RIFT - First Impressions

RIFT is the latest in a long line of supposed contenders over the stranglehold that World of Warcraft currently holds over the MMORPG market. This is a pay-to-play game, meaning you have to buy the box and pay a monthly fee.

RIFT does many things similar to World of Warcraft, but has also improved on quite a few facets. The first thing you'll notice is the absolutely STUNNING graphics. The engine is newer and you can play either with the extreme graphics, or the mediocre graphics if your rig is crap. Either way, the game simply looks prettier than World of Warcraft.

RIFT has also made it possible to fully customize your UI without having to go through the hassle of downloading a thousand addons. You can move everything and change it to your liking and it's built into the game.

When it comes to skills and talent trees, in RIFT you have what are called souls. You get to choose among 8 souls for each class and create your own distinct class with three talent trees to choose from. It's a lot of fun to be able to create your own custom class with whatever skills you would like or feel are needed. Some levels, you gain 2 points to put in these trees and because they're limited by your level, you need to put these extra points into your secondary tree.

At first, I wasn't very impressed by the gameplay. The linear questing with the same old objectives over and over again were apparent from the start. Once I got through the starter area and entered the world at large, I was introduced to a very fun aspect of the game which was surprisingly fun.

In RIFT, there are intermittently appearing portals to other realms that tear open, from which otherworldly denizens pour out and attempt to destroy the towns in your world. It is the job of the players to defeat these demons and to seal these rifts. The rifts operate similarly to public quests in Warhammer Online. You all work together towards a large and difficult goal and are ranked on performance. You receive rewards according to how well you did in these quests. These rifts help to alleviate from the monotony of incessant questing and grinding. They are fun and the rewards you reap are extremely worthy of your time.

I haven't had enough time to level up to the point where I can do instances with others or PvP, so I will write up another review when I have progressed further. So far excellent game and seeing as it is in Open Beta until monday, I would suggest for anyone who is interested to go out and try it!