NOTE: This review does not take into account the 1.just one “River of Souls” content update. It was written before the replacement patch was released and therefore will not take 1.1 into impact.

Let’s face it. Rift is a very well made video game from top to bottom. From rookie development studio and publisher Trion Worlds, Rift is a flagship title that has launched along with perfect timing to draw gamers’ attention. It is both highly lustrous, and technologically innovative. It may not stray far from tradition regarding gameplay, but what it strives to do it does exceedingly perfectly. In an age where many gamers have grown impatient with not finished products, Rift is a very welcome addition to the stable regarding MMORPGs.

That said, Rift is not without flaws. In a lots of aspects, its systems have become dated. Combat, questing, and crafting most function superbly, but are bland due to the simple fact they have been done this way before. Still Trion Worlds’ freshman release is fantastic example of the kind of care and attention to details and polish this industry direly needs. It’s a title I would probably gladly and quickly recommend to any player looking for a brand-new but familiar home, and yet one I would advise caution to if you are in search of something truly revolutionary.

For the purposes of this review I purchased my own digital copy from Trion, but they were kind enough to grant me Digital Collector’s Edition status to get the ugly seeing that can be turtle mount. I played well into my 20s on my Defiant Cleric on a PvP server, and into my teens as a Guardian Cleric on a PvE server. In total during the live release I’ve played around thirty hours, which often has sadly made it impossible for me to truly review exactly what the end game holds. I will offer what I know of that content, but will not make a final judgment on what level 50 has in store. I do believe that my time spent with Telara from Alpha through Live has given me enough insight to take a stand on Rift. Now, let’s get into your details.

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory (Visuals)

Just when I thought I’d tired of the swords and boards fantasy trope, along comes Trion’s art team to make me reevaluate that stance. Rift is a very pretty game when your computer might handle it. And while it can run on a machine in which can run Champions Online (my crap-tastic laptop), it doesn’t do so well. Make no bones about it to get the most out of Rift’s visuals you’ll need a decent video card and speedy CPU. I have an nVidia GTX460, 6GB of RAM, and quad-core clocked at more than 3.2Ghz even I need to keep things at High (as opposed to Ultra) to maintain a steady frame-rate. Still the particular performance in Live is light-years ahead of the performance I experienced in Beta, and the simple fact that I can keep my settings on High during some of the game’s larger world events and not experience slow-down is nothing short of technical genius.

I will concede that the game’s style is very derivative of so much high fantasy. I mean, now there are elves and dwarves and goblins after all. But the presentation from the way “QUEST ACCEPTED” pops onto the screen, to your sparkle of your chainmail is top notch. It may look acquainted, like most games in this type of setting will, but the item looks good. And that’s what counts. The way in which usually the surrounding world is affected by an open rift is gorgeous and I’d love to see the effect applied in larger scopes as the game grows.

I’d have liked more enterable buildings to make Telara feel more like a world and less like a very convincing amusement park. But my only real complaint can be laid against your melee animations for combat. They just don’t seem very powerful when compared to their magical counterparts. It’utes hard to imagine the simple whack connected with a hammer hurting more than the hurling of a giant fireball. But I guess in which could be said of many MMOs.

Mine Ears Have, er, Heard the Glory? (Sound)

Inon Zur has composed some of my favorite music in videogames. From Baldur’utes Gate II: The Throne of Bhaal to Fallout 3 more recently, the particular man’s great at setting an epic tone that carries you actually from relaxing moment to harrowing battle. Rift’azines soundtrack is no different. The large sweeping orchestral score is one you should expect connected with a game that takes its content this seriously. It’s not the kind of stuff you’ll find yourself humming, but a audio cues for when something terrible is happening or when you’re in a peaceful glade are welcome and very atmospheric. Additionally, the game’s sound effects are a strong appropriate mix of clangs, thuds, gurgles, along with battle-cries. Wolves sound like wolves, and goblins sound like exactly what I suspect goblins would sound like. The way inside which the aural tone changes when you near an open rift is also very very well done. There was obviously a lot of careful attention paid to the sound in Rupture, which is the largely undervalued part of any MMORPG experience when it comes in order to immersion.

