I have something of a disgusting obsession with MMO's, it's most likely due to the bottomless pit of free time I have. No matter how bad it sounds, I will want to try it, I can't help myself.
My current hit-list stands at: World of Warcraft, Lineage 2, Final Fantasy XI, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Aion, EVE Online, RF Online, a few free or god-awful ones that I can't remember the names of and now Rift.
Now to preface this review, most MMORPG players categorise themselves (or someone else does it for them) as either a WoW fan-boy or what many self-important fuckwits call themselves "hardcore mmo-ers", or something to that effect. I am neither. I played WoW, a lot, far too much, it was a good game, but it was not the be-all and end-all, you have tip your cap to Blizzard though, they know how to make a fucking MMO. I like other MMOs however, I like trying them, I hope they're good. They're usually not.
People usually quote MMOs as either "WoW-Killers" or too like WoW. World of Warcraft has completely dominated the market to the point that it makes everyone playing, developing or reviewing the games develop some sort of crazy complex about the size of WoW metaphorical genitals. They either claim there's are bigger, or seemingly worship it.
So onto Rift, or as I like to call it World of Aioncraft in a War of Reckoning. Believe it or not however, this mockery is a good thing.
Trionworlds (the developers) have taken all the good parts of various successful (and not so successful) games and jammed them together into one game. It is, and I cringe saying this, very much like World of Warcraft, but World of Warcraft's styling came from earlier MMOs. It has the same smoothness of WoW. Most MMOs feel like you're using your keyboard through a joint of pork. It's taken the group quests idea from Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, the greatest part of that game, the items also have a similar feel to the WAR ones. Similar maps too. The animations are quite similar to Aion. All these products together have created what can only be described as a very fun game.
The main fun in Rift is the Rifts. Which is one of the stupidest sentences I've ever typed, but it's true. Rifts are what the game gains it title from, if you haven't realised by the amount of times I've typed Rift... rift. Rift.
The game employs a mechanic where random... rifts open around the world and monsters pour out of them. These monsters are killed for reputation rewards and currencies which allow for shiny new items for your shiny new character. However this isn't the main incentive of them. They're... fun.
For anyone who hasn't played an MMO this may sound like a trivial statement. Most MMOs aren't fun most of the time. A lot of my friends who I've had conversations with often don't know why they play MMOs. This could be because all my friends are emotionally damaged wo/man-children, or it could be that all MMO players are. MMOs suck you in by the idea of constantly improving your character, progressing onwards merely for the point of progress. Rift breaks this normality by making this a secondary value.
The Rifts get worse (in a good way!) when an invasion happens. Rifts open everywhere. Invasion-teams run rampart. Monsters set up footholds. It's fucking mental. Everyone stops everything and tries to stop the towns getting destroyed and NPCs being killed. My friend and I spent hours running around killing things, dying and generally saving the world.
There are faults in this game too. The Class/talent point/soul/duck/god knows what else system. It's trying to be innovative and it's trying too hard. In the first 6 levels you have to choose 3 different classes with arbitrarily small text blurbs about what they do. The idea is to give each player their own individual, hybrid class, but with the fact that lots of spells are copied over trees and the majority of the spells are useless, the classes feel weighty and overly complicated A lot of the classes are completely useless as well.
Other flaws include, gear feeling useless, with current level being the most important factor when doing anything, this may change at the top level however, boring environments which are too large, making a lot of the quests just feel like an endless trek across the map, depressingly boring character models and weapon/armour models.
All in all, this has been quite a boring review. There isn't too much to criticise but also there isn't much to praise. The Rifts are amazingly fun, but that could just be because they're a new gimmick, they may become boring. It is an amalgamation of other MMOs which may work towards it's fall or rise. It all depends what the developers do with it. If they add lots of end game content (read: RAIDING!) and don't try and concentrate on PvP like every other fucking MMO on the market at the moment they should do well. If not, they'll join the pile of Free-to-play MMOs that have failed in the past few years trying to cash in on the rising market.
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