[General Article] Rift: Storm Legion Review In Progress Part 2

SBFord · November 2012

Rift: Storm Legion has been out for awhile now and we are working our way through a series of articles that will culminate in our final and official review of the first expansion. Check it out and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

So far it is difficult to find a lot of rough spots in Rift's freshman expansion. While there have been bugs Rift has already undergone 2 hot fixes in the first week. While some may argue that these bugs should never have existed to begin with it, it is naive to think that there would not have been any. Trion, like in most things, has been quick to act and has crushed a great number of them.

Read more of Rob Lashley's Rift: Storm Legion Review in Progress - Part 2.

What's behind door number 1?

david361107 · November 2012

first*

just came back to Rift, thanks for the review, I'm waiting to hit 50 then getting Legion.

Peace,

Lascer

TheDarkrayne · November 2012

They havn't disabled Conquest. You need to be level 60 now to join conquest. You need to be max level, just like before.

*EDIT: They have disabled it, my bad.. but the rest of what I've said is still relevent. It would be pointless.

Tiered conquest is pointless because the lower tiers wouldn't have enough people in them in a matter of weeks. It's an endgame activity and that's the only way it could possibly work. Even then the team populations were largely unbalanced some of the time (especially late at night). Might not be now though with the population increase.

Freezzo · November 2012

I think with the raids we'll see a tier 1 and tier 1.5 model, like with Greenscales Blight and River of Souls (the first 2 raids of the pre-expansion RIFT for those who don't know). I think this raid might be more on par with GSB as an introductory raid and they'll ramp up the difficulty soon.

On your question on what I've been doing since the expansion launch... well, mostly dimensions. Built a cool one, got to the top 10 in likes, but like the saying goes: 'Standing still is progressing backwards' (or something similar) I decided to pack up and move Going for a more jungly/backwater/off-grid place away from the war now instead of a more relaxing spot.

JudgeUK · November 2012

Bit sad for this game. If it was a wow expac review there would be pages of comments, some positive some negative, but at least there would be a high lvl of interest.

Rift seems to come across as a game intentionally made not to offend anyone, or interest many.

Warbs · November 2012

Originally posted by JudgeUK
Bit sad for this game. If it was a wow expac review there would be pages of comments, some positive some negative, but at least there would be a high lvl of interest.

Rift seems to come across as a game intentionally made not to offend anyone, or interest many.

Most people are probably too busy in Storm Legion to reply and the trolls for the most part seem to have gotten bored commenting on Rift.

Loving the expansion myself so far, it's improved upon the original game and delivered more than i expected, also see alot of new people picking up Rift on my shard (Icewatch)

elocke · November 2012

I don't know about the whole adding divergent paths for alts. I'm finding at level 52 xp isn't coming fast enough to match the story quests and zone layout and am having to hop over to the other area to catch up xp/level wise. Once again, I feel the grind in this game and it's sadly made me forgo logging in to even try. Contemplating even rolling a new character or leveling an alt through the new expansion content is making me cringe.

Game just doesn't feel free form enough to me and grinding mobs all day through Carnage quests brings us right back to the age old "kill 20 of x" crap that, Haven't we said we were tired of in this genre? I don't mind them in small doses but when they appear to take up 85% of my leveling time, yeah that's not good.

While I enjoy the way quests are delivered in the expansion, funny enough very similar to Lotro's remote questing, the sheer boredom of them all and lack of originality makes them a chore and only fun for the first level. Keep the delivery system but let's change the dynamics of quests themselves.

TheDarkrayne · November 2012

Originally posted by Warbs
Originally posted by JudgeUK
Bit sad for this game. If it was a wow expac review there would be pages of comments, some positive some negative, but at least there would be a high lvl of interest.

Rift seems to come across as a game intentionally made not to offend anyone, or interest many.

Most people are probably too busy in Storm Legion to reply and the trolls for the most part seem to have gotten bored commenting on Rift.

Loving the expansion myself so far, it's improved upon the original game and delivered more than i expected, also see alot of new people picking up Rift on my shard (Icewatch)

I'm on Icewatch too. You had a look at the populations on the US servers? They are almost all high and full at peak time (about 12-4am for us). A lot less interest in the EU but as least Icewatch is busy.. and that's all we need really cos it's the only place we are playing.

JudgeUK · November 2012

Originally posted by Vannor
Originally posted by Warbs
Originally posted by JudgeUK
Bit sad for this game. If it was a wow expac review there would be pages of comments, some positive some negative, but at least there would be a high lvl of interest.

