{"id":10741,"date":"2011-03-17T10:56:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T08:56:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-03-09T09:59:14","modified_gmt":"2012-03-09T07:59:14","slug":"rift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/reviews\/10741-rift","title":{"rendered":"RIFT review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let me start this review by saying I went into RIFT somewhat skeptical. It seemed to share so much in common with World of Warcraft that I was already bored before I started playing. But oh, was I so wrong!<\/p>\n

RIFT certainly works on what came before, refining and polishing as it goes. From the user-interface, to the rifting system which plays out very much like Warhammer Online\u2019s Public Quests. RIFT manages to get right what so many games like Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Aion and the like have failed to do. It offers a high degree of polish and well thought out game design with loads of content to boot.<\/p>\n

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A dominatrix and her hag<\/em><\/p>\n

From the early start to the official release RIFT has been extremely stable. Sure there were initially high queues, and more recently a few lag spikes, but nothing serious such as server crashes or the like. Not once have I seen my server go down, and playing on a high population server, I expected some hiccups, especially once the rifting events got underway. But no, it was smooth as a baby\u2019s bottom. A great launch, to say the least!<\/p>\n

Like I mentioned, RIFT borrows heavily from what came before, but generally in a good way. MMORPG players out there will easily slip into the pace of the game, and the intuitive design should ease newcomers into the genre and embrace genre stalwarts.<\/p>\n

As with most games in the genre, there are two sides \u2013 the Defiant, a steampunk inspired faction, and the Guardians, the Gods chosen to prevent the demise of the world of Telara. Each comes with its own races but both have access to the same classes.<\/p>\n

As in most MMORPGs the story is there, and is decent enough and is based on preventing the dragon God, Regulos, from ripping Telera apart and unleashing his minions upon the land, or something like that.<\/p>\n

Now to what makes Rift, Rift.<\/p>\n

Rifts are an amazing sight the first time you see them. My favourite, the Life Rift, has plant-like tentacles writhing from a swirling vortex in the sky. From the centre spews a mangled mass of mutated plant growth. The earth beneath your feet is also given a once-over, and each rift has its own unique design.<\/p>\n

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A Life Rift <\/em><\/p>\n

The titular rifts, and their events, are a large portion, if not the core of the game. Rifts will bloom all over the world as you explore, and they are tied into the amount of players in a zone. They come in many flavours (Life, Death, Fire, Earth, etc).<\/p>\n

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An Earth Rift<\/em><\/p>\n

Players can then easily participate in closing a rift by simply getting within range of a rift, or related event. By clicking on the wonderful button, \u201cJoin Public Group\u201d, which will effortlessly groups players. No more begging in chat for an invite – this button does it seamlessly.<\/p>\n

To close a rift, you will have to plow through several stages, each with their own criteria, to<\/p>\n

move to the next stage. Each stage gets more challenging, and is usually ended by a boss of sorts. Players are then rewarded based on their participation. However, I have found the system to be very \u201cwonky\u201d where certain classes and builds rake up far more participation with minimal effort.<\/p>\n

Once a rift is closed, you are rewarded for your toil with goodies, the most important being a currency which comes in numerous denominations based on the area you are in. This currency is then used to buy gear found at vendors in the area.<\/p>\n

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A Rift is born<\/em><\/p>\n

Another feature of rifts is groups of enemies that will spawn, roaming the land seeking to wreak havoc with the local fauna. More importantly, they will often take down your quest-hubs, killing all quest-givers setting up their own camp until destroyed by players. This makes the world much more dynamic. Often quest-hubs can be overrun, and it is up to the players to clear them out, which adds a great degree of interaction with your community.<\/p>\n

And now for the best part of the rifting system – the Invasions.<\/p>\n

Invasions, once again, are tied into the amount of players in any given region. Once an Invasion starts, players in the region are automatically given a quest, followed by some onscreen text announcing the invasion. Usually Invasions involve clearing X rifts and killing Y roaming enemies spawned by those rifts. More often than not, players gear into action to get the job done, which results in a world raid boss spawning. Once the boss is destroyed, participants are rewarded with a great deal of loot, as well as an achievement for that Invasion. Each zone has a handful of unique invasions, each with an achievement.<\/p>\n

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The madness of an invasion<\/em><\/p>\n

