Just finished playing 32 hrs of Rift, and it is on par with cataclysm!

[Finalwish]

Graphics are fine, they need to invest in a better lighting system though (HDR) because everything looks so damn dull.

Felt just like wow to me so only got to 9 or so and had no urge to log in after that. Did like the class/talent system though, only thing that caught my eye. (rogue / darkblade,bombardier, bard.)

[LoLHellcy]

Have you seen wows graphics engine? lol

...Why do MMO's need these super awesome AION level graphics engines you guys always claim to want? Its apparent that the vast majority of the MMO Market couldn't care less about graphics, considering how awesome Runescape and WoW do compared to games like AION. Im not hating, i like good graphics, i just don't see why its an important bench mark for rating a game...

[PhailPally]

Can't wait until then become another MMO in the cyber graveyard.

[Ascius]

Graphics looks like shit in Rift and INB4 qq: I was in this beta phase. It's "true" style graphics and it goes out of date way, way faster than stylized graphics like in WoW. Secondly I have a pretty good set up and there are some serious fps spikes. Animations look out of control, one second it just stands other something happens and then it just stands again... Old WoW models are not great too, but animations are tied to what your character does. Also the story is not interesting, well don't know much about later than first 10 lvl's but starting zones suck...(yes tried both). Oh your a hero, chosen, ascended or whatever and... oh and btw there are 30+ of those running around you, but you are special, just like they are and I said same thing to them, so just run off to "random NPC name here". Only interesting thing I found was those 3 classes in one idea, but oh wait its +1crit, +1hit and so on, maybe some ability, but not that really useful. WoW went away from it and its great. Don't get me wrong, WoW has many problems but not as much as new game that need to be almost perfect to live.

[TheEverydayDre]

Graphics looks like shit in Rift and INB4 qq: I was in this beta phase. It's "true" style graphics and it goes out of date way, way faster than stylized graphics like in WoW. Secondly I have a pretty good set up and there are some serious fps spikes. Animations look out of control, one second it just stands other something happens and then it just stands again... Old WoW models are not great too, but animations are tied to what your character does. Also the story is not interesting, well don't know much about later than first 10 lvl's but starting zones suck...(yes tried both). Oh your a hero, chosen, ascended or whatever and... oh and btw there are 30+ of those running around you, but you are special, just like they are and I said same thing to them, so just run off to "random NPC name here". Only interesting thing I found was those 3 classes in one idea, but oh wait its +1crit, +1hit and so on, maybe some ability, but not that really useful. WoW went away from it and its great. Don't get me wrong, WoW has many problems but not as much as new game that need to be almost perfect to live.

I agree starting zone was terrible and left me like what the fuck is going on...

But after level 10 i was like this is the fucking shit.

If you didnt play past mmm lvl 18 you wouldnt know what the game is like

But most people quit wow after level 10... Seems to be the trend in most mmo's. Leave the starting area and gg.

[Chompie]

I'm not big on graphics so much as Art Direction and style and.. honestly apart from pretty lightning particle-effects and a few well-made buildings, the artsy-fartsiness-quotient isn't impressing me.
And that it's the same graphics engine that WAR had? That's really really worrying. That thing had awful performance.

I'll probably try it at some point whenever a free trial shows up, but.. The thing is, any MMO that prides itself on endgame content kind of has trouble picking up new players, cause... you know, you don't get to see endgame stuff for quite some time.
"Should I shell out 65+ bucks to find out if this new game is going to be fun? It is very similar to this game I already play, which is certainly very fun. You know, maybe I'll just stick with this one where I've already broken the Barrier To Fun Times and which I know is enjoyable"

[moaradin]

On par with Cataclysm.. does that mean it sucks?

=p

[Istherion]

About RIFT's engine, hope you guys realize that even Elders Scroll: Oblivion uses Gamebryo, or for instance Fallout 3 and NV, do these games look ugly to you?

Anyways, there's almost no original code left in the engine RIFT uses. They used Gamebryo to start out, but it's now being developed, updated and so on by them. Just sayin'.

[moaradin]

About RIFT's engine, hope you guys realize that even Elders Scroll: Oblivion uses Gamebryo, or for instance Fallout 3 and NV, do these games look ugly to you?

Anyways, there's almost no original code left in the engine RIFT uses. They used Gamebryo to start out, but it's now being developed, updated and so on by them. Just sayin'.

Looks great, buggy as hell.

[Istherion]

Looks great, buggy as hell.

I played the last beta event of RIFT, I had no problems at all. If you were refering to RIFT, that is.

[Grable]

Ill just leave this here, from mmorpg forums (http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cf...990286#3990286):

Rift is like playing the most sub par and generic mmorpg in existence and having a small twist to give the illusion its deep.

