Rift
The world of Telara is under attack and only you and your hundreds of friends stand in the way of total destruction. Can Rift offer us something new in a genre many consider rather stale?
As usual, reviewing MMOs is a tricky business. So, in the interest of full disclosure - the review below is based around beta gameplay, and leveling a Guardian mage to level 25 during the live game.
As usual when a new game is about to launch, Trion's PR-machine has talked a lot about how revolutionary Rift is. How it's going to change the genre, how dynamic its content is, how different it is from other titles. All the typical hype stuff that we're used to by now. So let's get it out of the way that it really isn't that revolutionary. If you've played MMOs before, especially the big names like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online, you know what to expect by now.
That's not the same as saying Rift doesn't have a lot to offer, though, or that it's a carbon copy of other games (so put down those pitchforks!). Like most other MMOs, it does bring new stuff to the table. It's just that at the basis it's everything that we're used to seeing - 50 levels, loot, "kill ten rats"-quests, classes, raids, dungeons, experience points. The whole staple of the genre is here. If you want a game that is radically different from World of Warcraft, you might be disappointed. At that level, it's fairly traditional and Trion haven't taken many chances so that they would not alienate their core audience.
That said, it's an impressive piece of work. While MMOs generally struggle during their first weeks or months (or in some cases, years) to stay stable, Rift has been nothing short of a miracle. There's been rolling restarts of the servers, but they have been few and far between, and during my many hours with the game I have yet to encounter any bugs (except a sound issue when I tab in and out of the game, where the music turns into a fantasy-version of Atari Teenage Riot for a few seconds). The servers and the client are incredibly stable, and the game can easily handle 60 players on the screen at the same time without coming to a screeching halt. The biggest problems that Trion have faced have been queues on the more populated servers, which I guess for them is a rather welcome problem to have.
What Rift manages to do compared to other games is to create at least the illusion of a dynamic world. MMOs are traditionally static affairs, with the same monsters roaming the same area for years, simply waiting for an adventurer to come by and slaughter them all - only to respawn a few minutes later, ready for next one to come along. Most monsters do the same here, there is a constant supply of goblins for us to cut into pieces after all. But Telara, the world of Rift, is under siege by the evil Regulos who enjoys sending his minions into the world through tears in the world - the rifts the game gets its name from.
More or less anywhere, at any time, a rift can open up - spawning monsters that the players need to band together to defeat. They can range from minor ones, which a small group can take out, to major ones that takes a concentrated effort to beat. At times the whole world goes crazy, rifts open up everywhere, gangs of invading monsters spawn and the whole zone in question is attacked by Regulos forces. It's a dangerous time to go for a calm stroll through the neighbourhood, let me tell you. You're not safe anywhere when this happens, and I've found myself slaughtered by raging werewolves in places where I was sure I would be able to leave my keyboard for a few seconds.
Luckily, Rift uses an intuitive grouping mechanic, and as long as you encounter other players grouping up is a simple click of a button away. It's not unusual to see large groups of players moving from rift to rift, and when the big world events happen some form of crusade against the invaders is quickly formed. After all, some of the most powerful rewards in the game come from taking part in the fighting, and most players want a piece of that cake. It can be annoying if it happens at a time when you had no intention of doing anything else than some simple questing, and for some it might take some getting used to. The shift in philosophy is a quite easy one though - whenever you leave the safety of your racial capital, be aware that shit might happen at any time, in any place. It's a big dangerous world out there, and the faster you accept that fact, the faster you'll grow to love Rift.
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- System:PC
- Genre:MMORPG
- Developer:Trion Worlds
- Publisher:Trion Worlds
- Offline players:1
- Online players:MMO
- Age limit:From 12 years
- Release date:04 March 2011
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