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Rift: Hands On Event Report
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMORPG.com's Ben Per Lee has a hands on report from a recent event for Rift. Ben has a few thoughts about dungeons, characters, rifts, PvP and more. Check out Ben's Hands On Report and then let us know what you think in the comments below.
It has been two years since I last saw the game then called Heroes of Telara. It was E3 2009, and the developers were excited to show off a fantasy RPG that was going to live and die by the awesome server-side changes that could be made to the game on the fly. Instead of waiting for expansion packs and massive multi-GB patches, the game was going to allow the developers to do some crazy stuff, such as sending fire demons into a town to destroy it, where upon it would still be demolished for weeks and months after the event. Pretty cool for something that would excite and enrage gamers.
Read more of Ben Per Le's Rift: Hands On Event Report.
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Comments
Rift may turn out to be the saviour for mmos in 2011 because neither Guild Wars 2 or The Old Republic is guaranteed to release this year. Trion seems to know how to do the basic stuff right and make it polished which is something Blizzard has been highly recognized for. Sure it seems like simple mmo features but who says people can't love the simple things in life.
Yeah.. They have quite some time to improve things and become even more solid by the time the other hyped upcoming games.. 2012 is quite some time away..
It's going to be the first game in many years that is released that's actually "ready" for launch.
The thing I wish they change before launch is giving players more exp for killing mobs. It is the one thing that disturbs me the most about this game. I feel forced to take all the quests to level efficiently. On last beta it took 2 hours of game time to level from 12-13 not doing quests just rift hunting. It only took about 35-40 mins to level doing all the provided quests. I really hate being forced into this type of play and my purchase of the game depends on this.
I really wish the would have created a world where we players could make are own alliances. I really miss the days when devs would make a world where races had there own starting cities. And players were not forced into this linear world where we have to do the same crap over again if we decide to make an alt. I just think they could have don't better.
{Mod edit}
Anyone who took part with the Champions beta knows how companies can totally turn it around on you come launch, in addition to the fact (hardly) mentioned in the article that racial abilities have been totally changed at every iteration of the beta. This means fundamental character development has been left out of this article, as well as the fact that those fundamentals may well still shift at release.
I like the game.
{Mod edit}
Still havnt decided if i wanna get this game yet.. I played betas and enjoyed myself but i jus' don't see me subbing past end-game.. Oh well, maybe if i get a little spare cash i'll pick it up otherwise ill be happy just playing EvE/Starcraft 2 till SWTOR comes out.
Main thing that worries me is the lack of pvp.. This whole article proved it even more to me when it only gave a few sentences on Rifts pvp.. I'am hopeing the warzones will be good but from what i've heard they arn't anything special.
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
life is the journey.
judging subscriptions based on anticipated endgame content is ridiculous.
1. it can change
2. you wont be a tthe endgame day 1
3. it can still freaking change after that
4. stop paying after you get to the boring endgame
If you sprint through the exposition in search of endgame content with no explaination, then yeah you're gonna get bored, and fast... with any game. The story makes you care; if you don't listen to it being told then you might as well save your money.
There are several different ways to make any class into whatever party role you want, and that is a challenge in itself with the soul system. Occupy yourself with that instead of talking down an ambitious story.
Warcraft is old. This game hasn't even launched yet.
The comparison even occurring is irresponsible. You wouldn't compare an infant to a successful buisnessman, so why would you compare a product essentially " still in the womb" to a game this page says defines a decade.
{Mod edit}
He's not reporting aobut the opne beta that jsut started he's obviously rpeorting from some recent and as he said last before launch Private/Press Event where they got their hands on some of th eend game content which you can't in the open beta.So how is this report false?
Dear Guest writer,
Nice article, but spell check/proof read next time.
Thanks.
OT: I am looking forward to this
True, on a low end laptop this game looks dull, but it has one of the best network layer around.
During one of the beta cycles, I was playing throughout an invasion with about 100 people around me and hundresds of monsters. I had 6fps but incredibly I did not experience "lag". Moving and casting spells seemed timed correctly.
Quite impressive I may say.
Beta 6 had 25 servers I think. Most full.
Lets see how many there are today.
I think they are going to have a million subs even in the head start!
http://werewood.wordpress.com
Just got into beta for the first time today. The game is really slick.
Mostly just looking at graphical stuff.
I'm running on ultra graphics settings with AA 2 and distance maxed, and the game runs very, very smoothly, even with other peeps running around. Nice graphics, good animations, attractive albeit somewhat limited avatars, responsive combat. So far it's looking good.
Male avatars don't look that great to me, but the girls are nice. I don't usually play short races, but the female dwarfs look good. Not so much like midgets, but more like a normal girl with a more rounded figure. It's nice.
I do wish there was a slider on the dwarves to make the eyes closer together...but making the eyes bigger mitigates that somewhat. More hair styles needed. There's some great elf hairstyles that I wish were available for dwarf and human.
Agreed! Especially on the highlighted point.
Myself and others have leveled quite fast just by running rifts and warfronts. Try it! Questing is definitely not required to level efficiently.
You need to always be attacking Rifts 1-2 levels higher than you and be around others for protection. Cycle in a warfront here and there for a quick 3-4K XP (in your teens at least) and boom... you ding fast!
Hi I am currently playing the beta today, and I still feel as if I am overwhelmed with things to do, and see, and feel slightly less lost than last beta, but still lost on what or where or do next. Can anyone suggest a good way to sort through the unkowns or get some good gameplay guidance online somewhere.
