I've been playing Rift for about the past 2 years. It's unique playing a dead-man-walking game - and I knew that going in. I've started to drift back out of it now that I've got a few alts at max level and no current guild / not many in-game friends that I catch online, I still log in almost every day and poke around a bit.
To start with, it has a very small but tight community. You will see more or less the same people over and over in chat and out and about, and the most popular activity is racking up the alt-count.
With no new content for ... years ... the end game is pretty well understood. There are a couple of raid events, a small handful of dungeons - but all are choreographed and pretty much everyone has them down pat. Not a lot of new blood, but most people are patient enough for folks that are either new or just unfamiliar / uncomfortable with it... but you aren't going to see any new strategies on anything, nor many groups willing to go into something blind or try anything off-the-wall.
95% of all the older dungeons /raids aren't run at all unless you want to solo them or get a very specific group together for it (which happens occasionally). The LFG auto-group finders are dead. There is a multi-server chat channel that is very active, and almost anything that is going on is announced and/or formed there.
For leveling - if you haven't experienced the storyline, you can run through it solo -- a very small handful of dungeon quests may be difficult to finish, but those are optional and if you ask in that one particular chat channel, you can probably get a kind soul to run you through to get the completion. There's an astonishing amount of quests and content there, and much of it is actually really good. It's just lonely out doing it.
There are also "Intrepid Adventures" - which groups you up with other people, gives you a level/gearscore boost, and runs through some of the older raid content. It has very limited amount of that content though, but it goes fast enough that you can level exclusively through that if you wanted to in a decent amount of time. I wouldn't do that though unless you are just trying to level up alts and want to get it done (which, honestly, is 95% of anyone leveling in the game right now).
All of that said - the Souls system is still very unique. With no tweaks in years, it's been min-maxed to death, and if you want to run any of that end-game content you will get pigeonholed into one of a very small group of min-maxed builds. But for leveling or open world stuff, you can do pretty much whatever you want and play how you want to play.
Apart from leveling alts or running the small handful of end game things, there's still PvP, although that mostly just happens on the weekends. The Achievements system, which is about the only reason anyone runs any of the older content / raids. Artifact collecting (shinies), Dimensions (home/base building), and Wardrobes. All of those have small but very active sub-communities in the game. Rift does the artifacts system very very well (basically just collectibles, but they have some humor to them), but other than that other games do the other parts better, but Rift is adequate in all of those to make it interesting.
There are still Holiday events - mostly because they are automated and Gamigo can't figure out how to change them or turn them off. The game is not pay-to-win, you cannot get the best gear with the cash shop.. you can do 100% of the content without spending a dime. That said, having at least Patron will make your experience more fun, and there are the inevitable "speed up" mechanisms for sale on the cash shop - although none of them are really worth the money.
All-in-all, it's a no risk game to try. It still has an active community, and I have vastly more fun with it now than I did back when it was actually a thriving game, oddly enough. There's something to be said about a game that's stable enough that it no longer needs a rotating cast of "flavor of the month" builds or nerfs -- it just is what it is.
I wish they would sell it, maybe to SSG who still develop Lotro (which I play again) Dimensions was a great housing option, and I really enjoyed the whole experience.
Sadly, I miss it as there's no point to play this anymore.
I've been playing Rift for about the past 2 years. It's unique playing a dead-man-walking game - and I knew that going in. I've started to drift back out of it now that I've got a few alts at max level and no current guild / not many in-game friends that I catch online, I still log in almost every day and poke around a bit.
To start with, it has a very small but tight community. You will see more or less the same people over and over in chat and out and about, and the most popular activity is racking up the alt-count.
With no new content for ... years ... the end game is pretty well understood. There are a couple of raid events, a small handful of dungeons - but all are choreographed and pretty much everyone has them down pat. Not a lot of new blood, but most people are patient enough for folks that are either new or just unfamiliar / uncomfortable with it... but you aren't going to see any new strategies on anything, nor many groups willing to go into something blind or try anything off-the-wall.
95% of all the older dungeons /raids aren't run at all unless you want to solo them or get a very specific group together for it (which happens occasionally). The LFG auto-group finders are dead. There is a multi-server chat channel that is very active, and almost anything that is going on is announced and/or formed there.
For leveling - if you haven't experienced the storyline, you can run through it solo -- a very small handful of dungeon quests may be difficult to finish, but those are optional and if you ask in that one particular chat channel, you can probably get a kind soul to run you through to get the completion. There's an astonishing amount of quests and content there, and much of it is actually really good. It's just lonely out doing it.
There are also "Intrepid Adventures" - which groups you up with other people, gives you a level/gearscore boost, and runs through some of the older raid content. It has very limited amount of that content though, but it goes fast enough that you can level exclusively through that if you wanted to in a decent amount of time. I wouldn't do that though unless you are just trying to level up alts and want to get it done (which, honestly, is 95% of anyone leveling in the game right now).