Rift seems to come across as a game intentionally made not to offend anyone, or interest many.

Most people are probably too busy in Storm Legion to reply and the trolls for the most part seem to have gotten bored commenting on Rift.

Loving the expansion myself so far, it's improved upon the original game and delivered more than i expected, also see alot of new people picking up Rift on my shard (Icewatch)

I'm on Icewatch too. You had a look at the populations on the US servers? They are almost all high and full. A lot less interest in the EU but as least Icewatch is busy.. and that's all we need really cos it's the only place we are playing.

Is it just one busy server in the EU now? I used to play on Icewatch, but there were a few other servers that where reasonably populated.

TheDarkrayne · November 2012

Originally posted by JudgeUK
Originally posted by Vannor
Originally posted by Warbs
Originally posted by JudgeUK
Bit sad for this game. If it was a wow expac review there would be pages of comments, some positive some negative, but at least there would be a high lvl of interest.

Rift seems to come across as a game intentionally made not to offend anyone, or interest many.

Most people are probably too busy in Storm Legion to reply and the trolls for the most part seem to have gotten bored commenting on Rift.

Loving the expansion myself so far, it's improved upon the original game and delivered more than i expected, also see alot of new people picking up Rift on my shard (Icewatch)

I'm on Icewatch too. You had a look at the populations on the US servers? They are almost all high and full. A lot less interest in the EU but as least Icewatch is busy.. and that's all we need really cos it's the only place we are playing.

Is it just one busy server in the EU now? I used to play on Icewatch, but there where a few other servers that where reasonably populated.

It's the only nicely populated English server. The German and French ones are usually at medium at peak time.

TheDarkrayne · November 2012

Originally posted by Torvaldr
The shiny parts of the game post SL if you didn't buy the xpac:

Dimensions are available for all subscribers

The rough spots if you didn't buy the xpac:

Forced xpac purchase - You're really playing a subpar game without the xpac. If an xpac is not an option than just include it in the sub fee and be done with it. What am I paying a sub for again? Why does it feel like my sub is wasted money unless I pony up the extra expansion tax? This has become one of my most hated weaknesses in the "subscription + microtransaction / box fee" payment model. The sub alone isn't enough.

Dimensions - The dimensions system needs a lot of polish and bug fixes.

Class / Combat changes - The classes and game play feel changed a lot with the addition of the new souls. Soul balancing seems very centered around those changes to the point where, while there are some valid original soul combos, most hybrid builds integrate those souls and build options are very very limited without them.

Stat Rebalancing - There was a huge stat and hit/focus/toughness rebalance that reminds me of Turbine's continual stat "do-overs" when they added xpacs. The whole xpac and rebalancing feels like they didn't plan out their system for expansion, but had to redo it because it wasn't planned to scale well. To me it shows very poor development planning. Even though EQ2 has had similar rebalances it has felt much less jarring and extreme. This was a very jarring change to the game play.

Overall I'm not that impressed with how they're directing the game at this point. Yeah, they put out a bunch of patches with one major content update (Ember Isle), but the rest have been little additions here and there with most of those being raid centric.

Outside of the dimensions they just added more of the same game play and are asking $40 for it. My server, Faeblight, has been off again, on again all week long. There are still a ton of bugs and they haven't solved some long standing bugs along wiht adding the new content.

Come on man.. read that back and see how rediculously negative it sounds to someone thinking about trying the game. Do you really think it deserves all that negativity without pointing out any of the good things about the game? Cos I could put a post 4 times bigger than that one explaining all the game's good points. You already know I disagree with you completely about the Class / Combat changes.. but I've already had a pop at explaining why to you in another thread. But what you've wrote there makes the game look like a massive turd. Even you must agree it isn't anywhere near that bad.

strangiato2112 · November 2012

Originally posted by Vannor
Originally posted by Torvaldr
The shiny parts of the game post SL if you didn't buy the xpac:

Dimensions are available for all subscribers

The rough spots if you didn't buy the xpac:

Forced xpac purchase - You're really playing a subpar game without the xpac. If an xpac is not an option than just include it in the sub fee and be done with it. What am I paying a sub for again? Why does it feel like my sub is wasted money unless I pony up the extra expansion tax? This has become one of my most hated weaknesses in the "subscription + microtransaction / box fee" payment model. The sub alone isn't enough.

Dimensions - The dimensions system needs a lot of polish and bug fixes.

