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2PG reviews Rift, a MMORPG by Trion currently in Beta.

Last updated on October 23, 2018

Things to keep in mind while reading this review:
This review was written during the second closed Beta Event right before the NDA was lifted. Changes have been made to the “soul tree,” system to tweak points wise and I’ve tried to update sections where I could. Remember however, this is my personal impressions of a game in beta.

Rift: What is it?

Rift is a Fantasy MMORPG (Massively Multi player Online Role Playing Game) set in a land called Telara. Telara is a place of gods, goddess’, rebirth of the soul, Guardians and Defiants. Something happened to tear the peaceful barriers between Telara and other planets however, causing places on the planet to become weak and tear. In this places, rifts appear, allowed denizens from other far off places to flood Telara and cause destruction and chaos.

It is your duty as a reborn soul of a great hero to protect Telara, defend the citizens and last great cities from these strange creatures pouring out of rifts; as well as defend them from the opposing faction.

Combat

Let’s start off with the usual: combat.

Combat itself is actually generic. I’m not sure what’s going on with a lot of other sites giving Rift raving reviews in this area, because in all honesty this is one place that they haven’t done anything new. If you’ve played any MMO in the last eight years, Rift’s combat style won’t be a steep learning curve for anyone. Essentially, you’ll be granted skills as you pour points into your Soultree’s (skill trees) and as you level up you’ll also visit your trainer to purchase level appropriate damage upgrades to these skills. Drag your attacks to the action bar and you can choose to hit the keys they are assigned too or click them. Target an enemy, hit keys or click on them if you

prefer: rinse and repeat until your enemy is dead. Gear that gives you bonus to your class specific stats will help you.

Sanc
Sanctum, the home city of the Guardians

For the Beta 2 event I chose a Cleric/Sentinel, which is basically pure big heals and a little holy damage over time. Later on I was given the choice to pick a second healing subclass and I went with Warden, which is mainly heal over time. Beta 2 didn’t hand out enough points, in my opinion, to make it worth while to divy them up between Sentinel and Warden, so I chose to pour my points into Sent. Beta 3 even, the Devs changed the point system a littl

e bit. We were given more points per level, however we could only spend a certain amount in any one given tree per level, meaning there was always a point or two available to split into a secondary Soultree, making multi-classing more feasible.

Even so, one thing carried through out Event 2 and 3: monotonous button mashing. While I am not surprised or even too bothered by it, I am a little disappointed given how all of Rift’s videos seem to be trying to tout itself as a ground breaking game when there really isn’t anything amazingly new in it. It IS a good game, yes. But the Developers really should have steered themselves away from calling it NEW and INNOVATIVE and NEVER SEEN BEFORE when trying to describe Rift. I went in blind to the beta expecting combat to have at least something unusual to make it stand out from others. D&DO had you clicking the mouse for every sword stroke, Aion had characters who could fly, Age of Conan had special finishing moves that beheaded people and blood on the screen. Rift has….everything we’ve already seen before.

Did that make combat lame? Not at all. It just wasn’t something I could possibly say stood out from any other of the many MMORPG’s I’ve played so far. Find enemy. Press bewton. Collect lewts.

Enemy Spawns and Rifts

Rift character, with, well--rift in background.
Jahanya, my beta Defiant with an open Rift in background.

The one thing they DESPERATELY have to work on during closed beta is spawn rates. They are nutty at the moment. You can clear a spawn and have two repop in place well before you’re half way finished with one. Spawns in some areas are so tightly packed and return so quickly that finishing quests in some areas just isn’t a good idea currently. This also made exploration really difficult.

Rifts in Telara are places where the veils between all the different worlds and planes have become thin, and the various other creatures, magics and invaders try and use these rifts to invade as well as attack Telarans. Rifts, or their beginnings can be spotted on the player map or indicated on the mini map. The kinds of Rifts and creatures I encountered in Beta were: Earth, Water, Fire, Death. I’m sure there were more, but these are what I remember and come to me off the top of my head. Rifts are the defining factor that makes Rift, the game, stand out. They’re everywhere at any given time and they WILL attack towns and villages you and other people need to finish quests. The land around a rift is affected strongly by what plane or what creature comes from within it. Earth Rifts bring grasses to spread across the land, Fire brings well, burning and FIRE as well as hot deadly lava, death darkens and kills the land it touches.