Other than that, I am enjoying it so far, slowly learning what is what. Seems more complicated than AIon which is my main MMO.
thanks guys
I am afraid it may fall into the same trap many have before , yeah it looks great & sounds great but does it have sustainability , I have been in beta for awhile now & found the game enjoyable for the most part but the lack of many features may not hold onto an audience in the long term
WOW "yes I am going to talk about WOW alittle" one thing wow does well it allow player's to contribute to the game in the form of addons & believe me without them WOW would not have the playerbase it does ..
Things I like
Character development
Rifts - Warhammer Online eat your heart out your Public quests suck compared to Rifts
Quests & there infomation provided
UI - it allows u to lay out it they way you like ..
Character animation
Polished even in Beta it feels like a finished game .,.
Things Missing
No Addons
Only 2 Citys at Launch
Flying Mounts - Not even when u hit 50
Housing
Inns ? are there any & is the rested exp ?
No Portal Class.. Poor Mages lol
No Grouping system at launch - althouth thye say one like wow will be added..
Not enough starting areas just 2
there should be 8 " 1 for each faction & then 1 for each class you decide to play ..
Banking ? " remember I have a highest lvl character of 19" so Have not seen a bank & its there shared Banking like Eq2 , does each character have the own bank , do they have Guild Banks ?
I played from beta 1 CB till beta 4 when I quit truth is the PVP is not PVP but mini games aka battle grounds with vary small maps. The game is gear based instance's are fun have but im sure they would get dull fast after a few runs. the skills for all class's are the same just diffrent type of dmg and give or take 10 to 15 dmg from each other.
Mob's are cake walk in beta 2 the where a chalange but then came beta 3 they turn them back to cake walk.
If you like polished gear based grinder with BG mini games with easy mobs then you will love this game if not then I suggest you pass like I am was hoping for a PVE game with hard mobs but that was not to be PVP well they always said PVP was 2ed place.
Rift has brought me back into MMOs. I've been really disappointed in every game that has come out in the past few years, and the old ones have become stale and jumbled with things that just don't seem to work. I am waiting for GW2 I will admit, but I will most definitely enjoy playing Rift.
Well as of 6:45pm EST 02/15/2010 you can not get in to a server or the ones you can the Char server is down, Getting server errors lost connection loss of Char securety port errors of the fun of being in IT lol, well they are getting good stress testing now I bet ya
{Mod edit} you quit at Beta 4 before they revamped the majority of {Mod edit}. They balance MOB difficulty and experience gain well, so you're not flying through the levels and there is a bit of a challenge to the game play. Just listen to the latest Rift Podcast to hear the development team describe how easy it is for them to change these types of things, as well as how much END GAME content the team has had time to finish for post launch. They did so well polishing this game for launch you can see your reflection in it, or maybe that's just my avatar.
Doc
Yep, feels like an oldschool launch, the way it's all come crashing down. So many MMOs I've played in recent years had such tepid open betas and launches, that they never even get stress tested. This one's looking seriously crowded, and the chat's been mostly positive. Think its a good sign that the swarms of players have the devs scrambling to get things working.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I would like for more hair and skin colors to be open when making my character.
I also hope they add an appearance tab so people won't end up looking like clones....
I have not got to test the crafting yet but I'm hoping it's a really thought out and deep system that people can get into if they wish. Maybe something like SWG, EQ2 or LotRO these 3 mmo's all had great crafting systems imho.
Played: MCO - EQ/EQ2 - WoW - VG - WAR - AoC - LoTRO - DDO - GW/GW2 - Eve - Rift - FE - TSW - TSO - WS - ESO - AA - BD
Playing: Sims 3 & 4, Diablo3 and PoE
Waiting on: Lost Ark
Who's going to make a Cyberpunk MMO?
This why I have not signed up for the beta, I was fully expecting this and I expect the same for the retail launch. I have read as well that there is only 2 starter areas, which sounds kinda ludicrous unless these zones are instanced and have population caps. I won't be subbing until a good week after retail. By then I expect the most critical infrastructure problems will have been dealt with and the starter area populations to have thinned, though that is about the time most people will be developing alt-itus. But then, I imagine the character development system will minimize some of that.
Had some issues freezing at shard select screen but the game looks great. There are sooo many choices with the souls that I think this puppy will keep on keeping on for a long time.
Nice graphics and for the most part, freaky smooth for a beta..or most game starts for that matter.
I'll play it - it seems decent. Biggest problem I'm having other than it only having 2 factions (oh how we all miss thee dark age of camelot), is the fact that developers still take advantage of players who have not experienced fully developed mmorpgs. My biggest example, other than no player housing, is the fact that the zones merge between factions almost off the bat - ala WoW. In Dark Age we could level to 50 in pve in our own culture and get 50 levels of lore experience so that by the time we hit the battle fields and castle sieged/defended our own castles, we had a true US vs THEM vs THEM *(we had 3 factions) feel.
I know a person reading this will say, "but merging zones for factional access means you meet the other players from the other side," to which I will say that is about as realistic as watching the Japanese army training in the woods just outside of an American army base during World War 2, or seeing Al Quaida in New York mugging cops or such - just stupid but it saves these so called next gen titles a lot of money because they can ignore separate cultures completely, give you a basic starter culture and then wash its unique identity away by the time you are level 10.
Perhaps the old school mmorpg that tries to emulate a real life experience in a medieval fantasy setting is dead. Hence, no housing, nothing to really promote a sense of culture. Instead, we have watered down politics that would never happen between intelligent mammals.
Shame but that's life nowadays.
/my 2 cents as I dream and ponder on a millionaire buying Dark Age of Camelot back from her slavers.