Played first beta seemed a solid polished game unfortunately the whole art and animation style did not appeal to me in the slightest nor did wow, war art or lotro animations and rift is the child of the aforementioned 3.
“Some players will decry the game due to the fact that they’re being handheld through the leveling process by the structure of quests.”
If your hand is being held from level one to top level then yes, I would have to ask do the designers still think the game needs to be in tutorial mode at the penultimate level? Hopefully by then we can assume players have learnt something about the game? But this may just be through the first couple of levels which is fine.
“They’re essentially supposed to be the main draw of the game, but as I spent more time playing I found myself avoiding them and going around them on my adventures.”
This could be a major issue, the rewards need to mean something for a player now, even if its just some gold.
“It’s really an amazingly deep and yet simple idea and one that I can’t believe hasn’t been thought of before.”
Sounds somewhat like the DDO upto three class sytem but with skill trees as a twist, interesting though.
“For crafting to matter, the crafted goods have to be as good or better than what players can obtain from other parts of the game.”
You need to divorce crafting from loot to make it work. Crafting makes the best PvE gear and quests (then raids) make the best PvP gear would be the ideal in my eyes.
I enjoyed the beta, it was a welcome change to play a game that felt as if it was actually ready for release.
However I left the beta doubtful that I would subscribe. The game is too much of a clone. It would be among the best FTP but a PTP has to offer something new, and this didnt.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, about this game that hasn't been ripped off from somewhere else. No effort whatsoever has been made to add an original touch to this stolen content. Add a 3D engine adapted (I assume they've "stolen" this from someone else, too) by someone with as much programming skill as my mother, and you've got a game which may look highly polished, but which is so unoriginal, so uninspiring, and so absolutely dreadfully dull as to make a random, Chinese WoW knockoff appear revolutionary.
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One of the most embarrassingly awful games I[object Window]ve ever played. I was invited to the second beta as well as the first, but by then I had already gotten absolutely bored of the game, and ended up uninstalling it after playing with the character creator for a few minutes.
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This game deserves to fail.
They actually did "steal" the engine. It's a licenced DX9 engine from somwhere.
I enjoyed the second beta, even though my ancient computer had me hobbling about at 2-3 frames per second at the reduced rendered graphics. My Mage/Pyromancer only made it to 9th level in about ten hours of play.
Yes, there is not much original here, but what there was, this particular mix, was quite exciting. It really conveyed the "invasion" theme to the hilt. The incidental damage from random catapult fire was cute.
I have not played many games, so one that has chosen the best aspects of the others, with a few nice twists of its own, might be the best buy for an elder noob like me.
This game is another reason for Santa to help me upgrade my computer.
I think it's funny how with 2 weekend beta events people have so much to say as if they've played the game until end game and saw the whole thing.
About the review: I agree with some of the review but not all of it. I can say right now that after trying many of the different classes and bringing them to level 20, I found myself saying one thing over and over again (I wish I could of atleast played to 40). Both beta events I got my characters to level 20 in one day each. I ended up with 4 level 20's, and a few others 14, 10, and a level 6 character. I tried many of the classes and one thing for sure is that if you picked something that you ended up not liking it was going to help spoil the rest of the game for you. Also, vice versa, if you found a character that was too easy, you will too easily compare it to other easy games like WoW. It is a WoW clone and they don't deny it.
Personally, I was hoping for more EQ to go into it, but hey there will never be a perfect game that pleases everyone.
Graphically, i've heard bad and good stuff, I like the art-style myself so I would give it about a 9. Along with the graphics, something always sticks with me, is that some games have very good graphics but they don't seem to play well with the environment. When the characters walk, they don't walk on the land, they are gliding, etc. This is not the case with Rift. Trion Worlds actually did a great job with the way they handled the graphics and most of the animations (i've seen a few quirks here or there, but i'm looking for them when i'm playing). Other than the random weird animation issue, or the fact that one weapon didn't have a model so it was all grey (This was the only one I found like this throughout my whole experience in the 2 beta events).
Character Class/Soul System, Wow, i've seen this bashed, i've seen this praised. I really liked it a lot, when I was playing the Necromancer, Justicar, and Ranger, but some of the others still needed some work but this is stuff they are doing the beta for, to make changes, and tweek things that actually could be better, especially with the souls. I would give the soul system in it's entirety an 8. I think it could easily be a 9, but since my experience was different with some of the other classes, I can't say that. Playing as the warrior classes made me never want to play them again which was horrible, I never thought i'd feel this way about anything in Rift because honestly I would love to see it succeed, but i'm trying to be as honest as possible while posting what I can about my experience. I do want to mention, that I found it awesome to be able to mix classes together this way, It isn't like WoW as some people mention, It is different because even though the trees come straight from WoW, the fact that you putting points into a tree, and getting root abilities sets it appart. Your skills come directly depending on what points you put into the tree. Wow, just lets you decide how your character will be spec'd but you always get the same skills regardless. This distinction hasn't been made properly by most reviewers and I wish it would be, because otherwise people just see videos with tree's and automatically assume "They stole that from WoW too". As if Wow started that system in the first place (Which they didn't but whatever).
