I only recently started playing the award winning Rift, following a little bit of exposure to the game during the betas. Of course I was already pretty convinced of the great potential in this game, but in spite of that, I didn't actually join until a couple of weeks ago with my wife. After the first couple of weeks I am, without a doubt, one of it's biggest fans! My wife is no less impressed and we have so far been able to expose this game to a couple other friends who seem to be liking it also. Trion FTW! Here is my first review, that I posted on Raptr. I'll try to keep this blog up-to-date, but my blogging can be sporadic at times, just to warn you. :)
This game, in a nutshell, is a winner in my book, but first and foremost let me say that I am not going to predict the demise of Wow due to this or any other game simply for the fact that no matter how great a game is, Wow is just too big to be taken down by a single new, and if applicable, better game. That being said, I will say that in my mind it's a superb game over all others, including Wow in pretty much all ways. Let me explain. Part of what makes Rift great is that it has not tried to reinvent the wheel in order to be unique in it's offering to gamers. No, instead it keeps those things about MMORPGs intact. It adds to what works and improves the gaming experience with some new twists. I read the post that gave Rift a negative review stating that it is a complete ripoff of other games and this cannot be further from the truth. Sure it's not completely new in ever aspect but by the same token it is in no way a replica of any other game out there either. The soul system is not a talent tree so to speak but works like one, or similarly, as you add points to each soul you gain new powers or stat points, etc. Each tree is not just simply a focus for a single class but each soul tree really is a subclass of the overarching class. Example: my mage is a Elementalist/Dominator/Stormcaller. Each of the souls has a different set of magicks available to them. You can put most of your points in a single focus or be balanced, either way, works so far for me. I won't write a book on souls in Rift. Rifts and Dynamic Events: I had the pleasure of taking part in a World event last night in Rift. These are very big dynamic events with which you'll find yourself in a public raid group, if you choose to join, fighting off Raids from the other planes. Very distantly, the public group idea is similar to Warhammer but very different in that it is dynamic in both location and movement. When battling a rift, they can open up most anywhere, and when you enter one, you are given the opportunity to join the public group if there are others in the midst of closing the rift. Most, except the very early ones, can't really be fought off single-handedly so it makes for a great environment encouraging grouping and teamwork. They have done well with this aspect. You're not forced to play with others but it's encouraged and you're not stuck with them either for a long stretch as you can leave the group easily too when done with the event. The world event last night was even larger than just Rifts, as It was a raid of huge proportions, with multiple attack groups coming in from every direction. Again with raids these groups of enemies can come from any direction and are dynamic as they can go anywhere, even attacking the "safe zones". It is amazing to watch huge groups of people fighting off enemies altogether. This is not like anything I've ever seen before, but again it's not that the raids are new to gaming but that they've taken it to a new level. No, Rift may not be the Wow Killer, again, as no single game will probably do that, Wow will run it's own course in time, but what Rift is - is a game that is a superb alternative to other fantasy mmorpgs out there. It is, in every way, A very exciting and new MMO game