this game called RIFT..?Follow

Some friends have gotten interested in the beta (which is currently down right now), and I've also been looking for a beta invite to join them :P. I played a little on one of their accounts and it's fairly fun so far, in that it's very similar to WoW, though I think I like the soul system in RIFT more (basically, you are an archetype but can have 3 different classes equipped at once, so there is much greater potential for diversity).

It is pretty interesting. Each "soul" has its own unique skill/talent tree, so it's basically similar to WoW there in that each class had 3 trees. The difference being that in RIFT you get to choose 3 out of 7-8 possibilities for your archetype (plus a separate PvP soul I believe), which allows for greater flexibility. Furthermore, the basic abilities you learn are defined by your souls and not by your archetype - so in WoW you learned new abilities (or ranks) at given levels. In RIFT, you learn abilities by spending a certain number of points in that soul's skill tree (the skills are not actually part of the skill tree - they are unlocked immediately once you have the requisite number of points in the tree). You still get new ranks of skills by purchasing them at trainers once you're a certain level, though.

My understanding is that you will be able to change souls, but it will require money (in game money of course) and/or a quest or something. So in the beta you get access to all 3 "souls" within about an hour of playing; however, I believe at release the 2nd soul becomes available at level 15 and the 3rd at level 30. At least that's what I read on their site, it may be subject to change. I didn't get to play enough to really comment, but at least for me it seemed like I wanted to

cool beans.
Post it up if more keys come out.
My WoW time is getting kind of boring..I'm at the "I need to grind rep, it takes for ever" stage, and it is boring ><;
A new game may be fun, I played FFXI for 3 years, WoW now for..3 years..it may be time to move on.

A lot of what I write about the game might sound cynical, because I'm cynical about MMORPGs in general. Regardless of how I sound, I did like the game enough to pre-order it so that should tell you my real opinion there.

I think there is very little that will wow you about Rift, but I also think there is very little that can be found wrong with the game. Many other MMORPGs have an aspect I greatly like (I love both FFXI and FFXIV aesthetically), but these games are made unenjoyable for me by flaws in other areas (Massive repetition and grinds in FFXI and FFXIV, and generally uninteresting combat). I liked a lot of the gameplay of Warhammer Online, but the unresponsive servers made healing in PvP a nightmare. Rift doesn't have any huge flaws that I can see. I see nothing that could be said to be significantly flawed or done poorly. I can also tell that the team has put a lot of effort into making it run well because even in beta I encountered no glitches, a perfected UI, responsive servers, and polished animations and gameplay. I see Rift being released as a highly polished and finished product, quite the opposite of games like Vanguard.

It might be worth it if you're looking for a change of scenery and a fresh start, but as has been mentioned here before, Rift is far from an original game. There is still quest grinding, there is still instanced and open world pvp, there are still instanced dungeons and end game raiding. The rift mechanic will be new to you though, and if you're anything like me you'll enjoy it a lot. Rifts function basically like spontaneous raids. They have five levels starting with small minions and working up to elites and finally a boss at the end. You can join at any point during the event. You get rewards based on your contribution (damage/healing/etc.), but you don't need to be grouped with anyone and there is no loot drops to squabble over (you get coins to turn in for loot later). It's a very raid-like experience, but done in such a way that it can occur spontaneously and be done by players who aren't explicitly working together.

I'm interested. I liked the PQ's in both Warhammer and CO. I also like have a wide variety of build combinations for character abilities. In the movies I watched on the site the character animations seemed a bit sluggish though. Not sure if anyone can comment on that from beta.

One of the things that I like about WoW is how fast and responsive your character is as opposed to say a game like Lotro where its all very pretty scenery but your toons just don't feel as fluid in combat. Its a small thing I mean I played two characters to cap in Lotro but its always one of those things I miss when I take breaks from WoW.

I didn't take too much notice, but character animations seemed fairly smooth to me. In general, many people have been commenting about how polished the beta was, the UI, the lack of glitches, and the animations, so I feel there is a consensus that they are fine.

As for responsiveness, this is what drove me away from Warhammer. I couldn't play a healer in PvP because all my heals registered half a second later than they should have. As for Rift, it was certainly more responsive than Lotro or Warhammer, but I didn't feel they were quite as responsive as I remembered WoW being. That's a fairly error prone statement though, because being unfamiliar with abilities could have thrown my sense of timing off. I can't be sure if it was actually slightly off or it was all in my head.

Pretty good. I really liked the Defiant side better than the Guardians. Both start "not in the present;" in the Guardians, you start at a huge battle against a mad king, having been killed and raised as an Ascended by the Vigil (the gods). After fighting back the hoards of undead and killing the king, you get transported 20 years into the future (to present time) by the Vigil. I always hate time jumps like that.

The Defiant story starts with you at the last defenders of Telara. The majority of the Defiant were wiped out when the Guardians destroyed the Defiant machines, allowing the planar enemies to overrun them. The Guardians weren't enough to stop Regulos (evilest bad dragon of death), and now everyone's going to die. In a last-ditch effort at stopping this future, the Defiant made machines to create Ascended, and another to send them back in time (to the present) in order to fight Regulos before he kills everyone, or at least to stop the Guardians so humanity can make their own Ascended, since apparently the gods suck at picking a winning team. The story just flows much better, or so I felt.

The quest lines go just fine once you're out of the tutorial zones though.

From what I played, it reminded me heavily of WoW. The jumping animation wasn't quite as smooth for me, but other than that I thought it was pretty similar. I think you would like it.

First issue is that I'm on the lowest of low graphics settings. I really need a better machine, because the difference between my playing and the youtube videos/screenshots from the game I've seen on high quality are night and day.

The flow seems to work pretty well. My only real issue has been projectiles. In PvP I could not see rogues who would shoot me, be they rangers, marksmen, saboteurs, etc. I'd simply be taking damage, or getting debuffs and exploding (***** saboteurs, they seem like way too much fun). Of course, you need Line of Sight so it's usually not too hard to figure out where they are, but a nice arrow trail would be better.

Other than that, the game handles well. I think it's an added bonus that I can jump up slopes that I would not be able to in WoW. I don't feel like I'm playing a moving character against a painted backdrop, if that helps. The characters move and interact well with the environment (which can, at times, feel a bit bland in some areas).

IMO you should give them to a pancake bunny.

unless you werent one and i have you mixed up with somebody else :(

Edited, Jan 14th 2011 6:54am by KTurner

I still have my level 19 twink

I'll see what I can find out, but likely it'll be a contest. Or maybe I'll preorder and hand one out? Not sure yet... my gaming time is limited...

Woot! Thanks Locke and Kaasha.

I'd loooove to have a beta key. ^^ Sent PM.