Gideon’s Perspective
Wild Gate is a competitive multiplayer game that actually tries to be different. Considering the current homogeneous nature of the game industry, that automatically wins some points from me. The closest game to Wild Gate would be Sea of Thieves, but Wild Gate condenses a similar experience down into 15 to 40-minute match times.
You can find a video version of this review on YouTube.
You and three other players fly a spaceship around to collect loot with the ultimate goal of either escaping with the artifact or being the last crew standing. The entire concept splits Wild Gate into a variety of gameplay systems, from piloting the ship, manning its guns, and keeping it repaired, to raiding small PvE dungeons or even boarding enemy ships.
This blend of systems is both Wild Gates’ biggest strength and most glaring weakness, because these systems are definitely not created equally. Back when the game was in beta, you may have read a very positive preview I wrote about the game. However, playing the beta a handful of hours with a community that’s entirely new to the game is different than at release once people find their footing and metas emerge.
With many more hours into the game, I now have a much more critical view of Wild Gate. While I still think it’s a fun endeavor and that the developers deserve praise for bucking common trends, the game is going to need some substantial balance tweaks to keep me playing.
| Gideon’s Bias | Wild Gate information |
|---|---|
| Review Copy Used: No | Publisher: DreamHaven |
| Hours Played: 40+ | Type: Full Game |
| Reviewed On: Xbox Series X | Platforms: PC, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 |
| Fan of Genre: Yes | Genre: Multiplayer Shooter |
| Mode Played: N/A | Price: $29.99 |
The PvE
Wild Gate plays somewhat like a pseudo battle royal. You crew your ship around to get loot while also mining asteroids for fuel and ice. Loot tends to come in three flavors, supplies, such as ammo, guns to be added to your ship, and modules that give your ship a boon, such as making it immune to cosmic storms.
Obtaining that loot requires that you venture into various POIs that have PvE-style dungeons with simple puzzles, various objectives, and some enemies to fight.
The actual gunplay in Wild Gate is pretty simplistic, which makes the actual PVE combat feel somewhat basic and repetitive. That said, the goal is to clear these POIs quickly. You never know when you will be attacked by another crew, and while you’re wasting time, other crews are out looting too.
There are a few neat tricks to some of these dungeons. A teammate following you with a healing beam can really help you deal with Reach Beasts. Meanwhile, some objectives require fires to be put out or generators to be repaired, so sending in someone playing as Sal, the engineer, is more effective. The mini dungeons do a good job of shining the spotlight on different characters, but the AI-controlled enemies are ultimately dull to fight.
Most dungeons don’t take long, however, and once you clear them, you are given a room full of loot to teleport back to your ship. Just like in Sea of Thieves, the PvE exists to facilitate the PvP, however, I found the PvE objectives in Sea of Thieves to be much more compelling over a longer span of time.
The problem isn’t even variety, it’s just the rote nature of the gunplay. It’s a simple point-and-shoot. You can’t even crouch, and while you can bring a handful of gadgets, they really don’t do much to improve the PvE aspect of the game.
The PvP
Once you’re geared up, you’re ready for the real meat of Wild Gate, the ship-on-ship combat. Each ship has strengths and weaknesses, and two full crews working together to battle each other can be an incredible experience.
You have two pilots trying to outmaneuver each other while keeping their shields aimed at enemy gunfire, while simultaneously keeping their own guns facing the enemy so their teammates can use them. Gunners try to aim for gaps in the shielding while targeting enemy weapons, modules, and engines. Fires break out, broken modules need to be repaired, and someone has to remember to cool the ship with ice mid-battle.
Sometimes, a cheeky boarder will fly over and place a clamp jet on an enemy ship, sending them careening into an asteroid, or sneaking aboard to overload the reactor. It can become a beautiful symphony of chaos with plenty of strategy and second-to-second tactics making all the difference in a fight.
The problem is, battles like that rarely happen. The game is at its best when multiple ships are locked in combat, with the occasional boarder attempting something strategic.
However, the vast majority of engagements are decided by which crew boards and repeatedly wipes out the other in gunplay. You have very little warning that a boarder is coming, or even on your ship. I once again have to emphasize that the gunplay is very basic. The time to kill is also very low, so most gunplay shootouts are decided by who sees who first. The defender is unlikely to see the attacker because the ships only have a handful of windows, and they are likely busy manning the ship’s systems.
Once you’re being boarded hard, the only real counter is to board them back, but it’s nearly impossible when you’re on the back foot. So most fights are decided by which ship successfully boards the other first.
This brings down the experience for many reasons. First of all, it turns Wild Gate into an extremely basic arena shooter slap fight. It makes the ships largely not matter, and it invalidates your looting. Loot doesn’t help in crew-to-crew engagements. The best gun emplacements and modules in the world don’t make a lick of difference once someone is in your ship.
If you happen to catch a ship at a distance with good gun emplacement, all it takes is one sneaky boarder to come aboard, shoot you in the back, and then steal the gun from the ship within just a couple of seconds, because they can teleport back to their own ship with it in hand. Sure, you can go and try to steal it back, but the effort required to find a good gun compared to the ease of stealing it is not equal at all.
Boarding is interesting when it’s done in moderation. When someone attaches a clamp jet to a ship, or uses drill charges on their engines, or sneaks aboard to steal the artifact (which you can’t teleport with). But when boarding becomes the dominant focus, the game becomes a slapfight imitation of other games, but with much worse gunplay.
You might spend 20 minutes looting PvE dungeons for none of it to matter if your ship battle devolves into an arena shooter. I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if some crews forgo looting altogether, as they start with everything they need to board another ship.
I don’t see Wild Gate thriving while this is the case, boarding is going to have to be kneecapped severely for the game to remain fun. It’s a massive bummer, too, because the potential is there. The first few days after release were a ton of fun. But once players discovered just how strong boarding and wiping out the enemy crew was, the fun sank fast.
Verdict
Wild Gate already had an uphill climb, as being different these days often gets you snubbed. Wild Gate is also often best played with a premade group, as the coordination required to run a ship well is often lost with randoms, and getting together 4 people at the same time can be a big ask.
The prevalence of boarding that turns the game into a who-sees-who-first arena shooter threatens to clip the game’s wings before they can spread simply because it’s not fun, even if you win, because it completely eclipses the rest of Wild Gate’s systems.
I doubt many who bought Wild Gate were looking to play Call of Duty Lite. They likely expected epic space ship battles and cool clutch gameplay moments, and while that framework definitely exists, it’s currently unbalanced to a severe degree. I want to keep playing Wild Gate, but the more I play, the less I like it, and Moonshot Games will have to implement some drastic changes to keep me flying into the Reach.
