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In the course of my lifetime I have played nearly every major MMOG that
has been released, and most of them were flawed in one way or
another. With each new release came an interesting or
innovative feature that would only serve as a reminder of what could
have been when the game inevitably crashed and burned. Hope
springs eternal however, and after two glorious weekends spent
exploring the harsh but beautiful environs of
style="font-style: italic;">Rift, I am
cautiously optimistic that Trion Worlds may have tapped into the secret
of making a great MMOG.
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Even the loading screen
conveys the bleak landscape of Telara well.
What is that secret? Simply put, its combining the best elements of
the genre into a highly polished package and supporting it with
abundant content. The formula that made Blizzards first MMOG a
household name is hard to argue with, and while
style="font-style: italic;">Rift may never see
that same level of popularity it stands a very good chance of finding
its own measure of success. While the two games are
completely different animals in terms of their core concepts, they
share two major similarities the aforementioned melding of successful
components of other games and, most importantly, the ability to show
them all to you in the first 20 levels.
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Silverwood is home to the High
Elves
Rift opens
with a brief phase that allows you to get comfortable with the games
controls while it moves you through the process of selecting your
characters class specialty. There are four Callings, or archetypes, in
style="font-style: italic;">Rift: Warrior,
Cleric, Mage and Rogue with each breaking down further into multiple
subsets. One of the major features employed here is that
characters are able to choose more than one of these subsets, known as
Souls, to flesh out their avatars with. For example I chose the Rogue
archetype and selected the Ranger and Marksman souls to create a ranged
damage dealer with a summoned pet to help keep my enemies at
bay. Each level brings about new Soul Attunement points to
spend in either of your two (or three at later levels) souls, which
serve not only as a talent tree but also as mechanism to unlock new
spells and abilities with more unlocks occurring the deeper you spec
into each tree.
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Players can spec into multiple
Souls for a more powerful avatar.
Rift is a
faction based game that takes place on the ravaged world of Telara
which is under siege from the dragon Regulos, his loyal minions and
from the rifts through which various aspects of evil emerge.
Each level range adds a new layer of the game to the experience. PvE
questing is the main focus of the first few levels along with orienting
the player to the world. As you fight your way from outpost to outpost
new wrinkles are thrown in; a second soul is made available,
professions trainers and reputation based factions are introduced, soul
binding and soul vitality comes into play and finally rift events and
PvP objectives are unveiled.
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Rift bosses feel epic, even at
level 20.
PvE questing and combat are pretty standard for a modern MMOG, with
easy to understand UI, quest journal and mapping system working
together to guide you through your objectives. One notable
difference in Rift
is in the relative difficulty of combat. While most players will have
little to no problems handling a single mob at their level or even a
couple levels above them additional foes will quickly shift the
balance of power. Players who arent used to a global
cooldown mechanic may have some trouble getting used to it here, but
overall combat pacing is good and the GCD eventually becomes second
nature.Leveling is a very quick affair and one that, according to an
earlier interview we did with Scott Hartsman, isnt likely to change
much from beta to live.
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Rift stage status window
Rift combat can happen at any time, with the map lighting up and
highlighting active attacks. The feel of the rift events is
much like the public quests of Warhammer
Online, where players dont have to be grouped to
participate and there is definite strength in numbers. Each
rift event area will progress through various stages with the
objectives broadcast through your UI and loot from the event
distributed to all that participate with a convenient loot
button displayed as part of the interface. In
addition to the mobs that spawn from the rift itself, any hostiles that
are normally apart of the affected area will be granted some sort of
boon while the rift is open, making them even more dangerous than
usual.
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There are multiple layers of gameplay in Rift.
PvP combat has not yet been introduced into the beta experience but
there are already multiple PvP based quests and reward quartermasters
in place for when it does. Quartermasters are available for a host of
factions, each with varying levels of rewards based on your personal
reputation with them a system which is similar to both WoW in its
functionality and LotRO in its depth and scale. Detail oriented players
should flourish in Rift
with so many available avenues of character advancement
Also prominently featured in Rift
are achievements and titles. In a system reminiscent of EQII and LotRO,
titles are earned early and often giving a nice bit of flair and
customization to all level ranges. There is also an Artifact system in
the game where players with sharp eyes can collect random items found
dropped on the ground and assemble them for presentation to an NPC who
will dole out various rewards for your efforts.
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Something wicked this way comes
Rift is a
graphically stunning game that is filled with both beautiful landscapes
and horrific monsters. While graphics dont always make the game, the
look of Rift
is excellent and thus far runs smoothly even in a beta setting.
Very few games lately have been able to convey so much in their first
20 levels, but with so much depth and such a quick leveling curve
style="font-style: italic;">Rift has done an
excellent job of immersing me in its world. The combination of so many
good elements along with a difficulty level that provides a solid
challenge without being oppressively difficult has me wanting to see
more and anticipating the next 20 levels and beyond.
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Sealing a rift.
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