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How Linear is it?
I am somebody that has been in a "MMO limbo" for a couple of years now looking for something that will catch and retain my interest. One problem I am having with the current MMO's is that the game is already on rails and ready to hold my hand as soon as I install.
So, my question is: just how linear is this game? If I leveled my main character all the way to 50, and then made a 2nd character - how unique of a game experience could I expect? Are the quests all spoon-fed to me? Do they give the player the option to choose where he/she would like to go? (E.g. Closer to what WoW was during Vanilla and TBC, NOT Cataclysm. LOTRO was also a good example of what I am looking for in a game).
I know some things will always be the same, but nothing makes me feel worse in an MMO if I can just simply click an NPC, hit accept without reading the quest text, bring up my map and run to the highlighted area of where I need to go where everything I need to kill or collect is once again glowing or marked for me to kill, and run back to said NPC (also marked on the map) to click and hit complete without reading any text (except the gear). It takes all the sense of adventure and unknown away from the game. I guess I could ignore these "innovative" features, but that is beside the point to me.
I'll just get this out of the way now as well: I have no intention of wanting to play a sandbox at the moment either. There are plenty of ways for theme park MMO's to retain the feeling of freedom and player choice when done correctly. LOTRO used to do this for me, but they too have moved into the game of marking my map and that non-sense. However, it still has a good quest system, otherwise.
This is not intended in any way to draw out a negative about RIFT. It is simply a game I have followed off and on for the past few months, and now that it is released I am looking for some honest opinions of the game in this regard.
Thanks!
Comments
i'd say it's a linear as you want to make it.
you can follow the quests if you want. i did that up until about 12, then i was just chasing Rifts and joined Dungeons groups. i'm 18 now
Some people will like Rift, but from what you are saying in your thread, it doesn't look the game is for you.
If you are an experienced MMO player you can play this game blindfolded (I hope this answer you question about the linearity of the game), if you are rather new to the genre give it a try though, it is a good game after all, just not great.
I've only played a few hours so far, but as far as I can tell it's basically a line. The rifts are repetitive and constant and in fact disrupting. I couldn't even get half way down with a kill 8 quest before the same rift spawned in the same place with the same enemies and the same rewards. Even getting to it was a pain since you had to fight through the same enemies in the same spots and they insta-respawned most of the time.
I truly hope it gets better later, but the first night was monotony and annoyance, in combat, skills, animations, quests, rifts and basically everything.
Some of the questing is do 'a' and it unlocks quest 'b''c''d'. There are also story quest
that explain what is going on in each zone and why that zone has those particular rifts.
There are daily quest sort of similar to what you see in WoW to gain rep with a faction.
If you get bored with quest, then Rifts are always appearing guaranteed somewhere on the map.
Some people skipped all the quest and just ground out the dungeons which is the fastest way
to 50.
Rifts will send out invasions and do what an enemy faction is supposed to do in a MMO and come
take over your quest hub, so you have to take it back.
This^
They are there, and if you want to go from quest to quest you can....but you can level without them at a good speed as well, you do not have to do them, even the storyline quest.
Is there anything else to do though? Level via quest or Level via grinding is basically the same thing, questing is just directed grinding. Any social aspects to this game at all? Not that it'll matter, in 6 hours and people around me constantly no one ever spoke even in response to a 'hello' or wave.
Handholding is constant in this game, but again you can always just turn off quest markers and the like if you wish to by filtering the minimap. Still, on default it is incredibly linear. The only difference are the Cult Saga quests, that don't hand hold and can't be soloed at the level you get them at.
By your description, this game would fall under "unbearably linear." There are even yellow circles and tabbing over quest mobs showing how many you still need, etc. You can turn off the minimap markings but yeah.. It's pretty much exactly as you described in your third paragraph with the exception of the cult saga quests. As you do quests, you'll run into rifts but that's about it. There's nothing really different about any of the rifts, they pretty much are quests/PQ's that multiple people can take a part in. (Same kill x format, some more mobs spawn, kill x of those, more spawns, kill boss, rift sealed.)
Each side pretty much just has one way of quest progression. (Every class will go through the same set of quests to level, there are no other options or Every class will go through the same rifts if you decide to do that) Same starting areas for all the races of the same side. Basically each side (Defiant/Guardian) has only 1 set of quests "on rails."
There are dailies for crafting, but they are the same, make X of these and bring them to some NPC. Fedex quest. Artifact collections, for explorers.. but not sure how viable that would be for leveling to be honest...
The questing is linear, but fans of this game will tell you that you can do other things besides questing.
There are not very many forced party quest at all because people actually hate those. Rifts
are generally where you will get into groups the most.
Pretty much this. They did nerf the hell out of rift experience so just leveling from them will take you a while.
Rift xp is what it is supposed to be. We are no longer getting lik 3 levels worth of rested
xp for being logged off for 8 hours like in Beta.
THe xp feels cut in half for a reason.
You can level from:
Quest
Grinding
RIFTs (these are "Plubic Quest", some will involve the entier zone when its an invasion, they happen every day with epic bosse that do not go down easy, sometimes not at all).
Crafting I think gives you xp as well
Dungeons
And maybe some things I am forgetting
As for "Any social aspects" its a MMORPG:
Guilds
Auctions House or sell direct to the players.
/Friends function
etc.
That is too bad. I have nothing against a game for doing this, because it is obviously a successful business model. It is hard to tell somebody they are doing something wrong when so many buy into it. It is just not what I am looking for. I may still buy the game just to get a look at the RIFTs and see how the affect the world. I do like the idea of having to fend off NPC's or your towns, outposts etc. will become overrun. Then there was the freedom of choice within in your character. So many choices on how to build your character via the different classes.
