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Rift: Ashes of History Impressions
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Last week's Rift: Ashes of History update has been heralded as one of the most publicized and anticipated patches since the game's launch in February. MMORPG.com Associate Editor Suzie Ford has a few thoughts to share about Ashes. See what she thinks about her experiences as a level 50 in Rift. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Last week, Trion released the “Ashes of History” or v1.5 update which brings a lot of new activities for level 50 players. Some have called it the “Endgame for All” patch and, indeed, it seems that this contains a nugget of truth. The Chronicles dungeons allow one ultra-buffed player or two level 50 players to take on some of the content that only those who participate in raids had seen before. In addition, Ashes brought in some great veteran’s rewards, a new warfront, the Planar Attunement system and more.
Read more of Suzie Ford's Rift: Ashes of History Impressions.
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Comments
Well said. I feel the exact same. I resubbed to try it out and unsubbed within a day after I got past the cool Intro Chronicle. It almost seems like this system would be better when they add more content, like new zones with their own questlines etc, in order to lessen the feel of the grind for PA.
Almost like, its a good foundation to build on but subbing to play with it right now doesn't change anything of what I was doing before. To me, the game is just too small, if that makes any sense. It does a ton of things right and is fun to play, for a time, but...it needs to grow a ton and become "deeper".
I did the same thing.
I subbed for a month to check it out, logged in for a few days and have not logged back in since.
Great game and I really enjoyed the time I spent in it, but IMO too much of the same old same old. I personally get the feeling of - I was doing the same thing 5 years ago, just in another game- when i play Rift.
I will keep an eye on it, but overall I think my time in Rift is over. Most , if not all, the people I started playing with have quit due to the same feeling I have about it.
I need something besides. raiding for purples, so you can raid for more purples, so you can raid for more purples. If that doesnt change in this next crop of games then my time with MMO's is probably over. It was fun for me 7 years ago, just not so much now.
Give them some time, they need to research the rest of the existing MMO titles to find more "original" ideas.
Its Stillmoor not Stillmore
This update was more of a build up for 1.6 which is gonna be pretty significant in all area's. The event for Ashes of History begins next week I believe, which will then lead into 1.6 which opens new raids, dungeons, a new region (the Ember Isles), new systems and all sorts of stuff. 1.5 really just kind of put some of the new systems in place in preparation. Something that Trion mentioned at gamescom several times and it surprises me that people still don't get it lol. For an update that's more of a preliminary than anything else it's pretty meaty.
Well written article, though! So cheers for that.
RIFT is a MMO that's at it's best when played with people, so if you join a guild you'll find yourself occupied and satisfied with most of it's content which it has an abundance of. We're seeing more solo/duo content added which is great and all but it is an MMO that was built around the idea of many people taking part in these things.
I like how much coverage Rift is getting from having solo instances even though Aion had them like 2 years ago with haramel, krods trial and that tree one lol. Guess no one will ever remember. Shame because I thought that was a really cool new idea for Aion.
The difference is Aion was a horrible game, and Rift is in fact fun with, gasp, itemized dungeons raids events invasions etc.
"Its better to look ugly and win than pretty and lose"
Yea ... I quit a few days after my first raid. Had fun for the most part up until then .. nothing they have added really seems to have changed much of the bordedom I felt at endgame. In fact the additions of the LFD and things like this are a main reason I wont return. There is just no community in the game (or any other game anymore for that matter) .. so i'll just continue to wait for this ezmode gimme-everything-now phase the genre is going through wears off.
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
With 1.5 it's the same as it was with every other patch before:
It raises hopes for a change, but then after a week you always find yourself just hanging on again until "that other patch" hits live -supposed to bring a change again.
There's never anything of substance that really adds to the game what it desperately needs. By now everyone should know that.
28 EU servers with barely two of them hitting high at peak times, game offered for 8$ every 2nd week, please sign us a long time sub and you'll get your reward in advance = still folks quitting left and right.
