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I really want to like this game
Lord.Bachus
Member RarePosts: 9,686
It has almost all features i ever wanted in an MMO, nice scenery, dynamic content, oldfashioned quests, multiclassing, dozens of skills, trinity, casual PvP, good Dungeons with a very nice dungeonfinder, it has the diversity i allways dreamed off
But...
i started playing this game three times now.. Never got past level 30, and i wondered why? Now i finally realise why...
a) the annimations somehow feel cluncky and unnatural ( this i realised some time ago) preventing me from being immersed in combat.
b) despite all dynamic features, the world still feels lifeless, espescially towns and Npc camps
c) story (quests) and lore fall short compared with Lotro, SWTor, TSW and even WoW.
d) community is nearly non excistant.
nevertheless, i still think it deserves another chance, with an open mind..
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Comments
I think Rift is a fun game. One critique I have is that if you are not into raiding, you will hit the glass ceiling fairly quickly. So its good to keep in mind that this is a raiding mmo primarily, with a lot of other systems that are fun but not too deep.
Really? I didn't find the world that lifeless. I do feel the 'events' could do more and more could happen but it has more life to me then a lot of other games. Its one of those things that can really improve in most MMos. As for the story/lore I feel its vastly stronger then say WoW (though might be just me hating how they kinda butchered the Warcraft RTS story as time went on). LOTRO... honestly wasn't one I felt strongly for and it kinda of had a 'meh' taste to me (ignoring the world like I did for WoW). TSW and SWTOR I do agree though has a stronger story/lore going for it.
Really though I'd say its not that bad. Animations aren't the most clear though, as they could use more 'umph' to them, and the community unfortunately seems a bit void. Unfortunately though, it does feel like the community in most games a 'meh' and considering Rift is a game where community sticks out far more then many, it does stick out far more then normal.
I personally LOVE this game, and I feel its the best "PvE/raid centric" Game out on the market trumping WoW even I feel in its glory days when it came to Hammerknell in particular. I do have that feeling of things 'missing' and it does in a way create that void you say you had where it just feels like its perfect but... just has that gap missing its hard to say. It still managed to provide me over a year worth of gameplay, something no new game has done in years.
Are we talking about RIFT or something else? RIFT has pure PVE and PVP servers , well... they did at one point.
IMO RIFT is worth a first, second and third look...
The graphics are pleasing, combat mechanics are pleasing, there is everything in the MMO that is found nearly everywhere else except for one thing...
RIFTS!!!!!!!!!!
I never get tired of seeing rifts develop and put to bed. There are plenty of people still playing RIFT but you have to imagine that most people have been playing for some time now and that new players might not feel the 'barren chat' love... especially when most players are on teamspeak.
You want the most out of your MMOG? Then get these tools...
1) Teamspeak/Ventrillo
2) Earphones with a MIC
3) The ability to make new friends
RIFT is still my favorite GO TO MMORPG.
Ataaka - because the game doesn't start until 10pm.
I hate voice chat, i prefer typing....
voice chat has its uses, but not as a community builder.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
i also hate voice chat. an mmo which relies on voice chat for its community is one which is purely focussed on raiding/zerging. the fantasy element is lost. you might as well go play an fps like Quake 1.
tho.. maybe if voicechat had voice modification ?
Rift is a good game overall, but there are many negatives for me.
a) I agree with you on animations, but i would also add sound effects too. The combination of both of these make it seem unnatural.
b) I disagree about the world being lifeless, but the atmospheric audio could use improvements to make it more interesting.
c) Agreed. I couldn't get into Rift's lore at all.
d) This doesn't really bother me at all, unless it affects me in game.
I would also add, that bland character models with a terrible character creation system, and few races, is what really keeps me away. And the font on nameplates is just terrible. Why don't MMOs (including WoW) ever get the font right?
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
Chain quests killed the game for me. The game should have been built around the rifts not some annoying quest system.
Rift is like an ex gf to me, one that I tried to be friends with after the breakup, but the friendship ultimately becomes nothing but infrequent, casual playtime for all the same reasons the actual relationship didn't work: it just didn't keep my interest for long.
It's a decent game, and definitely worth a first / second look as many have said.
Love the analogy!
Played: Ultima Online - DaoC - WoW -
At lower levels i just cant get any world immersion, stories lines are so bland and chaotic withouth much cohesion. And being teleport all around the place for instant adventures that have no real story component doesnt work well either.