As a reborn heroic soul in Telaran, you will also be given the ability to open a Rift should you be the first to encounter a tear. By participating in killing creatures from a Rift and successful closing it, you ARE rewarded various things, such as stones, collectibles and even in some cases–rare and epic gear. The catch is that it depends entirely on how much damage/healing you do, if I remember correctly. Exactly how the game factors this I never got into nor spent too much time getting into.

I really enjoyed the Rifts! I think the one thing that made them something awesome for me, and the strongest part of the game that stuck out in my mind was the fact it drew so many players together at any given time. The one annoyance I am not sure I like is how many times a rift can open on a single town–if you’re trying to craft or turn in quests during a rift invasion, during beta this could get frustrating due to frequency. I’m hoping during release these will be timed better.

Graphics

During the Beta Event 2 screen tearing was a constant and the seam which fit zones together (I don’t know the technical terms) the seam where zones fit together and the anti aliasing doesn’t seem to work completely yet.

Those aside? The game environments are gorgeous. Lush forests, stately and elegant buildings, quaint villages, misty bogs and sparkling oceans–it’s on par and a little bit shinier than Lord of the Rings. Character model textures and details are very good as well. I found myself enjoying the scenery a lot, as is my habit when I’m in a gorgeous game. I like the looks of everything so far honestly, graphic wise and can’t wait to see what the game will look like when closer to release.

Since this IS a newer game, you will need a semi-decent rig to run it. Something that is older than four years old will probably not be able to run it with any kind of high end detail. If your drivers are out of date, the game will notify you of this and remind you to update them.

Classes

There are only four main classes in Rift. Cleric, mage, warrior and rogue. These archetypes split into several “souls.” These “Souls” are generally your subclasses.

Warrior:

    Champion
    Rever
    Paladin
    Warlord
    Paragon
    Riftlblade

Cleric:

    Purifier
    Inquisitor
    Sentinel
    Jusicar
    Shaman
    Warden

Rogue:

    Nightblade
    Ranger
    Blade dancer
    Assassin
    Riftstalker
    Marksmen

Mage:

    Elementalist
    Warlock
    Pyromancer
    Storm Caller
    Archon
    Necromancer

Once you pick your archetype however, you can pick up two additional “souls” within your archetype. Souls in Rift are a nifty way to re-name sub-classes, or talent trees within your archetype. To give you an example to hopefully clarify: I chose the archetype cleric. But for my “souls,” I picked Sentinel and Warden. Choosing your “souls,” open up “soul trees.” If you’re familiar with WoW or any other game that uses the talent-tree for specs, this is pretty much the same thing.

At its core, the “souls” isn’t anything too new we seasoned MMORPG’ers haven’t seen before, either. But Rift does bring its own element into the talent tree/soul tree aspect in that right from the get-go within the first 1-10 levels you’re offered two talent trees to play with. You can choose to split your points between two classes and dual class, or you can choose to pour all your points in one or the other, paying a fee to your trainer when you can afford it to switch between these roles at any time.

If you thought having two soul trees to play with with two different classes immediately is a lot of fun, there’s a third “soul” spot available for later and then apparently even a forth. This third spot purportedly won’t be restricted by your class. If I remember correctly, it means, for example that I as a cleric with two healing trees could slap a warrior sub-class into the third soul if I like. Or rogue. Or mage or anything I’d like, making the talent tree aspect of Rift something I do feel is truly diverse.

If that’s not enough, there are 2 parts to each soul tree (talent tree) as well. You have the upper ‘branches,’ to which you pour your points into it. These talents can either grant you new spells and abilities, or increase the damage/effectiveness of abilities you already have. Below the branches are the soul trees “roots.” These are ‘free’ talents and abilities that you are granted, no point cost, just by pouring points into the upper branches of your chosen soul tree.

Since this was a Beta event, we were limited to level 20. Rumor has it that the official level cap for the game at release will be 50 and I am sure that means there will be plenty of talents.

Anthy
Anthracite, my Guardian Dwarf Rogue/ranger

Character customization

Another personal big disappointment on my end was the lack of ability to make my character look different.

