Some unsorted free weekend drivel

Volgore

After giving up on Rift in beta 6 for various game related reasons, I just played some hours on the free weekend pass. Back then the beta-client was running pretty bad on my machine, so I was mainly interested in checking if the game's performance has improved.

Client-dl was pretty fast at 3.8megs/s, installation/patching/login went on flawless as expected.Once ingame, i was pretty surprised that the client did run alot better, but still not well enough (on my pc) for the game's overall visual standard. I've had very low ping and no lag, all actions turned in "live and direct" so to say.

Chloro/Archont/Pyro (i just mixed something up without checking the synergies too much) was fun to play, but like in the beta i still think that many respective callings' classes feel too much the same due to their similar baseline abilities. Give or take some cast time and dmg, many only vary in visual spell effects, but basicly play all the same. Pardon me if this changes in the later levels, as my highest char was only in it's mid 20s.

6k keys left of 10k doesn't look like the free weekend is a big hit among the mmorpger's. Looks like players interested in Rift already got their subs up, while those who aren't cancelled past day 30 or didn't even buy after the betas - so there doesn't seem to be much inbetween as the remaining key-count indicates. I also haven't met anyone else in the starting area of the "medium" labeled PVE-server i picked.

If you have some free time at hand this weekend and don't shy the download, i'd recommend to give it a try and get an up to date picture of the game's state, as far as the early levels allow.

Devros

 

Interesting that you site classes playing the same as a detriment and that you picked a PVE server. Personally I hate classes and I think they should be all the same for balance reasons, and the game should be open world PVP. Variety can exist in a million other places including art, lore errects among a few - but thats my personal preference as I never play PVE. At this stage PVE in games is really old and repetitive and boring. PVP at least ads spontaneity and surprises you quite often.

I do know one thing, playing WOW on a PVE server is completely useless, its a very different game on a PVP server. I am hoping the same for RIFT as I play more this weekend.