my Rift MMO review

Heres my Rift review for you all

Of course this is a MMO and it can’t truly be stacked against others in in type for some time but I thought it might be nice to give an overview of the game and some personal opinions based on my many hours played to date.



Rift: Planes of Telara is a MMORPG, where players in small parties, groups, raids or solo adventure to save a world being torn apart by magical rifts that unleash deadly planar invasions, the world of Telara rests at the intersection of several powerful planes of reality, the very forces that make up all existence. The planes form a nexus of energy around Telara, and it is this unrivaled power that first attracted the mighty elemental gods of the Blood Storm.

Led by Regulos, god of Death, the Blood Storm devoured countless worlds in its unending hunger for conquest. But when these baleful gods moved toward Telara, the Blood Storm turned upon itself; each sought not to destroy Telara, but to rule it, and in this mistake the lands where given the time to fight back and call forth fallen heroes of the past to strive to gain control of the balance of the land bringing harmony back to the world.

The rifts themselves can be made up of one of many different unstable elements namely:

* Life, Death, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.





And each brings a unique type of enemy that strives to gain a foothold and then spread out to invade surrounding areas, making a once peaceful town or village a centre of fighting and bloodshed.

The concept works very well and the regularity of the invasions are dependent on the population of the server and area at the time, rewards for closing the Rifts and defeating the commanders vary from a type of currency used to buy specific items, unique items etc…….

The joyful thing about these Rifts is you can engage or choose to carry on questing the choice is yours.

Rift has all of the traditional quests and deep story arcs you expect from a fantasy MMO role-playing game and add to that the actual rifts makes for a fun and varied journey, add to that the dungeons that are scattered around the different zones makes for a lot to keep you occupied in-game.

The dungeons themselves vary in difficulty depending on the number you take into the raid, as well as rank specific dungeons that are in the different areas, they are fun and the loot is varied and enough to keep you going back more than once….

There is a tonne of loot In this game and they are level based so you are always looking out for a new piece to complement your toon.

As well as that there are shops galore to buy items from drinks, food, potions, gear, to dyes to change your gear appearance etc etc…..as well as that there is an auction house for selling and buying player based gear.



There is also various crafting that you can specialize in and each is unique enough to be less of a grind and complementary enough to want you to focus on all three of your crafting/gathering skills.

Of course there are companions and pets that you can collect as well as mounts to move around with.

There are teleport locations which use gold to travel between, which varies in price depending on locations traveling from and to.

Joining parties is easy and there is also an pop-up join public party allowing you to enter a party when you arrive at a rift or invasion, so all and all the group thing is very well handled in the game.



When you die, you can Soul-walk once every hour and other than that take rebirth at a resurrection temple, each time you die you lose stamina and at some point you will have to visit a healer and pay to have it restored to 100%.

As well as that you can use a soul recall function to tele from anywhere to a bound soul location and this feature has a 1hr cool-down time.

Now down to the fractions in the game, when you start out you can choose either Guardian or Defiant. Each race will offer players its own set of advantages and disadvantages during gameplay.

On the Guardian side of things the three races you can choose from are:

High elves, Mathosian and Dwarves

And on the Defiant side:

Bahmi, Eth and Kelari

Within each of the fractions you can also choose from one of 4 different classes and then again each class has specific sub-classes which you can focus on:

Warrior
Weapons, tactics, and combat are the mainstays of a Warrior’s life.
The Warrior classes are: Champion, reaver, paladin, warlord, paragon, riftblade, void knight.

Cleric
Clerics are renowned for their powerful support magic, able to repair the most grievous injuries or cure the deadliest diseases.
The cleric classes are: purifier, inquisitor, sentinel, justicar, shaman, warden, and druid.

Rogue
Rogues are most at home skulking around the edges of battle, waiting for the perfect moment to strike with overwhelming force and minimal chance of counterstrike
The rogue classes are: Nightblade, ranger, blade dancer, assassin, riftstalker, marksman, and saboteur.