Class / Combat changes - The classes and game play feel changed a lot with the addition of the new souls. Soul balancing seems very centered around those changes to the point where, while there are some valid original soul combos, most hybrid builds integrate those souls and build options are very very limited without them.

Stat Rebalancing - There was a huge stat and hit/focus/toughness rebalance that reminds me of Turbine's continual stat "do-overs" when they added xpacs. The whole xpac and rebalancing feels like they didn't plan out their system for expansion, but had to redo it because it wasn't planned to scale well. To me it shows very poor development planning. Even though EQ2 has had similar rebalances it has felt much less jarring and extreme. This was a very jarring change to the game play.

Overall I'm not that impressed with how they're directing the game at this point. Yeah, they put out a bunch of patches with one major content update (Ember Isle), but the rest have been little additions here and there with most of those being raid centric.

Outside of the dimensions they just added more of the same game play and are asking $40 for it. My server, Faeblight, has been off again, on again all week long. There are still a ton of bugs and they haven't solved some long standing bugs along wiht adding the new content.

Come on man.. read that back and see how rediculously negative it sounds to someone thinking about trying the game. Do you really think it deserves all that negativity without pointing out any of the good things about the game? Cos I could put a post 4 times bigger than that one explaining all the game's good points. You already know I disagree with you completely about the Class / Combat changes.. but I've already had a pop at explaining why to you in another thread. But what you've wrote there makes the game look like a massive turd. Even you must agree it isn't anywhere near that bad.

Torvaldr sometimes lets his hatred of the p2p model cloud his judgment. But if you are a fan of Rift, SL is more than worth the 40 dollar price point.

And as far as all the content updats catering to raiding, they only added 2 full raids after the first month of the game. Hammerknell and ID. The 10 man slivers could technically be called raids, but I see them as content for the more casual guilds and somewhere inbetween groups and raids. And even then they havent added all that many of them. I think the updates have been mostly spread across PvP, raiding, and 'things to do at endgame that arent raiding', with the only real deficient area being pre endgame.

Samhael · November 2012

"Iron Pine Peeks" made me LOL.

I've been back in game for just under a month now and am enjoying it quite a bit. Levelling post-50 is a slower thing than I had expected it to be but I'm ok with the pacing. I'm enjoying two of the four new souls (Defiler and Tactician) and am having a good time in general. Fun game.

TheHiveLeader · November 2012

Leveling in Storm Legion is a bit slower than before, but who cares? Its about adventure and discovery people! Just have fun with it!

[mod edit]

Foomerang · November 2012

Dimensions have brought in a roleplay rennaisance on faeblight. Bringing context to backstories and unlimited backdrops, inns, taverns, etc. Ill never do another dungeon or raid in rift and my experience is overflowing with content.

Boldyn · November 2012

I'd wait before calling the raids to easy. The world firsts belong to Special Olympics who will do their best to assure you that them Alpha testing SL has nothing to do with their progress, this at the same time as posting their world first kills in an atempt to make their wongadongs grow.

Now if you had 50 guilds that killed those 2 bosses, I'd be concerned. Still, no shame in having the first bosses easy.

Mischiff · November 2012

anyone that calls RIFT a grind, go play miss kitty .. god, ive played LII, AION, and a few others thats names escape my memory but RIFT is by no means a grind. 50 levels .. i would prefure to play a game like DF that had no levels at all, just grind up skills, but as MMO's go, Rift is by no means even close to a grind. 2 many ways to level, doing PVP or the new ways they have questing. if you cant find a fun way to level up in this game, its just not for u.

f0dell54 · November 2012

Originally posted by Mischiff
anyone that calls RIFT a grind, go play miss kitty .. god, ive played LII, AION, and a few others thats names escape my memory but RIFT is by no means a grind. 50 levels .. i would prefure to play a game like DF that had no levels at all, just grind up skills, but as MMO's go, Rift is by no means even close to a grind. 2 many ways to level, doing PVP or the new ways they have questing. if you cant find a fun way to level up in this game, its just not for u.

Thanks for the headache.

cappytoi · November 2012

Originally posted by f0dell54
Originally posted by Mischiff
anyone that calls RIFT a grind, go play miss kitty .. god, ive played LII, AION, and a few others thats names escape my memory but RIFT is by no means a grind. 50 levels .. i would prefure to play a game like DF that had no levels at all, just grind up skills, but as MMO's go, Rift is by no means even close to a grind. 2 many ways to level, doing PVP or the new ways they have questing. if you cant find a fun way to level up in this game, its just not for u.

