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Looking for an honest and up-to-date assessment of Rift.
MindTrigger
Member Posts: 2,596
Hey, All.
I have seen some reports that this game is "boring", "stale", etc. I have read some official reviews, and I understand there is nothing particularly innovative about it, and that it is basically a WoW clone. My question is, are you having FUN? I'm looking for something to do until GW2 drops and we see some truly innovative gameplay again. Rift seems to be about all I can expect this year. What do you guys think? Is it worth picking up and playing for 9-12 months?
Thanks in advance!
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.
Comments
You'll need to be more detailed about the things you're looking in an MMO. The answers you'll get will still be biased, but at least you'll be able to use them. Right now all this thread invites is comments of the "it rocks" or "it sucks" type.
It's a themepark, heavily based on WoW. I didn't think any detail was needed. I'm just wondering if people are having fun, if the game keeps them coming back. I know it isn't innovative, but with all the other crap out on the market, are people finding this to be exciting enough to pay for beyond the box? If so, why?
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.
Well while I'm not sure if there is content enough currently for 9 to 12 months of gameplay. I've been playing it for the time it's been released, I have a max level character and yes I am having a lot of fun. The questing is boring sure, the rifts are entertaining, the pvp is unbalanced but still very fun, the dungeons are very entertaining (experts being incredibly difficult) and I haven't experienced the raid but if it is anything like the expert dungeons then I'm sure it's very well done. They are updating the game alot, and the population didn't drop off much at all after the first month if that tells you anything. But from my point of view, it is very fun.
I got a solid 5 weeks out of the game, many, many hours of played time.
Rifts are fun for a while, then they get old. Then, you have to readjust to looking at the incentives for doing Rifts. The incentive part had been good, but the last 2-3 weeks, the rewards fell off a cliff and we still don't know if it's a bug in the way the Rift related currency is awarded, or a deliberate design decision.
The ability to "build your own class" was a huge draw for the game, but they've been reducing viability of a number of builds that bucked traditional fantasy RPG conventions for each calling. More subtle changes seem to be signalling an overall trend to make a number of skills and builds non-viable, to make balancing easier for the developers. If you like playing to the narrow, predefined roles of what each main class type should be, this may not be a concern. Looking for something that offers a lot of freedom in designing the class you want to play? Those choices seem to be becoming more illusionary.
The world, in general, looks good. There are some zones that prove to be exceptions (I thought Scarlet Gorge, the first shared zone, was about as bad as you will find in any recent MMO). The quests, in general, are very good. Once again, some exceptions. Quick access battlegrounds, (here, warfronts) are ok. Not the best implimentation we've seen in an mmo, but ok. Crafting and gathering are about on par with WoW, with some minor innovations.
Armor looks are a mixed bag. Some good, some pretty bad. Not much variety in look for any given calling (class), but you can dye armor. No cloaks or tabbards to cover up armor you don't really like, but wear for the stats.
Dungeons are pretty good. End game gets very repetative though and they recently greatly increased the number of times you need to repeat them to gear up your "end game" gear.
The community is ok. Most of the real idiots left after a week or two.
The world size is fairly small. When following quest progressions, the zones feel bigger than they are. Go out exploring or gathering, though, and the size hits home. Another minus is that there aren't many zones in game. There is no redundancy to leveling path, other than to switch factions. Even then, with so many shared zones, it isn't a complete scenery change.
On the plus side, even though what you can do with the soul system of character building seems more limited than at launch, it's still nice to know that when you have a character of a given calling; Warrior, Cleric, Rogue. Mage; that you gain access to all the builds for that calling. You can buy up to four Roles to store builds in that you can easily switch between (just not in combat). Respecs of a role are pretty cheap as well. So, if you don't like the way your warrior plays at any given level range, you can change the build entirely, or keep alternate builds for different functions.
I'd say good chance you could get a solid month or two from the game, but I wouldn't make predictions past that point. I expected to renew after the opening month, but just couldn't do it. I'm going to watch the game, though, and may return at some point.
Maybe not a Keeper, but not a bad game for a short jaunt and some people will find it a longer term fit.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Quest were fairly generic and repetitive i.e. kill this, collect that.
PVP is terrible, somehow they managed to turn PVP into a boring, instanced, grindfest.
Rifts are ok, but get repetitive.
Dungeons are ok, but again, get repetitive. Most of the expert dungeons you do at 50 are the same as the low level ones, just harder.
Graphics are decent, but nothing outstanding IMO. Animations are poor.
Armor, pretty generic... and lack variety.
Gameplay, pretty generic and slow. Lots of waiting for GCD's.
