Rift
Conflict resolution for the Warcraft weary?
Review Carpal tunnel syndrome has almost set in since the release of WoW Cataclysm – bash, level, bash, ow, ow – so perhaps change is as good as a rest. Well, one look at Rift and I am left with nightmarish flashbacks of DC Universe another MMO that is ultimately flawed with a levelling cap, a boring character build system and no originality. It was nice to dream for a while that Rift was a decent alternative but the regular sub disappearing out my bank account certainly makes one wonder if either of these games is worth about a tenner a month, especially when World of Tanks is free.
Purple rain
I loved Neverwinter Nights 2 and I must have completed the single player game at least five times before I went on to playing on persistent worlds. So much geeky fun was to be had on a full RP server with live Dungeon Mastering – and you know it’s a quality system when it’s based on the Advanced D&D game. So here comes Rift claiming to be the daddy – highbrow, don’t you know – in a new generation of MMO’s. But can it compete?
The game is set on the world of Telara which we are introduced to during a very pretty animated opening sequence – that seemed to feature Cthulhu heavily. Telara is one of several planets, but unlike any other worlds it is intersected by many powerful planes of reality. Regulos the God of Death heard about this wealth of power and led a Blood Storm in a planet nomming rampage towards Telara.
His quest to lunch on Telara was cut short by the local gods and inhabitants. You are awoken 80 years after the defeat of Regulos the God of Bran, where it seems things aren’t looking too comfortable for the locals and even the estate agents are having a bad time of it. Rifts of baddies have been opening as the once strong ward has begun to weaken.
Say yellow, wave goodbye
Only two factions and six races – yawn. So that will be humans, dwarfs and elves then. The Guardians are the chosen of Telara’s gods, whereas the Defiant do not care whether the gods abandoned the world or not and plan on using their own powers and technology to defend their world. So being a rebellious sort, surprise surprise, I chose to be one of the Defiants.
Next page: Pimp my guide
COMMENTS
This was an attack not a review
This is a blatant crucifixion of the game by a WoW "Fangirl" rather than a review. The factual errors alone demonstrate to me that the Reviewer barely played the game at all and either invented or assumed a lot.
Yes Rift is very much a WoW-clone but it's improved many aspects and is the first MMO since WoW to be launched in a playable and polished state.
If you are still having fun in WoW then you are unlikely to find much reason to switch, but if you don't like WoW or don't play any MMOs right now this is definitely one to try out yourself.
At the least seek out proper reviews elsewhere as this "review" should never have been published.
What?
"But the graphics felt very 'meh' looking and so very last Tuesday, if last Tuesday was like eight years ago"
That sentence is not only utterly meaningless but a crime against the English language. Christ on a bike, it's not even funny!
Just, like, how many of the Reg's readers do you, like seriously think are, like, actually under fourteen years of age?
Terrible review
"The character levelling system is totally blandflakes" - what the hell is this supposed to even mean?
I've also been playing Rift and while you could sit there and whine about it being unoriginal and ripping off your beloved WoW (and let's be honest here, you are hopelessly biased towards that game), I found it had enough differences to mark it out while having a firm foundation to build on future content.
Who else out there remembers Aion? Strikingly beautiful MMO with flying combat and cross dimensional zones was what we were promised but instead we got a broken grindfest with a few seconds of flight here and there, not to mention a crafting system that would reduce most people to rage.
It's all very well complaining about a lack of originality from MMOs - again, a large amount of the blame can be directed at your beloved World of Warcraft - but unless an MMO gets the basics right, how can it evolve into something different.
Oh and one final point - I have a hell of a lot more freedom when it comes to fine tuning my class in Rift than I ever did in World of Warcraft.
Misreading
I'm glad I saw "barbecuing *with* the ferrets" on the second reading of that sentence. I was worried there for a moment!
Mind you, ferrets are conveniently shaped for a baguette filling...
Rift: maybe it will wow me in v2.x, but for now it's zzzzzzzzzz
I have to say i agree that rift brings little new to the party.
closing rifts is great fun ... for the first 5, then it's just more of the same.
The graphics are generally dingy (at least in the zones i've been in). A brighter, more colourful world would be nice, but not necessarily a wow cartoon world.
As a visually impaired person I find the font very hard to read - why they couldn't give us an "arial" or similar option i don't know.
The soul system sounded more interesting than it proved to be.
I'm torn - will they improve it in the same way they did with WoW? Should i abandon founder pricing or continue throwing money at it & not playing it til they do?
(Yes, I play WoW, but after X years it too has nothing new to interest me. Cataclysm was a huge disappointment - 5 new levels completed in no time, no WotLK certainly. I was looking to Rift to re-enthuse me, but what little i play now tends to be on WoW).
