my Rift review

Heres my Rift review for you all

Of course this is a MMO and it can’t truly be stacked against others in in type for some time but I thought it might be nice to give an overview of the game and some personal opinions based on my many hours played to date.



Rift: Planes of Telara is a MMORPG, where players in small parties, groups, raids or solo adventure to save a world being torn apart by magical rifts that unleash deadly planar invasions, the world of Telara rests at the intersection of several powerful planes of reality, the very forces that make up all existence. The planes form a nexus of energy around Telara, and it is this unrivaled power that first attracted the mighty elemental gods of the Blood Storm.

Led by Regulos, god of Death, the Blood Storm devoured countless worlds in its unending hunger for conquest. But when these baleful gods moved toward Telara, the Blood Storm turned upon itself; each sought not to destroy Telara, but to rule it, and in this mistake the lands where given the time to fight back and call forth fallen heroes of the past to strive to gain control of the balance of the land bringing harmony back to the world.

The rifts themselves can be made up of one of many different unstable elements namely:

* Life, Death, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.





And each brings a unique type of enemy that strives to gain a foothold and then spread out to invade surrounding areas, making a once peaceful town or village a centre of fighting and bloodshed.

The concept works very well and the regularity of the invasions are dependent on the population of the server and area at the time, rewards for closing the Rifts and defeating the commanders vary from a type of currency used to buy specific items, unique items etc…….

The joyful thing about these Rifts is you can engage or choose to carry on questing the choice is yours.

Rift has all of the traditional quests and deep story arcs you expect from a fantasy MMO role-playing game and add to that the actual rifts makes for a fun and varied journey, add to that the dungeons that are scattered around the different zones makes for a lot to keep you occupied in-game.

The dungeons themselves vary in difficulty depending on the number you take into the raid, as well as rank specific dungeons that are in the different areas, they are fun and the loot is varied and enough to keep you going back more than once….

There is a tonne of loot In this game and they are level based so you are always looking out for a new piece to complement your toon.

As well as that there are shops galore to buy items from drinks, food, potions, gear, to dyes to change your gear appearance etc etc…..as well as that there is an auction house for selling and buying player based gear.



There is also various crafting that you can specialize in and each is unique enough to be less of a grind and complementary enough to want you to focus on all three of your crafting/gathering skills.

Of course there are companions and pets that you can collect as well as mounts to move around with.

There are teleport locations which use gold to travel between, which varies in price depending on locations traveling from and to.

Joining parties is easy and there is also an pop-up join public party allowing you to enter a party when you arrive at a rift or invasion, so all and all the group thing is very well handled in the game.



When you die, you can Soul-walk once every hour and other than that take rebirth at a resurrection temple, each time you die you lose stamina and at some point you will have to visit a healer and pay to have it restored to 100%.

As well as that you can use a soul recall function to tele from anywhere to a bound soul location and this feature has a 1hr cool-down time.

Now down to the fractions in the game, when you start out you can choose either Guardian or Defiant. Each race will offer players its own set of advantages and disadvantages during gameplay.

On the Guardian side of things the three races you can choose from are:

High elves, Mathosian and Dwarves

And on the Defiant side:

Bahmi, Eth and Kelari

Within each of the fractions you can also choose from one of 4 different classes and then again each class has specific sub-classes which you can focus on:

Warrior
Weapons, tactics, and combat are the mainstays of a Warrior’s life.
The Warrior classes are: Champion, reaver, paladin, warlord, paragon, riftblade, void knight.

Cleric
Clerics are renowned for their powerful support magic, able to repair the most grievous injuries or cure the deadliest diseases.
The cleric classes are: purifier, inquisitor, sentinel, justicar, shaman, warden, and druid.

Rogue
Rogues are most at home skulking around the edges of battle, waiting for the perfect moment to strike with overwhelming force and minimal chance of counterstrike
The rogue classes are: Nightblade, ranger, blade dancer, assassin, riftstalker, marksman, and saboteur.