Despite its nice environments Rift still cant convince me at the 1 - 20 range on both sides... and on Defiant side it got even worse above level 20, now leveling a Guardian to see if theings are better there, 1 - 15 i have seen no improvement yet.
Keep in mind, that i am one of those players that wants deep intrigueing lore and quests in their gaming. And sadly i havent found any of that yet in Rift.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I tried Rift for one month during a Steam sale back when the game was sub. My experience mirrors your experience actually. I found the story and quests fairly standard fare. For me the lore and story of an MMO are one of the primary features that appeal to me. I have yet to find anything to match the story in LOTRO. I suppose being a huge Tolkien fan biases me but I find it is so amazing. The original Guild Wars story was interesting and even though I am playing GW2 I find the story in GW2 fairly mediocre.
I loved the Rifts initially but after awhile you say "Oh, anoither Rift" as you run by. Maybe it has changed. The community was fairly standard as far as I can tell. Ive always considered the LOTRO community one of the best, if not the best, in the MMO world. I recently returned to LOTRO after a brief hiatus and some stranger decided to give me some top level gear for my toon. Ive played many other MMOs and it is often even hard to get an answer to a question without snarky comments in many games.
Rift visually is fine, never had a problem. Animations never really bother me one way or the other. LOTRO animations I admit are really not that spectacular, although the new expansion might change that.
I always felt Rift was a solid game but I guess I want more than just a solid game. I still advise people to give it a try. Trion does a good job with updates and well worth a look.
Things i found to be disheartening are :
1. Each faction has exactly 1 intro area regardless of class/race.
2. on each faction every class/race combination doing the same quests; no variety based on class or race. whether it is story quest or area quest, all are just same.
3. the more i played the more felt like that lore doesn't matter. i did not find the lore engaging at all. quests should do better job at giving background of area or races living in it etc; like i used to find in WOW(at least reading the quest giver texts show some background in wow) but in Rift they are non existent.
4. no motivation to create another toon. as i have said every class/race combo does exactly the same thing, i do not feel the need to create another toon just to see a different class.
5. same achievement hunting on more than one character is pain. this is a new age game it should not have had such shallow feature to begin with.
6. cross faction pve and pvp. this is a real downer for me. if i wanted to be a lovey dovey religious shithead i would have chose guardian, i don't want to hold hands with them no matter what the situation and i most definitely don't want to be their "mercenary" and fight defiants. this feature really just pissed me off instead of making me feel relieved that i get quick LFD or pvp queue.
These are the few things i did not like.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
I hear you. I tried this game at least 3 or 4 times myself, all of which were trials and once when it went f2p. This game would have been "O.K" if it launched back in 2004-2006, but it was just too much of a re-hash from previous games. Granted their soul system is kind of unique but people are still pigeon holed into the "best" fixed-builds. Plus like you said, their animations are some of the wonkiest I have seen. Even wonkier than LOTRO's which they shouldn't be because it seems like Rifts characters are made with better rigs. Oh well, I'm starting to view Trion as the Nickelback of the MMO industry.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
I didnt like the background lore. But the story was very good imo.
I think your first three points resound with many, including myself. I remember exiting the training introduction and I was excited to see all of the cities I could, only to find each faction had one. Just one. The art and the colour palette used in the game contribute to the drab world the game occupies. Systemically, it's a solid game. They comprised a feature list and delivered it, but it lacks the other component of personality. After playing Guild Wars 2, I had a hard time coming back to that old style skill system, it felt needlessly rigid.
I always appreciated the class system, but I would have loved to see each soul have more concrete feelings to it. The skills really didn't bring out the lore behind them. There's this pervasive conflict in the skills where it seems like they want both flexibility and character, making the tradeoff in all the wrong places.
Rift would have my undivided attention and support if the quest-hub-grindfest questing was interesting and less in your face rinse and repeat from hub to hub to gain exp without caring about a story.
Also, Rift IMO has the most uninspiring architechture and armor design ever. I just dont like their artstyle, building design and armor design. I could live with those if i at least had the option not to go to the exact same place with every character to endure the aformentioned bad sequence based questing system.
i just moved on because i realized that unless a major overhaul happens to Rift its just not going to make me play longer than a few minutes.
