Whether it’s as part of the experience in games like Starfield and No Man’s Sky, or is a main component in something like Star Wars Squadrons, the beautiful galactic backdrops and chaotic dogfights of spaceship combat will always win me over. Imagine my glee, then, when I see an array of pilotable, boardable spaceships in the newly revealed FPS game Wildgate. While at its heart it’s a co-op shooter with some extraction shooter elements woven in as well, spaceship battles play a huge role. While the unveiling of Wildgate is enough to get excited about, I’ve got more good news for you: you’ll have a chance to try it for yourself very soon.
Revealed during the Dreamhaven showcase today, March 25, Wildgate looks to enter the already competitive arena of co-op FPS games. Despite being a PvPvE affair, it’s avoiding the word ‘extraction’ as much as it can, but there’s definitely some inspiration from games like Deep Rock Galactic here.
In Wildgate, you assemble a three-player squad of Prospectors, who are roaming the galaxy hunting for rare relics called Artifacts. Each Prospector has different skill sets and tools in their arsenal, which will come in handy for FPS combat, exploration, and making repairs to your ship (more on that in a moment). The overarching goal is to be the team that leaves the match through an exit portal (called a Wildgate) with the Artifact in hand. Alternatively, you can just be the last squad standing, so an aggressive approach can work here too.
With procedurally generated maps, the location of the Artifact will be different each game, and so too will some important spots where you can mine resources, salvage ship upgrades from wreckages, and find powerful weapons. There are two main resources that you’ll need to constantly keep an eye on and replenish, and they’re found in the form of floating asteroids – Fuel is used to power your ship so that you can navigate dogfights or make a swift getaway, and Ice is used to cool your ship’s reactor.
As your ship takes damage during battles, or from running into various environmental hazards, your crew may need to repair broken elements or put out fires with their tools. It’s important to keep your ship and its defenses intact because as well as just being shot out of the sky by enemy guns, you can be boarded, Sea of Thieves style. Not only will you have to then get into a gunfight with the enemy to get them off your decks, but you’ll also have to make sure they don’t sabotage your ship – overloading your reactor could result in a rather large explosion…
Wildgate will launch at some point in 2025, according to Dreamhaven. However, you may get the chance to play it earlier than that, as you can now sign up for its first public playtest which runs between Thursday, April 10 and Monday, April 14.
Until you can get your hands on Wildgate, here are some other fantastic co-op games and space games that you can play right away.
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