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I'm really enjoying Rift (my first impressions)
TheScavenger
Member EpicPosts: 3,321
So, these are my first impressions. My experience may change later, but thus far these are my thoughts. I think first impressions matter a lot (at least to me). Its like a book. If I pickup a book and bored as heck or the book has no point in the first few chapters...I probably just will put it down and move on to the next book. Granted, the book may have a bad start and end up being good or have a good start and end up being bad...but point remains.
The first experience I ever had with Rift was in the last stage of beta. I liked it, but I never really got into it...but I generally never get attached to betas...but even when Rift was released, I was playing other MMOs/games at the time. Don't think I particularly liked it for whatever reason...not enough to get it at release anyway.
So... I am on the 20 level trial. I'm not limited to the trial, I have a free Rift copy that comes with 30 days...I just want to wait a bit to use it when my character is ready to move on. I'm on the US RP-PvE server, which has a rather good community.
My very first impression was that questing seemed more streamlined...smooth. It feels different in some way compared to beta. My rogue's combat also seems a lot better than I remember it being too, but I may remember wrong...since beta was a while ago. It seems a lot better though, in response and animation and what not. It feels really smooth.
(note: not my experience, but a good friend of mine and he sent me a screencap of the chat)...he contacted customer support because he chose the wrong server. Guess he was on a trial shard or something, and thought that was what he had to choose since he was on a trial account...not sure 100% of the details. Anyway, literally 3-5 minutes later a GM contacted him and fixed him up. On top of that, the GM had quite good humor. My friend was in an area where he was far underleveled and he asked how he would get back to the low level area. The Gm said "Run. Forrrrest. Run!"...I thought that was funny :P Different than how a lot of GMs act.
Now, I don't really want this to turn into a debate of x game is better than y game. But they are kind of similar in mechanics in the way they have dynamic events. I won't name said game, but it should be rather obvious. So in game Y (that I played to mid levels and then quit in disgust), I thought dynamic events would be way better...and actually dynamic. But in the end, I never felt like it mattered if I had to do the events or not. I could run right by, and they would have no effect on the world. If they did, the event would reset in 15 minutes. And if I did do a dynamic event and succeeded in the event...it would reset really fast and...yeah. In the end, they weren't even dynamic. When I quit in disgust, was around level 40...I saw in chat "5 minutes to dragon spawn!"...and even before in the starter area "10 minutes to wasp queen! all meet up! good loot and exp!"...should have really been the first clue. I pretty much quit when I realized everything was on an exact timer, and nothing I did actually mattered.
But in Rift...it feels way more dynamic. For one, it feels a lot more random overall. At least first impressions that is, which can be better said than game Y. And, if the players don't clear out a zone, more and more rifts spawn. Like I logged on this morning, and there was rifts and invasions and footholds all over the place. Then a huge water invasion happened...felt very hectic and like I actually had to help push back the invasion. The whole zone was affected, and people were going around killing invasions and closing Rifts. But even when there isn't a major zone invasion happening, Rift dynamic events feel way more exciting than anything in the other game...it feels intense all the time and feels like I actually make a difference. Plus, the rifts seem to have random locations they appear and at random times...so they are actually dynamic.
The water invasion really sold me in my first impressions. So much fun.
But there is also lots to do. Crafting is kinda basic and I would say its a negative...its pretty much like WoW crafting but slightly better. Not the best crafting I've seen. And the Defiant city is rather small...and the world seems kind of small (judging by the map and what I've seen). But I guess its...make a huge world with little in it...or a small world but lots to do and see. Guess pros/cons to each.
There is however a lot of artifacts and secrets to find. Even minipets and stuff for housing. Which speaking of housing...
Don't have much knowledge of the talent system. But at least they didn't remove 99% of the talent system and call it "NEW AND IMPROVED! BEST talent system we ever made! now with only 6 choices!"...there is a lot of choices in Rift. Especially with the way you can have three classes at once.
Housing is almost a 100% take from Free Realm's housing. Feels like an exact clone even with the way you can move objects and what not, but feels a bit more involved in Rift. Not that its a bad thing...FR has a rather nice housing system. But it doesn't seem to really serve as a point...and it doesn't really change gameplay. However, having a house and a plot of land is a nice addition. I really miss housing when they aren't included. And on the RP server I'm on, a lot of RP events seem to take place in the dimensions (housing)...so there is that. I guess its nice to decorate and as a side thing, but its not a game changer. Unless there is chests you can get to store stuff...that would make it rather way more useful. I haven't really got far into the housing stuff.
Some negatives. First, when the water invasion happened...my FPS went from 60, all the way to in the 20s...my PC is sort of med-high end range...but I guess there was just tons going on. Either that or it was server/region lagged from everything happening. It didn't lock up or jump around, it just went into this slow motion animations. I was part of another invasion (toward the end of it) shortly after arriving in the main area after the starter place...and my FPS didn't drop at all. But the invasion didn't seem to be as big. So not sure what was up with that.
There are fishing bots. Trion hasn't announced or done anything with them. The first thing I saw when I reached the ocean in that one coastal village was a group of level 1 fishing bots. People in local chat were complaining about them and said they had been there for 3 days doing nothing but fishing. How did they even get there at level 1? you end up at like level 6 or 7 by the time you leave the starting area...and that is in a seperate area. If Trion doesn't do anything about them, that is pretty much nail in the coffin (for me). There is nothing worse than seeing a bunch of bots and a company not doing anything about them. The game can be the greatest thing, and if a company allows bots, doesn't matter...I will never touch said game. So hopefully they actually do something about them or/and announce something.
