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Beta Review: Extremely addicting. Not what I thought it would be at all.
Blackfire1
Member UncommonPosts: 116
Remember folks. THIS GAME IS IN BETA. Thus lacking that clear coat of polish game get in the last 2-3 weeks of work.
Here I thought it was going to be a shitty copy of Runes of Magic with Eq1.5/DAOC style graphics. Never really had any interest at all in another mmo. After wow took all the best features from all the best games and made them as smooth as silk its hard to really improve outside of different sideline mechanics.
I've been playing MMO's and RPG's since 1994. Outside of a handful of games I personally avoided like the plague (original EQ) I've either beta tested everything or subbed it for 2-3 months. (yes this includes a huge ass list of Korean MMO's I wish to not mention out of shame. >.>) I was even a paid tester for several years while working on my 3d animation degree in college. Why do I tell you this? Simply because I'm impressed.
Graphics:7/10
Oh what false advertising you are. Everyone knows we don't play MMO's for graphics. We used punctuation back in the day!
Joking aside I was over all satisfied at the graphics quality at this point in the game. Sure there are many odd things here and there. But it was pretty. Not cartoony at all. Personal Options for avatars is comfortable without being overwhelming. It seems to have a cross between a WAR, EQ, and DAOC feel in graphic. Generalized and filling art styles. Armor and weapons look very nice up close. Skin tones and movements are VERY fluid for being in beta. Sure there is the common oddity or graphics glitch. None the less. I say again. I've seen MANY "gold" release games that were worst then this. Kudos.
My only regret is spells could be abit more flashy. BUT I've seen a lot of placeholder effects. So its safe to assume there are a lot more to come.
Sound: 4/10
At this point in time the sound in the game are by far the most lacking feature. Attacking and spell effects sound muffled. Walking is louder then being hit. Many low bass tones and mid range stuff. Compared to everything else so far this is the one thing I'm concerned about. Sound in a game is more vital then the game itself. From a psychological standpoint that is.
We play MMO's for immersion. To forget our real world even if its for a moment or twelve. Bad sound will kill a game more so then bad sound will kill a movie. I'll judge this on release. More likely then not they'll add more options and work on the quality before launch.
Character options: 9/10
So we all get there are 4 base classes with a small army of sub class options. All of which in some way can feed off each other at one point or another. What I did not exspect is that all the sub classes actually FEEL different. I'll use mage as the cookie cutter example.
Take a Pryo, Elementalist, Stormcaster. At base form they all focus on one thing or another. Single damage, Support Damage/pet, and AOE/support damage. ish. Why do I say ish. Because the way you wish to play your character is NOT set in stone with the sub classes you chose. focus on pryo and there are skills in elementalist that will help you. Another example is elementalist, dominance, and stormcaster(what ever storm is called) all at one point focus on air and water.Thus feeding that area of work. At the same time. That same layout I could focus on the Water property of Storm.
Here is the surprise I found. You not locked into your specs. In fact if you want you can learn ALL the sub classes and pic and chose what you need or want to play at any given day. Thus limiting your need to be an altaholic. Why is this a good thing? Options. choice. MMO's have focused on roles. Warrior tank. Mages blast, Clerics heal, Rogues ninja hump things. Boring.
This little breath of fresh air is fresher then I imagined. Will everyone like it? Nope. But I would be lying if I didn't say I've never seen "multi class" executed in this fashion. It lets people play how they want to play. Unlike say Runes of Magic, where you basically level two characters on one avatar. Here you level one avatar with three character options.
That can be changed out at will. Is it perfect? Nope. Will it be? Nope. But like I said. It lets you play HOW you want to play.
Game-play/combat: 7- 8/10
We're all use to the smooth flowing feel of WoW and City of Heroes. Yes, city of heroes by design has some of the smoothest combat I've seen in awhile. Rift fits well between the speed of WoW/COH and EQ2. Not as slow or thought out as say Eve.