Class system is good, however they seem to be moving toward pidgeon holing classes by moving abilities around, nerfing others etc..
All in all though I enjoyed my month, but got bored pretty quick at 50 and didn't renew.
RIFT has a sense of familiarity that works both for and against it. On the plus side, it lets players familiar with the genre jump into the action without problem. MMOs such as FFXIV wanted their own take on the online formula, resulting in a buggy disaster and a complete departure from the genre. However, people hoping for a change of pace might find the blend of World of Warcraft and Warhammer a bit too mundane. For what RIFT tries to do, it does very well. I rarely felt bored with all the random events and rifts constantly breaking up the monotony of questing. It’s also important to give Trion a tremendous amount of credit for releasing such a “complete” MMO. Sure, my game crashed on a few occasions, but I never encountered any major or even minor bugs. As long as this game continues to receive care and attention, there will be quite a few players taking a vacation from Azeroth to experience the salvation of Telara.
I just wrote a whole review with ratings and features on the blog. I am a thirty year gamer, yes that means I'm old, but it also means I've purchased just about every western Daiku MMO worth mentioning. If you have any more questions shoot them my way.
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/Skuldin/042011/21609_Rift-Review
[Mod Edit]
Ryan
Thirty years of gaming experience...not sure if I should be proud of that
www.mmoexaminer.blogspot.com
I have read it, commented on it. Pretty accurate (or at the very least, I share your point of view).
P.S. The game kept me pretty addicted until I hit 50 and crafts 300. At that point, I realised that all i have left is to do the same quests and dungeons every day. I left, and to be honest, I look at the icon on my desktop and go "mmm, neaaah".
P.P.S.
Sorry for this, I just had to say it. I have played rogue archetype, and they have the worst armor design I have EVER seen in a game. Bland, no substance, no detail, I kept feeling like a damn beggar since level 1 up to level 50.
And don't dare tell me about the uber-end game armor sets. I don't like them either, but if I did, I don't think I should wait until past the max lvl to look good.
It's WoW with better graphics, more polished UI that doesn't scream for addons, with very unique story for yet another fantasy game, with dynamic content, which, basically means raids open for everybody anywhere in the world at any random moment, without any flying mounts and with no blood elves.
Watch some youtube videos and decide for yourself.
"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."
Hans Margolius
I enjoyed 1-50 since I was doing quests, puzzles, exploring, rifting and running dungeons all the way up and it was varied enough to be exciting. Now that I've been 50 a while I find myself logging in less and less as my list of things to do is now: crafting daily, world event dailies, rep dailies, expert dungeon dailies and possible repetative guild quests.
Not that this is anything in particular wrong with Rift, it's most MMOs that follow this path, I don't want to do the same content for weeks or more.
I feel exactly the same. I hit 50, played one more day, and now I have not logged in for 3-4 days. I find myself looking at the desktop icon and go "mmm, should I? neaaaaah!".
So I linked this site's blog where I posted a full review and now it's missing on this thread. Did I break a rule? I mean I didn't want to copy paste my entire review from the blog so I just listed the link. He wanted an up-to-date assessment and I gave ratings etc.
Could a mod please explain?
Thirty years of gaming experience...not sure if I should be proud of that
www.mmoexaminer.blogspot.com
Thanks for commenting, I was starting to wonder if the only way to get any responses on a blog was to say, "worst game evar!!111!!" or some crap. Regarding the gear, I actually played a mage, not horrible until you got to our friar beanies, but then I at least had the option to hide my helm. Warriors and clerics, to me, looked the best.
Thirty years of gaming experience...not sure if I should be proud of that
www.mmoexaminer.blogspot.com
I agree completely with everything you stated.
It's a pleasant diversion but I find myself logging in less and less. I did continue past the first month, but I highly doubt I'll go beyond that.
If it had better/more robust crafting I'd likely stay around. It's underwhelming at best.
There's nothing wrong with the game per se, but it just doesn't grab me and pull me in.
If you liked WoW you'll love Rift.
Its like the ads for a bad movie that copies a good movie, if you like that movie you'll LOVE this one. Usually its not true, and this is no different.
Another boring gear grinder ftl.
Unless you like that sort of thing, then its good.
Not gonna be buying this one, unless they really put out a lot more content than whats already in there.
I always felt the entire concept of "random" rift battles were going to start feeling like any routine Kill X, Talk to Y quest once the novelty wears off.
There is still a lot Trion can do to make this game a real winner, but we need to wait and see if Trion can deliver.
The combat system is a lot like EQ2's.
A lot of the game is like EQ2. If you like EQ2, you'll probably like Rift.