TLDR
To sum my first impressions up: Housing a nice addition, not a game changer. But a MMO (to me) feels lacking without housing. Lots to do while leveling. Lots of secrets to find...shinies! Dynamic events actually feel dynamic and have a purpose. Dynamic events are very exciting, even the smaller rifts. And the major zone wide invasions are just epic.
However some lag in the really big invasions. And a huge negative that Trion (thus far) hasn't done anything about the fishing bots, even if they've been reported by a lot of people. But guess it remains to be seen if they act or let them bot.
And so that is my first impressions
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Comments
Rift is a highly-polished game, but it lacks any sort of character or lore worth remembering. It's like a really hot date with the personality of a shoebox.
You make me like charity
I didn't comment on the story, my post was rather long as it is.
But it does seem kind of fail. Who would want to play as the Guardians? They aren't even really evil...just stupid. Bringing on the end of the (game) world with their fanatic blind beliefs. Even toward the end in the starter area, they were still against the Defiant even when it was apparent they caused the destruction. Worst faction ever lol... The defiants are rather cool though.
But yeah, the story isn't really up there. I haven't seen anything that stuck out. But I don't play MMOs for the story, so that is the other reason I didn't include anything on that. Singleplayer games 100% of the time, have a WAY better story than any MMO can come up with. At least thus far to date. I wouldn't play an MMO that was all about story though...I can play a Singleplayer game for that. So it isn't a big deal for me that the story isn't that great.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
I kind of want to try this game, but GW2 is taking up most of my gaming time. I like the housing aspect, characters look nice, world was pretty.
My main concerns with the game are the rifts. If you are on a low pop server, playing at the wrong time, or just can't get other players to participate, then a good part of the area becomes unplayable do to the mobs. This was my impression when beta testing. Is this a wrong assumption? The other thing that gave me pause was it seemed very grindy with the quests. I like to go off and do my own thing from time to time, which is why I like GW2.
So can you skip the quests, just explore and kill random mobs and get decent loot.
I think you got that backwards...
*edit*
Nevermind, I see you wrote that from the perspective of a Defiant character's storyline. Guardians aren't ever supposed to be considered "evil" which is what threw me off there. From the perspective of the Guardians, it's the Defiants that are evil, destroying nature and building unnatural machines and whatnot.
Anyway, that's all just lore.
You make me like charity
This analogy isnt that far off, and partly explains why Rift usually gives a very strong first impression but ultimately has poor long term retention past the first few months.
Rift is indeed like an incredibly hot date, that wants lots of sex. AT first he/she seems somewhat interesting, but really you are just focused on the sex at that point. As time goes on, you realize he/she is kind of dull and that there really isnt much to the relationship other than sex. You cant see settling down long term because you cant even have a decent, interesting conversation.. You begin to realize that there are other dates out there, maybe not quite as attractive but with better personalities (and you still get the sex to, even if not quite as often)
But there are people that consider him/her to be fascinating even if the majority dont see it, or perhaps all they want is bang bang bang.
As far as I know; quest hubs still get invaded but I think they did it so that it can be soloable and invaders get easy overtime. Last time I have leveled through 1-50 (before expansion) I never had any problems with quest hubs being invaded. I also participated in closed beta test and I can safely say that the game has changed a lot and it still is changing. So, I advice you to get into trial and see it yourself if you'll enjoy it or not.
There Is Always Hope!
I am spending a lot of time in Rift these days because of dimensions. I've built 4 small ones and two more for guildies. Working on a larger project now. My main is still only level 50 because I'm spending time on crafting alts and dimensions but I am having a ball with the game.
Rift is very much a clone of other themeparks and it seems like 98% of all quests are kill quests, which gets really old. But it is very solo friendly (I've not done an instance or IA yet) and fun to play with builds. However, if it wasn't for dimensions, I probably would not be looking at a long-term sub.
Well keep in mind, these are just first impressions. I haven't seen nearly all the game or even really played that long as far as MMOs go. My initial experience is great, but once I get to the later stuff...it may change.
Does Trion still update once a month? I love playing MMOs that update every month, only MMO that I've personally been a part of that did that...was Asheron's Call. AC came out with a huge/large content update every single month. They still do that. Totally worth the monthly fee. I'm always really annoyed when I have to wait months and months for a large content patch and my 15 dollars doesn't seem to go anywhere.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Nobody knows if they will keep their 6-8 week cycle they had going. They had one update since SL, but it was just stuff they intentionally held back from SL to stagger it, not new worked on content. The team has been reduced by 40 people or so so it seems likely the updates will slow down somewhat, but its all speculation at this point.
I think river of Souls was ready, or nearly ready, at launch, but everything else was post-launch. They did a good job of making new content by recycling old content, such as chronicles, IAs, and master modes. It was a smart move, because it kept the game fresh for people.
I think Trion planned ahead this time, and there is a bunch of content near finished ready to go, such as Dendrome. The high end zones are noticeably empty, and from what I have read some content was removed from beta from those zones. This should still allow Rift to release noticeable updates every 2 months. The big concern is what happens in a year-18 months when its time for another expansion. Will Trion be able to deliver?
The funny thing is, if you add up all the content EQ2 added last year in updates it really isnt *that* far off what Rift added in updates, but much of that content was expansion specific content that was promised already.
WoW has said they are planning new raids every 4 months with major patches every 2 months in between. 5.1 was certainly a noteworthy patch for WoW and 5.2 looks pretty impressive as well. of course if you dont like WoW the patches mean nothing to you, but if nothing else Trion has gotten blizzard to step up their game.
so you understand why people were saying GW2 events are like Rifts. back in April.