Rift one week In

It has been over a week since the head-start kicked off for Rift and, so far, it has been a fairly smooth journey. As expected there have been bumps, but nothing to tarnish a good release. The only real complaints I have would be the long queues to log in at peak times, and the resounding similarities to other games in the genre.

WoW-a-like?

Let’s get this out of the way first. Yes, Rift IS very similar to World of Warcraft on many levels. It certainly does have some “unique” aspects, such as the Rifting System, but everything Rift does is taken from previous released MMOs (specifically World of Warcraft). The one thing Rift does that most previous MMOs since World of Warcraft have failed to do, is to create one neat and very polished package at launch.

Rifting 101

Obviously the key feature, and the game’s namesake; rifts and their events are great fun.

The number of Rifts that appear across the map is based on the amount of people in the given area (a nice touch). Players can then go complete them by closing them, and sometimes receive great rewards for doing so. They may still need some tweaking, as right now the interval between rifts seems too fast, making them feel less “epic” than they should.

Once a rift opens, you can track it from your map. The area around the rift is then turned into a multistage group quest of sorts, very much akin to Warhammer Online’s Public Quests, and the ground beneath them changes textures to align with the type of rift (fire = cracked magma, life = intertwining vines) for effect.

A Rift of Darkness

When in range, you are automatically given the rift’s requirements for progressing to the next stage. Luckily, you are seldom alone in this endeavor, as other people usually come to your aid or you to theirs. It is then that one of the better features of Rift kicks in in the form of the “Join Public Group” button. Pressing this button puts you into a group, or raid, with others in the vicinity of the rift event. This circumvents the annoying “begging for an invite” seen in other MMOs. Once grouped up, you can get to work.

Another feature of rifts is that they spew forth small invading groups that will roam the area and kill anything in their path, be it NPCs, other mobs, or you. Occasionally they will set up shop at quest hubs and, if you want to hand in that quest or pick up another one, you will have to take them out! Again, joining a group for this is seamless.

Ohh Sparky, and Artifact for the taking

After a rift based event has been completed, you are awarded items based on your participation. These range from the occasional item, random knick-knacks such as Artifacts (see the Misc. section), to the currencies used to purchase powerful items from specific vendors. Each zone generally has its own currencies, with some carrying over.

Invasions!

Now to my favourite part of Rift – the Invasions.

Happening every so often, Invasions galvanize the populace in the area into action. At the beginning of an Invasion, a message (often queued by a voice-over) appears onscreen warning of an impending Invasion. Opening your map at that point will lead to much distress, as you see seemingly endless rifts and invading parties appear, all intent on taking you and your quest hubs out. Time to get to work!

Herald of a Rift Invasion

Players will then spring into action as their quest hubs are taken. These events also come with the chance to kill a greater threat in the form of a boss who might appear. These bosses also come with achievements making them an enticing prospect for ambitious heroes.

Class Creativity

Right now people are still playing around with the Soul system. For the newcomers, Souls are basically your classes, and you can combine up to 3, mixing and matching skills and talents as you see fit. These can be changed later at will.

As with any game with such variety, balance is an issue, specifically in PvP. The Mage calling and its soul choices, seem to be the weaker of the bunch, while the Rogue calling seems to be the most popular and versatile.

Instancing

I have only run one instance thus far roughly for level 17 characters, and it was more challenging than I expected. The encounters were pretty straight forward but, hopefully, further instances will be more entertaining. Either way, I was glad it was not a pushover (being the first instance and all).

RUN AWAY! I mean, RETREAT!

Misc.

Questing so far is run-of-the-mill. Go here, kill X, bring back Y, move to next quest hub, rinse and repeat – nothing to get excited about. There are a few story based quests, but they lack any real punch for me personally.

There are also many achievements to unlock similar to those seen in console games, or dare I say it, World of Warcraft.

Another thing to pass the time (if you did not have enough to do already) are the Artifacts hidden all over the world. They are used to combine in sets for items and, as of yet, I have not completed any since there seems to be an insane abundance of these sets in any given area. But it is something else to mess around with, which is welcome.

Latency has also been extremely good. I am using 3G and I have a constant 200 odd latency, which is fantastic!

A glaring issue I have seen bloom on forums, is whether or not Rift should allow for mods. Both camps having valid arguments. I guess it will be up to Trion to ultimately decide, but right now there are none.

Much More

Like any MMO, there is still so much more to do. While many gamers are still in the “honeymoon phase” with Rift, it is only once the dust settles and more players move to higher levels, that one sees whether or not Rift has true staying power. Till then I will keep at it. Currently I am in the twenties and, shockingly, there are already people at the maximum level of 50 – within 2 days!