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Wow-Hammer-ion of Camelot! My first impressions of Rift Beta
So far i have found rift to be a pleasant mixture of WoW, WAR and Aion. In fact, it is like Trion just plucked out some of the more enjoyable aspects from each of the games, and mixed them into Rift.
I hadnt been following Rift, and actually just played a few characters to their 20s this last beta. However, i really like what i see so far. The game isnt trying to do anything spectacular, rather just take the systems from other games that work, and put them all together.
The class system is VERY cool though, i must say. Perhaps to the point that i could call this Wow-Hammer-ion of Camelot ^^
But yes, is this game bringing something AMAZING AND NEW to the table? No, not really (at least from what i have seen).
Is it putting together some of the best systems from other games, and presenting them in a very polished and fun way? Certainly 
Just my two cents from spending the past 3 days Playing this game!
Lewk- Healer of Legacy Gareth
McDee- Spiritmaster of Maelstrom Percival
Murgu- Skald of Mordred
Comments
Yeah, my only problem with it was the quests. They are linear, simple and pretty boring. But I guess it isn't anything an expansion or 2 can't fix.
I still can't get past lvl 5, honestly. I've just seen so many MMORPG's like this before, I can't even notice the main features, such as the class system.
I will probably skip this. I'm already having more fun on DCUO that I've had on an MMO in a long time, so I might just play that until TOR.
Groovy.
To bad DCUO is a sleeper game, pvp is meaningless no rewards and more of a button masher-action game. Thats just my 2 cents on it. And its easy to see why Rift has some similarities with WAR because half of Mythics team is now employed by Trion or at least so I heard which is interesting. At least they got away from EA.
RIFT reminds me so much of WAR. That would make so much sense.
A few classes to 20 during this beta event aye? uh huh.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I check to see if the quest offers an upgrade on my current equipment. If it does I do it. If it doesn't I skip it. Thats probably my favorite thing about the game. I can almost eliminate having to do quests.
Well, yes so far there is nothing new that hasn´t been there before, but they make the existing systems very interesting and fun to play in my opinion. What i really find great is, that they can implement features on demand (like the public grouping system) in a very short time and these things just work, while other game studios don´t seem to get it right in years.
I can´t even think about one release in the last years that has brought something new, but that´s beside the point.
Not sure if i will play this game very long, but i will definitely buy it.
Loke666 also has a point, quests aren´t hard, they are typicaly linear like in most theme park mmo´s, but i found myself reading the story quests and enjoying most of it so far.
Edit: what i also liked was that there are some "hidden" quests and hard to find mini games, which are rewarding, making a bit exploration interesting for me again.
"i'm a leaf on the wind watch how i soar"
"A few classes to 20 during this beta event aye? uh huh."
Yea, i just took a mage to 19 (pyro/storm/dom), rogue to 20 (marksman/assasin/ranger), and a warrior to 17 (didnt really enjoy him as much, thus i didnt even take him to 19 ).
Obviously i spent most of my time PvPing int he BGs with these chars, i lvl'd both the mage and the rogue from 14-19 simply through the BG. The rogue i lvl'd a lot of 10-14 by doing rifts/the rift invasion event and got him the blue planar weapon for 5x 200x as well as the blue chestpiece 3x 100x
Now i know you cant base a game off of the first battle ground, but ive played enough MMOs to know that the general direction is the right one. I play MMOs pretty much solely for their PvP (i will do the PvE , but it is more of a means to an end).
I also took the liberty of running my rogue through various zones, including scarlet gorge, etc just to check out the environments (which I LOVE).
I hadnt even heard about this game (i havent been playing any MMOs lately) until the day before beta, when a bunch of old DAoC buddies texted me with a VIP key. i pretty much played the next 3-4 days as much as possible^^
Lewk- Healer of Legacy Gareth
McDee- Spiritmaster of Maelstrom Percival
Murgu- Skald of Mordred
Really? You played an MMO for 15 minutes (it takes about as long to hit lvl 5) and said it is the same (big surprise) and now you are waiting for SWTOR? What do you expect will be any different in SWTOR for the first 5 lvls? wow.
Lewk- Healer of Legacy Gareth
McDee- Spiritmaster of Maelstrom Percival
Murgu- Skald of Mordred
this ^ is what I love, it can be a linear quest grind if thats what you want, but I only did quests if I felt like it, or I wanted the gear reward. Otherwise I would just explore & rift.
There was a similar discussion when WoW was coming out, because contrary to popular misbelief - WoW was neither original nor innovative in the sense that people want to give it credit. WoW was an evolutionary recipe concocted of what was out there. They took parts of the MMORPG genre that they believed people enjoyed the most and built the game. The same holds true for RIFT. You are going to see aspects from many games.
For me, personally, I enjoy where RIFT has gone with things such as graphics and the Ascended Class System compared to where WoW has gone. I enjoy that to an extent they have their version of instanced battles that other games have had - heck, you can trace this separation back to UO. I enjoy the PQ system they have brought along. Etc, etc, etc.
I see RIFT as an evolution of the genre as opposed to a game trying to cut out a niche and thus excluding things that should have been included.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
I have been in since beta 4 and love this game. The stuff they have done is so well polished one might think the game is already live. And for that matter many games that are 6 months along have been less polished than Rift.
If you are a solo'r then i believe you could get a good 2-3 months out of this game. But I personally find that in any MMO if I am with a good guild, I can go for years in a game and get fun and enjoyment out of it, and I can most certainly see myself playing this game for a few years if the guild I am in holds together.
