The Indie Game Magazine March 2015 | Issue 47

GAME WATCH Proto-type Fun by Nick Cescon H appy patch month, sports fans! Get ready for some Proto Star goodness this month, with the official launch of the much anticipated ProtoGames Initiative. The entire team over at Carbine has been hard at work for months getting ready for this drop, and the amount of layers they’ve managed to pack into one patch is pretty epic in itself. Not only do WildStar players get a new dungeon, but a harder version of that dungeon that itself then has an even more difficult version, as well as a new Shiphand, making this one intensely awesome content drop that reinforces Carbine’s dedication to making this year awesome for the WildStar community. Carbine has really outdone themselves with this update, and have not only expanded the endgame content for their veteran players, but have also created new content for earlier in the game that newer players will be able to enjoy. The ProtoGames Initiative contains a new dungeon in which players battle against a set amount of random rooms and bosses designed to be both challenging, and instructive in teaching players the mechanics and intricacies of WildStar’s unique combat system. On the surface, the dungeon looks like a new game show that the Proto Star Company is putting on in the search for ever-expanding profit, something which they are well-known for, but in actuality it serves as more of a mid-game tutorial. Players are expected to know the basics of combat before enter- ing the dungeon, as it starts around Level 10, however it fixes one of the most common complaints about the difficulty curve in WildStar by layering tutorial into gameplay. In the past, the steep jump in difficulty between questing and dungeoneering frustrated multitudes of Nexarians to the point of not playing dungeons altogether until later on in the game. The fights were difficult, the mechanics were hard to understand, and no one seemed to be able to coordinate at a level that Carbine expected their Level 10 players to be able to handle. But The ProtoGames Initiative finally fixes that. Each random room that players encounter in the earliest iteration of the dungeon is tailored to be enjoyable, challenging, and educational, serving as a fine example of WildStar’s robust combat system. There is an explanation of each fight as it happens, explaining what the Tank, Healer, and Damage Dealers’ jobs are when they need to perform them. All this, mixed with some visually obvious positional queues, make the dungeon an excellent learning tool and hook for new players to enjoy the game and reinforce the great gameplay even with a heightened challenge curve. If you think that sounds fun, just wait until you try the Ultimate version at level 50, which even has a Veteran version. Until next month, I hope you enjoy the frontier amidst the never-ending quest to help uncover the secrets of Nexus! Developer: Carbine Studios Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Website: https://shop.wildstar-online.com/ Twitter: @WildStar 9

The Indie Game Magazine March 2015 | Issue 47 | Page 9