Thanks for the headache.

He is right though.

emota · November 2012

Great expansion

Khebeln · November 2012

Originally posted by f0dell54
Originally posted by Mischiff
anyone that calls RIFT a grind, go play miss kitty .. god, ive played LII, AION, and a few others thats names escape my memory but RIFT is by no means a grind. 50 levels .. i would prefure to play a game like DF that had no levels at all, just grind up skills, but as MMO's go, Rift is by no means even close to a grind. 2 many ways to level, doing PVP or the new ways they have questing. if you cant find a fun way to level up in this game, its just not for u.

Thanks for the headache.

I hit lv 60 a while ago already raiding (cleared 10 man) and first boss in main raid. Dont think rift have any grind at all. Grind is when you are forced to kill same mob over and over again w/o any quests or other incentives.

In rift you have so many things to do that if you dont look on your bar for a while you suddently level up w/o even noticing it.

And Rift is absolutely packed with content compared to other games. So much actualy you dont know what to do first.

I hit lv 60 w/o even touching 4.5 last zones !!!! And i did almost all quests in lower lv zones + some dungeons and IA, rifts, hunts, carnages, onnslaughts etc on my way up.

Anyway back to the SL dont have time to post here now

ProGee · November 2012

Having a blast in this expansion. Also finding it a bit amusing how some people are complaining that the leveling is "too much of a grind". Have not people been complaining about spoonfeeding, easymode and whatnot for the last few releases? It takes longer to level in Rift than in many other games but it offers enough content to justify it.

Khebeln · November 2012

Originally posted by ProGee
Having a blast in this expansion. Also finding it a bit amusing how some people are complaining that the leveling is "too much of a grind". Have not people been complaining about spoonfeeding, easymode and whatnot for the last few releases? It takes longer to level in Rift than in many other games but it offers enough content to justify it.

Yup, the issue is not there as long s there are things to do.

Best part is, compared to other games Rift offers tons of content even on max lv, or should i say the real game starts at max lv.

Arakazi · November 2012

Originally posted by Torvaldr
Originally posted by strangiato2112
Originally posted by Vannor

Come on man.. read that back and see how rediculously negative it sounds to someone thinking about trying the game. Do you really think it deserves all that negativity without pointing out any of the good things about the game? Cos I could put a post 4 times bigger than that one explaining all the game's good points. You already know I disagree with you completely about the Class / Combat changes.. but I've already had a pop at explaining why to you in another thread. But what you've wrote there makes the game look like a massive turd. Even you must agree it isn't anywhere near that bad.

Torvaldr sometimes lets his hatred of the p2p model cloud his judgment. But if you are a fan of Rift, SL is more than worth the 40 dollar price point.

And as far as all the content updats catering to raiding, they only added 2 full raids after the first month of the game. Hammerknell and ID. The 10 man slivers could technically be called raids, but I see them as content for the more casual guilds and somewhere inbetween groups and raids. And even then they havent added all that many of them. I think the updates have been mostly spread across PvP, raiding, and 'things to do at endgame that arent raiding', with the only real deficient area being pre endgame.

Strangi, my judgement isn't clouded. I'm not satisfied with how P2P is working out in the current offering. When I paid $15 per month for Lineage I was happy with that. I'm not happy with what is being delivered for the monthly fee.

I absolutely disagree that they should have charged extra for this though. For one is segregates players who don't pony up the extra cash and for another, outside of dimensions, it doesn't really expand the game play. It expands the content, but my main point is that content for churn isn't worth a subscription. This game should have gone B2P with or without a cash shop. Content just isn't worth that extra fee in addition to the monthly cost.

-------------------------------------------

Vannor, I am strongly critical, but that is my perspective. I've said repeatedly that it is a good game and buying Storm Legion is the way to go. I do think the expansion is very well received by a majority of players and do respect the opinions and feelings of those I know who like it (yourself, Foomerang, and others here). Most people taking the time to post have positive things to say so I think a dissenting voice isn't out of order.

I probably wouldn't have posted negative feedback if everyone was bashing the game, but a contrast isn't out of order I think. Plus it surprised me how little discussion this is getting and I'm sick to death of arguing about GW2 and TOR so I thought the topic is worth bumping. Why isn't the game discussed more? Why isn't this xpac getting more attention? I really expected this game to make a huge dent in the WoW and EQ2 population.