Rifts, The Rifts in beta 1 were easy compared to the the Rifts in beta 2. In beta 1, it felt like we were always doing the same thing between the rifts, but in beta 2, A LOT of different things were happening. During beta 1, I could run around, see there's a rift nearby, go try to close it, or let it be, but I never worried about the invasions as they were non-existant until the last day. In beta 2, if you saw a rift, and you could close it, you probably would because if you let it get out of hand, you would lose your quest givers, and they would take over the hubs, and make strongholds, etc. This made the rifts go from being fun for a little while, then boring to, Holy crap, this is scary, i'm not sure I want to go mess with that invasion without other people helping me and I loved that. Not to mention when they did the full invasions towards the end of the beta events with the bosses it was pretty bad-ass imo. Lots of fun during that time. I give them a 9 now, I would of given them a 7 during beta 1.
Gameplay, In general I was impressed by the game play. I went into it knowing it was a beta, expecting it to be beta qualtity and came from the betas thinking WoW, the game is very polished for a beta. During the beta 2 event there was a memory leak that was slowing the game down for the first few hours, they quickly came out with a patch to fix that a bunch of other things. As a matter of fact, from beta 1 to beta 2, the changelog was insane. I can honestly say, that when I saw all the changes from beta 1 to beta 2, I felt like there was a lot more people working on the game than I originally thought. I know they have millions invested, and i've seen the videos with all the people working there, but it really feels like they are working hard to make the changes people are asking for. If they are going to keep this up, until the game releases, you can expect a LOT more improvements in the game. Using this last beta as test for your decision to buy the game imo is a waste of time because the game appears like it will change a lot before release atleast class wise, and rift wise. Obviously they aren't going to change the whole game over night. I found the gameplay to be about a 8.5.
Crafting, The crafting system needs work. Currently it isn't as bad as some people say, I enjoyed some aspects of it, and I know for a fact that when I start playing my first skill will be runecrafting as it's going to be highly sought after. While crafting I would make stuff, then break it down, and use the stuff I get from it, to build something else, and so on and so forth, I didn't feel like it was a waste of time, like others have mentioned, but I also know that for some crafting classes you do waste some of your materials. I'd give crafting about a 7 right now, I would like to see a lot of things improved, but keep what made it a little tiny bit different from WoW.
That's all, All my opinion, but I did get to play the game for both betas and felt some of the stuff above needed to be mentioned.
Tell me some1 how they hell i can turn on Antialiasing in Rift on ATI cards lol.... forcing in CC dun work , my eyes hurt much when these jagged edges are everywhere :P
Tell me some1 how they hell i can turn on Antialiasing in Rift on ATI cards lol.... forcing in CC dun work , my eyes hurt much when these jagged edges are everywhere :P
This is, without a doubt, one of the worst written reviews I've ever read...ever. Judging by the two grammatical errors in the first paragraph I'm going to assume that this article was rushed and the editor was too hammered on eggnog to spot them.
I'm not sure what is 'definitely luxury' (just lol) about an MMO cloning WoW. The author seems to think that it is okay to copy what he calls 'tried and true' systems and yet he describes a rather mundane play-session. The author goes on to describe how impressed he is when he presses a button and the associated skill actually works. I know some of this years MMO releases have been let-downs but have we hit such a low that people are expected to be soundly impressed with basic program functionality? It distracts from an excellent point that the UI pulls your attention from the action and places it on the UI. I for one am tired of looking at 'healer-helper' boxes and status bars.
The fact that the author completely avoided the Rift system is a huge deal and the 'Soul' system description leaves a lot to be desired. I am left wondering weather or not speccing in wildly different areas of focus is viable or not. Also I'm not sure why crafting is not a big deal to the author. Just because it's not an activity he normally chooses to participate in doesn't mean that it's not important. Crafting mechanisms are the base for an MMO's economy and that is a subject that concerns all! Is the in-game currency we pick up going to be worth anything? Is there an auction house or some form of vibrant trading? These are important and basic questions I believe the author completely ignored.
The author finished by describing the game as 'playable and complex' despite it's familiarity. Again it's sad that players have become impressed with a new game's ability to function properly at release, but again I forgive that considering the trash that has been dumped on the market recently. I too echo the concern that PvP was not even mentioned but I believe that portion of the game was turned off during the beta.
Ultimately I can infer from the article that Rift will soon become associated with descriptive phrases like 'more of the same' and 'grind'. I wish William Murphy would have taken more of a stand against the rehashing of boring systems like kill quests for instance. A journalist must of course be objective but that doesn't mean that his writings have to be watered-down. Perhaps we are meant to read between the lines. Based on this article and the stories of friends who are beta-testing Rift, I think I'll go ahead and take a pass on this MMO. Bring on Guild Wars 2.
Btw I think most of users here does not know what beta means,for them:It's not final version,which means it's unfinished,lol at the genius who talks about the responsiveness.
Btw I think most of users here does not know what beta means,for them:It's not final version,which means it's unfinished,lol at the genius who talks about the responsiveness.
we heard that about FFXIV.
Alpha = develpment of product.
Beta = testing the finished product for possible bugs.
Release = finished product fully tested.
If it's in Beta its finihed being developed. Now its just cleaned up to function perfectly.
if they're still developing they're in alpha. if they release and are still developing, guess what. it's still in alpha.
Beta is to work out the bugs. In this case there have been 2 beta week ends 3 days only. Total of 6 days and that my friends is not enough time to work out anything. If this game is close to release they got a lot of work to do. We only seen two small areas of the game so far. folks are complaining how small it is, well that's because they not let us see a lot. I'm still going to beta test the next even that comes our way this week end and see. Hopefully some of the 18 bugs I reported will be fixed. Especially the music bug where it sound like 20 soundtracks played at one time.
