Rift Beta Impressions
February 24th, 2011 by Samodean

This past week, I spent some time in the Open Beta for the upcoming MMO, Rift: Planes of Telara. I’d like to take some time to share my thoughts on the game with those considering playing once the game launches March 1st. (Head-start actually begins today, but if you’ve pre-ordered, you’ve already made your decision.)

Controversy

I can’t talk about this game without at least touching on this subject. There was a legal battle between Trion Worlds, the creators of Rift and Palladium Books, publishers of the popular pen-and-paper RPG, RIFTS. Now, I don’t know enough about either game to properly weigh in on the subject, but I will say Palladium was entirely justified in the lawsuit. With the similarity, not just in name, but in concept and backstory, it did cause confusion in the marketplace. When the game was announced, many players believed it was the long-awaited Rifts MMO, because it damn well sounded the same.

Yes, I’m also aware a similar confrontation happened years ago involving the Warhammer and Warcraft franchises.

I’m not going to drag this out, the case was settled out of court and Palladium likely got paid; if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. I just wanted to get this out of the way, because I will admit I had little to no interest in Rift because of this. However, I gave the game a fair chance, and my opinions are not influenced by any preconceptions.

I haven’t really had the time to look into the lore of the game itself, but if you’re interested, check out the game’s website.

Presentation

The graphics are nice, if a bit dull at first. From what I’ve seen in screenshots, higher-level areas are more vibrant and alive, though the game uses the traditional “Gothic RPG” graphic style for the most part. I love the music, but there’s not enough of it.

Character

I’m fairly disappointed with the available races for character creation. For the Guardian faction, you’ve got the garden variety Human (called Mathosian), Elf and Dwarf. Meanwhile, the Defiant faction features Ugly Humans (Eth), Dark Elves (Kelari) and a Beastman-type race (Bahmi). It’s not really an exciting lineup, especially given the similarity between the two factions. Each race has a small elemental resistance bonus, a small bonus to a single stat and one “flavor” ability. There just isn’t much at this point to set the races apart.

So, I made a Dwarf, because they’re universally awesome.

There are four Callings (classes) to choose from; Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric. Wanting to keep things simple, I went with Warrior.

Once you start out in the game, you do get to one of Rift‘s best features, it’s Soul system. Each Calling has eight Souls available, and you can choose three to have active at any time. Basically, you choose your own talent trees. For the record, this means there are a total of 1,344 possible Soul combinations in the game. The primary Soul I selected was the Riftblade, which is very similar to an Enhancement Shaman in World of Warcraft (not comparing, just providing a point of reference). The other Souls I chose were Champion, to specialize in two-handed weapons and Beastmaster because it seemed fun.

Almost all my skill points were spent in Riftblade, with the few extra going into Champion; I placed no points in Beastmaster. Advanced skills are not unlocked based on character level, but rather how many points you have invested in each Soul. The more I spent in Riftblade, the more Riftblade attacks I learned. Class trainers exist to train new ranks of existing skills, as well as respecs and such.

While the incredible amount of options available is interesting, I wonder if all this would be a bit overwhelming to a less experienced player. Let’s face it, while I would like to think the people we play with online are just as capable as I am, experience has taught me the average player in any game is a freaking idiot. It really is a lot to take in.

Additionally, much has been said about how there’s no “wrong” way to build your character and play, and how this will prevent the elitism present in so many games. I hate to break it to you, but no. While Rift may go farther than any previous game to allow a multitude of options for the various group roles and there may be no “wrong” way to play, there always has been and always will be, for ANY game, a “best” way. GearScore and Recount didn’t create min/maxing, they just made it easier. There always will be a “perfect” build that gives the best healing, damage or whatever, even if it’s by a tiny margin. We all know every game has a small community of people who take these things way too seriously and overanalyze every single detail, just so they can be the “best” and “win” the game. We also know there’s large community of people for each game who idolize these people and assume the “best” way is the ONLY way. Rift may attempt to circumvent this attitude through mechanics, but you can’t change the people.

Interface

If you’ve seen any MMO in recent memory, you’ve seen Rift. There are no addons allowed for the game, but the default UI is completely customizable, from the action bars to the position of each element. It works, and that’s about all that can be said.

Combat

This is where Rift falls flat for me. All those fancy character options are great, but, for me, it doesn’t matter if you put it on top of the same old combat engine we’ve seen for years. And I don’t mean “similar,” I mean the SAME. Looking back at the last Next Big Thing, Aion had a system that, while familiar, was still unique. The way attacks and spells chained together and interacted with each other made it different from the competition. From what I’ve seen, Rift doesn’t do it. Granted, I haven’t tanked and I never heal, but as melee DPS, it’s nothing I haven’t played several times previously.

Questing

Typical “talk to NPC, kill stuff, come back, get reward” questing. Though, at least in the early areas, they never bog you down in one spot. There’s many small outposts along the way instead of one or two massive towns. There are some fancier “event” quests involving the rifts, but more on that later.

