In space, everyone can hear me scream. And shout. And laugh. I recently got a chance to play Wildgate, the upcoming PvPvE Extraction Shooter by Moonshot Games and Dreamhaven, during the Community Preview Playtest. Wildgate is an absolute blast, combining the aesthetics of a Saturday Morning Cartoon, the shared spaceship-tactics of Star Trek, and the tight competitive gameplay of an extraction shooter.
Wildgate keeps things simple. Five teams of four players, called Prospectors, are matched together. Each team has their own spaceship which must be manually piloted, as well as turrets, shields, probes, and a reactor that acts as the ship’s hit points.
The goal in each match is to locate a special artifact hidden somewhere in the limited, procedurally generated region of space, and escape with that artifact through the titular Wildgate portal.
Of course, every other team is trying to do the same thing.
Have Ship, Will Travel
The spaceship is the lifeblood of the team. Unlike Battle Royale games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends, a Prospector’s inevitable death leads to a quick respawn back at the ship. But if the ship is destroyed, it’s game over for the whole team. Thus, a match can end if only ship remains, whether they’ve even found the artifact or not.
The ship requires a pilot. Any player can jump into the chair and start moving it around using intuitive controls, within a limited (but immersive!) first-person view.
Wildgate’s spaceship’s handle more like a submersible, with space like an ocean, with a clear “top” and “bottom” of the three dimensional map. The ship can’t flip over or do a barrel roll, for example. Though one time a friend was piloting during an especially chaotic dogfight with an enemy ship while I was repelling boarders, and suddenly my whole world began to slide to one side due to the extreme turning!
Ship-to-ship battles are the highlights of Wildgate, creating exhilarating moments of tense shoot-outs, and adrenaline-fueled chaos. Breaking through enemy shields and damaging ships starts fires, cracks windows, and vents oxygen. Each Prospector can use their all-in-one multitool to put out fires and repair broken turrets and windows.
Not since the decade-plus-old indie game FTL did I find this much anxious joy from fixing spaceship problems!
At the same time, Prospectors are hopping on turrets to damage the enemy ship (or ships, as if often the case), using probes to provide a wider field of view, shooting enemy infiltrators, and sending their own teammates to board the enemy ship and sabotage their core and assassinate their pilot.
Ships come in several different styles and flavors, from nimble ships with faster turning, to behemoths with extra hit points. Annoyingly, the more interesting ships must be unlocked by playing matches, earning XP, and progressing along Adventure paths. The same goes for unlocking new weapons and gear, as well as different Prospectors.
Other players aren’t left twiddling their thumbs during space travel. They can hop on the many turrets to fire on enemies, use a probe terminal to launch a drone to scout the surrounding area, or simply hop off the ship to explore on their own.
Looters of the Galaxy
The space map is perfectly sized and filled with just the right amount of stuff to interact with, from tantalizing derelict ships to cavernous asteroids. Everything is relatively easy to reach by ship, while large enough that players need their ship to get around.
Each Point of Interest features a difficulty level that determines the challenge, length, and frequency of the enemies in the area, as well as the corresponding loot rewards after completion.
Loot includes upgraded turrets (scatter, quad-shot, railgun, etc), defensive upgrades (shield boosts, security alarms, fire suppression), and individual loot for Prospectors, such as jetpacks or sniper cannons. We saw the same loot over and over again, making loot less of an exciting find and more of a rote necessary upgrade in each match. A bit more variety would go a long way.
The first-person shooting is fine, with each Prospector able to bring two different weapons on their loadout, as well as choosing from several gear options, such as extra shields, or a deployable attack drone. Enemies include generic space pirates with guns to blobby green guys with guns, with the occasional worm monster that fires ice beams (more like that, please!).
The mini-dungeon crawling is part of the entire competitive experience. Each team decides which areas are worth looting and how many upgrades they want to collect before engaging other ships and chasing after the artifact.
Teams could decide to seek out the artifact first, risking a lengthy and challenging stop to grab a powerful prize. Wildgate cleverly compensates for this by unlocking its escape portal at a random interval, somewhere around 20-30 minutes. Once located, the artifact is always visible on the map, putting a literal target on any team that possesses it.
The Expendables
The Community Playtest included several different Prospectors, which were thankfully much easier to unlock than the ships. Each Prospector specializes in different areas of play with various bonuses— though it’s definitely not a hero shooter. The robot doesn’t require oxygen, for example, making them a perfect role to exploring locations outside the ship.
Morph was definitely the most popular Prospector in the Playtest. The short, owl-like creature has permanent invisibility while traveling, easily specializing in boarding enemy ships and being an utter nuisance.
Boarding ships is a delicate balance, due to the shockingly fast rewspawn timer (10 seconds!). Plus, the weird fact that the ship doors don’t actually lock. A skilled boarder can wreck havoc by taking out several crew mates, and sneak in to overload the core. An overloaded core ticks down hit points until destruction, though it’s not hard to stop it. However, if the crew is dealing with a pesky boarding party, they’re not manning turrets or putting out fires, leading to an effective cascade of failure.
Wildgate isn’t the kind of competitive multipayer game I usually enjoy, and I have very little experience with extraction shooters. But I loved my time in the Wildgate Preview Playtest. Moonshot Games has something special that rewards tight teamwork with a well-balanced, explosive, and joyful spaceship fantasy.
Wildgate will release later this year on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It’s rated T for Teen.