Right now were just looking at a way over hyped game, and they way they planed the beta event to me was to hype it up so everybody wanted to get, and then got a VIP. So good marketing on their side. However to me its not lived up to the hype yet.
Btw I think most of users here does not know what beta means,for them:It's not final version,which means it's unfinished,lol at the genius who talks about the responsiveness.
we heard that about FFXIV.
Alpha = develpment of product.
Beta = testing the finished product for possible bugs.
Release = finished product fully tested.
If it's in Beta its finihed being developed. Now its just cleaned up to function perfectly.
if they're still developing they're in alpha. if they release and are still developing, guess what. it's still in alpha.
Then all MMORPGs are in Alpha because all MMORPGs, even ones that are ten years old, are being developed, patched or expanded. Beta is a TEST to see if everything is working as it should so issues can be addressed. It's not there to show everyone that the game is ready to be released.
I think the biggest issue with the MMO community today is everyone looks at the games they have already played and compare it to a new game. Comparing a game that isn't even out yet to a game thats been out for years and has multiple expansions is just ignorant.
Beta = testing the finished product for possible bugs.
Release = finished product fully tested.
If it's in Beta its finihed being developed. Now its just cleaned up to function perfectly.
if they're still developing they're in alpha. if they release and are still developing, guess what. it's still in alpha.
Just so you know, TRION has already posted a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR change to the game for the next beta event, so you can't say we're testing the finished product. What are they changing? Well, for starters, all souls will be available from level 1 when you choose your starting soul. That's a major difference. What else? Well, you're not just going to get 1 point per level to put into your tress anymore, with a max of 51 at level 50. They haven't said how many we'll have at max level yet, but it's going to be much higher than 51, directly from Scott Hartsman's interview.
Hell, they also released a different, less "cheezy", voice-over for the Guardian intro cinematic because so many people didn't like the original one.
If there's one thing they're doing exactly right, it's listening to the feedback they're getting. If you think you have an idea that will make the game better, stop pissing and moaning on the MMORPG forums and get into the beta and submit it.
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem. -Glen Cook
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, about this game that hasn't been ripped off from somewhere else. No effort whatsoever has been made to add an original touch to this stolen content. Add a 3D engine adapted (I assume they've "stolen" this from someone else, too) by someone with as much programming skill as my mother, and you've got a game which may look highly polished, but which is so unoriginal, so uninspiring, and so absolutely dreadfully dull as to make a random, Chinese WoW knockoff appear revolutionary.
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One of the most embarrassingly awful games I[object Window]ve ever played. I was invited to the second beta as well as the first, but by then I had already gotten absolutely bored of the game, and ended up uninstalling it after playing with the character creator for a few minutes.
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This game deserves to fail.
Just like WOW years ago ripped off Everquest.
Trion is a US company, not Chinese.
More embarassingly awful than say . . . APB or STO at launch or SWG post-NGE or Matrix Online or DDO at launch???
From an avid player of 10+ years in mmos (way back to The Realm), I loved the game. Simply loved it. With very high expectations after beta testing so very many recent utter failures, I almost did NOT beta Rift. But I did both betas, testing both factions and a vast amount of soul/class combinations.
The graphics were amazing. If one actually stopped long enough to look around at the environment and scenery, it WAS truly amazing. Underwater as well. And my old Nvidia 9300, aside from a low framerate, did quite well. The character models are very well done. Could use some more customization options such as muscle tone and width/girth of the waistline (or something), but otherwise quite pleasant and interesting. And NOT alien/freaky/weird. For those that beta'd Alganon, you can feel my relief at having pleasant looking character models! And armor, for that matter.
The armor and clothing was fantastically detailed. If you cared to look, I mean really look. You can dye certain pieces as you wish even. Futher customizing your character's look and feel in the game. As for crafting, I only did Outfitting (leatherworking and tailoring in one) but found it quite satisfying and not nearly as easy as other comments have made out. Later levels (those available so far) require daily quests to get tokens to buy more/advanced recipes. So while the act of crafting alone was quite similar to other mmos, it was still somewhat of a challenge to get said recipes. Add Runecrafting (similar to WoW's enchanting) to create runes to imbed into armore at creation and you can even further customize gear you make, or have made. This seems to apply to all crafts, though I again say I only tried Outfitting. Crafting, to me, is a huge part/pull/interest in any mmo. Rift does not lack here.
The souls and archtype concept is exceptionally well thought out, imo. I think for replayability alone, this will keep many hard core players interested and engaged. Deciding what to try was difficult as it was, so many options. This I liked quite a bit!
Combat was intuitive, not as cookie cutter as some lead you to believe. One still needed to discover which abilities/spells/actions in what order were most successful. Some soul combinatons made things quite challenging and death comes quickly if you don't pay attention to what you are doing. Trains (reminisce EQ1 players) abounded. Though they didn't get dumped on your lap to deal with like EQ of old. But if you bit off more than you could chew, it was possible to run away and live. If you were lucky.
Death and resurrection. If you die, you can soulwalk (stay where you are and resurrect on the spot) once per hour. Or respawn at the closest graveyard and run back to your gravestone. No experience loss, I imagine there will be a stat penalty of some sort but not during Beta.
