Rift

As a long-time WoW player (since vanilla) who has dabbled in other MMO's (WaR, LoTR) but always come back into the warm embrace that is Azeroth I have become increasingly frustrated about the end-game grindfest that WoW has become.

Because of this I started playing Rift during the "Head Start" so have started to get a feel about how the game is working.

Firstly if you are looking for anything new or truly innovative in an MMO look elsewhere, this is a typical quest based, fantasy themed MMO with all the normal paraphernalia such as action bars, crafting, Auction houses et al.

However what this has done is bring together some of the best aspects of other MMO's and put them into a coherent whole which really gels together from the moment you start.

I will not explain the background to the game as this has been done elsewhere in a review but will comment on the class system.

Unlike almost every other MMO this class system really does allow you to specialise in a number of different areas such as tanking or ranged DPS and switch between them dependent on the nature of the fight. This is really refreshing as it does not tie you down into a single role and is far better developed than the two class system in WoW. The way is implemented also will greatly cut down on the "cookie cutter" spec.

Graphically this game simply blows any other MMO I have played out of the water. Everything is beautifully rendered, little things like the sheen on vast spiders webs show just what a PC based MMO can look like if the developer tries.

Game play is very similar to any other MMO but as you start to level you will find that you need to keep a close eye on a number of abilities and use the most appropriate one for a given circumstance. So far the mindless rotations that we all have come to loath seem to be somewhat reduced.

Questing is also very immersive, and from the first quest you do find you are part of a developing story, yes there are the seemingly ubiquitous "kill 8 spiders" quests but even these do have a part to play and lead directly to better things. There is always a purpose to what you are doing and a sense of achievement once you have completed a quest line.

Rifts (described in detail elsewhere) are both a huge bonus as being in a random raid with 40+ people to close a major invasion is great fun, it is also a real pain when you simply want to complete a few quests and find your NPC has been killed!

On the negative side the instances whist graphically great are not as well developed as they should/could be. The fights are a bit static and there is not enough variety. This may well improve in higher level instances. In the early stages there have also been some issues with lag and disconnects (getting better with time) and on some servers delays to getting on.

All in all this is a game I feel that I will switch to permanently. Since its launch I have felt no urge to fire up WoW and for the first time in a while want to play just to see what's new round the next corner. If these was a little more innovation this would be a 5 star game as it is I will award it 4.5 and have great hopes it will continue to improve.

I write this from the perspective of having played the game for over three months, having four level 50s and experienced most of the content up to the first tier of raiding. I recommend you read the review above by A I Hooley and as such I wont go into detail about graphics, storyline and so forth other than to specifically mention things he didn't.

I quit wow (played since vanilla) just before Cata came out and had been looking for a replacement game of that type to play for some time previously. Then I heard about Rift and decided to pre-order. My first disappointment came when Trion then decided to allow a head start for people to download and play a week earlier than launch. This screwed over all the people like myself who had already ordered hard copies and wanted to be in at the get go...

I started on a low population server and at first really enjoyed the community there. It was a good mix of mature people who were most often good players and former wow veteran raiders. It was quite challenging at times to get group activities done but I imagine more rewarding than the busy servers. That said it was obvious that my shard as other shards (servers) were; were underpopulated and this matter needed some urgent remedy by Trion. Their solution came just recently whereby a free server transfer system was implemented. Far too late, as by then many of the better players had got frustrated and either left the game or re-rolled to other shards. This was from the start a complete mismanagement by Trion. Whilst on one hand there were over populated shards with players complaining of queues and lag there were desolate shards with barely any influx of new blood. Common sense would have been to have directed new players to underpopulated shards whilst restricting busy shards. Things would have balanced out and shards matured. What should have happened was the merging of low pop shards...

I relate all this mainly so as to indicate how Trion treat the player base. Because what they did with the free server transfers is this: Low pop shards were basically closed down and players were told to transfer (you could move an entire guild which was a nice touch granted). We were given the choice of very few shards to transfer to and presumably the over populated ones were restricted accordingly. What this effectively did was screw up the server we all transferred to (or so the original inhabitants told us) by making it far too busy and laggy. Meanwhile whilst it was refreshing at first to have more people to group with, it was clear that the community aspects of the game had been damaged but worst still any sense of purpose,fun or challenge lost. Whole areas camped and empty of mobs. Large scale invasions and collosals wiped off the face of Telara within minutes by groups in the hundreds (3 FPS was the norm). Rifts being purged by large groups of people that I had previously solo'd or enjoyed doing with a small group. LFG was unfriendly to say the least as it was apparent that on this "new" shard there was more of the element of childish nastiness I had experienced at the later end of Wolk.

It was apparent that what Trion had done was to fill up servers to capacity in order to shut down some and reduce their costs. They had in no way considered nor cared what impact this would have on game play and community. It is clear to me on hindsight that Trion have been very successful in over hyping this average game with a view to maximising profits for a short duration. There is no longevity to Rift as many players are now finding. Many of my friends have quit. None of us were impressed nor fooled by the much lauded "constant updates to content" which were quite frankly laughable.

