[MMO] Rift - Discussion

[HarvardAce]

Open Beta now through Monday, 2/21.

After the beta is over, characters will then be wiped and then the live "head start" will begin on 2/24 for anyone who preordered. The "official" retail start for the game will begin on 3/1 for the US servers and 3/4 for the EU servers.



-------- Original Post ----------

Just searched the forums here and was surprised to not find anything about Rift (www.riftgame.com). It's currently in closed Beta, where they have 3-4 days of targeted gameplay before they close that beta period, do some fixing/tuning, and then start up another beta period a week or two later.

Beta 4 is scheduled for this Friday (Jan 8) to Monday (Jan 11).

The quick summary of the game is that it is fairly similar to WoW -- many of the classes and abilities are almost exact copies from WoW, but the way they do classes means you pick an overall type (warrior, rogue, cleric, or mage) and then you pick 3 subclasses that you can pick skills from. The other good part about it is that you can have several "roles" per character which means you can hot-swap into a different subclass. For example, you might have a cleric specialized in healing (for grouping), and a second "role" where you are specialized as a melee druid (for soloing). This way you don't have to level up two characters to get that gameplay -- you can swap between those two roles at pretty much any time.

I played the most recent Beta (round 3) and found the game to be unbelievably polished and a lot of fun. I'm hoping to get into the Beta 4 test (a beta key just gets you the ability to be invited to a particular test, while a rarer VIP key gets you full access to all the beta events), and I'm wondering if anyone else from AT is playing, because I didn't get a chance to do any of the group content in the last beta. Also, for you PVPers out there, the next Beta is focused on PVP. I believe that gamespot.com is still giving out the regular beta keys if you want to try and sign up.

 

[brandonb]

Played beta 1, did not bother to join in on the fun in beta 2 or 3... I have a VIP key.

I was not impressed. The same old cookie cutter MMMORPG. It was a lead you through the game in this small confined world, going from camp to camp to camp doing the 3 little quests which you can finish in oh, 5 minutes or less and the quest mobs are about 50 meters from the quest giver.

Real exciting. /yawn.

 

[HarvardAce]

I was not impressed. The same old cookie cutter MMMORPG.

I only played Beta 3, but from what I've heard they've expanded quite a bit since Beta 1. That said, yes, it is fairly much a cookie-cutter MMORPG, very much in the style of WoW. If that's not your cup of tea, then I could see why you'd be quickly bored of it.

The "dynamic" events was what really intrigued me -- having literally hundreds of players fighting a massive invasion of mobs throughout the zone was a lot of fun (even though I probably died 30 times in the course of an hour).

 

[brandonb]

I know I seemed a bit negative in my last response. There are some very cool aspects of Rift. The class system, the Rifts themselves, and it seemed polished. The gameplay itself I will pass on. If a person likes theme park games I could totally see them enjoying it. In the end, I will probably end up buying it (the GF likes the game), but I probably won't enjoy it as much as say an Asheron's Call, or pre-velious Everquest.

I had one Rift appear when I was playing, but it lagged me out to the point I could not play (once the rift was closed, everything stopped lagging and I was able to play again) so I wasn't truely able to see the event. QQ

 

[The Boston Dangler]

dammit, i thought it was "rifts"

 

[novasatori]

Played beta 1, did not bother to join in on the fun in beta 2 or 3... I have a VIP key.

I was not impressed. The same old cookie cutter MMMORPG. It was a lead you through the game in this small confined world, going from camp to camp to camp doing the 3 little quests which you can finish in oh, 5 minutes or less and the quest mobs are about 50 meters from the quest giver.

Real exciting. /yawn.

you missed out the zone wide events in 2 and 3, its way more than just rifts, I seriously doubt you would feel that way if you experienced one. pvp in beta 3 was pretty fun too

 

[HarvardAce]

Just as an update, they announced that Rift will launch Mar 1 in North America and Mar 4 in Europe. If you preorder now, you get access to all remaining betas and also get pre-launch access to the game for about a week early.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I just got a Beta key from nVidia.

I guess I won't lose anything if i try it out.

 

[CurseTheSky]

I know I seemed a bit negative in my last response. There are some very cool aspects of Rift. The class system, the Rifts themselves, and it seemed polished. The gameplay itself I will pass on. If a person likes theme park games I could totally see them enjoying it. In the end, I will probably end up buying it (the GF likes the game), but I probably won't enjoy it as much as say an Asheron's Call, or pre-velious Everquest.

I had one Rift appear when I was playing, but it lagged me out to the point I could not play (once the rift was closed, everything stopped lagging and I was able to play again) so I wasn't truely able to see the event. QQ

NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING will compare to Asheron's Call. It wasn't just the game that was amazing; the community played a huge part in the overall experience too.

Damn I miss that game.

 

[HarvardAce]

I just got a Beta key from nVidia.

I guess I won't lose anything if i try it out.

Note that beta keys are just to register to give you the *chance* at getting invited into one or more of the betas. A VIP Beta key will guarantee you invites into *all* the betas. A preorder key (or preordering directly from Trion) will get you access to all the betas and a head start -- access to the live servers on Feb 24 instead of on March 1 like regular retail copies will give you.

 

[Blueoak]

Here's a VIP beta key (good for 25 uses) for those interested:

FFT3-FZJG-D3JC-XGMC-6L2H

To Apply the VIP Code:

1. Go to https://account.RIFTgame.com to login or create a new account.
2. Click "Apply Code" on the left-hand navigation bar and enter your VIP key.
3. You're done! You will automatically be invited into the remaining beta events.