If by Q1 in next year Trion hasn't done anything that blows the gamer's socks off, i can tell you what patch 2.0 will probably contain.
What the game needs is a huge addon A S A P.
Until I find a reason to leave the same game I've been playing in World of Warcraft, I'm not going to bother. There were some nice things about Rift, but I've had my fill of new mmorpgs with instanced BGs. I can stay where I'm at and get a much larger world and overall gaming experience.
They really should have tried a tad harder to make the Azeroth feel go away. Shame they never got into Dark Age of Camelot mmorpg mechanics...but then, no one has. Hence the cut and paste in many many ways.
I lasted ten hours with the new patch... then I let my subscription end.
Goodbye Rift.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
And Everquest 2 had it years before that.
Doesn't diminish the funness of it though
Way too many bugs for me, laggy and customer/tech service continually sent canned answers. I have (still) another month left on my account (which I have not played in a month!) and it will draw cobwebs until then. My poor lvl 50 rogue... wish I could take him with me to sw:tor!
And Caesar's spirit, raging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
dear suzie,
youre right, 'ashes of history' is only a minor upgrade of the game, but trions marketing devision decided to handle it like it is a major one, seams to be a mistake. its only an appetizer and i'm sure trion will give us some of them every month till the big addon (q1/2012) will be launched. probably around 2 months after release of sw:tor to get some customers back, who will not like sw:tor and before gw2 will come around.
but lets be honest, it seams that the majority of the mmorpg-community is in some sort of waiting line playing rift, aion, wow (again or still) and other games until some of the upcoming games (promising new story, content, features etc) will be released. i'm playing rift only to bridge the time until sw:tor and i fear i will play sw:tor only to bridge time until archeage and gw2. but thats another disussion.
IMO it is a pretty huge upgrade. Just the Tier 1 PA's alone will take hardcore players 2-6 months to max out all 6 planes. The casual will never finish. The Chronicles are well done. They are easy solo instances but then again they are made for new players to give them a taste of the raid dungeons. Pretty brilliant and well done.
Trion keeps putting out an amazing amount of content. I have never seen a game put out this much content. With the new island coming in 1.6. along with a new continent in the works that will double the land mass and rumor has it add housing the future is bright. Hopefully we will be seeing a new 20 man raid dungeon in the works soon.
The bottomline is the casuals and whiners will never be happy. They are not long term players in any game. They are just replaceable fodder who help pay the development bills so real gamers can play. They demansded solable dungeons and they got it. But as always they continue to complain as the problem is not the game but themselves.
Gosh guys, that is neggative towards Rift, I am a MMO freak :P, and I can tell you Trion is doing everything very right
I am in a very active community in an awesome guild and loving the game! :P
So its sad that some feel this game is small.
I think it is here to stay and proof to the rest that it works, and for me its one of the least buggy mmo's i have ever played, if its buggy, maybe you should get some new hardware
Positive thinking will change your attitude dude
tho still quite new to rift i find it quite original in a lot of areas if you compare it to wow and these devs do not hold back stuff that may add a little more depth to their game like blizz with path of titans *cogh*
i mean i always went back to wow here and there to take a break from eve or darkfall or other full loot games and it surely is unmatched in polish and all but blizz is not adding anything new, it's just the same old all the time with a new skin.
all you do is stand around and wait for you dungeonbrowser/bg to open to get items, more items and start with items from scratch right again after. as every activity just grants items they very soon make others obsolete and you end up with hardly any varity in what you can do. for me this always felt grindy very fast and on top i knew nothing of the items i will get will last..my full loot games often have stuff last longer thant wow ^^
in rift on the other hand i am around in the world most of the time, doing some rifts, dailies or weeklies here and there and when i want to do something specific most of the time there will happen something within the game world on the way that i will glady do first, like an event, pvp rift or something. i just like the dynamic of the world.
so while i surely try to get better gear in rift also and do some farming for mats or rep, i am also busy with artefacts, pvp ranks and now the new planar achievement system which will grant my character something over time that lasts. no idea why but i hardly check how much i advanced in my pvp rank or the planar system as i do not feel any pressure to advance but just have fun play and advance on the way.
so overall i always thought rift is just a simple wow clone but had to find out it's just way better in nearly every aspect. my new themepark favourite for sure ^^
Though i enterd the 1st and 2nd betas, and recently used the 7 days trial, only a week a go, with help from a friend of mine, i start to play Rift as an inside gamer, and what i noticed.