Grouping

While the standard MMO grouping features are present, all of my group experience was through the Public Group system. Each player is, by default, open to grouping (it can be toggled off). Several times, while questing alongside another player, going after the same objective, the player would add themself to my group. We would complete the objective and go our separate ways. No fuss, no drama. Sure, you can choose to disable this option, but then you’re missing the point of a Massively Multiplayer Online game. Public Groups are also a large part of the rift system, but again, more on that later.

Crafting

I love crafting. I don’t know why, but I think it’s just the satisfaction of using something that you didn’t buy or get from someone else; you made it.

Crafting in Rift is divided into the usual gathering and producing skills. You have Mining, Foraging, Butchery and a whole pile of production skills. In Rift, you can learn three separate skills and you need to; each production skill requires two gathering skills if you want to be self-sufficient. For example, I chose Weaponsmithing, which required Mining and Foraging (for wood). The actual act of crafting is standard, requiring a combination of gathered materials and vendor-supplied items, with various crafts requiring forges, worktables, etc. It’s a bit annoying to have to use the worktable to turn my logs into timber, then run to the forge to make a weapon, though.

I did not progress far enough into the game to learn anything about Auction Houses or the economy.

PVP

Didn’t do it. The website talks about special, PVP-only souls and I have read that lower-leveled players in the game’s Warfronts (Battlegrounds) will be given a small buff to be able to help their teams if they’re below the level cap.

Dungeons

They exist, though I didn’t get a chance to try one. The flexibility in the Soul system means it shouldn’t be too hard to form a group, instead of waiting to fill that last slot. Healing Rogue? Tanking Cleric? Support Warrior? Done. No LFG tool is currently in place, though Trion has said they’re working on one.

There are 10- and 20-man raid instances for the endgame.

Rifts

Obviously, this is Rift‘s big draw. Basically, rifts will open throughout the game world, allowing enemies from neighboring dimensions to invade Telara. Of course, these rifts need to be closed by the players. There’s always a rift open somewhere in a zone, at least in my experience, and they’re visible on your map. When a rift opens, enemies pour out in waves, growing progressively harder; outdoor raid bosses are common in the bigger rifts. When you approach a rift, a “Join Public Group” button appears at the top of the screen; click it and you’re instantly added to the raid group. There’s a handy UI element tracking the progress and time remaining on a rift. At the end of the battle, everyone gets a reward, based on their contribution to the group, be it damage, healing, buffs or tanking, but everybody gets something. Those who were there from the beginning, performing well will get better rewards than the guy who showed up at the last second. Many of these rewards are currency which can be used to buy high-quality gear. It’s also possible to level solely through these rifts, which is nice.

Occasionally, a Planar Invasion will take place in a zone. During an invasion, rifts open up everywhere and enemies start pouring out. The game announces these events and tracks the progress. In addition to the usual rifts, strong enemies will start roaming the area, taking out anything in their path. If an invasion is not defeated, it can actually wipe out entire cities temporarily. It gives the players a reason to participate and encourages grouping, and it is pretty fun. There’s a system in place preventing invasions from occurring in zones where there’s not enough players to drive it back, so you don’t have to worry about low-level areas being wastelands several months after launch.

Another endgame feature allows guilds to open rifts and take down raid bosses. While anyone can participate and gain the normal rewards, only the summoning group gets the top-tier loot.

I am concerned, however, with just how long this element will keep people’s interest. How long before the game shifts from “driving back invasions” to “grinding rifts for loot”?

Bottom Line

Rift is a very well-designed game. Every element is polished to near perfection. It is the Everquest and World of Warcraft formula done as well as it can be. Quality-wise, it’s probably the best game we’ll see out of this generation of MMOs.

That said, I still don’t like it.

While Rift is the distilled essence of its generation, I’m ready for the next generation of MMOs. Maybe if Rift had come out a year ago, I would care more, but 2011 is the year of the next-gen MMO for me. DC Universe Online is growing the medium in the realm of character immersion. Later this year, TERA Online will take MMO combat and group dynamics to the next level and Star Wars: The Old Republic will tell an MMO story like no game ever has before.

Honestly, it all comes down to the feel of the game for me. The whole time I was playing the Beta, the only thought running through my mind was “this is just like WoW.” If I’m going to play a game that feels just like WoW to me, then I’ll just play WoW. For all its faults, Aion was at least trying new things, it felt like a completely different game, worth at least checking out. While Rift may have a lot of nice elements, it just doesn’t feel like a different game to me, and I’m not interested in spending money on it.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s really nothing BAD I can say about Rift; I can’t NOT recommend it. I understand why others are enjoying it (though I’m a bit confused by the immense hype). It’s just not what I’m looking for. I feel that, as a whole, the MMO gaming community is ready for something truly new and original, and Rift is not that game. It’s just the next game to play until that game (whatever it may be) comes around.

Tags: Games, MMO, PC, Rift