challenges! Was running to a new quest area and all of a sudden CHALLENGE! A timed bar appeared in my screen that I had to run around collecting butterflies. An intro/tutorial challenge.
Surprisingly, I love this. I usually hate timed stuff with a burning passion, but bonus mini-games that make me interact with the environment and only have upside? Yes.