Definitly this game is only for top level. There are so much things for level 50 (system game, sets n weaps, ...) thats stupid to use any kind of currencies before that (besides pvp soul). I know it's a rush to lvel up to 50, there are rifts and quests, and warfronts, but still so aliked. Just as example, i haven't spend so much time in game, and after 5 days i was lvl29 (2/3 hours/day with any kowing of the game system... probably my 1st alt will take a day or 2 ^-^.
I am enjoying it, not a "super-duper" but nice and has all kind of gamers tactics to level (questing, grinding, dungeons, pvp,...) i think it's one of the most general mmorpg's ever made, but im a bit noob so
Btw, some things was writen before me were not wright:
In aion the solo instances, the 38-44 is Kromede Trial, and the 51-50 is Taloc's. I really don't understand why someone knows the lvl18-22 and doesnt know the others, hmmm, maybe didnt get there, lol, am i wrong?
Someone told that didnt got a game that carry him/her out of WoW. Imo it never hapened, and it wont hapen, just because it's hard to leave a game like WoW, when it gave us so many funny hours, but comparing WoW to Rift, thats kind of strange, all the gamers that say there are no games like WoW, please take a break, open your eyes and mind and try others as noobies, not as 7 "yearoldgamerinthesamegame"
That's what i did, and of course with all those business mistakes NCSoft is doing in Aion, i still think it is one of the greatest, live. (oh they "killed" L2 too, didnt they?)
PS: When i get to lvl50 i'll give more news, lol
My impression of the game pretty much matches yours.
It was fun for a little while, but the smallness made me feel clautrophobic. I actually think they did some things that were quite clever, such as the merging of dead mobs to make lotting easier and the movable UI (especially being able to put reactives on the screen anywhere you want).
But crafting (to me) was even more lackluster than you-know-what-game's, and the mob AI, if possible, was even dumber.
Rift is by no means a bad game, but it just didn't have anything to hold me much past L40.
it cracks me up when i see people going "oh just wait for 1.6, 1.7, 1.etc!!!! its going to change the game so much for the better"
then the patch comes out and its the same stupid crap over again. oh boy master mode dungeons!!! oh wait... its the same shitty dungeons ive been running every single day for 6 months.
oh boy AA's!! oh wait they dont really do jack shit, oh boy solo dungeons!!! oh wait you have to grind the shit out of them too if you want the gear cause its random drop for all classes even though you can do it alone.
grind more grind more grind more grind more, oh hey look, a new mount! grind grind grind grind DIE!!!!!
I agree with that, but for me anyway, every guild I joined (and I tried many) started out with pretty good presence
(i.e. guildies on-line at the same time) but eventually, and usually fairly quickly, got to the point where I was frequently the only guildie on-line, or at best one or two other high-level guildmates.
Trion killed the warrior class.
Welcome to MMOS?
Fargol, its not so much defensiveness as trolling and being a blind fanboi..and maybe also being 14.
I played RIFT when it came out and left a month afterward. It was trying too hard to be yet another WoW clone. In doing so, they copied and pasted a lot of colorful fluff and ended up creating a very shallow game. To make up for the lack of depth they spliced in the need to grind for anything meaningful to give the illusion that you were actually progressing through their "content". Much of the content itself was half-arsed and meaningless. Crafting, anyone?
Its colorful, it is fun for the initial couple of weeks, but as something worth investing into with time and money..? Not for me, unfortunately. They are the masters of superficiality and unoriginality, building a glitzy, hollow experience that pleases those that like that sort of thing. For those that like more meat on the bones of their games, it is a dismal disappointment.