Extremely late to the party on this, but I was bored looking at my usual roster of installed acronyms (EVE, GW2, NWO, SWTOR, STO, TSW) and thought I’d try something new. First impressions: this game looks, smells and feels a lot like a sort of smoother, more polished version of Vanguard (which is no bad thing), just with a slightly Asian influence in some of the art design. It’s even got the same bodhran or whatever the folk drum it is that’s used in the music!
It’s very old school, but I kind of like that. On first impressions, it definitely has its charms. The lore is quite engaging for some reason; don’t know why, it’s not like it’s exactly ground-breaking, but for some reason it all hangs together nicely. I’ve got a Defiant Bard and a Guardian Pyromancer/Warlock thingy, and it’s interesting looking at the lore from both sides, and the fact that there’s a sort of moral ambiguity to both sides is quite cool.
I guess what I like most about it overall so far is that it has the feeling of being made with some love and attention to detail (a bit like GW2 in this respect). Plus it seems like a virtual world (day/night cycle, no barriers that I can see), which is always a pleasant surprise these days.
So, favourable first impressions, I’m hooked for the moment. Looking forward to seeing what dungeons, etc. are like. (I like the way you join a mini-raid for the public quests.)
Razgon
2862
Its an extremely competent MMO which I happen to enjoy a lot in bursts. They also regularly release new content still, and have a quite nice store system set up. They often have world events which are pretty damn cool, and watching a Firerift form from above it never gets old.
It’s a terrifically solid game. I wish they had done something to better differentiate themselves from the competition. The soul system looked like it would be an interesting twist but inevitably there’s really just a few optimal builds and combinations of souls, and the copious talent point choices are heavy on the “1% bonus to fire damage” type. The lore is indeed interesting and well-presented though if that’s your bag, and I had a lot of fun for awhile chasing the collectibles.
I keep thinking I’ll go back to it at some point…I have like 30,000 Rift Points (whatever they’re called) sitting in my bank.
Ultrazen
2864
I think there are a few things Rift does that are best in genre, the character soul/job/class system for example. I leveled my first character without even noticing much, because I was so busy goofing around with different builds along the way. I also did a ton of PvP which I think is also best in class for an MMO, and if not best, certainly better than a lot of them.
Oddly what killed Rift for me, was the art style, I just could not get past it. If they had some non-generic art style to this game, I’d probably play it for a long long time. The absolute soul crushing mundane-ness of the weapons and armor are what did me in, and that’s a shame, as I really do think on many levels it’s one of the best MMOs out there.
All of the artwork in that game looks like it was done by the kid who came in 3rd at the art fair.
Yeah it’s spikey shoulder pads a-go-go :) But I’ve seen a lovely, moderately un-spikey leather “wardobe” outfit for my Bard that I’ve got my eye on for when I can spare some dosh. I don’t think it’s the art designers’ faults, it looks like that was their brief because the devs know lots of kids will buy that sort of stuff and help keep the game afloat.
It really is a very well polished MMO, everything works really well, and it seems like a roll-call of recognizable “best bits” from the 1999-2006 generation of MMOs (e.g., just got my Dimension and I’ll be blowed if it’s not exactly the same type of fun stuff as EQ2’s excellent housing/decorating system, only a bit smoother-working).
It has that great MMO thing that MMOs (and single player sandboxes like Skyrim) have at their best (at least for me) of being able to just wander around and do whatever takes your fancy and get immersed in the sheer virtual-worldiness and the charm of the lore, without feeling railroaded into a particular line of stuff-to-do. When the virtual world is well-made, one’s mind sort of expands into it to fill it, to inhabit it, and one really feels like one is in another “place” that has its own life, and you can feel your character start to develop a life of its own and spontaneously pull you in certain directions of things-to-do, things that feel right for it. GW2 has this too.
It contrasts with other modern f2p MMOs like NWO, which, while it has fantastic combat and great dungeon play, and is an exciting game in bursts, when you’re not doing a specific something you don’t have that feeling like you’re in a different world where just walking around is a pleasure in itself. Or like, say TSW, which has awesome questage, but when you’re not on a quest you don’t feel like there’s any percentage in just wandering around.
“you don’t have that feeling like you’re in a different world where just walking around is a pleasure in itself.”
I could go off on a very serious and long tirade about how Tomb Raider ruined gaming by introducing a really successful 3rd person camera, and thereby taking away the immersion and involvement that comes with first person perspective.
Seriously, game devs, get off the god damn 3rd person perspective already. Do a google search for mirror receptors and figure it out.
Ah, there I’d have to disagree with you. This is one of “those” arguments, but I find 3rd person more immersive most of the time because it mimics situational awareness. The only time you have tunnel vision (which is what 1st person most accurately represents) is in situations where you have an adrenalin dump. So it’s a good imitation of a fear based situation like, say, a dungeon crawl, where you don’t know what’s around the next corner, that type of thing.
But 3rd person mimics much more accurately our normal, everyday situational awareness in modelling the world around us 360 degrees - through saccading, unconsiously glancing around, listening behind, air pressure, etc., and is therefore far more immersive, in that normally we don’t walk around with tunnel vision.
The only senses in which 3rd person doesn’t “work” are that a) you can see your own arse, and b) you can often see what’s around corners, neither of which mimics anything naturally possible :)
Later note: forgot to say that most modern MMOs you can zoom in and play in 1st person if you want to. I sometimes do, e.g. when I’m in town and want to see detail, or, again, when I’m in a more fear-based situation like a new dungeon.
I haven’t played Rift in forever, but I’m still on their mailing list, and they sent me this today. Apparently there’s a big new patch and they’re giving away login reward stuff this month. If anyone still plays occasionally, might want to check it out.