Ascension Means Freedom (Character)

One of Rift’vertisements chief innovations lies in the way it handles the class-based character system. Sure presently there are healers, tanks, and DPS classes but this’s the way in which Trion gives your player freedom to build and swap out their own combination of these that makes the old new again. Called “Ascended Souls”, Rift’utes classes are split into four archetypes (warrior, rogue, mage, and cleric) which generally cover this roles you’d expect. But within each archetype are variations called “Souls” which offer their own distinct skill tree and abilities. For instance, as a Cleric the Cabalist is really a damage over time DPS soul while the Shaman is a melee-focused DPS banger, and also the Sentinel is single target and AOE healing master. Here’s the beauty: it’utes up to the player to decide where these people put their skill points, and they can mix and match up to any three souls in one build.

One can also have up to four builds (once you buy the extra slots) for you to switch between at any given time. For myself and my Cleric loving ways, I generally keep a solo build this offers DPS using some heals to keep myself alive, a new healing build that I use for Rifts and also group PvE, and a PvP build or two as well. One of the particular PvP builds is for damage output, while the other is for healing in addition to I can switch available of combat at will depending on your requirements of my team. It’s a brilliant system that allows players a wide range of freedom to tinker and make their excellent class for every situation.

Tripping the Rift Fantastic (Gameplay & Story)

There’ersus plenty of material here on MMORPGAREA.com as well as on the official Rift site to explain your lore behind Trion’s game, but here’azines the basics. The God of Death, Regulos features caused six planes to begin invading Telara in addition to wreck havoc. As a player, you will side with either the Guardians (devout followers of the Gods) or the Defiants (those who rely more on the practical means of technology). Your goal is actually simple: protect and cleanse Telara of Regulos plus the threat with the invading planes. But along the way you’ll also obviously be fighting with the other faction on just how this should be done. There’s way more to the idea than this kind of simplification, and Rift itself does a great job of delving in the lore with collectible books and oodles associated with text throughout the particular game. You just have to be vigilant adequate to read them all.

If you’ve played pretty much any of the major MMORPGs released since Everquest established the DIKU MMO, anyone’ll feel right at home with the controls and UI found in Rift. It’azines obvious that Trion was going right after the same market as any number of AAA MMOs. There’vertisements nothing wrong with that, it’s just obvious that this can be their goal. Can you blame them, though? Newly founded company. Lots of investment dollars. Very risky and expensive industry to enter in. I can appreciate why Trion decided to build upon exactly what’s already proven to work. Where some developers aim to reinvent, Trion is content for you to tinker and improve upon established standards. As long as that’s what you want by ones next MMO, Rift will please you greatly.

But this comfort in the familiar is in which I feel Trion’s game winds up faltering most. The combat is the same combat we’ve all been playing for over some sort of decade now. Highlight target, hit hotkeys, rinse and also repeat. The questing is similar. You go out of quest hub to quest hub collecting quests (which are interesting should you read them, but a lot of simply won’t), and run to objective areas to kill some things and return. You do this from level one to level fifty. All of this is more dynamic and interesting in groups of course, as is most content in these games. But let’s be honest, many people (myself included) play a lot of times solo resulting from time constraints or the simple desire to accomplish so. The game feels a bit tired when just roving about questing alone. Of that will I am certain.

Luckily, one of Rift’s other innovations tends to liven things up quite a bit on a daily basis. The titular Rifts themselves may often unfold in the same locations, but they don’t do so at the same times, and they don’t always follow the same paths. And when a zone-wide invasion happens, at this time there’s something absolutely awe-inspiring about the way people band together to take out the invaders. Quest hubs are overrun, bands of elite enemies tear across the landscape. It’azines all very cool and helps drive some truly massive experiences. There’s nothing quite like the group of a few hundred people running through locale to locale, fighting together (or against just one another if PvP is enabled) and triumphing in excess of such an imposing force. It hasn’t been recently done before Rift, and I can only imagine how the system will grow and improve in the months to come. The standard Rifts can be repetitive, I won’t lie. Unless it’s a full-scale invasion, I usually don’t partake in them anymore. But the invasions are generally something I personally just can’t say no to help. You can garner great rewards from doing them, and they’re really just fun in order to participate in.