As others have commented it has to do with what you are looking for. If you are a casual gamer and want something else, or a game that is better than your previous game Rift is for you. If you are a "play 6 hours per day" type Rift is not for you. Personally I like Rift because it works and that it avoids EQ2s biggest problem nowadays that all content is either too easy or to hard. Rift reminds me of EQ2 in better days but improved. But if you play EQ2 or WoW and love it, Rift is not for you, stay in your current game.
Chi puo dir com'egli arde é in picciol fuoco.
He who can describe the flame does not burn.
Petrarch
I,like many others, just became very Blah'd out by the game. Rifts are fun... for a while. Then they get annoying. If you're questing, there's nothing worse than having the main Rift for the region spawning. You close it and sometimes, not 15 minutes later, they're invading again. Running from point A-to-point B I feel like I'm CONSTANTLY battling. I stopped mounting up it was so annoying.
It's not that it isn't an ok game. It's that it's all been done before. They took the best bits and combined them. It's a strong sense of deja vu.
I'm having fun.
For now.
After reading about ArcheAge...I think I'm just settling, though.
Rift is a great game to settle for until bigger and better ones hit. It is FUN, but it can get annoying at times and seeing as I've hit 50 already there isn't much more to see except the Greenscale Raid which probably won't happen as I don't have the time to spend running dungeons over and over and over just to "schedule" my life around a Raid. I had this same problem in WoW and Lotro. While I WANT to see that content, time and my playstyle just don't allow it. So I tend to roll alts and play the game over. This is ONLY good if the game offers a compelling Alt playstyle, which Rift does not. SWTOR from what I have read looks to be about right on the money on how to implement awesome alt play.
Still though, I'm not upset I bought the game, as it is "something" to play while I wait for SWTOR, GW2, ArcheAge, The Secret World. It's just not going to compete with those games when they hit, at all. I look at this in a positive light though, it means Rift will stay on my PC and will be a nice "alternative" or "break from main MMO" game in the coming years. Much like EQ2 was in the last few years when I got bored of WoW and Lotro.
I just didn't feel compelled to try out different characters for both factions due to the dull questing. With the soul system it seems like 1 toon is all you need. After my first dugeon run at level 20 or so I quit playing because it felt entirely like the end game was going to be what Rift's all about. After burning out on WOW end game I felt I didn't want more of the same. I decided to log back in before the month was up and noticed someone on chat calling everyone that did an instance with him retards. Everyone in the game was retarded according to him so that put the nail in the coffin for me.
I'm looking forward to SWTOR and it's unique story for each class. However, I'm not looking forward to the traditional holy trinity style. End game needs to change imo and too bad SWTOR didn't take a stab at it and instead went the traditional route.
Let me take quote from Churchill
"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
Just like that holy trinity may be terrible but everything else other than that have been tried and have failed. CoH for example orginally tried a classless approach in beta what happened was everyone speced for melee/ranged class with tanking abilities (superman). Like it or not without some sort of class system everyone will simply go for most OPed skills.
This is what I would say to. It's fun.. some nice features (oh mass looting.. I love you) but beyond that I can see me playing this basically until something else comes along. If you are bored to death, play it. If you have that book you've been meaning to read or whatnot, you can't go wrong with that either.
After you go through the game once and do everything I don't see how many can roll another character. To me it is a one and done deal. The content is repetitive too quick.
The game is decent. As others have said, it is not doing much new. Sure there are events and the rifts themselves are somewhat random ... after a while, you start seeing that they always appear in the same spots, and sometimes, even the world event invasions get bugged (the more interesting public raid stuff in the game) and don't work.
I am currently still playing, however, I definitely do not see myself playing for 9-12 months. Playing fairly hardcore (I have a job, but play a lot on my time off of work/weekends) I am through the 1-50 content, and have done over half the expert dungeons. A few more dungeons and the raid zone and I will have done everything. I have already done quite a few expert rifts and the 2 open world raid bosses.
It just gets repetitive. Running the same dungeons over and over and over again to get plaques and drops. I am one that enjoys leveling and the progression more than just "gearing up", most MMO's these days don't really fit my old school EQ style :P
If you take it slow in the game, you could probably get a few months out of it easy. And if you like grinding dungeons and raiding a lot, there is some definitely difficulty there in the experts. Beyond that though, the world events, persistent world and public rifts get old and stale pretty quickly. Sure they are different ... but its basically all the same thing after a while, you are just killing mobs that are from another plane.
It is worth trying, but expecting 9-12 months out of it, for the amount I play, is pushing it. I already dropped my 3 month sub down to 1 month. And a lot of people I know that hit 50 in the first week or so have already quit out of boredom/repetitiveness.