Sure the graphics are technically better than some other games but lack any feeling or atmosphere. The animations are poor. The character models are few and far between in their variety. The gameplay is "world-of-AOE." Boss tactics in expert dungeons are very basic and repetitive and they became very easy (not to mention nerfed to extinction) far too early making what should at least be of some challenge and fun to be a bleary grind. As a former raider I expected a grind and would have been happy to farm my heart out for advancement but this game took it to new levels of mediocrity requiring the completion of hundreds of expert rifts and elite invasions in order to fill out planar essence slots for example.

The main selling points of Rift are its "Dynamic content" - ie rifts / invasions and secondly people seem to love the talent trees which they feel are sooooooo variable! Firstly the Rifts are fun for about twenty minutes then become a tedious bore. Whilst you are levelling they are an annoyance often wiping out quest mobs and hubs and even if they don't it's just massively irritating to keep killing them just to get your NPCs to respawn. Invasions: a nice touch you might think at first, sort of like a world boss event only............. they spawn frequently, are farmed to heck by huge laggy gangs, represent zero challenge and are often accompanied by "pvpers" hoping for a griefing opportunity. Mobs die so fast and people tab hoping to get a hit on another mob and well more often than not tab to one of these idiots. (A zero pvp option might have been an idea Trion - just an idea.) The talent trees being so variable......... well yes but in reality NO! Most trees and classes have functions and uses in groups that are pretty much required and if you wish to be useful within a group and competitive by and large you DO end up with a cookie cutter type build.

The in game support in Rift is atrocious and GMs have what I consider a Beta Test attitude. First response to nearly all my petitions was met with cut and paste standard replies. Basically told to either submit a bug report or give "feedback." As Trion staff are entirely based in Austin Texas there was very little direct communication due to the Europe / USA time differences and when I did actually get some; the information / advice was nearly always incorrect or out and out placation. Never was any in game solution type fix offered. I imagine players in the States might have different experiences as I got the distinct impression that non USA customers were a second class after thought.

When I read such glowing reports about how great Rift is and how wonderful Trion are at fixing bugs I can only conclude they are addled or Trion employees or both. Take one matter for example regarding bugs. The entire camera angle and movement thing should be considered a bug. It is awful! But to make it worse it often flips your character 180 degrees or so. Quite annoying and disorientating in combat as a meleer. Irritating as hell just running form A to B and suddenly flying off a cliff. It was frequent. It was reported and presumably a major bug they chose to ignore.

I make this subjective review for two reasons mainly. First to counter the propaganda and delusions of reviewers who have mostly played this on trial or beta for a few hours and secondly because I am so massively disappointed in what could have been a great game had Trion not been so aggressively obsessed with playing a numbers game with Blizzard. Rift is just one giant marketing exercise because as a game it cannot speak for itself.

I've noticed the initial purchase of the game has now shot down to almost a third of its original cost. They are desperately trying to entice people with free trials and reducing subscription costs. I imagine it will be free to play within 6-12 months. I would only recommend it as a free trial and to players of WoW who would like a change of scenery for a month or three because the best I can describe Rift as is WoW methadone.

The content of this game is covered in various other reviews. The reason for this review is for the bored Wow players who are still undecided.
I had been playing Wow for 5 years and was a true addict, but not an expert, playing 6-8 hours a day. Wow was my way to escape in the evenings. I work away from home during the week and Wow is what stopped me going stir crazy or becoming a alcoholic. I loved playing it, but since Cataclysm I had become bored. Totally bored. Once I had leveled out what else was there to do? Doing a raid or a dungeon with some little snotty nosed kid screaming at you during a group event, knowing exactly what your character should and shouldn't be doing was not for me (I am a more mature player).
Then I saw some early reviews for Rift and thought what the hell. The game was not to expensive and the Game cards are less than Wow.
That was six months ago and I'm glad I tried it. The character customization is such a great idea, yes there are loads of talent builds on loads of sites, but you can do what ever you want. If it doesn't quite work you can experiment by buying another sub-class and if that doesn't work then its not cost to much. Its what you find is best for you and what you enjoy playing.
I reached level 50 with in a couple of weeks and thought "oh no here we are again", but that wasn't the story with Rift. As well as leveling a different class, and reaching 50 through a different set of quest chains, there was so much more to do, Planar attunement is a great way to carry on questing and there is always rift bashing. As well as the dailies there is normally an update about once a month which is adding more dungeons, raids etc. all the time.
There are some negative reviews about some parts of the game but I have found no problems with it. Some aspects of the game were a little confusing at first, but reading the manual FULLY and a quick look at various forums soon cleared this up.
I am now no longer bored, as I had become with Wow, and I recommend Rift to any Wow player I meet and thought that I should also do this online as well.
Thank you Trion for giving us Rift and keeping me sane in the evenings.