I think the game has a more dynamic feel to it than any other game I have played, the rifts really add to the sense of collaboration among players by allowing for on the fly open groups to defeat them. To me it makes the entire game feel more community driven and less like a race to show up others in your own faction.
Beyond that its not so much revolutionary as it is well designed and polished. Pulling from other games they have discarded what doesn't work and kept what does.
It should also be noted that from what I have seen thus far, the devs are lightning fast in responding to major issues brought forward by the community and I consider that a major boon to players who want game longevity.
Been to 2 betas now and I concur with the OP.
It's a spaghetti bowl of everything we've already seen, mostly WAR (maybe because they use Gamebryo, maybe because of the mentioned WAR developers hired to make the game). I don't see this as a negative, though.
I suggest you don't look at what they took from where, that will not lead you anywhere. The important thing is how they cook the spaghetti, and at the moment I think it's quite al dente. Fast paced (bar moving, because it feels like the character has lead shoes), PvP oriented and really working cooking.
What I wonder, is how they seem to have tackled the lag in crowd. I haven't been to large ORvR fights yet, but even large population of the same faction players doesn't seem to put the server down (the invasion event of last beta, quite massive).
Errrrmm....you are so loaded with pre-game game that you fail to see the true brilliance.
War, Aion, Calmelot......if you had not crapped yor brain full of all these half-games then you would have no reference except WoW which only goes as far as the GUI.
My point is that sooo many people play any game that they get their paws on in an attempt at quelling the neady MMO beast within. I am just really thinking that people have overplayed the industry at this point. When you can reference more than a few games as an aspiration for a new game just by breaking down and analizing 3 to 5 parts of the game that speaks more of you than the game itself.
Sure there will be games based on classic examples of the stylings MMO's are based on. There are some fun changes in direction like space and time and steampunk and gothic but it all ends up in the same mobs and quests and hit points and info given from the first edition thru the latest of D&D and offshoots of said rules.
My problem with this game is not that they have taken stuff from other games. I can even see some SWG in this one. And thats not bad at all.
But it would have been so much better if it was "hidden" more and had it's own look / design. Now it look like WoW with better graphics.
So just after the intro and creation of my character I say to myself "This is so much like WoW" when I see the game. And I'm sure not the only one thinking that.
And people are sick and tired of WoW, so when you enter a new game looking like WoW... well you don't get that happy.
This game might not fail, but I don't think it will last long.
from my perspective.. I love the Soul system.. it makes for a role-player like me.. a dream to play and build that character as you would in a pencil and paper game. The world is beautifully done.. the races look cool, the lore is pretty well done. I read everything in a game so I am enjoying the thoughtfulness put into the story.
Is this game for everyone: No, no game can be for everyone
Is this game revolutionary or even evolutionary?: No, not really
Is this game fun and interesting: I believe so. If you like to take the time to build and develop a character, breathe life into that character in true roleplaying style.. then absolutely yes..
Will I be playing this game: You bet. I liked DCUO a lot, but for my one subscription at a time rule I have for myself, this will be the game I play until Guild Wars 2 or SWTOR..
my rating on a scale from 1-10?: a 7.5 Good game, good concept, good story and quite polished. Worth some of your time to play in my opinion.
I was in the last beta and couldnt get past the starter area due to the WOW feel, mainly the graphics. This game is not for me. On the other hand I do not think the game will fail at all. It is a highly polished product that has had alot of care put into it. I think alot of peope will find enjoyment in this game. It just so happens not to suit my tastes atm.
I swear to god people are smoking crack when they say "WOW style graphics" when they see rift.
I've played pretty much every mainstream MMO since EQ1 and the only thing that reminds of WOW in rift is the quest system, which isnt really saying a whole lot. Really the graphics are more like EQ2 with a color/vibrance boost, and a little bit o' warhammer online mixed in.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Rift seems like solid programming. I just can't get into that style combat. It's the same basic no collision detecting LOTRO/WoW type combat. I'm just a player who prefers something more active for combat.
Don't worry. SW:TOR will have WoW style graphics when it comes out and so will GW2. If they could get away with calling Tera and its radically different art style, they would call it a WoW style graphics clone as well. When you've played a certain MMO over a period of years, it's kind of normal to see everything else in shades of that particular MMO. Especially if it's your first one.
SWTOR have the cartoon look. So yes a little bit like WoW, the other nope.
No collision? What game have you been testing because it sure is not RIFT. Rift has amazing collision detecting best I've ever seen. Other players are solid objects. However the most amazing collision detection was my run thru a swamp full of banyan trees, those are the trees with massive root balls above ground. I was zig zagging thru gaps between roots that looked so tight I was sure my bow was going to hang on the roots above my head. Entire swamps where they took the time to ensure every root was gapped and the collision was set exactly on the object. Such attention to detail is what sets Rift so far above anything that has ever come before. Every other game ever just makes clusters of roots, or rocks, or whatever just one solid collidable object.
Are you sure Rift has collision detection? I could swear that it doesn't and you can pass through your felling Guardians/Defiants.
Wowhammerion of Camelot, not a bad name for Rifts. Like any new MMO coming out I would love to start playing it at the one year point when they have more content under their belt. Unfortuanlty I have so little to do on the MMO front I will be joining it about a month after launch, which is a shame.
I'm looking forward to trying this game in the upcoming beta event.
Cataclysm's been out 2 months and I'm already sick of it. So little added for end game focused players.
Hopefully this game will be worth the dough until SWTOR, GW2, TERA....argh I need a new game....