The only problem I have seen with this system so far is that it requires enough people willing to participate in it. Failure means little really, which is sad, meaning players can easily ignore the Invasion. This happens frequently as you rise higher into the levels.<\/p>\n

The other defining feature of RIFT is its class system, which is robust and versatile. You are initially given a choice of four Callings: Warrior, Rogue, Cleric and Mage. Each Calling is then broken down into nine unique souls (or classes), one of which is a player vs. player (PvP) centric soul, which is unlocked through PvP encounters. These souls can then be combined together in any combination of three, each with its own talent tree and associated skills. Furthermore, you can purchase more sets to allow for easy changing of roles when in major towns.<\/p>\n

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Where’s my bridge!?<\/em><\/p>\n

What is interesting about the system is that most Callings offer more than one kind of role, sometimes containing the holy trinity of Damage Dealer, Tank and Healing in each. For example, the Rogue Calling has Melee Damage Dealers, Ranged Damage Dealers, Healing AND a Tanking option. Awesome to say the least! And, for minimal price and effort, you have access to them all.<\/p>\n

The only problem I see in this system, which is currently playing out, is that of balance. Right now certain Callings and Souls are vastly more powerful than others in player vs. environment (PvE) encounters, and more importantly, in PvP. Balancing such variety is going to be a nightmare over the following months, and will dictate whether or not hardcore PvP-ers will remain playing.<\/p>\n

Speaking of PvP, sadly there are only four instanced PvP areas known as Warfronts at the moment. They are a pretty standard affair, and any veteran PvP player will quickly recognise the modus operandi. They range from 10 to 20 players and follow the tried and tested recipe of \u201ccapture this area\u201d, \u201cdestroy this objective\u201d or \u201chold this item\u201d to garner points to win. To be frank, RIFT is a PvE game and, for now, offers little for the hardcore PvP player, both in variety as well as in class balance.<\/p>\n

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Talking about PvE, the bread and butter of any PvE experience has to be the dungeons and the raids. In total, there are ten instances, each with an Expert Mode broken up into two tiers of difficulty. As of now, there is only one raid, but Trion promises to implement more soon. To top it off, there are raid rifts adding some more variety to the endgame.<\/p>\n

As far as questing goes, do not expect anything fancy. If you have ever played any of the recent MMORPGs available, you will know the drill. Proceed to quest-hub, pick up quests, kill X creatures, collect Y items, return and hand in. Then move into the next quest-hub and repeat.<\/p>\n

As with any good MMO, there should always be a good deal of crafting. Offering nothing besides the standards set in other MMOs\u2019 crafting systems, RIFT still has the goods. With three gathering and six crafting professions, you can combine up to three per character. All will keep you very busy, with unlockable recipes and daily quests.<\/p>\n

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To further keep players entertained all over the world, hidden in nooks and crannies, are Artifacts. While exploring, you may notice small shiny sparkles hidden in say, the roots of a tree. Once collected, these form sets (and there are an incredible amount of them), which, once completed, can be handed in for tokens offering some fun and useful items when exchanged.<\/p>\n

Technically speaking, RIFT is adequate but nothing amazing. I found its looks pretty much uninspiring, even when running at very high settings. Creature mobs seldom are anything special to look at, and spell and damage effects are limp. Compared even to older MMORPGs RIFT is still wanting, but it gets the job done.<\/p>\n

As a side note, recently there has been a fuss on the forums about allowing modifications for RIFT. While Trion is not against it, the game\u2019s populace is largely split on the matter. Trion is looking into allowing for some changes, but that will only be seen in time.<\/p>\n

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Overall, RIFT is a great game that is somewhat held back by the striking similarities it shares with previous MMOs. If you are a newcomer to the MMORPG market, then RIFT is a great place to start. However, if you feel oversaturated with the standards and norms seen in the genre today, and are looking for something new, then RIFT is unlikely to give you that.<\/p>\n

All in all, RIFT is a very polished game with much to offer; it\u2019s great for both newcomers as well as veterans looking for more classic MMORPG goodness. I strongly recommend RIFT for fans of the genre, just so long as they do not expect anything particularly groundbreaking.<\/p>\n

Join our Rift discussion thread<\/a> in the forums<\/p>\n

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