RIFT First Impressions

RIFT, a game I’ve been keeping my eye on for a while, began its “Head Start” this past Thursday, allowing gamers who pre-ordered the game access to the servers prior to its official launch on March 1. Being that I’m a sucker for a new MMO, I dived right in and have been playing a bit more than I’d like to admit. Fortunately, I’m not alone, as our very own Jamie Fletcher is in the same boat as I.

If there’s one thing that made me wary of RIFT, it’s the fact that people keep referring it to being a World of Warcraft-clone or killer. Being that I’ve never cared for WoW, I half-wondered if that meant I’d automatically not enjoy RIFT, but so far, that hasn’t been the case. Though the UI, and even some other elements do look like WoW, they are least work.

Similar to WoW, a player must choose sides at the character creation; Guardians or Defiants. I chose the latter, and proceeded to go the mage offensive route like I often do. For ultimate in destruction, I chose a Pyromancer / Elementalist / Archon template, though up to this point I haven’t focused much on the non-Pyro classes at all.

This is the area, though, where the game promises total character customization. You’re able to essentially use three classes at once, and at each level, you can use your “Skill Points” to upgrade whichever class makes the most sense for your playstyle. Each class has its own sub-level, and the higher the level, the more abilities that get unlocked. Again, this isn’t a far stretch from WoW.

A major feature of the game is of course the Rifts, where enemies essentially portal down onto the planet, and its your job, and others, to clear out the infestation before it gets out of hand. The more you participate, the better the loot you walk away with. Part of this loot is Planarite, which allows you to purchase special items that regular gold cannot.

I’ve been soloing for the most part so far, but I’ve still managed to be efficient. Quests tend to give decent XP, and with Rifts and other mob kills on the side, leveling is quite swift. I’m at level 18 at the moment, and even though I’m still rather low-level in the grand scheme, I feel powerful. It helps that you can have up to three classes, because it gives you many abilities to work with.

RIFT suffers from a major problem that nearly every MMO does… mediocre quests. There’s a lot of “Go kill 10 of these mobs” or “Go investigate this area”, and I’ve found nothing truly original so far (alright, the cheese eating contest might have been original). Still, because the game makes exploration fun (except for the fact that the character is SLOW when he can’t use a mount), the quests don’t rub me as being totally boring.

For the completionist, RIFT delivers so far. There are different ways to collect “Artifacts”, which you use to complete sets that once again earn you special currency in order to purchase unique goods. Crafting is another big part of the game, but as I’ve been more focused on leveling, I haven’t touched on it at all.

Jamie and I are both going to be updating our original RIFT thread with our thoughts, and we’re aiming to have a review of the game published in the next couple of weeks; totally dependant on how long it takes us to understand most aspects of the game and its upsides and downsides.