The quests did flow very well, as others have stated. Some were the usual get 10 of this, kill 20 of those. But some quests were very clever, different and fun to do. The quests revealed the lore of the game, for those that didn't race through them to get to 20. Though I felt the Guardian side a bit disjointed compared to Defiant, the scenery of Guardian side was much more pleasant/pretty. It reminded me of LoTR, the movie, not the game. I'm sure this will be fixed come release.
The Rifts. Many folks liked, or disliked this interesting part of the game. Interesting heck yes! A rift can open anywhere, any time. Even on top of you while you quest. Everyone in the area WANTS to close the rift because if you don't, a Foothold will take place and the denizens of the created Rift WILL go forth and wreak havoc. Even destroying quest hubs and preventing you from being able to hand in quests until the foothold mobs are defeated AND the Rift closed. NO one mentioned that part. And I think it telling on how the game developers truly intend for the Rifts to function. Close them, defeat the rifts or you can't continue your questing. Band together with local players, be it in group or just to close the rifts. But get it done, or else.
That said, one does not have to group. You can do so, and it makes sense to when closing Rifts. But you do not have to. This I liked. I believe a successful mmo needs both group and solo play to be feasible for all types of players. If you only have a few hours a night to play, you might not have the time to search for a group or participate in raids. Being able to solo is important.
As for pvp, yes there will be pvp. But for those of you (like me) who can do without it, it will be consentual. No perma-ganking, no worries for griefers camping everything including you. There are PVP, PVE and RP servers. So I'm sure the intent is to keep those that want to PVP on their own server. Thank you Trion, for that.
As for F2P, no. Rift is to be a subscription based game. Thank you Trion, for that too. I hope they remain steadfast to keep it so. F2P games seem to bring in more money for the developer, but that game model takes away so much from the player. I have not played a F2P yet that I remotely enjoyed.
I do hope they include a WoW-like queue for battlegrounds or instances. Of all the things WoW, that I really appreciated for increasing the ability to find groups to do instances so easily. Some people may prefer to spend hours finding what they need in the game, but there are those of us who simply don't have that kind of time to dedicate. I hope Trion remembers us.
Overall, I really enjoyed myself and hope to be chosen for the 3rd beta. I will be looking forward to Rift's release and I will most certainly subscribe. I truly hope that this game, finally, will be THE one to be my new mmo home.
Lastly, to those that moan about wow-clones and rip offs from other games. From any business perspective, one emulates what is ALREADY successful and attempts to make it their own and improve upon it. So if this game, or any other, emulates other already successful games, it's a no-brainer as to why. Rift is unique in many ways and uses what most mmos are already familiar with (like the usual bars of UI buttons). And if some things seem familiar from other games, so what? Why remake the wheel? And why change what obviously already works?
[..]. Hopefully some of the 18 bugs I reported will be fixed. Especially the music bug where it sound like 20 soundtracks played at one time.
Right now were just looking at a way over hyped game, and they way they planed the beta event to me was to hype it up so everybody wanted to get, and then got a VIP. So good marketing on their side. However to me its not lived up to the hype yet.
If the worst bug you found is related to the soundtrack, then I think that the game sounds pretty stable. Trion seems to have the advantage of already being beyond the point most MMO's are months after launch, in terms of platform.
I'm fully expecting that they can use that extra breathing room to polish the class system, both for soul trees and variety of skills. We'll see what they can pull off.
Good article i myself like the game even though its not great its a very fun game . Soon hopefully there will be higher level content to test and who knows maybe the overall feel of the game will become that much more interesting .
I have been having such a blast with this game.. i cant even describe it. It does have that addicting feel that kept me playing WoW for so long. I think this was written after beta 1, because they did not mention the increase in difficulty for rifts/invasions, nor the huge world events.
I will be buying this game on release, hell, ill probably preorder it, its honestly that good. Beta 3 will be the best yet, theyve made some pretty fair size changes for it.
I had the liberty of playing two of the closed beta events. I really enjoyed this game, it had great graphics and sound effects as well as a storyline that keeps you going... and the Rifts, those are killer! You are an ascended being brought back in time to restore a balance. There is a great storyline as well as many side quests and crafting as well... althought I was more interested in the storyline since it's only beta. There is a device you can acquire after about level 5 I think, it allows you to open a Rift if you are near a visible tear in the space time. There are also times when Rifts will open up randomly and once there was a major Rift event where there were so many Rifts, it was like an invansion! The developers of the game have really created a fun and intriuging story and you can tell the GM's really care about the customer with this one! This could easily take over the online game market and replace WoW as the new great MMO in 2011! Thankfully, there will soon be a game to replace the extremely old MMO's out there!
For those who have been in the betas, is it possible to change the game fonts? Besides the chat ofc, npc names fonts, etc??
Call me crazy but everytime I look at a screenshot with an NPC I can only think of WoW... not trying to make a comparison so don't get your panties in a bunch haters and fans alike ... but I think it's a ridiculous ripoff... I'm not talking about the whole game, because I haven't played it... I'm just mentioning WoW because of the npc "above head" text, and don't tell me it's all in my head lol
For those who have been in the betas, is it possible to change the game fonts? Besides the chat ofc, npc names fonts, etc??