The illusion pays off with its class system.



Here's what you need to know:



Class System: It is not a real multi-class system. Very few people actually look at it and see what they did. There are really only 4 independent classes in the game. Each class has 8 skill trees (excluding the pvp tree, which isnt really a full on tree). These trees are called souls to help cover up the fact they are just skill trees. So where WoW has 10 classes and 3 trees per class.... Rift does something similar but changes it to 4 classes with 8 trees, though only 3 trees at any given build. In essence they are not much different.

Furthermore, Rift's skill trees are not really deep and or varied. Many skills in one tree will be nearly identical to another tree, just with a different name and perhaps different element attached to it.

In addition to that, 60% of the trees are DPS oriented. Most have dps, but 60% are more "high end" & "constant" dps oriented.

A developer posted this awhile back in the Beta forums. (NDA has been lifted) It shows the trees and their focus in case anyone wanted to protest my "60% claim".

So far the over all opinion on the forums is that the trees and classes are way too imbalanced at the moment. Right now theres no reason to not play a cleric who can dish out massive dps, heal, get a pet, tank and be a caster (both aoe, cc and direct damage). Cleric will be the most played class, playing anything else in a PvP and even PvE environment will be silly unless they make changes.



Rifts: Despite what some try to claim, Rifts are not random. Not in the sense you are thinking. They all have the same spawn points. This means Rifts will only appear at pre-set spawn points. Eventually you can start seeing where they will spawn before hand, and thus make your rounds. Invasions and NPC scouting parties are really just mobs spawned that run along a preset path. Thus you will know where they are going to go, in addition the map tells you where they will go. Kind of defeats the purpose. During rifts, players rush to "tag" as many mobs as possible in order to get the loot and points for the leader board, thus cheapening the effect of "working together."



Quests: Take the word "generic" to a whole new level. They absolutely suck. Even many f2p games have better quests. I had to argue with some numb nut over on the beta forums about this issue. He defended quests as being great because the "quest text box was interesting". He actually tried to call the generic text in the text box as being the quest game play. Quests are a constant Kill 10 wolves, and collect 10 mushrooms. There is very little scripting at all in the quest system, its as if they just copied and pasted the quests over and over and over and just changed the mob to kill or the item to pick up. PvE quests are just bad! To make matters worse, you dont even need the text box as the moment you "accept a quest" from a generic NPC standing in one spot with an little icon above their head, you get a large yellow circle on your map telling you exactly where to go and what to kill. Its a fairly brainless ordeal.



Crafting: So minimal and badly done, it makes WoW's crafting system look genius and deep. The general feedback on the beta forums is that crafting is dumb, boring, and essentially pointless at this point and time. Unless they redesign the entire process, I doubt it will be better later on.



Leveling: You spend more than 1/3 of the entire leveling process in one small linear zone. Yes, over 1/3! The max level is 55 and you finally leave the starter zone (not tutorial zone) at lvl 20. Each side will have their linear progression of zones after that. Defiant with the southern zones, Guardians with the northern zones, and the contested zones around Port Scion which is in the very middle.



Dungeons: Not nearly as well made as dungeons found in other games. They are mostly uninspired, pointlessly hard generic npcs. Very little is done in the way of scripting. Currently if you die on a generically placed boss after a tunnel filled with elite mobs just standing around, you can rez and come back to the boss and their damage taken will still be the same. There is no real penalty right now for dying in a dungeon.



Conclusion & Final Thoughts: After playing in all 3 beta events as well as being present at their E3 booth and seeing it first hand.... I find the game underwhelming, uninspired and really sloppy. Its as though they had a great concept but couldnt actually execute it in a manner that would really impress.

For starters they went with the GameBryo engine, which is just bad. It has the GameBryo visual feel to it as well, which is why its getting a lot of "warhammer" comparisons. They clearly didnt invest their time and money into designing a well rounded game. This means, crafting, PvE, Quests... everything not part of their "npc rifts" was just slopped together. It feels like they didnt even try to do a better job than the competition. This wouldnt surprise me since they are also developing another mmorpg at the same time. My hypothesis is that Rifts is just a means to get some early revenue while they work on something they probably care more about. The mmorpg in question is the SyFy channel mmo they have licensed.

Keep in mind Rifts are just Player Quests ala WAR, though without much of the well crafted scripted events. Tabula Rasa did a lot of the things Rifts do, and they came across as doing a better job at it. Games like Dark and Light had mobs who actually migrated and dwindled dynamically based on player involvement. So dynamic gameplay isnt all that "new", we are just waiting for someone to do a really good job at it.