In the character creation screen, you have one face. You have a slider that will make that one face thinner, thicker, or give your characters face different definitions–but no matter where you move it, it is still only one face for that chosen race and sex. You can choose to up tilt or down tilt your nose, widen mouth, change eye color, change hair color, change eye tilt up or down, change eyebrow shape, facial hair if male, face markings, face marking color, height and hair style but the choices there are limited and I find myself in game staring at 239238293829382392 other carbon copies of my own character. The only difference I can see is that I appear to be the only elf so far to choose bright purple hair. Go figure.

This doesn’t mean the characters aren’t pretty (and I’ll have some screen shots below for you to check out ). They are actually very well done and remind me of a smattering of Lineage, Final Fantasy and Aion. Character female models aren’t going to poke you in the eye with MASSIVE BOOB WEAPONS and can range between cute looking, serious, formidable and pretty fierce. Males look manly (even the male elves) and the detail as well as textures on clothing/armor are fantastic. It’s just that…There are fifty million characters out there that look just like you, generally will have the same armor too. That’s kind of depressing but I have simply come to the conclusion that this is one area most MMORPG game developers choose to overlook in order to focus their resources elsewhere.

Game Play – Questing, Collections & Crafting

Questing
Questing in Rift isn’t anything we seasoned MMORPGer’s haven’t seen before, either: Go here. Kill 10 of these, return to me when you are done and Go here, Kill this Named, return to me for a reward when you are done. I don’t really mind this type of question because the alternative, straight out grinding would drive me to drinking. (And is the sole reason why I dropped Aion like a hot potato.) Yet, masking the grind with endless Kill this many whatsits and return to me can become as mind numbing and monotonous as the outright grind.

Still, making it to level 13 on my cleric– in spite of the cookie-cutter questing system–was moderately fun. Early levels won’t feel like a grind fest as they come quick and easy in the 1-20 phase. Of course, doing quests in one town will often lead you on the trail to the next town, the next set of generally level appropriate quests and so on and so forth. What I found the most interesting truthfully was the amount of Lore given by each quest giver. Rift has some how perfected the talent of making reading Lore given with quests quick and easy as well as interesting.

Again, Questing in Rift is pretty much cut and dry. If you’ve played any MMORPG in the last ten years, Rift won’t throw anything at you to hurt your brain in this area.

Collections
Hello my fellow Ever Quest II players. This for you won’t be strange at all. In Rift, there are various bits, baubles, books and other things cluttered about the ground all over and these are called collectibles. Just like in EQII, you can discover a collectible by noticing a very bright white shimmering dot on the ground. Picking it up will reveal either a book, trinket, or piece of history that you can click-add to a collection. Collections when finished can be turned into a Collection vendor, granting you EXP and small rewards. So far the rewards outside of EXP have been potions and stat increase scrolls, but I assume I have handed in newb collector quests so get newb like rewards.

Crafting
Gather supplies. Make mats. Make item. Congrats, you’re done.

No. Serious. That’s all there is to it. If you’ve crafted in World of Warcraft you’ve crafted in Rift. You run our and gather things that match up whatever crafting class you’re after, pick them up off the ground, fashion them into the mats (materials) needed to craft and then open the crafting panel, click on what you want, mark how many you want aaaaaaaaand….Sit back and do nothing until done, reaping in the rewards of earning more xp to learn more recipes to go back and stand around a crafting area for another six hours. Do I sound a little bitter about crafting? Maybe. I love crafting. I do and I think it’s one aspect of a game that tends to get neglected so much. Rift’s crafting is terribly, horribly neglected and I am sad to see it that way.

On the flip side, you can choose 3 professions in gathering/crafting. Once those three are taken, you have to unlearn one to change. I did choose instead to take up all of the gathering professions–which is nice for a change–and skipped out on doing any crafting past the basic smelting tin ore into tin bars, for example.

Not much else to report on this front. Perhaps in the future they’ll make crafting a bit more interesting and worth while.

Jah
Jahnya, my Cleric/Sentinal elven Guardian

PVP

I chose a PVE-RP server out of choice, but noticed there was a PVP faction rewards NPC area, a hand in reward that teleports you to the other sides starting area, and a PVP NPC who could transport you into Solo or group PVP situations. Alas, those aren’t implemented nor ready yet and could not test them. And because I generally have little to no interest in PVP I didn’t even try this area of the game out–sorry PVP enthusiasts.