Now people have mixed feelings on how combat is offered. But we need to remember this is beta. The timing and such is not set in stone.
It kinda feels like a cross between the good combo-licious feel of WAR with the clicky fest of EQ2. Nothing like the 40 button combos' of WoW, COH, or Champions. What I'm getting at as it feels unique. Its new. Is it slow at first? yes, Hell yes. I'll admit it feel boring as shit until you get your first three souls and some point to play with. After that it takes off like a rocket. A very Evil methodically touchy rocket. Its fun. Just different. But all in all its VERY satisfying. Combat is fast enough that if your not paying attention you'll get eaten but slow enough you have time to think about what you want to cast/use next.
The Star of the game however are the Constant flow of events. The game makes it feel like someone out there really hates you and want to smash you into dust. There are constant rifts opening, assaults from the NPC evil faction, Mini game like event IN the rifts plus Boss's galore. The game feels active. It feels like if you don't take action these forces will eat everything around you. This is just the first 15 or so levels. Public groups are easy to join during events via a nice big button.
Gui: 8/10
I hope to god this will be revamped and more controllable in the near future. Its kinda big and clunky. It gets the job done but the organizing options in the options menu is chaotic at best. It can get very cluttered very fast during combat. Being able to size the menus and such would be nicer. EDIT: Ok I've completely missed the global UI scale option. I knew about the re-arrange option. Score edited to fit mistake. I can see now clearly now the train is gone.
So how does it stand at the moment for being in beta? Honestly pretty frigging good. Its the same thing done different enough that its fun and enjoyable. Give combat a chance. Let it warm up on you. You won't be dissapointed.
-------------------------------------
Over all verdict so far: Promising.
Note I haven't thought about possible hopinf to see what crafting is like. So I left that out since it is not my forte.
Comments
NDA has been dropped long ago - just saying.
There's still NDA for alpha, but i think you're talking about closed beta so...
/thread?
Oh. Well better safe then sorry. :P
And there is still an NDA. Just not for open testers.
EDIT: fixed. lol XD
As previous poster said, NDA has been lifted from all forms of Beta, the closed alpha (30+ content) is still under NDA though.
As for GUI, i think you've missed the layouteditor and global UI scale in interface options. I found the whole GUIsection be rather smooth with the ability to import profiles from characters on the same server, what needs work though is cross-server imports.
edited and fix'ed before bed.
I think we all, or most, can agree that the game is fun in the short term, so was WAR. But this is an MMORPG so the big question is if it will hold any lasting value. I.e. will it still be fun 3-4 months down the road?
That is where I have most of my doubts anyway.
My gaming blog
True. But this is only a beta review. Only time will tell how things are handled on a long term.
Hmm, i've been ignoring games like this and focussing on upcoming sandboxes. But i've noticed that when i finish work, i want a bit of excitement and adventure, a bit of socialising ingame too. Sandboxes haven't offered that for years. And this looks like it has something a bit different enough that it's not boring as hell and grindy.
I'm not going to bother trying to get into beta in any games anymore except for extremely unique ones, as i think repeating early content ruins it a bit. So, think i'll just get it on release day.
As i said in my previous post, this is why i usually focus on sandboxes for long-term goals, but i also want a bit of fun and reasons to play from get go. So it's a tough choice. DCUO i knew from day one it would be a game that would last a fortnight, and even glowing reviews didn't change my views. And, as predicted, a couple of weeks later, everyone is bored of it due to lack of any depth and being designed for PS3 primarily.
So, will wait and see if Rift can create enough long-term goals other than grinding for better gear, so you can use that gear to grind more...for better, and so on...
If the game was ''extremely addicting'' you would be playing it right now, and you wouldn't have time to write walls of text.
Doesn't this count for every game?
Edit:
To post above me ... are you kidding us?
No i'm not. It seems that people who like Rift spend more time on the forum praising how great and adddicting it is, than actually playing it.
Ah yes right ... hmmm.