Call me crazy but everytime I look at a screenshot with an NPC I can only think of WoW... not trying to make a comparison so don't get your panties in a bunch haters and fans alike ... but I think it's a ridiculous ripoff... I'm not talking about the whole game, because I haven't played it... I'm just mentioning WoW because of the npc "above head" text, and don't tell me it's all in my head lol
I'm not sure if you can change those fonts. Honestly I've not noticed a similarity between the fonts on RIFT npcs and WoW npcs. Then again it's been years since I played WoW. I would think even if it's not an option somewhere you could probably find / change it in your .ini or .cfg files.
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem. -Glen Cook
For those who have been in the betas, is it possible to change the game fonts? Besides the chat ofc, npc names fonts, etc??
Call me crazy but everytime I look at a screenshot with an NPC I can only think of WoW... not trying to make a comparison so don't get your panties in a bunch haters and fans alike ... but I think it's a ridiculous ripoff... I'm not talking about the whole game, because I haven't played it... I'm just mentioning WoW because of the npc "above head" text, and don't tell me it's all in my head lol
I'm not sure if you can change those fonts. Honestly I've not noticed a similarity between the fonts on RIFT npcs and WoW npcs. Then again it's been years since I played WoW. I would think even if it's not an option somewhere you could probably find / change it in your .ini or .cfg files.
I think it's a bit too similar to be a coincidence, not that it's a BIG issue... I'm just a picky guy, if it wasn't intentional I don't understand why no one at Trion noticed and said "hmmm, maybe we should change it a bit". Well to be honest I think someone did, if you notice the space between < > and the name is a bit bigger in Rift... eheh, it's the little things I guess
Comments
Played first beta seemed a solid polished game unfortunately the whole art and animation style did not appeal to me in the slightest nor did wow, war art or lotro animations and rift is the child of the aforementioned 3.
“Some players will decry the game due to the fact that they’re being handheld through the leveling process by the structure of quests.”
If your hand is being held from level one to top level then yes, I would have to ask do the designers still think the game needs to be in tutorial mode at the penultimate level? Hopefully by then we can assume players have learnt something about the game? But this may just be through the first couple of levels which is fine.
“They’re essentially supposed to be the main draw of the game, but as I spent more time playing I found myself avoiding them and going around them on my adventures.”
This could be a major issue, the rewards need to mean something for a player now, even if its just some gold.
“It’s really an amazingly deep and yet simple idea and one that I can’t believe hasn’t been thought of before.”
Sounds somewhat like the DDO upto three class sytem but with skill trees as a twist, interesting though.
“For crafting to matter, the crafted goods have to be as good or better than what players can obtain from other parts of the game.”
You need to divorce crafting from loot to make it work. Crafting makes the best PvE gear and quests (then raids) make the best PvP gear would be the ideal in my eyes.
I enjoyed the beta, it was a welcome change to play a game that felt as if it was actually ready for release.
However I left the beta doubtful that I would subscribe. The game is too much of a clone. It would be among the best FTP but a PTP has to offer something new, and this didnt.
I didnt like the game dcuo looks far better and wow still on top
They actually did "steal" the engine. It's a licenced DX9 engine from somwhere.
Collector's editions are scams.
I enjoyed the second beta, even though my ancient computer had me hobbling about at 2-3 frames per second at the reduced rendered graphics. My Mage/Pyromancer only made it to 9th level in about ten hours of play.
Yes, there is not much original here, but what there was, this particular mix, was quite exciting. It really conveyed the "invasion" theme to the hilt. The incidental damage from random catapult fire was cute.
I have not played many games, so one that has chosen the best aspects of the others, with a few nice twists of its own, might be the best buy for an elder noob like me.
This game is another reason for Santa to help me upgrade my computer.
If you get keys for the 3rd Beta, sign me up!!!
I think it's funny how with 2 weekend beta events people have so much to say as if they've played the game until end game and saw the whole thing.
About the review: I agree with some of the review but not all of it. I can say right now that after trying many of the different classes and bringing them to level 20, I found myself saying one thing over and over again (I wish I could of atleast played to 40). Both beta events I got my characters to level 20 in one day each. I ended up with 4 level 20's, and a few others 14, 10, and a level 6 character. I tried many of the classes and one thing for sure is that if you picked something that you ended up not liking it was going to help spoil the rest of the game for you. Also, vice versa, if you found a character that was too easy, you will too easily compare it to other easy games like WoW. It is a WoW clone and they don't deny it.
Personally, I was hoping for more EQ to go into it, but hey there will never be a perfect game that pleases everyone.
Graphically, i've heard bad and good stuff, I like the art-style myself so I would give it about a 9. Along with the graphics, something always sticks with me, is that some games have very good graphics but they don't seem to play well with the environment. When the characters walk, they don't walk on the land, they are gliding, etc. This is not the case with Rift. Trion Worlds actually did a great job with the way they handled the graphics and most of the animations (i've seen a few quirks here or there, but i'm looking for them when i'm playing). Other than the random weird animation issue, or the fact that one weapon didn't have a model so it was all grey (This was the only one I found like this throughout my whole experience in the 2 beta events).
