[Review] Rift: Storm Legion is a Winner

SBFord

Rift: Storm Legion hit the stage last month and, since that time, we've been chronicling our adventures through the first expansion. See how Storm Legion fares in our official review. Played Storm Legion? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Early last year Trion Worlds burst out onto the MMO scene with their freshman debut Rift. Rift was arguably the best MMO to come out in a limited class of 2011. Rift would overwhelmingly be considered a theme park MMO in the same vein as Everquest and World of Warcraft; but has enough of a twist to it, with the addition of the namesake rifts, to make its mark on the MMO landscape. Trion has also released content for Rift at a voracious pace defining new standards for how fast a developer can publish new updates for their game. Late last month Trion released their first full expansion for Rift, Storm Legion. Storm Legion has brought with it a number of new features to the game as well as giving the players more of what they loved about the original game to begin with.

Read more of Rob Lashley's Rift: Storm Legion is a Winner.

Crucia is an ugly beast, no wonder she is so mad.

Freezzo

Whilst I agree with the grade, there are a few things on the review I don't agree with.

I find it unfair to say the game added nothing to the 1-50 leveling experience. Whilst this is true, it's not something the expansion aims to do. Also the 1-50 leveling has been given a huge speedboost because of the adding or random warfront dailies, they give as much as 120-40% of xp up to level 40, after which it drops. RIFT also has Instant Adventures in almost every pre-50 zone now as well, giving yet another thing to pick whilst leveling. These weren't in the expansion, but they did add them on top of the 'do one of both storylines'.

Also the fact that the PvP part is mentioned very briefly as a new argument in the conclusion surprises me. It's mentioned nowhere else and it doesn't hold up for PvP servers, where the Guardians and Defiants are still fighting. Conquest also is back up, they probably (and this is speculation on my part) waited until there were enough people at level 60 to enable it once again.

With the points of gameplay and innovation I got the feeling it wasn't much more of a summation of things new to RIFT. I found the reviews in progress to be much better, maybe there's just too much RIFT to put into this small a space

ThomasN7

I think the score is way too high for a game that is still loaded with a bunch of fedex quests. If anything people can now have a better alternative to WoW.

bcbully

I know the game is polished, plays great, and is being run by one of the best teams in the industry. I played the game for the first 10 months, from headstart till december. I just couldn't get back into it.

 

Questing for levels in a high fantasy world. GW2, then Panadas, now RIFT. I couldn't make it past a month. If a person who is new to the genre asked "Which mmorpg should I play?" I would probably tell them RIFT. I'm not new though, and I can't help but feel like "I've seen this before."

Coolit

I think the score is spot on; it's undoubtedly the best expansion of 2012 and represents a significant landmark to the game. I can’t think of any expansion that has added so much to a game and represents such high value to the consumer.

Azuri21

Spot on review. I'd add the content is not face roll and also loot is just handed to you at max level. Gear progression has multiple paths they don't require raiding if you don't want too. The newest level 60 chronicle is also well done.

Azuri21

Err that should be loot is not handed out to you. Derp.

Jaedor

Questing so far seems to be about 90% kill quests, which gets old. But Dimensions make up for this by far. I'm spending most of my gaming time in Rift these days, building houses for a small army of alts and having a ball. Good review!

Foomerang

Nice writeup. I would say its pretty accurate.

JeroKane

Originally posted by DMKano

It is the best expansion of 2012 easily, IMO it might be one of the best expansions for any game ever - if you consider how bland and meh rift was at release, now look at Storm Legion - I honestly had a feeling of "this can't be the same game" - it is FAR improved in almost all aspects.

Storm Legion would go down in history as one of the most epic expansions period, the Trion team should be awarded for the work they've done here, as since Kunark (1st eq1 expansion), what else has even come close?

EverQuest 2: "Echoes of Faydwer" expansion is by far still the best MMO expansion ever.

It was THE expansion that completely turned that game around and brought people back.

Ozmodan

Still just another Wow clone, just the same old, same old.  Hard to get excited about it.  I certainly was not going to waste my money on this expansion.  

Steene

Is this game still a one button smash macro game? Thats the main reason I left it. I cant stand braindead games.

Grakulen

@steene Not as much as it was.

mCalvert

Innovation is way overrated especially in the time of GW2. Rifts do not spawn randomly, they spawn at predetermined points, and follow a formula. They have little to do with the world they spawn in. Combat is the same old stand in place and mash buttons, dps, heal or tank.

I think its obvious that GW2 raised the bar. And Rift is now below it.

Myrdynn

oddly enough, I bought SL, have been playing it daily since launch, even had a raid scheduled for last night.  But where was I?  Playing an 8 hr consecutive session of AC2, and having far more fun then I have had in at least 6 yrs of gaming

 

Draron

Originally posted by mCalvert

Innovation is way overrated especially in the time of GW2. Rifts do not spawn randomly, they spawn at predetermined points, and follow a formula.