I'm going to have to disagree strongly with that. One of the main reasons I play rift is because of the lack of cash shops. Cash shops ruin games, it ruined LotR for me, it ruined EQ2 for me too and it's one of the reasons I will never fully buy into GW2. It sets artificial barriers on content gives advantages to those willing to spend hundreds of dollars on themselves or their guild which in my mind goes against the spirit of fair play. Ideally games should be meritocracies where your skills, be it social or strategic or twitch is what makes you excel at whatever game you choose to play should it be chess, Go, Fifa or EVE.

Besides, $15 a month is a fair price. I also don't mind paying for an expansion since it is a game I enjoy playing. Ask yourself this, how much is the hours you spend on your games really worth to you? Some games maybe free to play but you are also investing your free time and energy into games so it's not without its cost. Although there is a upper limit on how much I am willing to spend on what is essentially a hobby, it is not by any means the most important thing I consider when chosing a game. First and foremost I have to enjoy the game, like how it looks and feels and how the community is. I do not expect you to agree with me, but I ask you to consider the impact of going F2P has had on the games I have mentioned and also to consider the time that has to be invested in games and not just the price tag.

JudgeUK · November 2012

Originally posted by Torvaldr
Originally posted by strangiato2112
Originally posted by Vannor

Come on man.. read that back and see how rediculously negative it sounds to someone thinking about trying the game. Do you really think it deserves all that negativity without pointing out any of the good things about the game? Cos I could put a post 4 times bigger than that one explaining all the game's good points. You already know I disagree with you completely about the Class / Combat changes.. but I've already had a pop at explaining why to you in another thread. But what you've wrote there makes the game look like a massive turd. Even you must agree it isn't anywhere near that bad.

Torvaldr sometimes lets his hatred of the p2p model cloud his judgment. But if you are a fan of Rift, SL is more than worth the 40 dollar price point.

And as far as all the content updats catering to raiding, they only added 2 full raids after the first month of the game. Hammerknell and ID. The 10 man slivers could technically be called raids, but I see them as content for the more casual guilds and somewhere inbetween groups and raids. And even then they havent added all that many of them. I think the updates have been mostly spread across PvP, raiding, and 'things to do at endgame that arent raiding', with the only real deficient area being pre endgame.

Strangi, my judgement isn't clouded. I'm not satisfied with how P2P is working out in the current offering. When I paid $15 per month for Lineage I was happy with that. I'm not happy with what is being delivered for the monthly fee.

I absolutely disagree that they should have charged extra for this though. For one is segregates players who don't pony up the extra cash and for another, outside of dimensions, it doesn't really expand the game play. It expands the content, but my main point is that content for churn isn't worth a subscription. This game should have gone B2P with or without a cash shop. Content just isn't worth that extra fee in addition to the monthly cost.

-------------------------------------------

Vannor, I am strongly critical, but that is my perspective. I've said repeatedly that it is a good game and buying Storm Legion is the way to go. I do think the expansion is very well received by a majority of players and do respect the opinions and feelings of those I know who like it (yourself, Foomerang, and others here). Most people taking the time to post have positive things to say so I think a dissenting voice isn't out of order.

I probably wouldn't have posted negative feedback if everyone was bashing the game, but a contrast isn't out of order I think. Plus it surprised me how little discussion this is getting and I'm sick to death of arguing about GW2 and TOR so I thought the topic is worth bumping. Why isn't the game discussed more? Why isn't this xpac getting more attention? I really expected this game to make a huge dent in the WoW and EQ2 population.

I didn't. Not from Rift's history. It comes across as the big guy's little kid, who tries hard to get attention but will always be on the periphery.

TheDarkrayne · November 2012

Originally posted by Torvaldr
Most people taking the time to post have positive things to say so I think a dissenting voice isn't out of order.

I probably wouldn't have posted negative feedback if everyone was bashing the game, but a contrast isn't out of order I think.

So, you are posting bad things because no one else is? You're mad at Rift or summat? Because it's geting more positive than negative feedback?

I don't really see the sense in that. Yeh, you can post and think what you want.. 'some' of the things you are saying is actually definitely correct. There were some nasty bugs at the start.. I was getting trapped in the floor in the new warfront whenever I did a phase step or fae step. Been fixed now though. Some things I feel the opposite about; The classes and the payment model. I've actually never been as satisfied with paying a sub so I signed up for a year. But that post, read on it's own because the positive things you have said about the game are not on this thread, is a bit unfair 'because' you don't include your positives. People with no idea about the game are more likely to read this review in progress over whats wrote in the game forums.

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