Actual Rift Review

[Pharazon]

Actual Rift Review

I know there are a ton of fanboy and hater posts floating around about RIFT. I know because when I was looking for a review they were all I could find. Since actual reviews seem to be in short supply I felt like I should take some time and give my impressions of the game since I feel I am an objective gamer. Not that it qualifies me as an authority on gaming, but I have played WoW on and off since launch, taking breaks for City of Heroes and Villains, Aion, and a few others. I didn't make the switch thinking those games would be "WoW Killers" or because I hate WoW, instead, I had done most everything possible in WoW (beaten the game so to speak) and wanted to play a new game much the same way I do when I complete a Xbox 360 game and unlock the majority of the achievements. I have not currently completed all that WoW has to offer but I am 6/12 in a 25man content guild and to be honest while I like the game overall and think it is still a solid game I need a bigger divergence from past content that what we have gotten. This is why I chose to play in the RIFT betas and below are my impressions.

Character Customization - While I could really care less if I can tune the shape of my characters face, size and rotation of their eyes I have always been a fan of having more options than just hair style and color and skin pigmentation. While in overall options RIFT has far more, I can see where some will care and others won't. The actual selection system is easy and does admittedly make you feel a bit more unique so overall a change of pace that I feel is a positive.

Base Class Selection - For those that are unaware you chose either Warrior, Cleric, Rogue or Mage for your base class and then in game you get access to Soul's (best thought of as a talent tree or spec) which further refines the class. Because of the Soul's you get access to later on the beginning player will most likely make the assumption that clerics are always heals/support and mages are always dps/debuffers. This is actually very far from true as clerics can be dps or tanks or really any role depending on the Soul's you take in game and the way you spend your points, the same goes for mages. I feel a small optional intro video would be handy so that people don't get 15-20 levels deep in a character and start over because they realize they would much rather spec into healing on a mage because the style is more inline with what they like. Other than that this is a forgettable step. The talent tree options on the other hand are very well designed and really will need a much more in depth description than I can give here. At the least though I like the ability to put in points at the top of the tree which will vary between stat increases and move buffs to maybe a new move, but regardless at the bottom of the tree moves are unlocked based on the number of points put into the tree above. So while I may put 4 points into getting 1% crit per point (not very exciting really) those 4 points may bring me to a 10 point total in that tree unlocking a new spell or move that really adds to my class. I will probably try and put together a better review of this if people want since it is fairly complex.

Graphics - Saying that the graphics are better than WoW, as many seem to be doing, isn't correct. They are different and more GPU intensive but you can't compare art styles to each other like you would fruit, so I'll just say RIFT has a more adult feel with more complex animations. Though to be fair to RIFT on the GPU front since WoW can pretty much run on a toaster, I was able to use a 3.5 year old machine with a $75 dollar graphics card to get it to run on medium settings. Some particle effects, shading and lighting need to tuned depending on your GPU to get it to run , but nothing complicated (just turn every thing to low and start moving stuff up until you hit your FPS threshold your happy with). However, on my main gaming rig I was very pleased with the games detail and overall look when set to Ultra.

Questing/PVE Content - The first weakness I found in the game was definitely in the starting zones. While I like the general idea of only having two starting areas so you can find your friends without having to be the same race, there is a lack of choice when it comes to quests in this area. From about level 1-5 you have a pretty set path you must take in which you will be guided through the basics of the game and pick your first soul. No matter what character you create these will be the same each time and aren't really optional (I guess you could grind past them but that seems less than fun). Once you get to the first major quest hub things get a bit better as you get introduced to rifts and get some gathering skills if you choose to pick them up. (I would pick them all up just for the extra cash until you can get the crafting professions in the next areas). Once you get to about level 15 though, you should have been to your first biggish city and you can start bouncing around quest hubs rather than letting them lead you from one to the other like your a baby. Doing this will increase the random chance of stumbling upon a rift which can break up questing pretty nicely while still providing solid XP and item rewards. Instances which you can get into at about level 15 are pretty much what you would expect and provide a pretty decent challenge while continuing to round out your introduction to the game. Because of the plethora of abilities available to characters in the game I would expect that as you continue to progress in the game monsters will have a similar repertoire which could add a very nice dynamic feel to encounters you run repeatedly. I kind of like the idea of a boss that has access to the same three souls a player would, and has the ability to have any one of those Souls active when you fight them rather than always being a "Warlock" you might find they have switched spec to a "Necromancer" on that particular run. I have yet to see this but the technical components already exist in game to accomplish this. Overall I got pretty much what I expected to from instances at this point.