Summary and Overall impression?

Would Mel recommend this game?
As it stands? With all of its glitches and weak points and in the middle of beginning beta? If you have nothing better to play?

Yes.

And I’ll tell you why I say yes: MMORPG gamers are bored as hell. If you listen to the mass of us, zombie shuffling to our computers day after to say to get our MMORPG fix, you’ll hear us mumbling the same things over and over again. “Woooorllld ooooof Warrrrcrrraaaft,” or insert some other game that has been going on for years and people return to it because frankly there’s NOTHING NEW TO PLAY OUT THERE. Until Star Wars: The Old Republic comes out (or anything that isn’t World of Warcraft) gamers are having to go back to the same old game, over and over again to get their fix while the majority of companies pump out cookie-cutter MMORPG’s in a desperate bid to cash in on WoW’s success.

A little change of scenery in the midst of boredom is good. Rift is definitely a change in scenery and I believe the fact it’s something different is half the reason Rift’s getting the glowing reviews and warm reception it is. If Rift can keep up the questing, improve crafting, smooth the graphic glitches and not follow in the footsteps of several games that failed horrifically–I can see Rift becoming a contender.

Do I think Rift will become a game that will stand the test of time? As the game stands right now? No. Rift is good, don’t get me wrong. I like the game and, should miracles come to pass and it’s released before SW:tOR and I have $50 I want to shoot into the wind? I’ll probably get a copy of it. But there’s nothing that Rift offers that Warhammer, WoW, Aion, Tabula Rasa and several other games haven’t already offered us. It’s everything we liked about those games repackaged in a new, shiny world.

Rift is undeniably fun for a non-serious, casual gamer. If you’re a hardcore gamer that demands a lot from your game to entertain you, Rift probably isn’t for you.

If your bored as hell however and have money to waste, when it comes out I’d recommend giving it a try.

Published inGames

33 Comments

  1. Cal Cal

    I’m tireing of WoW, Looking forward to Diablo 3, and Titan (if it ever comes out) but want something to do. Is Rift worth playing if I have WoW or is it just another remake of the same game, with new graphics and some specs. In the past WoW raiding has been a blast everthing has been fun and exciting and somehow, I come back to my computer everyday excited to sit at my computer progresing my character. I have been playing for 1.5 years and seem to just latly be boring from the game.

    I guess what I’m trying to ask is, will rift have good end-game material, and is PvP any good in this game? Or,is it a re-make of WoW that may not live up to WoW’s end-game material?

  2. Shogun Shogun

    It is a good game for a beginner, the Rifts are at times way too frequent, so much that it ruins the grind. So far the only place I have found for an Auction House is in Sanctum, so it requires you to constantly have to go there to post drops you get, gets old really fast, or you create a second character to mail drops to, again gets old really fast.

    Has some really nice graphics, but most of the game is played in a ‘dark’ setting, limited character creation, limited crafting.

  3. Its a pretty nice game so far, good graphics, good game play. I like the sudden rifts in between, the invasions and all. My Cleric seems to be doing good as a healing character. This game is not a wow killer obviously but its not bad either!

    • @ Supersonic,

      Come say hi to me on Faeblight sometime, I’m a level 27 Chloromancer/Necromancer/Archon named Jahnya. You will note I have not edited nor changed anything. Why? Because the review still stands and my feelings have not changed at all. While I am happy to have some random stranger from the internets show up and call something I wrote worthless, I am also happy to report that your assumption that I have not been in game, nor playing it, is incorrect.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  4. Now that the game is out what do you guys think? I’m leveling a priest right now in WoW but have thought quite a few times to quit and try out rift. WoW is just a grandfather now. Let me know. Thanks

    • @ John,

      I think that it is fun. It’s something to do and great to do it if you have friends to group with and tool around the game and explore it. The graphics are still gorgeous and the Rifting is fun. Sadly, I think that the game is still sorely lacking in several key areas: Rift contribution measurement seems lacking. No guild banks. (Which I admit may be small for some, but for all the guilds running around there = major.) Some spells still do not work properly. There are, unfortunately, several people who have already reached 50 and while the pace of the game is just fine for me, I worry that there won’t be enough endgame this early into the game for people to stick around.