Character Class/Soul System, Wow, i've seen this bashed, i've seen this praised. I really liked it a lot, when I was playing the Necromancer, Justicar, and Ranger, but some of the others still needed some work but this is stuff they are doing the beta for, to make changes, and tweek things that actually could be better, especially with the souls. I would give the soul system in it's entirety an 8. I think it could easily be a 9, but since my experience was different with some of the other classes, I can't say that. Playing as the warrior classes made me never want to play them again which was horrible, I never thought i'd feel this way about anything in Rift because honestly I would love to see it succeed, but i'm trying to be as honest as possible while posting what I can about my experience. I do want to mention, that I found it awesome to be able to mix classes together this way, It isn't like WoW as some people mention, It is different because even though the trees come straight from WoW, the fact that you putting points into a tree, and getting root abilities sets it appart. Your skills come directly depending on what points you put into the tree. Wow, just lets you decide how your character will be spec'd but you always get the same skills regardless. This distinction hasn't been made properly by most reviewers and I wish it would be, because otherwise people just see videos with tree's and automatically assume "They stole that from WoW too". As if Wow started that system in the first place (Which they didn't but whatever).
Rifts, The Rifts in beta 1 were easy compared to the the Rifts in beta 2. In beta 1, it felt like we were always doing the same thing between the rifts, but in beta 2, A LOT of different things were happening. During beta 1, I could run around, see there's a rift nearby, go try to close it, or let it be, but I never worried about the invasions as they were non-existant until the last day. In beta 2, if you saw a rift, and you could close it, you probably would because if you let it get out of hand, you would lose your quest givers, and they would take over the hubs, and make strongholds, etc. This made the rifts go from being fun for a little while, then boring to, Holy crap, this is scary, i'm not sure I want to go mess with that invasion without other people helping me and I loved that. Not to mention when they did the full invasions towards the end of the beta events with the bosses it was pretty bad-ass imo. Lots of fun during that time. I give them a 9 now, I would of given them a 7 during beta 1.
Gameplay, In general I was impressed by the game play. I went into it knowing it was a beta, expecting it to be beta qualtity and came from the betas thinking WoW, the game is very polished for a beta. During the beta 2 event there was a memory leak that was slowing the game down for the first few hours, they quickly came out with a patch to fix that a bunch of other things. As a matter of fact, from beta 1 to beta 2, the changelog was insane. I can honestly say, that when I saw all the changes from beta 1 to beta 2, I felt like there was a lot more people working on the game than I originally thought. I know they have millions invested, and i've seen the videos with all the people working there, but it really feels like they are working hard to make the changes people are asking for. If they are going to keep this up, until the game releases, you can expect a LOT more improvements in the game. Using this last beta as test for your decision to buy the game imo is a waste of time because the game appears like it will change a lot before release atleast class wise, and rift wise. Obviously they aren't going to change the whole game over night. I found the gameplay to be about a 8.5.
Crafting, The crafting system needs work. Currently it isn't as bad as some people say, I enjoyed some aspects of it, and I know for a fact that when I start playing my first skill will be runecrafting as it's going to be highly sought after. While crafting I would make stuff, then break it down, and use the stuff I get from it, to build something else, and so on and so forth, I didn't feel like it was a waste of time, like others have mentioned, but I also know that for some crafting classes you do waste some of your materials. I'd give crafting about a 7 right now, I would like to see a lot of things improved, but keep what made it a little tiny bit different from WoW.
That's all, All my opinion, but I did get to play the game for both betas and felt some of the stuff above needed to be mentioned.
Tell me some1 how they hell i can turn on Antialiasing in Rift on ATI cards lol.... forcing in CC dun work
, my eyes hurt much when these jagged edges are everywhere :P
You don't, it's not enabled yet.
This is, without a doubt, one of the worst written reviews I've ever read...ever. Judging by the two grammatical errors in the first paragraph I'm going to assume that this article was rushed and the editor was too hammered on eggnog to spot them.
I'm not sure what is 'definitely luxury' (just lol) about an MMO cloning WoW. The author seems to think that it is okay to copy what he calls 'tried and true' systems and yet he describes a rather mundane play-session. The author goes on to describe how impressed he is when he presses a button and the associated skill actually works. I know some of this years MMO releases have been let-downs but have we hit such a low that people are expected to be soundly impressed with basic program functionality? It distracts from an excellent point that the UI pulls your attention from the action and places it on the UI. I for one am tired of looking at 'healer-helper' boxes and status bars.
The fact that the author completely avoided the Rift system is a huge deal and the 'Soul' system description leaves a lot to be desired. I am left wondering weather or not speccing in wildly different areas of focus is viable or not. Also I'm not sure why crafting is not a big deal to the author. Just because it's not an activity he normally chooses to participate in doesn't mean that it's not important. Crafting mechanisms are the base for an MMO's economy and that is a subject that concerns all! Is the in-game currency we pick up going to be worth anything? Is there an auction house or some form of vibrant trading? These are important and basic questions I believe the author completely ignored.
The author finished by describing the game as 'playable and complex' despite it's familiarity. Again it's sad that players have become impressed with a new game's ability to function properly at release, but again I forgive that considering the trash that has been dumped on the market recently. I too echo the concern that PvP was not even mentioned but I believe that portion of the game was turned off during the beta.
Ultimately I can infer from the article that Rift will soon become associated with descriptive phrases like 'more of the same' and 'grind'. I wish William Murphy would have taken more of a stand against the rehashing of boring systems like kill quests for instance. A journalist must of course be objective but that doesn't mean that his writings have to be watered-down. Perhaps we are meant to read between the lines. Based on this article and the stories of friends who are beta-testing Rift, I think I'll go ahead and take a pass on this MMO. Bring on Guild Wars 2.