Much Ado About Telara (Content)

There are plenty of instanced dungeons in Rift. Ten small group and one raid-sized at launch (with another just around the corner within the game’s first content patch). I was only able to partake in the Deepstrike Mines, which lies in Stonefield for the Defiant faction. It’s serviceable, fun, and to the point. From what I can gather, most dungeon information only takes about an hour or so to complete. That’s pefect for me, and I suspect loads of other players too. The only thing that would certainly make it better would be a Looking for Group tool, which we’ve been told team is devising. If you’ve played by means of any group dungeon in just about any fantasy MMO, you’ll feel right at property in Rift. They’re not amazing, drop your current jaw encounters, but they drive the narrative, offer great rewards and what’s really nice is that you can get all related quests once you enter a dungeon so you won’t miss out and need to come back if you don’t want to.

There’s really just a metric ton (I swear, I weighed it) of content in Rift. The ten dungeons and raid, hard-modes and all. Three PvP Warfronts (which we’ll cover soon), oodles of collections, lots of crafting professions, hundreds of achievements as well as of course all of the obtainable loot as well as reputation rewards which happen pretty organically just by way of questing and taking part in rifts and invasions. So while I can moan about how boring questing can be, there’s really plenty of ways to advance in the recreation. It’s perfectly viable to pick your favourite activity and toil away at it until the heart’s content, but you’ll get considerably more for your time if you mix the idea up in all Rift has to offer. I might’t think of any game that launched along with this much content, and with all of this in working condition no less. It’s some sort of feat for any developer, much less a newly founded one. Trion has reset the bar for the level of polish these video game titles should have at launch.

The biggest downside, and probably the only area where one could say Trion spread themselves thin is that there are only two paths to the max level in the particular game: one for each faction. Of course the second trek through won’t be exactly the actual same, but you will be doing the same content even if you don’t get it done in exactly the same pattern. So while the Ascended Soul system allows for a lot with different builds across the game’s four archetypes, only the heartiest of adventurers will find the drive to level up enough characters to experience them all.

Break Stuff, Make Stuff, Repeat (Crafting)

Crafting around Rift is the same old song and dance, but it works. I really think I could leave this part of the review at of which and be fine. But we’ll go the wee bit deeper. You pick up some harvesting professions, and probably one actual crafting skill. Skinning, foraging, mining… they’re all here. You can make armor, weapons, potions, runes to equip on your items. I’m not necessarily saying that Rift’s crafting doesn’t work. In fact, at the top level in the game it can even be useful. But I rarely find the drive to create hundreds with pointless items just to level a skill high enough to make something worthwhile, especially when I can get comparable rewards via questing or whatnot. Like I said, crafting’s there. It works. It just could be more interesting for my tastes, maybe more interactive plus readily useful. I’m no designer. I just know the item was too boring for me to keep up with. The leveling of one’s Runebreaking skill is a chore I’ll leave to help others.

It’s a Mad, Match-Made World (PvP)

Player versus Player in Rift seriously isn’t balanced. It probably never will be thanks for the freedom offered by the soul system. Unless they will homogenize all the classes, it just won’t happen and I sincerely doubt Trion has any kind of plans to take away some of the beauty of their game just so people could’t cry foul. Luckily, despite the builds in which will wind up dominating matches, PvP in Rift is both fun and purposeful in terms with character advancement. It’s not perfect, and I’d love to see more open-world PvP content, but the instanced PvP you’ll find in Rift is a great side activity when you feel that bloodlust kicking in.

There are three Warfronts at launch: Black Garden (keep away), The Codex (capture and defend), and Whitefall Steppes (capture the flag). I merely got to play the first two before my review was due. I found both to be very fun for the most part using the geometry of the maps being fairly balanced. Even when I lost I felt like I was making progress for my character thanks to XP, but the currency for PvP gear is definitely best earned by winning and it can be frustrating to be on the team of which just never seems to win. Pre-made groups will likely roll an unorganized team every time, but that’s the way the particular cookie crumbles. The matches pop fast thanks towards the use cross-realm queues, and a good healer is always a welcome addition (much to be able to my enjoyment).

The only qualms I have with Rift’s PvP is definitely the focus on instanced Warfronts. Even on PvP servers, there seems less urgency to bother with open world PvP when all the goodies are earned from Warfronts. The level 50s out there could shed more light, but I feel like Rift Invasions are usually a missed opportunity for some really hectic world PvP.