      Spawn rates and spawn spacing is still literally hell. In some places, you can kill a spawn and before they die, another has spawned directly on the same place. Aggro ranges don’t seem to make any sense yet and a lot of the spawns are so tightly knit together that it makes a green or gray conned quest nearly impossible to finish for certain classes that aren’t hearty.

      In short: Rift is fun and if you really do have $50 to spend on it, go ahead. But in all honesty,

  5. Jack Jack

    Hey! Found out that the original UO is still out there! FDiurst one the wife and I ever played back in late 90s. May even try it again!

  6. Neff Neff

    Unlike all MMORPG’s out there today my heart will forever lye with Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst.. It was one of the very first of its time and succeeded on so many different levels of innovation and excitement. I don’t feel like any game will ever bring back that feeling in this generation because every large company is afraid to make that leap in apprehension of losing so much $$$. Even square enix can’t come out with anything new that blows eveyrone away which has been nearly their trademark.. They’ll slowly fade away until someone steps up. If only game creators Truely, Truely listened to their community with open ears.

  7. Boozard Boozard

    well i don’t think i was expecting rift to be radically different, i guess. but it’s somewhat deflating to hear that, outside of the rifts, pretty much everything is the same. also the invasions or rift ideas, although sounds cool, looks like something WoW could easily do in some form in a patch or so. truthfully, i’m borderline bored with WoW but after 3 years of playing i’m too vested to change to rifts if these are the only innovations i’m going to see.

    does anyone have any opinion about the “epicness” of the game? that feeling of actually being part of something grand and the awe of exploring the world. over 3 years WoW has lost that feel for me. might consider playing rifts if it could bring something like that back to the table.

    • @Boozard,

      Mechanically it isn’t anything too new, but I will admit that the way the game is put together, plus the rifts themselves make it a little different. Just different enough to catch the attention of those currently board with what’s being offered on the plate out there.

      As for the Epicness, maybe I’m different but between the blur of quests, grouping, Rifts and such–I find myself feeling like an errand boy (but I think that’s something all games do. Not generally on purpose, just the way the quests work out.) The thing is, I can only give my personal impression of the game. I can’t honestly say how someone else would enjoy Rift or not.

  8. Xuvial Xuvial

    I find the character animations extremely lacking, especially the melee animations.

    • @Xuvial,

      They are. It is. You are very correct. This is the one thing about MMORPG’s that sticks in my craw the most. Years and years and years of MMORPG players complaining about the lack of character customization–and developers don’t listen.

  9. Greg Greg

    I bought the head start collectors ( I’m such a sucker 4 the
    collectors) edition. Well it started ok I got a cleric going and it looks good so far. The graphics I will reserve judgement on for a bit but it runs very smooth on a GTX 285. I only got to lvl 2 and had to leave.
    I came back later in the afternoon and for the last several hours I get a “1016 error can’t conect to the server to update at this time try again in a few minutes”.
    Teething pain can happen on these huge mmo’s. There is a lot of moaning on the forums which helps nothing.
    The soul system does look very interesting I agree.
    I hope I can get back on tomorrow

    • @ Greg,

      I have that as well, and agreed, first day/week/month and sometimes even year = growing pains. I hope your experience so far is excellent. If you’re ever on Faeblight say hi to Jahnya!

  10. Tomas Tomas

    Personally i tried Rift in the beta, and i thought it was a fun game. However i did find a few problems with the game. First, the rifts spawn very quickly, which means that after people start getting higher levels, the low level areas will become flooded with Rifts, and leveling a low level chartacter after the initial waves will be tricky. While the graphics are really nice, i found some of the mob movement rather unnatural and simply weird. The soul system i did love. i think the variability in “specs” is incredible, you can spec characters in a variety of ways and have a huge pool of spells to choose from. I would not say it is better than WoW, but if you are tired of WoW, Rift might be worth giving a try.

    • @ Tomas,

      I beleive I read somewhere that the amount of Rifts in a zone that spawn now depends on the amount of players in that zone. So perhaps this won’t actually become an issue?

      I agree with the variety in specs, there are SO MANY ways to make your character unique in the field of melee/magic/dps it is insane.

