RIFT is an MMO of the EQ/World of Warcraft type, fantasy setting.
Like most, it went 'free to play' and seems to have done pretty well with that.
I'd describe RIFT as more than anything, 'make a game like WoW, but make improvements to ease of use features'.
So there are countless ways Rift is just a bit more usable - things like when you craft, materials in your bank being available as well. Things like being able to turn in many quests without returning to a quest giver (and many where you don't even have to get them from a quest giver).
RIFT is also one of the most flexible at making pretty much any role available to any class - rogue healers, Mage tanks, and so on. You might or might not like that but it's flexible.
It's a pretty big game world with tons to do - you can raid, quest, craft, pvp, the usual MMO things. Advancement seems pretty speedy.
The 'free to play' includes all the content, with the restrictions being things like character slots, and two each of the specs for each class, with most free. The paid-for ones are not viewed as superior 'play to win', but more 'nice to have' extra options. The payments include specific things like those specs, as well as the subscription that includes things from temporary buffs to the rewards - more experience, more tokens, more faction - and better daily and weekly 'gifts' and a few other things.
One of my favorite things about the game is that they make some effort to reward exploration - I really like the 'artifact' system, where you find items hidden around the game world, behind rocks and under bushes, though that has become a bit overdone now by offering 'tracking' of the artifacts allowing the 'pro' players to collect massive amounts of them, and a tradeskill based on them, one that creates player housing items.
There are also a few puzzles and hidden rewards in hard to find places.
My biggest criticism might be that some of the game can feel pretty 'generic'. They have things like snow zones, desert zones, and so on, like MMO's typically do, but they feel a bit generic to me compared to what the co-author of Zork once described to me as the 'clearly lovingly created world in World of Warcraft'. For example, RIFT's music is ok, but I can still hear the EQ theme song, not RIFT's.
There are four 'classes' - Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, Mage - though as I said, that means less with the hugely flexible 'specs', and you can have multiple 'specs' available to switch.
Some are what you'd expect - for example, of the dozen or so themes for mage - and specs are made of picking from three trees - there are the 'pyro' blaster, the elemental pet mage, the necromancer - but also things like the 'stormcaller', the 'chloromancer' healing spec, the harbinger 'melee dps' spec, and so on - and you can, say, mix the melee and heal specs.
My playing currently - before the end game raid stuff that every MMO seems to offer - is mainly questing, some zone events, crafting, and artifact hunting.
The name of the game comes from a design feature called rifts - which are 'events' in the game used for all kinds of activities, but basically involve having a bunch of monsters show up in random spots needing to be killed, offering on the spot rewards. Some are larger events, all day zones will get the type of event that might take an hour of players killing things, closing 'rifts', and finally fighting one or more bosses, with rewards if they win.
The game started out with a strong conflict between two 'sides' of players who couldn't even talk if I recall, that has been pretty much abandoned to not mattering in the game. Now the two factions talk, are in the same guild, play together where there's pretty much no real difference.
Professions include three gathering - butchering (skinning animals you kill), mining and foraging (collecting plants and wood); crafting includes cloth/leather armor, chain/plate armor, potions, 'artificer' (rings/necklaces/staffs/wands), something called 'runecrafting' making items that improve weapons and armor, and that player housing crafting.
Each character can pick three professions (more can be purchased) - so there's a big benefit to alts to get more - and each character gets two more professions, fishing and 'survival' which basically uses the fish and meats found in game to make mostly food-based items (some with stat bonuses).
It's a pretty well done system; crafters can make items that can be added to rescipes to improve the item, for example, and items can be 'broken' to get materials for crafting.
One thing players will likely notice on the cost is that to sell things in the auction house, players have to buy $5 in game credits as a one-time purchase.
The website: www.riftgame.com
See post #15.
Anandtech Administrator
KeithTalent
Edit: after reviewing the old threads, they seem to be quite...old. Re-opened this for ongoing discussion.