I really hate wow fanbois..
Btw I think most of users here does not know what beta means,for them:It's not final version,which means it's unfinished,lol at the genius who talks about the responsiveness.
Beta is to work out the bugs. In this case there have been 2 beta week ends 3 days only. Total of 6 days and that my friends is not enough time to work out anything. If this game is close to release they got a lot of work to do. We only seen two small areas of the game so far. folks are complaining how small it is, well that's because they not let us see a lot. I'm still going to beta test the next even that comes our way this week end and see. Hopefully some of the 18 bugs I reported will be fixed. Especially the music bug where it sound like 20 soundtracks played at one time.
Right now were just looking at a way over hyped game, and they way they planed the beta event to me was to hype it up so everybody wanted to get, and then got a VIP. So good marketing on their side. However to me its not lived up to the hype yet.
Then all MMORPGs are in Alpha because all MMORPGs, even ones that are ten years old, are being developed, patched or expanded. Beta is a TEST to see if everything is working as it should so issues can be addressed. It's not there to show everyone that the game is ready to be released.
I think the biggest issue with the MMO community today is everyone looks at the games they have already played and compare it to a new game. Comparing a game that isn't even out yet to a game thats been out for years and has multiple expansions is just ignorant.
Just so you know, TRION has already posted a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR change to the game for the next beta event, so you can't say we're testing the finished product. What are they changing? Well, for starters, all souls will be available from level 1 when you choose your starting soul. That's a major difference. What else? Well, you're not just going to get 1 point per level to put into your tress anymore, with a max of 51 at level 50. They haven't said how many we'll have at max level yet, but it's going to be much higher than 51, directly from Scott Hartsman's interview.
Hell, they also released a different, less "cheezy", voice-over for the Guardian intro cinematic because so many people didn't like the original one.
If there's one thing they're doing exactly right, it's listening to the feedback they're getting. If you think you have an idea that will make the game better, stop pissing and moaning on the MMORPG forums and get into the beta and submit it.
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions
in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem.
-Glen Cook
Just like WOW years ago ripped off Everquest.
Trion is a US company, not Chinese.
More embarassingly awful than say . . . APB or STO at launch or SWG post-NGE or Matrix Online or DDO at launch???
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
From an avid player of 10+ years in mmos (way back to The Realm), I loved the game. Simply loved it. With very high expectations after beta testing so very many recent utter failures, I almost did NOT beta Rift. But I did both betas, testing both factions and a vast amount of soul/class combinations.
The graphics were amazing. If one actually stopped long enough to look around at the environment and scenery, it WAS truly amazing. Underwater as well. And my old Nvidia 9300, aside from a low framerate, did quite well. The character models are very well done. Could use some more customization options such as muscle tone and width/girth of the waistline (or something), but otherwise quite pleasant and interesting. And NOT alien/freaky/weird. For those that beta'd Alganon, you can feel my relief at having pleasant looking character models! And armor, for that matter.
The armor and clothing was fantastically detailed. If you cared to look, I mean really look. You can dye certain pieces as you wish even. Futher customizing your character's look and feel in the game. As for crafting, I only did Outfitting (leatherworking and tailoring in one) but found it quite satisfying and not nearly as easy as other comments have made out. Later levels (those available so far) require daily quests to get tokens to buy more/advanced recipes. So while the act of crafting alone was quite similar to other mmos, it was still somewhat of a challenge to get said recipes. Add Runecrafting (similar to WoW's enchanting) to create runes to imbed into armore at creation and you can even further customize gear you make, or have made. This seems to apply to all crafts, though I again say I only tried Outfitting. Crafting, to me, is a huge part/pull/interest in any mmo. Rift does not lack here.
The souls and archtype concept is exceptionally well thought out, imo. I think for replayability alone, this will keep many hard core players interested and engaged. Deciding what to try was difficult as it was, so many options. This I liked quite a bit!
Combat was intuitive, not as cookie cutter as some lead you to believe. One still needed to discover which abilities/spells/actions in what order were most successful. Some soul combinatons made things quite challenging and death comes quickly if you don't pay attention to what you are doing. Trains (reminisce EQ1 players) abounded. Though they didn't get dumped on your lap to deal with like EQ of old. But if you bit off more than you could chew, it was possible to run away and live. If you were lucky.
Death and resurrection. If you die, you can soulwalk (stay where you are and resurrect on the spot) once per hour. Or respawn at the closest graveyard and run back to your gravestone. No experience loss, I imagine there will be a stat penalty of some sort but not during Beta.
The quests did flow very well, as others have stated. Some were the usual get 10 of this, kill 20 of those. But some quests were very clever, different and fun to do. The quests revealed the lore of the game, for those that didn't race through them to get to 20. Though I felt the Guardian side a bit disjointed compared to Defiant, the scenery of Guardian side was much more pleasant/pretty. It reminded me of LoTR, the movie, not the game. I'm sure this will be fixed come release.