Maybe people are at work or something, don't now. Just one of the possibilities.
Or maybe stopped playing beta, because I don't know, they made up their mind or ... not to spoil to much of the game come release.
Nah you are right, its because they are lying through their teeth and the game really sucks.
If you say so...
*Deleted.. Seffren beat me to it.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
Lol dude, at least have the decency not to quote me out of context.
Decent arguments get a decent answer.
Right ... I'm gonna have some pie now.
Bon appétit
Yes but MMORPGs are different from other games. You pay a monthly fee to keep playing it so it needs to have lasting appeal otherwise you just stop your subscription and if enough people do it then the game shut downs (extreme I know but just to make my point).
So for me, when it comes to MMORPGs, it is not so much if it is fun the first two months but rather in the long therm. Atleast if the devs want to keep me subscribed they should also care about the long therm.
WoW, shallow as it is, is constantly adding new end game content to keep people subscribed where as many others, such as WAR/AoC, really are not adding enough content and even did not have enough content at launch. Hence why they had to shut down half their servers.
Same will be for Rift. It seems to have alot of fun things to do in the first few months but I have yet to see any indications that their end game is interesting enough to keep you subscribed. And no, cloning WoWs end game content wont work, which has been proven again and again.
They really need to focus on what is unique in this game, which are Rifts, and make the end game surrounding those interesting and dynamic enough for people to keep playing the month for months to come.
My gaming blog
You are right ... I should have said MMO's.
And I agree with your post but still this is something we won't know until that point in time is reached.
Did we know at wow's release that it would hold our attention long enough?
Did we know at war's release it wouldn't hold our attention long enough?
I'm just saying that in regards to this issue we kinda need some faith, because we will never know what is around the corner, not for this game or any game that is going to be released.
The only thing you can be sure about is if you like the game or not ... now!
The rest is up in the air ... unless you want to wait 6+ months before getting into the game. But that comes with some obvious disadvantages.
I dont want to piss on your chips but what you say here is completly un-true.
I've been beta testing MMO's for almost 7 years now, and never.. not once, in the entire history of beta testing do game's get this 'clear coat of polish' that you go on about here.
Its a myth, a lie.. has never happened nor will ever happen. A month, even two months before a games release is server testing, most bug fixing will be related to networking, latency, optimisation and any problems that may occur from that.
The time for making game changes pre-release are gone! there wont be any more polish and the game will be nearly identical.... release usually means things get worse, never better. Never, its impossible.
Every single time people say this and every single time it turns out to be untrue, there is never an exception.
Hehe agreed totally, it goes for any game. And no matter how many times/years it happens, every new game, a new set of players says the same thing "guys, it's beta, it will be totally different in a months time, with strippers and guns n shit, will be awesome! Will have DirectX 27 graphics, i know thats what the dev said, how cool huh. I've never seen or met these guys, seen any of their work or even know they exist as a company, but i have total faith in them! ...it's shit now, but its beta!"
People unfortunately have no idea about anything to do with product development, business or game design whatsoever, which is a marketting departments playground.
Yes we dont know, which is my point and why it is the big question to be answered. So before praising this game as the next coming of WoW then take a critical view and wait before more is revealed about the end-game.
Not the end-game in six months but the end game at launch, or 1-2 months after launch, which is probably the average time it takes to reach the level cap.
Reason I am saying this is because I saw the same type of posts when AoC and WAR was released. AoC was awesome at Torthage, for many people, and WAR was awesome in T1-T2 but when people reached the end-game, which did not take long, they realised that is was severly lacking.
It is like driving a car. It might run well for the first houndred miles but if it start giving you problems after only a couple of thousand miles, then it was not that good of a car after all was it?
My gaming blog
Heh, when people post a negative review it's always "Omg play the game more before you review it!" and when someone posts a glowing review it's, "omg, wait until the end game, god I hear this all the time, people saying it's the best thing ever". Trolls will be trolls.