 

[Arglebargle]

Thanks! Will see what it feels like when they next run one....

 

[pontifex]

I'll try out the beta if i get an invite. thanks for the key blueoak

 

[HarvardAce]

Next beta starts this Tuesday at 10AM PST and lasts until Friday. If anyone still needs a VIP key (to get a guaranteed invite into the betas) send me a PM. Note that there is a delay between when you add your VIP key and when you get an invite, so if you want full access to the entire beta period you need to get your account set up and add the VIP key now.

 

[imaheadcase]

Never did enjoy it, play the 1st and 2nd beta. It was pretty bland game.

Pretty much like every other MMO out.

 

[HarvardAce]

Never did enjoy it, play the 1st and 2nd beta. It was pretty bland game.

Pretty much like every other MMO out.

It definitely is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but (aside from crafting, IMHO) they have done a good job taking what does work from the popular MMOs and expanding upon it, while leaving the stuff that doesn't work out.

Their soul/calling system of building your character is my favorite part about the game. It should be rare for you to be waiting on a particular role for a group since you can change roles on the fly. For instance, your DPS mage could convert to a CC/support mage if you have too much DPS but need CC.

 

[Avogadro]

I played Beta 4 and enjoyed it quite a bit. It was my first beta phase, but the people who had played the earlier phases were (in general) very impressed by the progress the devs had been making. Most of the feedback I had was polish stuff like "these quest mobs don't spawn fast enough." I found the game to be very stable and bug-free. You don't need a monster computer to run it either. My 4-year old E6600/GTS8800 based system managed 25-30 fps at medium settings - which looked fine for an MMO - in all but the most crowded spots. Going to see what my new i5-2500K/GTX570 system will do this week. :biggrin:

As far as the "it's a WoW/Warhammer/Aion/pick an MMO clone", yea, Rift uses a lot of ideas and features from other MMOs. I hadn't touched an MMO in over a year before trying Beta 4, and in literally 10 minutes I had the UI figured out and was off and running. That said, I can totally understand why someone who is burned out on MMOs wouldn't be that excited by Rift. It also struck me as more evolutionary than revolutionary, which is OK with me since I've had a long sabbatical from playing an MMO.

One big caveat I will have (and try to spend more time trying with the upcoming Beta 5) is PvP. With all the different possible soul builds you can have, there's bound to be some really overpowered/imbalanced possibilities out there. Then again, since it's so easy to do the equivalent of respeccing talent points (in WoW) everyone can jump to a flavor of the month build pretty quickly. I'm mostly a PvE player, but PvP will be a fun distraction from that so I hope it's in good shape at release.

Bottom line: I finished Beta 4 very impressed, and if Beta 5 looks good to me as well, I will pre-order and be happy to play. It should be worth a few months' sub at the very least.

 

[Gheris]

I am willing to give it shot so I will be in Beta 5. Want to see if the game is a grindfest or what I like to call "leveling fiendly." With the class system I am concerned about class balance. In a game that advertises a strong PvP element class balance is critical. I guess we'll see what happens.

 

[Avogadro]

Based on my Beta4 experience and doing some research on the forums, the game is definitely leveling friendly. It's nowhere near games like Aion in terms of being a grind. If anything, I'd personally prefer that they tweak leveling speed *back* a little bit. I thought vanilla WoW's pace was about right, and this (at least at low levels) felt faster than that.

Of course, "it's still beta" and the jury's out on whether the leveling speed is amped up so new players can quickly get to the beta level cap. They definitely have increased the number of public quest rift events for testing purposes, and doing those is worth a lot of XP. Fewer rifts at release could mean leveling will be a little slower for that reason alone.

Regardless, it seems like they want you to level from 1 to 20 fairly quickly, so you have enough talent points to play with soul builds in meaningful ways, and unlock some of the cooler soul-specific talents. As a quick guide, the first PvE instances are targeted at L18ish players, and the PvP Warfronts (think WoW battlegrounds) have 10 level brackets for now (10 to 19, 20 to 29), so you really want to be L18 or L19 to be competitive in the lowest-level bracket.

 

[mcvickj]

A few guildmates from WoW were talking about Rift last night. One of them sent me a key to enter in and I was accepted into Beta5. A handful of us are going to get together and give it a try.

 

[JoshGuru7]

I haven't seen it posted yet, so if you are interested in Rift you might want to check out a character builder like this one: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html. The class and skill system looks like it is going to be a strength for this game.

 

[Phobic9]

Thanks a lot for the key Blueoak!

 

[ginfest]

Another key here good for 25 uses:


[FONT=&quot]VIP beta key that can be used 25 times.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]R3R7-YRHF-KRX7-DNFX-36NE

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]> To Apply the VIP Code:
> Go to https://account.RIFTgame.com to login or create a
> new account. Click "Apply Code" on the left-hand navigation bar and enter your VIP key. You're done! You will automatically be invited into the remaining beta events.

[/FONT]

 

[Jschmuck2]

Playing in the Beta today it's...ok. Very Warhammeresque. The choppiness of the animations is kind of taking me out of it at the moment. Granted I've only played for 15 minutes but eh, we'll see.

 

[abaez]

Have played all day and I am loving it.