Questing/leveling for me makes up about 25-30% of what I enjoy about a game, as I don't do hardcore end-game now that I am no longer in school. I just wonder how long a game like this can keep my interest if I can basically level with little to no thought. It's also a plus that I can level in different ways as some have described. Still, I can not describe how much I have come to detest the idea of having my hand held while doing quests. To me it makes the world feel a little less "alive".
given what you have said, I don't think the game is for you. True, one can make it a less linear experience but the timbre of your post makes me think it's not your type of game.
the Quests are linear, you will be bringing your second character (if you want one, the soul system allows you to have different types of cleric, warrior, mage, etc) though the same content, everything kill/collect is highlighted on the map, etc.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
That brings up another question for me. How would you describe the sense of community on each server (or shard?). Is their a sense of pride (probably more a question for PvP servers, which I would prefer to play)? Do you think that down the road when the game has been out a few months that enough folks will want to go out of their way to help somebody out? Is everybody just a bunch of random unknowns running around without communicating at all?
I'll have to put some thought into it, and probably wait a little while to see the game progress some more. Then I can get a better idea of how people really feel about the game as a whole. I know I am not going to get that when the game hasn't even been out a month.
With that said I realize that sometimes you just have to take the bad with the good. You can't always have it your way right?
It depends on the shard. Seastone and Briarcliff it is a lot of pvp guilds from all over the
place on those shards so there is some serious e-peen waving.
I can not speak for others, but my shard people are not yelled at for asking questions atleast
on Guardian side. A guild is not for show in this and there are actual perks to joining one.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/03/the-guild-counsel-a-guild-guide-to-rift/
^ massively just did a review of the perks
If you show up where a named spawns for a quest, and the person standing there has their group set to public, you can join their party just pushing a little button on their portrait and both get credit for the mob. You can do this for other quest mobs as well, but some people set their group setting to private. You'll also get the people who will leave immediately, etc. The option is there, though.
In populated zones, there are people asking for help on group quests sometimes, and everyone helps out during the zone wide rift events. (probably only because of the rewards but yeah) Zone wides, 20+ rifts open and mobs start pouring out of them, and everyone gets a "quest" and finishing objectives causes the "boss" to spawn.
There is also little consequence for losing, as mobs will leave if you don't touch them for a while. (A shame really.)
You will get plenty of exp by doing Rift events unlike games like WoW you are not punished by joining a raid to get exp, and lucky that because with many rifts up you will want to be in a raid most of the time.
Rift invasions are hardly passive either, some form NPC raids and if you look at the map you can see in what direction they are heading.
( I am not 100% sure about the connection between many rifts open and the invasions that threatens the quest hubs, but they do occurs about at the same time.)
And if they are heading towards a quest hub (so far the quests hubs has been pretty small) you want to stop it because the raids has potential to wipe it out = no NPCs to give you a quests for a while.
Linear = predictable.
The rifts makes the game rather unpredictable I would say, despite it is so similar to WoW in other ways.
And rifts are created by players actually, from tears, so this means quest hubs will not be wiped out 24/7 in low pop areas as one would think, but there will be non-stop raid action in areas with many players.
Well, "right".
I mean, look, I'm having a blast. But in no way shape or form do I expect Rift to give me what I was originally looking for in an online game.
That said I take these games for what they are and if I find certain aspects to be fun then I subscribe.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Major rifts spawn invasions. Even if just one major rift is open at any given time, it will spawn an invasion and that invasion will setup a foothold where the invaders will congregate. Of course, you can stop that from happening, but that's their general goal.
There are also zone wide events where many rifts open at the same time. Then what you get is a lot of rifts and a invasions coming from all the major rifts at the same time. Closing the rifts prevents the spawning of invasions, but you have to kill the invasions too. It's actually pretty exciting and when you get to a spot to see all the rifts opening off in the distance, it's really cool looking.
Players can open rifts to trigger the encounters and players can do this in the opposing faction areas. You can use that as a way to weaken a Wardstone before taking over a quest hub in opposing faction territory.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
In that case I would stay away from Rift. It is rare that you need to read any quest. Since the game is divided in 2 areas you can level up 2 characters without repeating the same stuff however.
The questgivers are placed in certain nodes and the quests is usually close, or a fedex quest to the next questhub.
Rift have many good points but interesting and well written quests is the thing it does worst. My recomendations is to level as much as you can in dungeons instead. That is a lot more fun.
That's the problem I have with MMOs these days as those are "social mechanics" at best. What I miss is the cantinas of SWG where you'd have entertainers there dancing and playing music and chatting and adventurers coming in for buffs or healing or just to hang out. Or stumbling across a Ranger camp in the middle of the wild with the same kind of thing happening. That's real social interaction, not like an auction house market interface which happens to have player sold goods.
There seems to be just no place for that kind of thing in today's MMOs anymore.
That is so true.
Conan spends more than half his time in a friggin tavern. Where is gambling, dancing, drinking contests and other social stuff like that? A drunken bar brawl or 2 wouldn't hurt there either.
Guilds should be able to hold tournaments with jousting knights, duels, dancing and similar things. And I actually want to see the other knights joust (and maybe bet a shilling or 2 on one of the other knights) when it isn't my turn. Maybe deliver a flower for a pretty maid after beating down my opponent from his horse.
Socializing can be fun and I misst that aspect of gaming today, I had assumed that it was a part that would grow as time passed but it have dissapeared instead. Which is surprising since people otherwise have become a lot more social with Facebook and Twitter ....
I agree wholeheartedly. Anything that will bring the world to life and have interaction from the players I am in favor of. I am sure this is what the developers have in mind with the Rifts. I don't think they should stop there though. Just get the players out of the cities. Too many ways for a player just to sit in a city and queue for a dungeon and/or battleground without ever having to leave. Horrible game design IMO.