The Rifts. Many folks liked, or disliked this interesting part of the game. Interesting heck yes! A rift can open anywhere, any time. Even on top of you while you quest. Everyone in the area WANTS to close the rift because if you don't, a Foothold will take place and the denizens of the created Rift WILL go forth and wreak havoc. Even destroying quest hubs and preventing you from being able to hand in quests until the foothold mobs are defeated AND the Rift closed. NO one mentioned that part. And I think it telling on how the game developers truly intend for the Rifts to function. Close them, defeat the rifts or you can't continue your questing. Band together with local players, be it in group or just to close the rifts. But get it done, or else.
That said, one does not have to group. You can do so, and it makes sense to when closing Rifts. But you do not have to. This I liked. I believe a successful mmo needs both group and solo play to be feasible for all types of players. If you only have a few hours a night to play, you might not have the time to search for a group or participate in raids. Being able to solo is important.
As for pvp, yes there will be pvp. But for those of you (like me) who can do without it, it will be consentual. No perma-ganking, no worries for griefers camping everything including you. There are PVP, PVE and RP servers. So I'm sure the intent is to keep those that want to PVP on their own server. Thank you Trion, for that.
As for F2P, no. Rift is to be a subscription based game. Thank you Trion, for that too. I hope they remain steadfast to keep it so. F2P games seem to bring in more money for the developer, but that game model takes away so much from the player. I have not played a F2P yet that I remotely enjoyed.
I do hope they include a WoW-like queue for battlegrounds or instances. Of all the things WoW, that I really appreciated for increasing the ability to find groups to do instances so easily. Some people may prefer to spend hours finding what they need in the game, but there are those of us who simply don't have that kind of time to dedicate. I hope Trion remembers us.
Overall, I really enjoyed myself and hope to be chosen for the 3rd beta. I will be looking forward to Rift's release and I will most certainly subscribe. I truly hope that this game, finally, will be THE one to be my new mmo home.
Lastly, to those that moan about wow-clones and rip offs from other games. From any business perspective, one emulates what is ALREADY successful and attempts to make it their own and improve upon it. So if this game, or any other, emulates other already successful games, it's a no-brainer as to why. Rift is unique in many ways and uses what most mmos are already familiar with (like the usual bars of UI buttons). And if some things seem familiar from other games, so what? Why remake the wheel? And why change what obviously already works?
Well done Trion. Well done.
Shannon at Rift-Craft.com
If the worst bug you found is related to the soundtrack, then I think that the game sounds pretty stable. Trion seems to have the advantage of already being beyond the point most MMO's are months after launch, in terms of platform.
I'm fully expecting that they can use that extra breathing room to polish the class system, both for soul trees and variety of skills. We'll see what they can pull off.
Good article i myself like the game even though its not great its a very fun game . Soon hopefully there will be higher level content to test and who knows maybe the overall feel of the game will become that much more interesting .
i hate all beacuse nobody give me vip key
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I have been having such a blast with this game.. i cant even describe it. It does have that addicting feel that kept me playing WoW for so long. I think this was written after beta 1, because they did not mention the increase in difficulty for rifts/invasions, nor the huge world events.
I will be buying this game on release, hell, ill probably preorder it, its honestly that good. Beta 3 will be the best yet, theyve made some pretty fair size changes for it.
Hope to see some of you guys in Telara!
I had the liberty of playing two of the closed beta events. I really enjoyed this game, it had great graphics and sound effects as well as a storyline that keeps you going... and the Rifts, those are killer! You are an ascended being brought back in time to restore a balance. There is a great storyline as well as many side quests and crafting as well... althought I was more interested in the storyline since it's only beta. There is a device you can acquire after about level 5 I think, it allows you to open a Rift if you are near a visible tear in the space time. There are also times when Rifts will open up randomly and once there was a major Rift event where there were so many Rifts, it was like an invansion! The developers of the game have really created a fun and intriuging story and you can tell the GM's really care about the customer with this one! This could easily take over the online game market and replace WoW as the new great MMO in 2011! Thankfully, there will soon be a game to replace the extremely old MMO's out there!
There's a correction I would like to point out in the article. It's the plane of Air, not Ice.
For those who have been in the betas, is it possible to change the game fonts? Besides the chat ofc, npc names fonts, etc??
Call me crazy but everytime I look at a screenshot with an NPC I can only think of WoW... not trying to make a comparison so don't get your panties in a bunch haters and fans alike
... but I think it's a ridiculous ripoff... I'm not talking about the whole game, because I haven't played it... I'm just mentioning WoW because of the npc "above head" text, and don't tell me it's all in my head lol
Playing:
RIFT, EU Blightweald Server
Waiting to see:
ToR, TERA, GW2
I'm not sure if you can change those fonts. Honestly I've not noticed a similarity between the fonts on RIFT npcs and WoW npcs. Then again it's been years since I played WoW. I would think even if it's not an option somewhere you could probably find / change it in your .ini or .cfg files.
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions
in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem.
-Glen Cook
To refresh your memory
Rift -> http://www.mmorpg.com/photo/6f7424b2-e84f-4651-abc0-a23f9d955a82
WoW -> http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2007/10/nutralflightmaster0.jpg
I think it's a bit too similar to be a coincidence, not that it's a BIG issue... I'm just a picky guy, if it wasn't intentional I don't understand why no one at Trion noticed and said "hmmm, maybe we should change it a bit". Well to be honest I think someone did, if you notice the space between < > and the name is a bit bigger in Rift... eheh, it's the little things I guess
Playing:
RIFT, EU Blightweald Server
Waiting to see:
ToR, TERA, GW2