Mage
Devastating long-range combatants, the arcane powers Mages wield can tear through any opponent, regardless of armor
The mage classes are: elementalist, warlock, pyromancer, stormcaller, archon, necromancer, and dominator.

Now when the fun starts you can choose 3 sub-classes for each class and then spend points within those skill-trees as you level up you can also create more jobs which allow you to switch out souls to change from say a warrior DPS to a warrior tank, you can apply this method to four different soul-specs so the options are nearly limitless with-in the given class…….





As well as the normal quest lines there are also guild specific quests which allow you to rank up and give perks to all guild members, for example extra gold looted from enemies……its these little things that make me enjoy the game all that much more.

battles are full and can get very challenging as you level-up....

There are artefacts to collect, achievements, notoriety and a whole bunch of other quirky things to keep you running madly around……



So anyway, how can I review a full MMO experience, better to finish up here and let you enjoy it yourselves…

The graphics are very good, with lovely effects and lighting as well as detailed and varied zones which range from lush green Elvin forests, mountain ranges etc etc



Sound effects are good and the music is also very good, voice acting is ok.
There are plenty of servers and heaps of people playing them, making for an enjoyable time.
I came from FFXIV so i guess this is really my first MMO I can’t and won’t compare it to any others but im having a blast with the game, it’s a heap of fun and to date is jam-packed with things to do.
Im running the game on an Alienware M17x with ultra-settings and shadows turned off and get around 45 FPS…….

Minimum specs required:
OS: Windows XP, Vista or 7
Processor: Dual Core 2.0 GHz or better
Memory: 2 GB
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce FX 5900, ATI/AMD Radeon X300, Intel GMA X4500 or better.
DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update
Hard Drive: 15.0 GB available
Sound: DirectX 8.1 compliant card
Other: Broadband internet connection (DSL, cable modem or other high speed connection)

Recommended:
OS: Windows XP, Vista or 7
Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or better
Memory: 4 GB
Desktop Graphics: Nvidia GTS 250 or better
Notebook Graphics: Nvidia GTX 200M series or better
DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update
Hard Drive: 15.0 GB available
Sound: DirectX 8.1 compliant card
Other: Broadband internet connection (DSL, cable modem or other high speed connection)

well sorry if i missed a lot out, its a huge game and i was only trying to give a general idea of the game, i did seem to get carried away....sorry about that...

again if you have any questions feel free to ask.

I can understand how hard it is to review mmorpg. I cant bring myself to review Tibia or Eve Online (the only two mmorpgs that i actually liked) either. Its a tremediuos job to do it right and not get on babling and i believe you did a fine job there.

Your reviews are always so in-depth and elaborate, but at the same time, concise. I feel like it's such a waste having it with so few members!
This really entices me to give the game ago, but I've actually kind of tried to shy away from pay to play games....

The problem with pay to play games are, in the end, after 8 years, you realize how much moeny you put in there and it makes you want to slap yourself for that.

although i can completely understand both your adversion towards pay to play ( i used to be in the same boat) the way i look at it know is, it costs me roughly $50 for six months subscription, now that's around the cost of a new game, since i started playing MMO i have brought only 1 new game, so actually im saving money, because instead of buying games i can beat in a week or two i am playing a game that can take months to feel like you have completed...

so yes it sucks to have to pay to play a game, but its a good compromise for myself.....

and if you are a person that spends a lot on games monthly or half yearly this might be a good option in the long run.

i worked it out that i have actually saved around $300 since i first started playing FFXIV 6 months ago.....

buy shogun total war and your set for a year in singleplayer hehe. but yeah if you were spending 50 dolalrs every week on a new game it will save you money. thing is after 8 years you turn back and say, now this game cost me 5000. it accumulates fast. of course since your actually saving it is good in your case, but human psichology doesnt always work the logical way. i dont have adversion to mmos, hell ive been playing mmos for the last 7 years and still am. they also suck a lot of time and if time is issue like for me they are a stick in your wheels.