Weird, you talk as if GW2's events don't.

On topic, I think the score is a little too high - I read some big issues with the launch, and polish is not one of the pro's IMO. But still, good work Trion.

Siveria

I tried Rift yesterday, and I found the game to be extremly boring and hollow like most themeparks, and I don't think the expansion is going to fix the core gameplay issues with the game (it being a direct copy and paste wow clone). You just mindlessly go from quest hub to quest hub, and this gets old very fast. Doing random shit for random npc's you don't give a rats ass about in the first place. Is there anything in Rift that is actually fun to do? Because running around douing random quests for random npc's is not my idea of fun.

Foomerang

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Originally posted by mCalvert
Innovation is way overrated especially in the time of GW2. Rifts do not spawn randomly, they spawn at predetermined points, and follow a formula. They have little to do with the world they spawn in. Combat is the same old stand in place and mash buttons, dps, heal or tank.I think its obvious that GW2 raised the bar. And Rift is now below it.

---

After doing some Great Hunt Rifts and some of the new zone invasions, trion has raised the bar and gw2 must now play catch up in that category.

MsFit

I've played a lot out there, including GW2, and have been looking for a game that would just grab me. Saw an article on Rift and thought "why not". Didn't even make it to the free 20 cap before I subbed. This game has everything I loved from other systems and put them together. I love the rifts mechanic and spend a lot of time just running around opening and closing them.  I love how they did the housing and am just having the greatest time in the game.

 

The community on my server is the best I've ever found in any game. This game just really fits me I guess. Found my new home for a while.

William12

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Originally posted by Azuri21
Spot on review. I'd add the content is not face roll and also loot is just handed to you at max level. Gear progression has multiple paths they don't require raiding if you don't want too. The newest level 60 chronicle is also well done.

Oh please, several main stream games have alternate paths to second tier or weaker gear that don't require raiding.  EQ2, LotRO, WoW, etc. all offer second rate gear for non-raiders.  Rift isn't any different than any other progression raiding game where the best loot is locked behind raiding.  Sure you can get good gear through alternative paths that serves well for non-raid content.  You can do that in pretty much any game though.

You couldn't be more wrong.  Pre SL Experts awarded marks for the actual visible raid gear sure it took awhile but you could gear yourself up with the head, shoulders, chest, belt, hands, feet, legs without stepping 1 foot into the raid zone.  Eventually this will come back and the SL experts will award these marks also.  

Skymourne

I was high on Rift in beta, lasted 2 months at launch and then felt unhappy with the game...and then all this time later, i went on a friend's reccomendation for Storm Legion.  It has been my best gaming decision yet.  People can say what they want, but the game isn't just solid, it's stellar now.  It has a GREAT feel to it, kind of scifi/fantasy and it surpasses any xpac i've played for any mmo.  

Now, there are some serious bug issues that need to be addressed.  The raids are bug heavy right now and i know they are working on that, but some folks are getting frustrated with it.  There are some graphical errors occassionally tied to alt-tabbing out of the game and back that are mildly annoying as well.  Other than that, it is as solid as an xpac comes and it supassed every expectation i could have possibly had for it.  It's a 9.5/10 for me.

 

causs

Storm Legion made Rift amazing. The game is an absolute blast to play and the best expansion I've experienced. If there are people who would like to try out Rift, check out the forum section of Rift here on MMORPG.com and apply for the ascend-a-friend trial. You get some nice goodies!

Freezzo

And don't forget to mention: THE EXPANSION IS FREE TO PLAY FROM DEC. 14-18!!! (especially useful for former subs wanting to check it out )

strangiato2112

8.4 is about right.   Pretty damn good, a little better than MoP (which was also strong).

It is one of the best expansions since EQ2's EoF.

GoldenArrow

Was fun until I got to the "let's wait for raid days to have fun" -part.

Now I'm just running around doing dailies and waiting for raiding days.

asmkm22

Originally posted by DMKano

It is the best expansion of 2012 easily, IMO it might be one of the best expansions for any game ever - if you consider how bland and meh rift was at release, now look at Storm Legion - I honestly had a feeling of "this can't be the same game" - it is FAR improved in almost all aspects.

Storm Legion would go down in history as one of the most epic expansions period, the Trion team should be awarded for the work they've done here, as since Kunark (1st eq1 expansion), what else has even come close?

Here's a question:  Does the expansion improve anything in the core game, or is it only for the new content?  I always felt Rift was incredibly bland and generic, in terms of lore and gameplay, but haven't seen anything since the expansion hit that leads me to believe that's changed.