PREVIEW – Michel Ancel has thrown down his Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil past, as he formed a brand new team, followed by the creation of a brand new IP. So far, we have seen this only twice, but the natural evolution of this project is visible on the game itself. However, the way too many open doors make us question the success of Wild…

So the first time, Wild was introduced to the crowd during 2014’s Gamescom. This was when Ancel’s new project was unveiled, and it was accompanied by the first trailer as well. I’ll link this below because you should check out the differences between the 2014 and the 2015 builds.

Back then, the game was labeled as an online survival-adventure title. There were two major points present in this version already: the dynamically changing environment and the animals themselves. These form the skeleton of Wild – according to Ancel, one spot will never be the same again if we end up revisiting it – something might always change. And the animals, well, they got a major role!

Learn, learn, learn

While we will have the chance to mount a huge bear to get through the field much faster (not to mention our buddy’s use as a deadly weapon), but we have to get to this point first. We have to learn how they behave, and with this in mind, the originally dangerous animals can work in our favour. And then, we saw the bear being called in, which ended up clawing some enemies around in the tribe, which was followed by a huge roar. This looked extremely impressive.

Shaman

In Wild, we will get to control a shaman, but we don’t really know what our goal is yet. In the Paris Game Week presentation, an antidote was it – we got to the boss (?), and then blam, the demo ended suddenly. What we can point out though is the complete absence of a HUD. There is nothing written out. Wild doesn’t seem to even give you any hints on what to do and where to go. Whoever grabs the DualShock 4 will have to be out on his or her own.

This applies to the animals as well: we have no limitations on what to do here either. Want to attack with lions? Do it. Crows? Sure. It looks like the surroundings and their natural animals have to be considered and then ruled upon, so to speak… and to survive. Will we build a „base”? If so, where? Can we get rid of the predators that can kill us overnight? When do we rest?

Emotions

Wild’s plan is to get players bond with their team members, or animals in this occassion. We will also be able to call for certain gods at some altars. In the PGW demo, we saw this happening at the end with the snake and its goddess for that antidote.

Still, we have questions: during Paris Game Week, it was never mentioned whether it will be an online game or not? What are the limitations? Will there be a singleplayer story? How will the audiovisuals fare: will it be 900p/30 fps or maybe more? While there is a ton of creativity and potencial here, as seen with No Man’s Sky, I kinda lack something extra to make it complete. Here’s the 2015 video as closure:

-V-

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Publisher: SCEA

Publisher: Wild Sheep Studio

Stílus: Adventure

Relase date: N/A