The world is full of hostile mobs. You cannot take two steps without running into another generic mob that for some reason has a grudge against you. Get within its radius and it will make its sound fx and charge at you. This not only helps break what little immersion might be present, but really makes riding around on a mount a pain in the arse. Freemarch (defiant starter) is a lot more open and slightly better to navigate than say Silverwood (guardian starter). Cities really were a let down. They are a couple of huts with a few NPCs standing around them and perhaps one big building in the center. You will be disappointed in the size and scope of your faction city, as its more of a faction hut.

I believe Rift is trying to sell itself on being a next gen AAA title without actually adding next gen AAA content across the board. Their marketing department is running in over time really trying to sell the image of the game and hide its simplistic and below average design. Right now, this game wont be able to keep a large player base past the 3 and then 6th month mark. It will have its small niche of loyal fanatics but it will be hard pressed to do better than Aion much less WAR.

The good is that the dev team seems responsive and they come across as a very likable bunch. I just wish I could say the same for their product.

I actually loved what I saw at E3 and followed the game closely. This response is completely neutral, and comes from playing all 3 beta's extensively. Conclusions are neutral and fair. Just being honest.

My best advice is, dont hype yourself up over this game. Sadly, it is not worth it.

[moaradin]

I played the last beta event of RIFT, I had no problems at all. If you were refering to RIFT, that is.

Talking about the engine in general. RIFT isn't probably using all the features that oblivion and fallout uses obviously. I haven't played rift, all I know is that it has the anime style character design that I oh so hate.

[Gat]

Any idea how long the beta lasts, as I know the release is March 1st. I'm getting a new rig within the next 2 weeks and was wondering if invitations/opt ins would still be available then. Honestly don't feel like paying an initial fee of 50 dollars and a subscription fee just to "try" the game out. Hopefully at the very least it has a trial.

[Lilscrappy]

It doesn't feel like Aion at all lol, feels like a better WAR, I loved the beta. Took a break from WoW, playing RIFT for a few months, I'm just too sick of WoW.

[Amsden]

sad to say it but i don't see the community changing due to the fact it's the same people moving around. And as has already been said the online gaming community has just been getting worse and worse, the mid 2000's are gone and so is that nicer attitude people used to have online it seems.

[Ezzme]

This game did not impress me at all, it's like a unpolished WoW IMO. What has impressed me is TERA and GW2.

[Cyrant]

sad to say it but i don't see the community changing due to the fact it's the same people moving around. And as has already been said the online gaming community has just been getting worse and worse, the mid 2000's are gone and so is that nicer attitude people used to have online it seems.

It very much just might be my experience but I feel like in some cases online communities have not changed. Early 2000's I was playing Counter Strike and TFC (and, ahem, RSC) which all had just awful communities.

This game did not impress me at all, it's like a unpolished WoW IMO. What has impressed me is TERA and GW2.

:thumbsup:

[Yseraboy]

Rifts: Despite what some try to claim, Rifts are not random. Not in the sense you are thinking. They all have the same spawn points. This means Rifts will only appear at pre-set spawn points. Eventually you can start seeing where they will spawn before hand, and thus make your rounds. Invasions and NPC scouting parties are really just mobs spawned that run along a preset path. Thus you will know where they are going to go, in addition the map tells you where they will go. Kind of defeats the purpose. During rifts, players rush to "tag" as many mobs as possible in order to get the loot and points for the leader board, thus cheapening the effect of "working together."

Makes me think of forts in Aion - and how they become "vulnerable" at certain times, and chat is filled with calls to join groups & alliances.

Of course with Aion they try to provide some bonuses to whoever takes the fort, and penalties for whoever loses them... whats the downside to not defeating a Rift?

Does it just despawn after awhile?

---------- Post added 2011-01-12 at 01:01 AM ----------

The real game breaker is going to be endgame content. Many, many MMOs pretty much focus completely on PvP when it comes to endgame content, and while there's nothing wrong with PvP, when it's the only option given to you, it can be a problem. I've also seen a lot of MMOs that are awesome at first, but content just starts to vanish as you get into higher levels.

I just started playing Aion, after the insanely-great sale Steam had over the holidays - so I only had to pay $10usd to get it. :P

I've only played long enough to ding 20 on my "main", but I did notice the UI has a button that will show you the individual and legion [guild] standings for your faction: kills, Abyss points, etc - and the interesting thing is it also shows change in standings for the last week [at least I think its for the week, anyway]...

Point being: the standings in the top 20 or so hadn't changed when I looked at it. So either the top % are so dominant they can't be challenged, or there is no "new blood" to make the attempt to challenge them.

I myself, as a noob to Aion, can't imagine the time it would take to aquire the gear and experience I would need to make it onto that ranked list - especially with the "veterans rewards" the game gives just for the number of months you've maintained an account.

Kinda like trying to get into Eve Online and finding out just how much of an advantage experienced players have over noobs - due to the resources they have accumulated.