RIFT - Verdict

RIFT is an excellent game. Quite possibly the best MMORPG I've played other than World of Warcraft. The graphics are fantastic and the gameplay is very solid. The only issue I have is the fact that it is just another WoW clone. Everything in the game is excellent and well made, but there is nothing groundbreaking. Nothing that will make people want to stop playing WoW and pick up RIFT. The game is great, almost as good as WoW, but unless it is better it will never take away a significant portion of the player-base away.

The PvP in this game is a lot of fun, but there are balance issues between the four classes. Healers, as it stands, are unbelievably overpowered. A higher level, better geared DPS class cannot hope to kill a healer alone, period. Because there is no proper matchmaking when it comes to solo queuing, you sometimes have lopsided teams where one team has 3-4 healers and the other team has 1 or even none. When you are in a PvP match with this sort of team build, you might as well give up if you have less healers.

The instance that I did was okay, nothing special. The gear was good, but people just don't have the grasp on their roles yet which makes it painful especially when your healer is crap. The dungeons are good to level in and gear up, but they just feel slow and do not feel satisfying. This does not mean much though, because Blizzard has not achieved fun 5-man dungeons either.

All in all, this game still manages to be a lot of fun. The only issue I have is the fact that it just tries to repeat the same thing that Blizzard has done in WoW. If anyone ever wants to take a chunk out of their playerbase, it won't happen by trying to emulate the game. Developers, you're already behind and trust me, you're not going to catch up. Realistically, the only way WoW will die is if developers attempt to fulfill niche markets, such as an MMORPG directed at raiders, another aimed at PvPers. Once the market is divided, maybe one game that manages to bring all the genres together could manage to surpass WoW. But as the current market stands nobody will ever beat WoW by simply copying it.

That being said, if I were not currently playing WoW and enjoying raiding, I would definitely buy this game. I would also suggest it to anyone new to MMORPGs, but not to those jaded with the WoW formula.

Graphics - 10/10
Gameplay - 8/10

Overall - 9/10