The Future is Bright (Conclusion)

In the end, Rift may not be everything for everyone. I feel silly writing that as that should be obvious of every game by now. But Trion’s sport is the rare jewel in this industry. Not exclusively does it try to do so much right with the word go, but it does so along with a incredibly seldom seen level of polish. It’azines also hard not to get excited about what their server architecture can perform for the future of Severance and any other games to come with the developer. Seven-hundred plus people in an area participating in an event like Rifts’ invasions is no small feat, because anyone whose games that include tried something similar can tell you. It’s also really hard not to be able to applaud Trion for making a game that’s packed to the brim with every little feature you could want via an MMO, minus perhaps Housing.

Think back to the launch of other recent games. Did any of them have this much in place along with working so smoothly? But there are also areas that could have used a little more creativity: namely crafting, combat, plus questing. These are some core systems, plus while they work perfectly well, they’re just a little too “old-hat” for my tastes. As I said at the outset of this review: Breach is a truly great game that may be perfect for anyone looking for a whole new but familiar home. It’s a wonderful refinement of the traditional MMORPG experience. Should the title keep receiving as much care as it has obviously seen during pre-release, Rift’s successes will only grow with age. However I’d just as easily advise caution so that you can anyone in search of a revolution. They won’t find it here.

Second Opinion

Last time I looked up from Rift, them was still winter and ‘suddenly’ the 90s here in the desert are simply just around the corner. The point is that that’s the last time I realized another game existed besides Rift.

Having played Rift from Beta 1 onward, I am still amazed at the amount with polish Trion managed to get in place before the head start program began at the end of February. So much of Rift’s shininess comes from its familiar, yet flawlessly executed, features. Whether it’s the user interface, the ‘point and kill’ combat system, the quest hubs, the creating system, or sparkly loot, it’s many something that players have seen before along with that gives them the ability to instantly jump into a new yet comfortable home.

With a level 50 Guardian as well as a level 25 Defiant, I’ve seen a game nearly from start to finish. I’ll admit that I’ve not played while in the instanced dungeons as my obsession has recently been to get to the end game. I’m there now and still having a new blast. I actually still like “rifting”, arguably a game’s best feature IMO, and am always on a quest to find new and better stuff. One regarding my guild mates has also introduced me to the joys of hunting to get artifacts and completing collections. With the Stream of Souls event now underway, there’s still a LOT to do and to help like.

Yet Rift is not without issues of which worry me about the long term attractiveness to players. I honestly am not sure that I want to go back in addition to start a new Guardian character of the different class. I don’t really want to do all the same quests again. Truthfully, however, this isn’t Rift’s fault. I often have this problem in this MMOs that I play so Rift is not necessarily unique. Still, it’s possible that the item’s because I played the low levels so often in the beta phase yet starting over just makes my head hurt. It’s largely why I started some sort of Defiant. I wanted to see something new, for you to try things from “the other side”. I’ve had a good time but am not really sold on the Defiant Warrior I’ve created. Yet I continue to forge on because I simply don’t want to go back to start a different class.

There is no question this there have been bugs and issues since Rift’s release. But, at least from the perspective of those I know who have been playing the activity there have been far fewer than most games released in the last several years. What is rather sad about saying that is how complacent we’ve become in the fact in which most games lack polish on release as well as that several patches are necessary to bring most games up to a playable state. Trion was obviously unwilling so that you can follow the bleak path blazed by recent games and their responsiveness to players’ concerns and suggestions is nothing short of miraculous. Since beta testing began, Trion has issued hot fixes in addition to patches to address those things that players request. They actually listen to the people. It’s almost as if *gasp* Trion realizes that players’ happiness around Rift matters in the financial long haul.

The hacking issue of the past several weeks is a good case around point. Any new game is going to help be subject to those who just carry pleasure out of ruining other people’s fun and Rift has been no exception. Accounts were being hacked at a great alarming rate and players were rightly ticked off about it. Trion not just kept the lines of communication open using the player base but they created some sort of quick and effective work around in the actual Coin Lock system. Being a victim from the hackers, I was pleased to see how efficient Trion was at getting the issue under control. And they’re definitely not finished yet. Just the other day, cellular authenticators were released.

The bottom line is definitely that Rift is fantastic IF you will be looking for something you can jump in to and that has all of the best features from the most successful MMOs of the past decade made better.

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