Love For RIFT

[aiornieu 5]

Personally, I'm still enjoying Rift quite a bit. If

you've had any sort of playtime in WoW you shouldn't

have any problems jumping into Rift without feeling

confused or overwhelmed as Trion has "borrowed" heavily

from the WoW Model. Here are a few good things (and

bad) that allow Rift to differentiate itself from WoW:

Good:

Multi-Class system. At first glance the Rift Class

system looks eerily similar to WoW class trees, but as

you level and play around with them you will find a

brilliant system with which to experiment and enjoy the

game through different playstyles. As with every game

there is always someone who will do the math to figure

out the optimal (cookie-cutter) spec that'll give you

the best healing efficiency/highest DPS output/maximum

mitigation/etc., but there are literally dozens of

viable specs and you are only hindered by your

creativity.

Rifts & Invasions: Once again, if you've spent any time

in Warhammer Online this system will look very familiar

at first glance. Rifts are dynamic mini-events that

spawn based on zone/area population and provide some

pretty neat items as well as an alternate means of

leveling. These are open world events that, depending

on the difficulty (major or minor) will need various

different sized groups to complete. Invasions are more

akin to the rift events on steroids, where dozens of

rifts spawn all over a zone requiring a large group of

people (everyone in the zone preferably) to work

together to complete objectives and beat back the

enemy.

Open Grouping System. Trion has done a fantastic job on

making grouping a lot easier than most games. Unless a

player specifies otherwise they are almost always in an

open group....so if you run to a player that's already

tagged a mob you need to kill for a quest, just click

on his nameplate and add yourself to his group before

the mob dies and you'll both get credit for it! No more

waiting for respawns. But that's not all, during the

Rift and Invasion events you don't have to stand around

asking for an invite to the raid groups that have

already formed....just find one of their raid members

and join the raid automatically for max experience and

loot.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Trion has been both

praised and criticized more times than I can count

because of all the systems/mechanics that have been

"borrowed" from other games. Whether it's the WoW UI,

the WAR Public Quest System, the EQII Collections, etc.

etc.....but in almost every aspect they've actually

taken some of the best parts of those games and not

just copy/pasted, but actually improved on them.

Dungeon/PvE Quality: Rift is the first game I've found

that has the same PvE quality as WoW. From dynamic

lighting and dungeon ambiance in the 5-man content to

boss difficulty, tiered progression and risk-vs-reward

model they're PvE may not be better than WoW's, but

it's definitely of the same caliber

Fast and Furious Updates: The Devs have really set the

bar on this one....from openly admitting and discussing

their mistakes, to implementing features and tweaks

that the community has asked for to just sheer content

volume released. The initial game was released on March

1, which included (end-game only) 2 Open world Raid

events (10-man) and 1 20-man Raid Dungeon. Since then

we have seen multiple hotfix updates and 2 content

patches which have included a total of 6 additional

overland raid events (10-man), 1 new 20-man instanced

Raid and the inclusion of a 10-man instanced raid...and

that's all been patched in in about 3 months time! The

next scheduled content update is slated to hit before

the end of June and will include free server transfers

(something Blizzard has always charged for) and is also

rumored to include Hammerknell, a major 20-man raid

instance said to include double-digit bosses. Trion has

also been quick to address issues such as security

lapses at launch and game bugs to keep players

satisfied.

As you can see I'm a pretty big mark for Rift. I think

it's as good (if not better) than anything else

currently on the market and it's definitely something I

plan to continue playing for the foreseeable future.

[Adri 5,795]

I enjoyed Rift for a while, but sometimes it got overwhelming.

The multi class system you mention is a great idea. The problem is I had a hard time finding a comprehensive guide that would simply explain the different specs for a new player. I enjoy healing and had a hard time figuring out which trees to use to optimize my healing output. I asked for help a few times, and found some really nice people, but it was still complicated for this newbie to understand.

 

The rifts and invasions was something I totally loved. I loved being able to jump right in, join the group, and start healing the tank and doing damage. I liked the sensation of banding together with my fellow adventurers to beat back an invasion.

 

The learning curve on some parts of the game was steep. Other parts it was very simple. There were quests to guide you from area to area. Also some quests to teach about professions and what have you. I would probably still be playing it but I just don't have the time to invest in another game right now.

[Kaelyn 29]

I have never played Rift, but from what I have read it has regular updates and content and seems to be one of the few games worth a monthly fee.

[Lord Chaos 10,441]

I really liked playing Rift, its a good enjoyable game. I still play every now and then.

[Gnomy 4,081]

I only played it Beta and got bored quickly - but it sounds like alot changed since Beta.