Rift does well with what it does, I wish they had copied a little more from Final Fantasy than from WOW. The class system is awesome, the best in the world, but I wish there was truly epic quests, or random scenarios that allowed you to unlock souls. I also thought they should have removed archtypes all together and allow multi-souls across spectrums.
I thought each soul should also have to be invidually leveled in order to maximize its points. Imagine the builds it could have created, if they had done something like this, alot of people would overlook the lore and animations, cause it would be a lot more epic. As is it takes a week to get to max, then you are stuck grinding rifts and dungeons for fun
I just wish when i loaded up the game originally there was a list of 40 souls, and you picked 2 of em, and then youre first unlock came randomly from killing 150 goblins, and you wouldnt even know it. youre next soul came from collecting a random artifact set, and so forth.
this could make the game a bagillion times better in the blink of an eye. And allow all types of armor be used by anyone (heavy, medium, clothes, etc). The way it is now its really cool, but when you dig deeper most souls (within a class) are almost the same thing with different colors, visual effects, and name. So cross-class souls would definitelly make it feel varied instead of mirrored.
I'll probably piss a lot of people off here, but for me, Rift was one of the most generic, mediocre mmorpg experiences I've ever had. I agree with everything said in the OP. It felt bland, lifeless and the combat system was another flawed attempt to mimic WoW, but failed to do so, largely because of the lackluster animations. Add to that, you only had like two starting areas to level up in so making alts was an exercise in extreme boredom.
Then there's the "one button macro" thing that was (still is?) prevalent in the game. I had even read that they were just about a necessity in certain situations. That pretty much kills it entirely for me right there.
All in all, it just felt like a game that tried to be a mix of WoW and Warhammer, but failed at both. It has an intriguing amount of specialization options for each class, but despite that, I think I'd still go for WoW if I had to play either of them, and I'm by no means a big fan of that either.
Another problem is that everyone is an amoeba. Your character has no strengths or weaknesses. Some people love it, being able to have the best abilities for each particular encounter. I prefer not always be optimal and to have to work to overcome drawbacks.
WoW does it right with 2 specs. It allows you some flexibility so if you like tanking but your group already has a tank you can still be useful. But you cant switch from tank to healer to melee dps to ranged dps at will. And each spec still retains the feel of your class, where Rift you often change completely.
The soul system takes away strategy and also takes away your identity. Its fun planning builds for sure and WoW could desperately use the choices Rift has, but the choices just dont feel meaningful.
Rift would have benefited greatly from a 2 or 3 role max per character. But itss too late to change that now.
Op i have tried 4x to like it and every time i quit after 2 weeks or less.
The game lacks all aspects of Triple A ,everything is done with minimal effort.
It is not a multi class,it is more like a classless system because you can mix anything.The very first thing that turned me off was all i did was follow the linear quests and next thing i had access to 3 different class choices and i did nothing to earn it.
game play if you can call just following linear quests as game play was far too easy and for a good reason,it is that common trend of designing a game to solo.Of course a game to solo will be easy,you don't NEED the trinity or any class for that matter and you most certainly don't need certain buffs or de-buffs or even accuracy,you really need almost nothing.
Ok so i try a bit of crafting and again that feeling o being done half ass,so i go on to try the game's biggest selling point >>>RIFTs.
Yet again done very half ass,designed in a way to automate itself forever,i have no idea where the op gets "Dynamic" from,but i guess if GW2 can use that term,everyone can use it.They could have done soooooooo much with Rifts,that alone could have carried some weight towards being a triple a game but nope the same Rift that just pops up in different places and spawns a few different NPC's.
What Rift is an entry level game design.If Trion took everything they started and put more depth into it and more choice on game play besides the linear quests,it could begin to call itself a triple A game.Even the models seem smaller and lighting is not good at all,the whole game just cuts corners everywhere in design.
I won't begin to say i know for fact but Rift sure seems a lot like GW2 in that it is probably a 50 million game or less,when other big boys are well over the 100-200 million mark.I truly believe that developers now days THINK they can fool the majority of people into thinking they are delivering an equal game,but i can assure you not everyone is fooled.Bottom line you want a long lasting crowd to follow your game,put in the effort,not many can get lucky like Farmville or Eve or Wow but at least Wow put in some effort just not in technical or graphics.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.