All of that said - the Souls system is still very unique. With no tweaks in years, it's been min-maxed to death, and if you want to run any of that end-game content you will get pigeonholed into one of a very small group of min-maxed builds. But for leveling or open world stuff, you can do pretty much whatever you want and play how you want to play.
Apart from leveling alts or running the small handful of end game things, there's still PvP, although that mostly just happens on the weekends. The Achievements system, which is about the only reason anyone runs any of the older content / raids. Artifact collecting (shinies), Dimensions (home/base building), and Wardrobes. All of those have small but very active sub-communities in the game. Rift does the artifacts system very very well (basically just collectibles, but they have some humor to them), but other than that other games do the other parts better, but Rift is adequate in all of those to make it interesting.
There are still Holiday events - mostly because they are automated and Gamigo can't figure out how to change them or turn them off. The game is not pay-to-win, you cannot get the best gear with the cash shop.. you can do 100% of the content without spending a dime. That said, having at least Patron will make your experience more fun, and there are the inevitable "speed up" mechanisms for sale on the cash shop - although none of them are really worth the money.
All-in-all, it's a no risk game to try. It still has an active community, and I have vastly more fun with it now than I did back when it was actually a thriving game, oddly enough. There's something to be said about a game that's stable enough that it no longer needs a rotating cast of "flavor of the month" builds or nerfs -- it just is what it is.
Those rotations or additions often just ruin the game for me. I found out recently how much I crave stability. Just give me a good, replayable game and I'm golden!
Comments
I've been playing Rift for about the past 2 years. It's unique playing a dead-man-walking game - and I knew that going in. I've started to drift back out of it now that I've got a few alts at max level and no current guild / not many in-game friends that I catch online, I still log in almost every day and poke around a bit.
To start with, it has a very small but tight community. You will see more or less the same people over and over in chat and out and about, and the most popular activity is racking up the alt-count.
With no new content for ... years ... the end game is pretty well understood. There are a couple of raid events, a small handful of dungeons - but all are choreographed and pretty much everyone has them down pat. Not a lot of new blood, but most people are patient enough for folks that are either new or just unfamiliar / uncomfortable with it... but you aren't going to see any new strategies on anything, nor many groups willing to go into something blind or try anything off-the-wall.
95% of all the older dungeons /raids aren't run at all unless you want to solo them or get a very specific group together for it (which happens occasionally). The LFG auto-group finders are dead. There is a multi-server chat channel that is very active, and almost anything that is going on is announced and/or formed there.
For leveling - if you haven't experienced the storyline, you can run through it solo -- a very small handful of dungeon quests may be difficult to finish, but those are optional and if you ask in that one particular chat channel, you can probably get a kind soul to run you through to get the completion. There's an astonishing amount of quests and content there, and much of it is actually really good. It's just lonely out doing it.
There are also "Intrepid Adventures" - which groups you up with other people, gives you a level/gearscore boost, and runs through some of the older raid content. It has very limited amount of that content though, but it goes fast enough that you can level exclusively through that if you wanted to in a decent amount of time. I wouldn't do that though unless you are just trying to level up alts and want to get it done (which, honestly, is 95% of anyone leveling in the game right now).
All of that said - the Souls system is still very unique. With no tweaks in years, it's been min-maxed to death, and if you want to run any of that end-game content you will get pigeonholed into one of a very small group of min-maxed builds. But for leveling or open world stuff, you can do pretty much whatever you want and play how you want to play.
Apart from leveling alts or running the small handful of end game things, there's still PvP, although that mostly just happens on the weekends. The Achievements system, which is about the only reason anyone runs any of the older content / raids. Artifact collecting (shinies), Dimensions (home/base building), and Wardrobes. All of those have small but very active sub-communities in the game. Rift does the artifacts system very very well (basically just collectibles, but they have some humor to them), but other than that other games do the other parts better, but Rift is adequate in all of those to make it interesting.
There are still Holiday events - mostly because they are automated and Gamigo can't figure out how to change them or turn them off. The game is not pay-to-win, you cannot get the best gear with the cash shop.. you can do 100% of the content without spending a dime. That said, having at least Patron will make your experience more fun, and there are the inevitable "speed up" mechanisms for sale on the cash shop - although none of them are really worth the money.
All-in-all, it's a no risk game to try. It still has an active community, and I have vastly more fun with it now than I did back when it was actually a thriving game, oddly enough. There's something to be said about a game that's stable enough that it no longer needs a rotating cast of "flavor of the month" builds or nerfs -- it just is what it is.
Sadly, I miss it as there's no point to play this anymore.
Just sell the darn game Gamigo, please!