  11. Jack Jack

    I just finished a day of Open Beta – the last day. Levekled to 12 in about 6 hours. Warrior.

    Your comments are right on the money EXCEPT that I found the Rift coimbat to be one huge cluster *. Hordes of people swarming all over the place, gaggles of NPCs. . . theer has to be a better way!

    Also found NPC spawning to be too much like early EQ; rapid and thick.

    Will I buy? Not sure. I’d first like to see some feedback from the devs as to what has been corrected.

  12. Greg Greg

    ” (I really, really, really want to play Star Wars. xD)” I think I will wait as well. However when they release Rift it may be hard to not hit that download button 🙂

  13. Mike Mike

    Nice review. Having just finished beta 5 I can honestly say the game is nice. Great graphics. Fun… the rifts make for instant raids.

    However, alot of it feels like WoW rebranded with slick new graphics and a nice customizable interface. Yea the souls are cool, but I can’t help but thing end game with be cookie cutter builds.

    • Mike! Thanks for the comment and welcome to 2PG.

      I can’t help but agree with you on this. I played beta 5 as well and have been lucking so far to be invited to each even since 2. Its not a bad game, but it’s still nothing new we haven’t seen before. The rifts remind me distinctly of Tabula Rasa’s ‘random’ alien invasions spawning, the interface is definitely WoW, and I worry about what there is to do for end game as well. I don’t honestly know if it’ll be worth the $50-$60 bucks to shell out before Star Wars. (I really, really, really want to play Star Wars. xD)

  14. Never heard of this game Rift before but the sound of “Telara is a place of gods, goddess’, rebirth of the soul, Guardians and Defiants. Something happened to tear the peaceful barriers between Telara and other planets however, causing places on the planet to become weak and tear.” are so tempting…This game somehow remind me a bit of Avatar 😛

    • Heya there fellow nerd, Hail and welcome to our phatblog!

      Rift is definitely shiny and well made, I will give it that. If you can, try to get into the last few beta events to give it a whirl. It is at best, a pretty and mildly entertaining MMORPG that, if it’s your playing style for a game will keep you occupied for a bit.

  15. Greg Greg

    Sounds great. I really like your site I’ll be checking in from time to time.

  16. Heya Greg, no I don’t know anyone else currently in Rift beta. I know some of my buddies from WoW got into it last event, but I never caught them online due to difference of play times. I play primarily during the day, and they are night or evening.

    I chose a PVE RP designated server–the name eludes me at the moment! When I remember it I’ll try and add it here. You can catch me there on either my 21 cleric/sent/warden/druid named Janhya, guardian side and a mage/elementalist Jahannya on the defiant.

    The hubby and I haven’t made up our minds if we’re going to fork over the extra $ for the headstart by preordering or just order.

  17. Greg Greg

    My pleasure Melissa I always enjoy talking about and debating the computer game world and mmos in particular.
    If you don’t have anyone yet or are looking for people to run with when Rift launches I’d really like the opportunity. It’s always more fun then starting alone :). I’m thinking about buying in for the Beta do you have a group already signed up for the next event?
    I believe it is on the 25 of this month.

  18. Man, Greg! I feel you there so much about the getting left behind!

    I have days, weeks and sometimes months where I have to leave a game for whatever reason. When I come back, there’s getting to know everything all over again AND dealing with the fact I’m usually so far out of the loop I can’t play with the same people I used to.

    Although as the years have passed, I haven’t minded being on my own more in an MMORPG, as odd as that sounds.

    I do enjoy crafting, foraging, exploring and soloing a lot more as I’ve gotten older–which is amusing to try and explain to people why I still love an MMORPG. I love watching the text go by and having a channel or guild channel that I can shoot the shiznit with while I play, and in the off chance I DO want to group and raid I can at any time. That’s something PC or first person shooters just can’t offer.

    And hey? Thanks for the comments & conversation, they’re really appreciated!