Mage
Devastating long-range combatants, the arcane powers Mages wield can tear through any opponent, regardless of armor
The mage classes are: elementalist, warlock, pyromancer, stormcaller, archon, necromancer, and dominator.

Now when the fun starts you can choose 3 sub-classes for each class and then spend points within those skill-trees as you level up you can also create more jobs which allow you to switch out souls to change from say a warrior DPS to a warrior tank, you can apply this method to four different soul-specs so the options are nearly limitless with-in the given class…….





As well as the normal quest lines there are also guild specific quests which allow you to rank up and give perks to all guild members, for example extra gold looted from enemies……its these little things that make me enjoy the game all that much more.

battles are full and can get very challenging as you level-up....

There are artefacts to collect, achievements, notoriety and a whole bunch of other quirky things to keep you running madly around……



So anyway, how can I review a full MMO experience, better to finish up here and let you enjoy it yourselves…

The graphics are very good, with lovely effects and lighting as well as detailed and varied zones which range from lush green Elvin forests, mountain ranges etc etc



Sound effects are good and the music is also very good, voice acting is ok.
There are plenty of servers and heaps of people playing them, making for an enjoyable time.
I came from FFXIV so i guess this is really my first MMO I can’t and won’t compare it to any others but im having a blast with the game, it’s a heap of fun and to date is jam-packed with things to do.
Im running the game on an Alienware M17x with ultra-settings and shadows turned off and get around 45 FPS…….

Minimum specs required:
OS: Windows XP, Vista or 7
Processor: Dual Core 2.0 GHz or better
Memory: 2 GB
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce FX 5900, ATI/AMD Radeon X300, Intel GMA X4500 or better.
DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update
Hard Drive: 15.0 GB available
Sound: DirectX 8.1 compliant card
Other: Broadband internet connection (DSL, cable modem or other high speed connection)

Recommended:
OS: Windows XP, Vista or 7
Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or better
Memory: 4 GB
Desktop Graphics: Nvidia GTS 250 or better
Notebook Graphics: Nvidia GTX 200M series or better
DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update
Hard Drive: 15.0 GB available
Sound: DirectX 8.1 compliant card
Other: Broadband internet connection (DSL, cable modem or other high speed connection)

well sorry if i missed a lot out, its a huge game and i was only trying to give a general idea of the game, i did seem to get carried away....sorry about that...

again if you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

Excellent review +1 !

 

Great review! I am thoroughly enjoying the game myself

 

Rift is the only other MMO I've truly enjoyed since WoW.

 

Rift is an ok game, but seems like too much of a watered down WoW with ok graphics and some bugs. My experience is mostly limited to the beta. It might get better.

 

not really sure what that has to do with the game but anyway i have to disagree with you, my experience with creating an account and billing information has been great, they have informed me along the way, and when i changed my billing information i received an email straight away informing me of the change.

so im sorry you have had a bad experience, but in all honesty the only part that i find helpful to this thread is " I played the beta, but really hated the game" as its a game review not an account review

 

yeap and i understand your frustration, but i was trying to keep this as a game topic/review rather than get into the other aspects of a company business, so i wasn't trying to sound disrespectful to you or your situation, just wanted to stay on topic.......

i doesn't bother me you stating your dislike/reasons for not liking the game, but i think the other aspect of you original comments may not have a place in this thread.....

thanks and hope you get it sorted soon.

 

I'm I missing something? All i can find is a description of the game...

edit:
O found it... the review is the few lines above the sys requirements (i think)

 

nice review! i skimmed through it just now, and will definitely read it more thoroughly in a bit.

 

Nice Review, I like Rift. Have played all the rest, Rift seems to be the next step in MMO's. Hardly any issues at launch, that tells you something about the people behind it.

 

Looks like it has more potential then ff14.... ZING! Seriosuly though I've watched some vids and just looks like a better graphic'd WoW.