Anandtech Administrator
KeithTalent
Like most, it went 'free to play' and seems to have done pretty well with that.
I'd describe RIFT as more than anything, 'make a game like WoW, but make improvements to ease of use features'.
So there are countless ways Rift is just a bit more usable - things like when you craft, materials in your bank being available as well. Things like being able to turn in many quests without returning to a quest giver (and many where you don't even have to get them from a quest giver).
RIFT is also one of the most flexible at making pretty much any role available to any class - rogue healers, Mage tanks, and so on. You might or might not like that but it's flexible.
It's a pretty big game world with tons to do - you can raid, quest, craft, pvp, the usual MMO things. Advancement seems pretty speedy.
The 'free to play' includes all the content, with the restrictions being things like character slots, and two each of the specs for each class, with most free. The paid-for ones are not viewed as superior 'play to win', but more 'nice to have' extra options. The payments include specific things like those specs, as well as the subscription that includes things from temporary buffs to the rewards - more experience, more tokens, more faction - and better daily and weekly 'gifts' and a few other things.
One of my favorite things about the game is that they make some effort to reward exploration - I really like the 'artifact' system, where you find items hidden around the game world, behind rocks and under bushes, though that has become a bit overdone now by offering 'tracking' of the artifacts allowing the 'pro' players to collect massive amounts of them, and a tradeskill based on them, one that creates player housing items.
There are also a few puzzles and hidden rewards in hard to find places.
My biggest criticism might be that some of the game can feel pretty 'generic'. They have things like snow zones, desert zones, and so on, like MMO's typically do, but they feel a bit generic to me compared to what the co-author of Zork once described to me as the 'clearly lovingly created world in World of Warcraft'. For example, RIFT's music is ok, but I can still hear the EQ theme song, not RIFT's.
There are four 'classes' - Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, Mage - though as I said, that means less with the hugely flexible 'specs', and you can have multiple 'specs' available to switch.
Some are what you'd expect - for example, of the dozen or so themes for mage - and specs are made of picking from three trees - there are the 'pyro' blaster, the elemental pet mage, the necromancer - but also things like the 'stormcaller', the 'chloromancer' healing spec, the harbinger 'melee dps' spec, and so on - and you can, say, mix the melee and heal specs.
My playing currently - before the end game raid stuff that every MMO seems to offer - is mainly questing, some zone events, crafting, and artifact hunting.
The name of the game comes from a design feature called rifts - which are 'events' in the game used for all kinds of activities, but basically involve having a bunch of monsters show up in random spots needing to be killed, offering on the spot rewards. Some are larger events, all day zones will get the type of event that might take an hour of players killing things, closing 'rifts', and finally fighting one or more bosses, with rewards if they win.
The game started out with a strong conflict between two 'sides' of players who couldn't even talk if I recall, that has been pretty much abandoned to not mattering in the game. Now the two factions talk, are in the same guild, play together where there's pretty much no real difference.
Professions include three gathering - butchering (skinning animals you kill), mining and foraging (collecting plants and wood); crafting includes cloth/leather armor, chain/plate armor, potions, 'artificer' (rings/necklaces/staffs/wands), something called 'runecrafting' making items that improve weapons and armor, and that player housing crafting.
Each character can pick three professions (more can be purchased) - so there's a big benefit to alts to get more - and each character gets two more professions, fishing and 'survival' which basically uses the fish and meats found in game to make mostly food-based items (some with stat bonuses).
It's a pretty well done system; crafters can make items that can be added to rescipes to improve the item, for example, and items can be 'broken' to get materials for crafting.
One thing players will likely notice on the cost is that to sell things in the auction house, players have to buy $5 in game credits as a one-time purchase.
The website: www.riftgame.com
See post #15.
Anandtech Administrator
KeithTalent
Edit: after reviewing the old threads, they seem to be quite...old. Re-opened this for ongoing discussion.
Anandtech Administrator
KeithTalent
Last edited:
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