Wildgate is the best competitive multiplayer game in years

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Our spaceship is hidden within a hollow asteroid, while we observe competitors from afar, making their way to a significant landmark called the monolith. This location holds the game-winning artifact. Once they obtain it, they must escape with it. Meanwhile, our ship’s defenses are deactivated for concealment, but competitors have left their shields active, making them stand out as large, stationary blue bubbles in space. We can see the shapes of their crew members moving between their ship and the monolith, presumably due to the AI guardians safeguarding the artifact.

Our cargo bay is filled with portable propulsion devices, known as turbines, which enable us to move swiftly in space. We’re biding our time until the opportune moment, which occurs when we notice the artifact being drawn further into the monolith. Upon spotting this, we leap onto the turbines and power towards their ship, ensuring our own is securely parked within a safe cavity – our objective is to dismantle their vessel and teleport back. When we arrive, we orbit around the exterior searching for accessible entrances, and in unison, break into the ship. Fanning out inside, we eventually locate and neutralize the guard left behind to watch for intruders like us. Unfortunately, his vigilance was lacking. We know that the remaining crew will return via teleportation at any moment, so we seize what we can – a reinforced shield attachment here, an advanced weapon turret there – before beaming back to our ship to install them. However, prior to leaving, we sabotage their reactor.

I quickly take charge of the ship’s controls as my team sets up our questionable loot. With a swift push, we charge straight towards them. There’s evident chaos onboard now, as they work to put out fires and repair their reactor. The panicked state is obvious because they are heading straight for an asteroid. I abandon the controls and fix a handheld rocket launcher to the wall behind the cockpit, igniting it for an unexpected surge of speed, positioning our ship just behind theirs. My entire crew is armed and ready at the newly acquired forward-facing cannons – a shotgun-like shatter cannon, a rapid-fire thermic cannon, and a slow-firing cannon that pushes enemy ships with kinetic force.

The shatter cannon breaks the backs of their shields, reminiscent of an eggshell snap, while we raise ours to deflect the weak counterattacks from their inadequate rear cannons. They’re struggling to free their ship from the asteroid, but our kinetic strikes continue to push them back towards it.

One of the entities exits the rear entrance of their spacecraft and endeavors to reach us by traversing the cosmos, but our thermal cannon knocks them out of existence. Realizing that their protective barrier is ineffective, they abandon it and speedily escape, but my teammate positions himself on our roof and employs a portable gravitational gadget to tug them back towards us. Their vessel behaves like a dog straining against its leash, and the barrage persists.

In under a minute, their reactor goes kaboom, leaving behind a charred wreckage that we scavenge for valuable components, with one of our crewmates guiding the drones and scanning for any foes who might have caught wind of the commotion. He detects the nearest foe about a kilometer away, raiding an outpost haphazardly. Seizing this opportunity, we complete what that enemy team began and snatch the artifact before making a break for it to secure victory in the game.

Avoid being swayed by comparisons to Sea of Thieves; Wildgate offers some of the most enjoyable online experiences I’ve had in years.

In contrast to Sea of Thieves that emphasizes exploration and repetition, Wildgate offers an action-packed experience with unpredictable, exciting events happening frequently – something you might encounter in Sea of Thieves every few hours if you’re fortunate. However, in Wildgate, these thrilling moments occur consistently throughout each game session, which typically lasts between 15 to 45 minutes.

As I dive into this cosmic adventure, it’s not your typical game. Each time we launch, our five spaceships are scattered across a vast interstellar grid. Our mission? Gather loot from AI-controlled outposts, fight for resources before making a dash to the Wildgate – but beware, its opening time varies each round. Winning can happen in two ways: either by being the quickest to escape with the artifact or by outliving my fellow spacefarers.

In each game, you’ll need to handle cosmic tempests, flaming asteroids, asteroid belts, rival players, ground-based firefights with AI and other players, space battles, thrilling pursuits, and much more. What really sets it apart is the intricacy of every game mechanic.

Lower those protective shields to increase your speed significantly. A skilled pilot should know when it’s best to deactivate and activate the shields. The rocket booster I utilized can be attached to an adversary’s ship, allowing you to fire it as well, thereby altering their course and making them collide with an asteroid or deviate from their path to the gate. You could even aim them directly into a cosmic storm if there’s someone onboard to verify they don’t have a storm shield (and take it if they do). The slow-moving kinetic projectile we launched at the enemy ship to immobilize them could have been replaced by an adversary’s crewmember being shot out of space with their assault rifle, rendering them ineffective, had they not panicked. Every single encounter serves as a valuable lesson for future battles.

It’s truly amazing to see that even after a loss, you can observe matches from a detached perspective with free-roam camera mode. This allows you to soar through space effortlessly and witness breathtaking spaceship battles, gaining valuable strategies for future games or simply appreciating the spectacle. It’s a feature that every multiplayer game should consider incorporating.

The current problem with the game lies in how effortless it is for players to board. Introducing a delay on door opening could potentially alleviate this issue, as it would make it harder for bothersome teams to repeatedly board and spam grenades through doors. However, even with such a change, skilled teams can still overcome it using an electrical field upgrade or by rapidly pressing the button to repel boarders. It seems like failure to counter an enemy’s tactics is largely due to the player themselves, as there’s always a tool available for every situation. In essence, it’s your responsibility to effectively respond to the enemy’s strategies.

Currently, as I write this, the official Twitter account of Wildgate boasts a little over 5,000 followers, which is quite disappointing given that:

1. This game is one of the most innovative and thrilling multiplayer games in recent memory, offering a refreshing change from all the repetitive hero shooter games we’ve been dealing with.
2. At first glance, Wildgate might appear to be just another one of those games; however, it offers an entirely new kind of experience that we haven’t encountered before.
3. Gather three friends, pick a ship, and dive into the rift for an unparalleled online gaming experience at the moment.
4. With its post-launch plans, Wildgate has the potential to become even more engaging and exciting in the future.

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2025-07-29 16:18