Rift Impressions, Beta 5, & Screenshots [MMORPG]
As most of my personal friends know, I’ve been testing out the Rift Beta 5 Event this week, the fifth beta test stage Trion Worlds has held for its upcoming MMORPG. Trion’s doing some good things with this MMO!
Now, I’d never heard of Trion Worlds before Rift, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they got more recognition if this game makes a splash. Coming from a fresh viewpoint of Trion and Rift, I’ve comprised a small list of pros, cons, and neutrals, aka “Newts,” that should hopefully give a non-biased review. Two things first though.
Firstly, this is still beta, and anything and everything can change before or after release. Secondly, I’m going to try something new in this article. Whenever I review a game from now on, I’m planning on using a scoring system. This score system will be composed of three review choices: ”Woot,” “Lame,” or “Meh.” Only one of which will be the overall review. Read on for the review and some screenshots!
Pros:
- Build, mix and match, and combine your own talent trees for one of four different classes (Warrior, Mage, Cleric, or Rogue) with roles like Ranger/Marksman/Saboteur or Ranger/Nightblade/Bard.
- “Rooted” talent trees with a gateway-like talent point system. More abilities become available in a tree the more you invest soul/talent points into it.
- Beautiful graphics and spell effects.
- Engaging storyline. I want to know moar!
- Extremely fun Rift Event system, and invasion patrol mobs that make the game feel like the world’s actually at war with the opposite faction as well as the planar forces of Regulos.
- Flexible UI for customizing gameplay. All elements and frames can be moved and scaled according to the player’s desire via the in-game Edit Layout tool.
- Very few bugs or instability issues during Beta 5. Feels like a solid game even during testing!
Newts:
- Invasions and Rift Events can get in the way of questing, travelling, and/or gathering. This is easily remedied by participating in the events to clear out enemy forces, or just simply using common sense and moving to a new area.
- Unable to ask town guards, such as Sanctum Guards, for directions. This is only a minor inconvenience.
- Each faction starts in their own separate starting zone, no matter what race is chosen. In other words, no matter what race you choose, Guardians always start out in one area, and Defiants always start out in another. A minor inconvenience, but still lacks a bit of flavor that could have been injected into the game.
Cons:
- Monthly subscription fee. This always gets me. I hate micro-transactions as well, but it’s a good sign that those don’t exist in this game.
- Worried that the Rift Events will get old, boring, and predictable a short time down the road.
- Possibly a huge turn-off for some, the game feels like it may borrow too much from other MMO’s. It’s not ground-breaking, but it’s not dull either. It feels like a sister MMO rather than a pioneer in an already saturated market of World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and even Warhammer. I’ve heard it put that “Rift doesn’t have a soul,” or “doesn’t have it’s own soul.” I would disagree, but it’s still something I can’t shake.
Things I Have Not Had a Chance to Test:
- Dungeons
- Crafting
- Gathering/Harvesting
- PvP
Screenshots:
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- One of the level 20 horse mounts available for purchase from a vendor.
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- Sanctum City’s Temple
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- When a rift opens, you can’t miss it. Based off one of six elements: Fire, Life, Death, Air, Water, or Earth. Just look to the sky to see which element type a rift is.
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- When a rift opens, you can’t miss it. Based off one of six elements: Fire, Life, Death, Air, Water, or Earth. Just look to the sky to see which element type a rift is.
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- The graphics and atmosphere in this game are beautiful. This is the bridge between Sanctum city to Silverwood.
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- Tears are rifts that haven’t formed yet. Given time, a tear will become a rift, but players may also use a special ability called Planar Lure to open the rift themselves.
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- Rift does a great job at making the player feel like every quest they do is important to the world around them, as evidenced by the Quest Complete popup as well as Quest Accepted and Leveled Up.
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- Rift does a great job at making the player feel like every quest they do is important to the world around them, as evidenced by the Quest Complete popup as well as Quest Accepted and Leveled Up.
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- Mousing over the Defiant Invasion icon on the map shows the general direction of said mob’s invasion. Invasions are tracked in real-time.
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- Death effect and party frame example.
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- An excellent example of the raid frames, this screenshot was also taken during one of the Rift Events. Rift Events are open world battles comprised of different stages, non-elite and elite mobs, and a final mini-boss battle. Zonewide Rift Events are accompanied by auto-accepted quests with requirements to defeat invasions, minor and major rifts, and a final raid boss. Everyone in the vicinity of the rift gets credit for their participation, complete with a leaderboard.
Cinematic Trailer:
Overall Review:
WOOT!
Rift has impressed me these past few days of testing. I’ve played WoW for 3 years, dabbled in EQ2 Extended (still come back to it every now and then), and I know of the events system in Warhammer. I think Rift is a perfect blend of those three, and therein lies its potential. I hope this game goes far!
If you’d like to read more about Rift, check out Trion’s site at http://www.riftgame.com. Rift releases March 1st, 2011, and can be pre-ordered directly from Trion or other major retailers. Standard and Collector’s Editions are available in both digital download and physical disc format, and come with a myriad of bonus items depending from whom you purchase. For information on pre-ordering and pre-order bonus items, see here: https://www.riftgame.com/en/products/. Rift is monthly subscription based, and information regarding said subscription can be found here: http://www.riftgame.com/en/products/subscriptions.php.
Ryooshi
Good article and nice read! Thanks!