  19. Greg Greg

    I agree about AoC and your assesment of the game the graphics were stunning and the raids reached a whole new level of complexity, of which I think came at a cost.
    It’s possible I may have continued to play but I learned something with AoC and mmo’s in general to date (I have over a decade invested in this genre). My wife and I had some health issues recently and fortunately they have been relieved for the most part. However this meant game time fell off dramatically( my wife unfortunately has no interest in gaming let alone mmo’s)and I found myself way behind when I returned. This left me playing catch up,something that can be hard to do in mmo’s which are such a time sink to begin with as we all know. I had played with a very tight group, the best bunch I have played with in any mmo to date. Even though I had 2 lvl 50 toons and several well advanced characters I was still out of the loop as it were.I was welcomed back with much enthusiasm but sometimes it is hard when you miss so much of the day to day that goes on with hard core gamers.Especially mmo’s where one really needs to be a part of the details that have gone on to truly participate.
    First person shooters are much easier to be away from as there are no quests or raids (at least not complex ones).These raids such as the ones in AoC require an enormous amount of prep time, trial and error and practice with team mates to complete.
    Unfortunately with a game like AoC to get the prize that comes with the defeat of these complex bosses one needs to repeat it many many times so everyone can get a copy of whatever that boss is dropping. Never mind equipping all the toons in your inventory equally.
    This has left Mmo’s much alike while becoming ever more complex to master. This mastery of quests and especially raids in of itself has become a huge grind for most people. They arenot like the mind numbing crafting investment of a SWG’s but they still require a lot of time with like minded plyers. The leaders have to know all the members of the raid and each ones individual strengths and weakness a job in itself.It’s even more difficult for leaders to catch up those that have not been around but want a part of the glory.
    What this did was leave me in a way alienated from the most important part of an mmo which to me is the comraderie. I found that acquiring rare items,weapons,armor etc. ( and even raid completion itself) had become so difficult that if you don’t become a hard core gamer playing all the time you miss out on these things. Along with the comraderie.I guess what I am trying to say is mmo’s need to be a balance of complexity and beauty while leaving room for those other then hard core gamers to participate in and still be a part of it all.
    Maybe Rift will get closer to that and if not then like you Melissa I will await the likes of Star Wars the Old Republic.
    I will always be drawn to these games I have had a lota lafs with a lot of good ppl in the years I have played and that is probably what really keeps me waiting for that perfect mmo.

  20. I hear you on the crafting. It seems like the one area most game developers gloss over all the time, and it makes me sad. All parts of a well-made game deserve the same sort of attention to detail the rest of it gets.

    Truthfully, I’m bored too and Rift offers a different world and the Rift activities which are slightly new; I feel like their first first months will be fantastic for them–but worry about what will happen when SW:tOR comes out, or Firefall, or any of the amazingly promising games coming out this year.

    • Greg Greg

      I think that possibly a lot of these devlopers/publishers have different and quite possibly very creative new crafting techniques presented.They never initiate them because they are just afraid of stepping to far away from the established “norm” with so much $ at stake.Maybe it’s time for someone to take a chance.
      I agree about the first months Melissa that has been so true of all the big ones so far. I really am looking/waiting for that one that steps way out in front. I think Age of Conan came close it took over 18 months to run outa gas for me.

      • It’s a shame that creativity sort of has to be stifled in the face of what makes the most $, isn’t it?

        But then again, making a game costs money. Lots of money, actually, and I imagine balancing “new, fresh, and exciting,” with, “what will be familiar and not be too steep a learning curve that scares players away?” is a hard balance to keep.

        Rift isn’t a bad game–it’s pretty to look at, the rifts themselves offer a new edge of excitement to the game. You don’t know when you might stumble upon one or have the town you’re questing in suddenly be taken over, but it doesn’t bring a lot of anything NEW to the table–not like Star Wars: The Old Republic will, and I think that will hurt Rift in the long run outside of initial, opening sales.

        I played Age of Conan, and almost became a GM for the game, that’s how much I loved it the first few months it was released.

        Until I hit the upper 40’s level and the sheer gapes of quests, the mounting bugs and plain lack of content really hurt my viewpoint of the game. Which is a shame, because Age of Conan was on my (steadily growing longer) list of games I desperately wished would be wildly popular and do well.

  21. Greg Greg

    Ty for the review. I found it enlightening from one who has played all the major mmo’s. I was disappointed to read the crafting is weak as I was looking fwd to that aspect on this entry to be well “different”.Yes I’m bored and have the 60 bucks so I geuss I’ll get in line.

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