RIFT Game Review - Rift Review up through Level 30

Game Guy posted on March 28, 2011 10:40

RIFT Game Review - Rift Review up through Level 30

If you are a big online role playing gamer you have most likely heard of Rift by this point. So I’m going to skip a long introduction to what kind of game Rift is along with an introduction to the genre. Rift is essentially a highly polished massive multi-player online role playing game. Doing a great review on large online games such as Rift can be kind of tricky. If you rush through the content fast so that you can get to the maximum level, how does that effect your perception of the game? On the other hand do you want to wait three months on a review from a person that really takes their time in playing the game content and exploring all the side options?

I’ve tried in this review to strike a balance. I have been taking my time playing. My primary character started in pre-launch and is just now approaching level 30. I’ve played all the callings and have spent time in both starting areas. My goal was to take the time in leveling so that I could personally enjoy and take the game in. Also so I could give a perspective from a point of view from someone who did not rush to level 50 in two weeks. I figure if I’m going to do a review I’m going to take the time to read the quests. Then as I went about leveling my characters I really did take time to enjoy the scenery and look about the game. I rotated out quite a few souls and wanted to spend time with the crafting.

As part of my reviews I also like to throw in some game tips, UI secrets, and other little things I have come across as I have played. I do not believe there are any real spoilers in this review but I know the word ‘spoiler’ is very relative depending on the reader.

Graphics in Rift

I’m going to start off with what a lot of people ask about Rift. What do you think of the graphics? I’ve enjoyed the look of Rift and the quality of the graphics. The art design doesn’t take huge chances, but they really put you in a believable world that has consistent quality and high quality textures. The FPS (frames per second) you get from the game will depend greatly on your hardware. I played the game on two gaming laptops. One was the new ASUS 460M GTX with 1.5gb video memory. The other was the older ASUS 360M GTX with only 1gb of video memory. Neither machine could run the game on high settings at a reasonable FPS at 1920x1020.

Rift Graphics Tip:

I found using the in game defaults of low, medium, high, etc. was never a good way to get the best quality from my setup. Setting the game to low resolution then tweaking the distance and object detail usually was the better approach. Adding longer drawing distance did not lower FPS but greatly improved my enjoyment of the game.

Rift 3D Vision Support

My one frustration with Rift in the graphics department is Trion’s lack of 3D vision support. Given that this is a ‘next-gen’ MMO it is very unfortunate they did not launch with at least basic support. To rub more salt in the wound, Blizzard and Nvidia have made WoW one of the quality standout titles for 3D vision. Hopefully Trion will provide a 3D vision profile soon.

Gameplay and Interface

Rift does a good job of borrowing some of the best features from the most popular MMO’s. Therefore it should not be a surprise that the interface does use a lot of the same mechanics as Wold of Warcraft. While I would not go as far as calling Rift a WoW clone, the resemblance is remarkable for someone who hasn’t spent a lot of time with all the other MMO’s. For the most part however Trion has made some great design decisions and Rift’s interface similarity to WoW makes it very accessible to the vast majority of MMORPG gamers.

Rift interface tip:

The interface does not have an addon API like WoW. Still, there are lots of options to customize your interface. Take the time to go into the interface menu and experiment with the various settings.

Questing

Questing in Rift is much like quests in other online role playing games. Meet person X in town Y. Kill X monsters and report back. Find 3 of some certain item and bring them back to player X. Some of the quests are pretty well written and do a good job in pushing forward the lore. It’s a little disappointing that Trion wasn’t a little more creative in how they constructed the quests. Another issue is that the game has a very linear quest structure. With only two starting areas, one for each faction, the amount of questing content can feel a bit thin at time. I would suggest that Trion add more quest hubs in the areas but the areas are already large and you spend a lot of time in them before you move on to the next. Still, I think it would be good if there were alternative quests particularly for those who like to level alts.

Rift Questing Tip:

Rift doesn’t always hold your hand through the epic story lines. As a Guardian I got stuck trying to finish a lvl 14 epic story quest that relied on Rift invasions. Unfortunately once that part of the thread got stopped, I pretty much lost that part of the epic story quest. As you are leveling, make the epic story line your priority and finish them as you get them. As the quests begin to tie in world events it can be frustrating to complete them down the road.

The callings of Rift

Rift takes a slightly different approach to classes. There are four basic callings: Rogue, Mage, Warrior, and Cleric. Essentially these callings map to the type of armor you are allowed to wear. Rogue’s can wear leather, mages wear cloth, clerics wear chain, and warriors wear plate.

As I’m writing this review the Rift community is preparing for a major change in the balance of the callings. Mages had been considered rather weak by many in the community and at this point seem somewhat under-represented. Rogues, particularly a build called the saboteur, had been heavily represented particularly in warfronts. I suspect that the 1.1 patch Trion expects to release soon will have a fairly significant impact on callings.

I would have a special section on the races in Rift but then I would be putting more time into races than Trion has. Races for me in Rift have been uninspiring and rarely do I even notice the race of a fellow faction member or a member of the enemy faction. This does not necessarily take away enjoyment from the game and Trion has not really built Rift around the kind of race lore you will find in a game like WoW. Personally I somewhat miss the race diversification, but Trion does a good job moving the race of the character to the background so much you don’t even really care.

The Soul in Rift

If there is one aspect of the game that really sets itself apart from World of Warcraft it is the soul system. Somewhat like talents in World of Warcraft, players earn points they can put into a tree of souls. There are many reviews and write ups on this system so I will jump right to giving my opinion. The soul system has a lot of positives. A cleric for example can select souls that will allow them more offensive capabilities, or they can pick souls that will allow them more defensive capabilities. You can also spec your souls to provide a combination or specific crowd control skills, pets, and other character enhancements.

