The promise of Wildgate’s spacefaring PvPvE mayhem was evident after just one match. Complex and thrilling competitions of cooperation and communication result from the highly cooperative chaos of operating a spacecraft, searching PvE dungeons for treasure, and defending against opposing crews. However, it has also become evident that there is still much space to expand on that intriguing idea after dozens of games and over 20 hours of gaming.

The endurance of these cosmic battles is limited because there aren’t many characters, ships, or weapons to bring into battle, and after you’ve explored a few matches’ worth of dungeons, you’ll probably have seen every enemy to engage and location to investigate. However, when a strong crew gets together, Wildgate’s multidimensional ship-to-ship combat and straightforward but effective gunplay rival Sea of Thieves.

In the unique multiplayer shooter Wildgate, five groups of four players are sent into the Reach, the galaxy’s most dangerous region, to compete for glory and wealth. Their ultimate objective is to locate the crucial Artifact concealed in space and take it with them when they leave the Wildgate, but as there is only one of each, a crew clash in chaotic first-person shooter battle is all but guaranteed. You should quickly land on different asteroids and planetoids to enter as many of the little PvE dungeons as you can, fighting foes and figuring out easy puzzles to retrieve whatever riches they may be hiding. This will increase your odds of surviving (and allowing you to look for the Artifact along the way).

During Wildgate’s most tense moments, when an opposing vessel approaches and chaos breaks out, upgrading your ship with better shields, weaponry, defensive measures, and stat enhancements (like increased turning speed) can make all the difference. Since there are some cool options, such as the sniper cannon, which can cause a lot of trouble for enemies even when they are far away, or the bomb cannon, which attaches bombs to whatever it hits and can explode when shot by another cannon, I especially enjoy choosing my favorite cannons for my ship.

Victory is yours if you can locate the Artifact and take it with you, or if you kill every enemy crew before they can take it themselves. In games that last more than 40 minutes apiece, the taste of victory is among the sweetest. Matchmaking with random crewmates requires a lot of cooperation, but it’s not always successful. Silent players or, worse, really toxic personalities can make for a rough time.

The main problem is a lack of options, as is the case with much of Wildgate.

A four-armed alien named Ion, for example, can use his brawn to damage the hulls of ships just by smacking them with his fists, while Venture the robot serves as a great starter character since they don’t require oxygen to survive, regenerates health faster, and gets warned when enemies are behind it. I had a lot of fun trying each one out to see which suits my playstyle, with my favorite being Sal, an aquatic engineer who is an expert at healing the ship and can turn unwanted loot into useful items by rerolling it – a frankly overpowered ability in a game where your luck with loot drops is often the difference between life and death.

For instance, Ion, a four-armed alien, can use his strength to damage ship hulls simply by striking them with his fists. Venture, a robot, is a fantastic starter character because they don’t need oxygen to survive, it heal their health more quickly, and they are alerted when enemies are approaching from behind. In a game where your luck with loot drops can mean the difference between life and death, I had a lot of fun trying them all out to see which one best suited my playstyle. My favorite is Sal, an aquatic engineer who is skilled at healing the ship and can reroll unwanted loot to make it into useful items.

Prospectors like Kae, whose teleport and telekinesis skills enable her to board ships without warning and even grab stuff off their hull without ever being inside the vessel, might occasionally appear to be extremely busted, suggesting that there is a slight imbalance with the characters in that area. Characters like Adrian, on the other hand, who are mostly capable of swiftly moving through space, feel dreadfully weak in contrast. It doesn’t take long to unlock all seven Prospectors and choose the winners; thus, the main problem is just a lack of options, as is the case with many things in Wildgate.

Additionally, there are a number of ships to unlock, each with unique advantages and disadvantages. The Hunter, your starting ship, is dependable in every way. It has three front-facing cannons and can move faster if you choose to drop your shields, making it ideal for swiftly entering and exiting battles. However, the tradeoffs of the other three are more intriguing. In addition to having more health and defensive capabilities than other ships to counterbalance its modest cannons and speed, my favorite, The Bastion, has a unique feature that makes it much harder for other players to board: doors that lock down tight (if your knucklehead teammates remember to close them) and the ability to detect intruders by default.

I was able to outlast my opponents like a hedgehog ready to prick would-be predators by playing it slow in matches and accumulating resources and defenses. Additionally, there is the Privateer, a battleship with eight weapon slots that deal more damage and fire faster than other ships. This virtually demands an incredibly aggressive playstyle that either worked right away or led to the shortest matches possible.

Last but not least is the Scout, a small ship with poor health and offensive capabilities that is more than made whole by incredible speed and agility. I have to admit that I won the most matches with the Scout simply because it’s difficult to beat the ability to locate or steal the artifact more quickly and outrun my opponents for a speedy extraction. Unfortunately, because ship-to-ship fighting is so much fun and it’s difficult to put that aside in the name of victory, these were also some of the less engaging games I played.

Killing an adversary with a simple rock is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

You will employ a few weapons and devices to fight off NPC monsters and sometimes other players while you are boarding or being boarded by the enemy when you are battling on foot. There aren’t many distinct playstyles to pick from because there are now only nine weapons available. This was particularly true when some of my options, like the Sidelong launcher—a strange blaster that shoots horizontally and pierces the environment—didn’t appeal to me and ended up collecting dust on the shelf, further reducing the number of viable options I had. Some, though, like the powerful anti-ship rocket launcher that allows you to rip through enemy ships without having to be mounted on a turret or the goo-firing gatling gun, captured my heart.

A tool that automatically reloads all of your guns whenever you teleport back to your ship, or a drill that you may throw onto a ship’s side to gradually destroy it, are two other devices you’ll choose to carry on your toolbelt. The rock, which is just a rock, is my particular favorite. I just think it’s great that they could have made it a throwing dagger instead of the funny option. You can hurl it at people, and it deals a lot of damage. There aren’t many more satisfying feelings than using a simple rock to take down an enraged adversary brandishing a huge weapon.

Verdict

I joyfully collaborated with my buddies to either win the competition or (more often than not) bravely go down with our ship in Wildgate’s frantic 20-player bouts, which provide for some truly amazing turmoil. Even though you’re getting destroyed by rival crews while still figuring things out or learning how to work well with your teammates, the PvPvE format is incredibly unique, and it’s truly special to unlock new characters, weapons, and ships while exploring the Reach in the first few hours of matches.

Since it only takes a few minutes to see everything Wildgate has in store before familiarity sets in and there isn’t much left to do but grind, the only real problem is that this basic launch needs a lot more material to keep the fun going. Although it’s a pretty polished beginning point for now, I sincerely hope that, given some time to develop new characters, ships, dungeons, and NPC villains, this may become a mainstay among my friends.

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