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Friday, February 18, 2011

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

27 comments:

  1. Sounds like a cool game. I think i'll give it a try :)

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  2. Eff-yes. Picking it up as soon as I get paid.

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  3. Good post, but how much is the subscription?

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  4. RIFT looks awesome! But I won't betray my first and only love Guild Wars.

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  5. Im really thinking about picking it up...but is it a WoWKiller?

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  6. That game looks so freakin realistic! Hope I had money to buy it...

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  7. Still looks complicated for me, but I decided to give it a try.

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  8. That sounds awesome! I tried Runes of Magic and Guild Wars but this seems even better to me!

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  9. When I get bored of WOW, I might try this out. Thanks for nice review.

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  10. Gotta download this one, if my PC can handle it

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  11. all mmorpgs are clone of other mmorpgs. wow is no different.

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  12. Hmmm looks better than WoW but IDK since I never played any of them.

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  13. Haha i love the giant leave that becomes a structure in the pong.

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  14. I've felt the same way about a few games I've played since WoW. They just don't have ENOUGH to put them ahead of it, they're just as good, or worse... And it pisses me off because WoW has gotten so terrible that I'll NEVER go back!

    Garage Zoku

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  15. RIFT looks fun. I agree you're not going to kill WoW by producing basically the same thing, since people have poured months of playtime into their characters.

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  16. wow the graphics are nice..
    so i guess i need to check it out..thanks

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  17. Very nice blog;)) I like to watch it because they are very nice pictures and everything is still lovely;)) Best regards from Polish;)) Kisses, **

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  18. Looks amazing! Haven't even heard of it! I'm definately going to check this out!

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  19. hahahaha amazing!
    love it.
    Please keep updating your blog I always read it!

    make sure to help a bro out.

    http://newhypertech.blogspot.com/

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  20. Ill be checking this out, great post!

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  21. didn't knew that game, seems pretty cool indeed!

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  22. looks funky. may have to try it .

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  23. a 10 for graphics? youre mighty nice

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  24. Rift eh? Never played it, but after reading this I might check it out.

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