Rifts - The namesake of the game. These are basically randomly spawning areas that produce waves of increasingly difficult mobs that typically end in a mini boss of sorts. People's participation is based on what they contribute to the closing of the rift so you can't just show up and afk in the rift area and get loot. However, if you do contribute you will be rewarded with planarite (a currency used for another aspect of the game "planar focuses" and gear) as well as other items and consumables that are useful or can be sold. Not only can these be self contained open world "encounters" but every so often a massive amount will open up with attacks being made against towns, camps, cities and unsuspecting players questing/grinding in their path. I was at a main city the first time I encountered this and got a message that the gate of the city was under attack. I popped open my map and saw at least 12 rifts that had popped up. I ran to the gates to find the guards fighting about 6-8 mobs. As the players started to arrive we fought off a wave. A few seconds later the next wave hit, and then another, and another. Then the "Boss" showed up. At one point there were about 20 of us plus guards versus about 30 mobs and the boss (some elite some trash adds). All in all it took about 20 minutes to defend and I got a substantial amount of rewards for my part. These encounters only get harder as the game progresses and I can see the potential for some very neat encounters when this happens in a contested area where you have to decide between working with the opposing faction to defeat the rift or fighting them off to "lay claim" to the rift for your side. I don't know what all plans they have currently for these rifts, but there is some huge potential in them.

PVP - I will be doing this in the beta coming up this weekend to an extent that will let me write about it in depth, since I didn't get to far into the Wargrounds etc. For now I would watch this report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FJNkvNuG3Q.

Crafting - Very similar to WoW but with the ability to add materials to recipes that can alter the outcome of stats etc. I don't have a ton of experience with this yet either, but I was also intrigued by the fact you can break down armor into materials similar to how enchanting works. (i.e. you salvage a robe and get some bolts of cloth and some grey materials to vendor) PVP and crafting are at the top of my next beta to do list.

Overall - I really liked RIFT and to be honest, I had no plans to buy and play it at launch going into the betas. After having played the game (while still playing WoW) I have decided that for me the new shinies the game offers are better than the new shinies that WoW has given us with Cataclysm. I'm not saying it's better and not saying it's going to hurt WoW, but because of the similarities it is a great alternative to WoW for those, like me, who want some change beyond what WoW has provided with this expansion. I feel that WoW is at a point where it is prepping its next MMO while trying to retain as much of its player base in the interim as it can. RIFT is not revolutionary but rather a game based on a proven structure that has been tweaked enough to be fresh and fun, though because of the customization level of characters and potential of things you could do with RIFTs there is still room for the game to start innovating as it grows rather than being innovative at the beginning when you have no player base to get feedback from.

For me its a fun factor thing. I have stopped having as much fun in WoW and found that I was having a lot of fun in RIFT. I chose to spend the money on what brings me the most fun for the buck. If you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them. I will be posting more about the game after the next beta when I have time to play around with the few things I didn't have that much time to work with.

[Kaneiac]

Good to hear. I think it's good that people are willing to give other games a chance (provided they aren't self-righteous and rubbing "wow killer omg" into our faces) as it promotes competition and branching.

My only complaint from the Beta events was that it seemed a little too familiar, but we'll find out.

[Endlaw]

This is a great review, and in all honesty i went through much the same personal decision making and pre-ordered after the last beta. I found myself for the first time in years not calculating the time to level, based on quest xp per hour, and yearning to hit 85 to grind instances / heroics again... or PVP that has become really lack luster for me these days. Maybe grinding the 2million honor over the last 3 xpacs has burned it out for me.

Either way, my experience in Rift caused a stirring of excitement as there were quite a few occasions i was playing the game, and didn't even notice the xp bar, or even give a crap that i was levelling. Yes its beta, and yes usually i don't really give it all teh same seriousness that a release would get when it comes to powering through content to see all that i can see pre-release but i couldn't believe the fun factor of rift hunting while questing.

In short the game is in its infancy, and the potential as the OP has described is far more enticing than grinding out more epics to only have them become obsolete in a few months, when the next tier becomes the norm. I like Wow, and i have had a great time in the game, but in truth have ground out from tier 0.5 to now starting t11 and have realized that besides tier farming what else do you do other than wait in a queue for a BG pop.

GG wow, thanks for all the years... and were it not for the people im addicted to inside the wow community and my guild, I would gladly ./quit and move on to a game though similar in many ways, has a diversity between the classes that is going to create such a dynamic among the players even PVP will be quite entertaining. People actually work together, team up and accomplish things mutually beneficial throughout the game right from lvl 5 on. Amazing.

[llDemonll]

Oh no you don't!

Sorry, it seems well written, but please use one of the already-existing posts