To increase the flexibility you can have up to four different sets of three souls. This gives you a lot of flexibility in your calling to be pretty much anything you want at the time. It also allows most callings to be good at multiple tasks. A rogue can do DPS as a Marksman or Saboteur or they can provide healing using the soul of the bard. Another nice upside to this soul system is that in PvP when you see a ‘cleric’ how they have selected their souls and how they have managed their talents makes it hard to know exactly what maybe expected.

Is there a downside to Rift's soul system?

Unfortunately I do think what makes the soul system so flexible and powerful also has a few drawbacks. In Rift there is little if any reason to actually level a healer unless you just want to go slow. It makes much more sense to use a DPS soul all through the lower levels and for most questing, then just switch out to a healing soul for dungeons or PvP later in your leveling. On one hand I like the flexibility, on the other hand the character itself never seems to have as much, well ‘character’ as if I were to level a pure priest in another MMO.

The lack of more specific calling/class structure combined with the weakness in race I think hurts some of Rift’s potential for players to really bond with their character. When I think of my characters in WoW I think of my Undead Priest, or my Tauren warrior, or my Human Warlock. The priest will never do DPS and the Tauren will never heal… but that is also why they are memorable and their defined role defines their character.

Rift Soul Tip:

Pick a DPS soul to start out your character. Having a healing soul is only going to slow you down in much of the questing. Then once you get to level 13 you will get quests to acquire all of the souls. For a small amount of platinum you can then create a healing spec with the best soul combination for your game style.

Bonus Rift Soul Tip:

Don’t listen too much to the advice on how Trion says you should combine your souls. In my opinion they often they pair souls that have a lot of overlapping ability and actually do little to add variety or strength to your character. For example I saw very little value in pairing a saboteur with a marksman. As you work your way up each of the trees you find abilities that are redundant or very similar. My advice is to use your own judgment in picking out souls based on the abilities you would most likely use and how you would like to play the character.

Rifts and Invasions

One of the other major features of Rift is so fundamental it carries the same name. Rifts open from the sky and will spew various monsters into the world. Rifts can open randomly and players also have the potential under certain conditions to open Rifts as well. As Rifts remain open the invading creatures can begin to roam across the game world taking over quest hubs and even the villages themselves. Each Rift can be closed by players who battle the players and complete objectives for the Rifts themselves. Like mini-quests, Rifts require you to kill a certain number of mobs or in some cases destroy crates or complete other tasks.

Rifts really have an exciting impact when you first begin doing them. The concept is well executed and when everything works like it is supposed to the Rifts are quite fun. Not everything with Rifts is perfect. Getting the right balance between too few Rifts and too many can be tough. At times I had wished there were less as they would get in the way of quests. Then another time I had an epic/story line that required Rift events and it would always seem there would only be one or two on the map I would be chasing around trying to fill my objectives.

Trion has great potential with Rifts but part of the game design struggles a bit as a server population matures. Already I can remember being at level 28 and even though the server population was high, there were few players in my area that were available or that cared to participate in the Rifts. I closed many Rifts by myself. Also, despite what I feel has been a lot of “Rifting” the amount of Planite (the currency for buying weapons and armor) is relatively small compared to the cost of the items.

Rift Player VS Player

At level 10 you can begin doing PVP battles in a war front Black Garden. The Codex opens at level 20. In Black Garden you grab a flag (they call it a fang) from the center of the map. The team holding the flag receives points that count up faster the closer you are to the center of the map. First team to 500 wins the match. In the Codex, your team attempts to hold four locations that provide the team controlling the location points. One location, the codex, provides a great number of points than the other three making it the point the team most wants to control.

Player versus player balance is probably rather subjective. In my opinion Rift still has a way to go on their player versus player balance. It is not so bad it is broken, but there are specific souls and callings that have become very highly represented. Trion is right now preparing a 1.1 patch that will dramatically change the balance of souls and callings in PvP. I plan to release a review after this patch that will give my opinion on how successful this change is. As I have played a saboteur build myself in the warfront to great success, I actually look forward to seeing if ‘nerf’ on the Rogue soul will make another soul or calling more attractive.

Ironically, much of the imbalance of some of the souls and callings seem to have become less of an issue as players have become more familiar and specifically target the players that are seen as more of a threat. Essentially my sab build was relatively far more powerful in beta, pre-launch and the first few weeks after launch. Lately however the other classes have adapted and have been much more formidable on the battlefield without very many changes in the souls. Now with the 1.1 patch coming out and a major nerf to that soul, it will be interesting to see how players will adapt.

Rift Basic Scorecard

As I still have much of the game left to play, this is just my current overview of the strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths

- Great graphic engine if you have the machine that can run it

- Flexible ‘souls’ allows a lot of variety out of the same character class

- Very polished for a new online massive role-playing game

- Rift events are graphically impressive, unpredictable, and can be fun

- Trion’s team is quickly releasing a patch that will have a dramatic impact on balance

Weaknesses

- Races are not very impactful or memorable

- Only two starting areas and limited quest chains

- A lot of the mechanics and gameplay are a lot like other MMO’s

- Server populations feel small even on full servers

RIFT GAME REVIEW SCORE: 82/100

This is not a "Final" score and as with most massive online multiplayer games there will be content updates and patches that could dramaticallly change the quality of the game. In addition, there will be another review issued after I have leveled one or more classes to level 50 and explored the end game content.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a comment!

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