back to article Rift

Carpal tunnel syndrome has almost set in since the release of WoW Cataclysm – bash, level, bash, ow, ow – so perhaps change is as good as a rest. Well, one look at Rift and I am left with nightmarish flashbacks of DC Universe another MMO that is ultimately flawed with a levelling cap, a boring character build system and no …

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  1. Graham Bartlett

    Misreading

    I'm glad I saw "barbecuing *with* the ferrets" on the second reading of that sentence. I was worried there for a moment!

    Mind you, ferrets are conveniently shaped for a baguette filling...

  2. Thomas 4
    Flame

    Terrible review

    "The character levelling system is totally blandflakes" - what the hell is this supposed to even mean?

    I've also been playing Rift and while you could sit there and whine about it being unoriginal and ripping off your beloved WoW (and let's be honest here, you are hopelessly biased towards that game), I found it had enough differences to mark it out while having a firm foundation to build on future content.

    Who else out there remembers Aion? Strikingly beautiful MMO with flying combat and cross dimensional zones was what we were promised but instead we got a broken grindfest with a few seconds of flight here and there, not to mention a crafting system that would reduce most people to rage.

    It's all very well complaining about a lack of originality from MMOs - again, a large amount of the blame can be directed at your beloved World of Warcraft - but unless an MMO gets the basics right, how can it evolve into something different.

    Oh and one final point - I have a hell of a lot more freedom when it comes to fine tuning my class in Rift than I ever did in World of Warcraft.

    1. Lottie

      Blandflakes

      Usually comes accompanied with weaksauce.

      Agree about the WoWorship though. The reviews come across as a WOW fanatic reviewing other games as opposed to a gaming journalist.

    2. Tigra 07
      Thumb Up

      RE: Thomas 4

      Probably meant to say branflakes, as in some people will shit themselves when they see this and others won't.

    3. mafoo
      WTF?

      "Regulos the God of Bran"

      Is "Regulos the God of Bran" really in the game?

      Does his high fibre content help stop you getting digestion problems...? ... keeping you 'regular'.

      1. Abremms

        regulos god of bran

        i think that "regulos god of bran" bit was just the writer trying to be witty to cover up the fact that she was to busy playing World of Tanks to get past lvl10 in Rift.

    4. Dapprman

      Problem is ..

      THart every new MMORPG is compared to WoW, in the same way that before then it was DAoC, and before that Evercrack.

  3. Parkaboy

    amazing review

    Rift sucked hard and hehe I loved the "Branflakes" comment nice one

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    What?

    "But the graphics felt very 'meh' looking and so very last Tuesday, if last Tuesday was like eight years ago"

    That sentence is not only utterly meaningless but a crime against the English language. Christ on a bike, it's not even funny!

    Just, like, how many of the Reg's readers do you, like seriously think are, like, actually under fourteen years of age?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mortal Online

    Mortal Online is where the real Men (read geeky dudes that like something a bit varied) play.

    Who needs a story line when you can kill anyone any time and steal all their stuff then dance off into the forest to find someone else to butcher.

  6. Lars Petersson

    Fresher than WoW and happily no dungeonfinder in sight...

    Personally I'm playing Rift rather than WoW and thoroughly enjoying it.

    You need to read the quest text and the interact with NPCs to get a feel for the world and the storyline.

    If all you want to do is grind your way through levels, then it doesn't really matter which MMO you're playing.

    I would recommend to anyone that they should give Rift a try for a month or two. It's quite different from WoW in the specifics, but the basics are close enough that anyone who has played any MMO can jump right in.

  7. Lottie

    Maybe

    it's because I'm elderly and remember stuff like Diablo 2, but I thought the graphics in the screencaps were rather spiffy looking.

    But yeah, I remember that last Tuesday DID feel like eight years ago. Because I was considering re-installing Deus Ex for the N+1th time.

    1. Thomas 4

      Do it

      Deus Ex was fantastic.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It is

        Deus Ex is still fantastic. Even more so when you get the high def mod for the graphics

  8. eric 2
    Grenade

    Rift still beats WoW....

    Rift graphics absolutely kill WoW. I'd have to assume the writer has age'd kit. With the latest asus republic of gamers 17" lappy, and the game graphics set to 'ultra', it looks like real life. The characters have actual muscle showing under skin, everything looks 'real', unlike the cartoony WoW.

    At level 40 I'm finding that a combination of questing, PVP warfronts, and closing Rifts is an efficient way to level and cut down on the 'boring'. All MMOs will have 'kill this many of x, gather this many of y type quests, don't call Rift bad because it's an MMO..

    Is it the greatest thing ever? No.....many broken quests, annoying graphics bugs (ran an entire instance where no one in the party had legs...). I dropped my WoW sub though, this is better than WoW. TERA and Neverwinter Nights are on the horizon and I may end up dropping Rift for one of those, but for now, it's better than WoW.

    1. Dapprman

      WoW and Graphics ...

      Even when WoW first came out in beta it's graphics were criticised. Going from ToA DAoC to WoW closed beta it felt like going back 4 or 5 years in time, however the one thing that quickly became apparent was graphics were nothing, game play was every thing, and that is why WoW became so big and also became the new bench mark..

      I do agree though on the fact that most, if not all, MMORPGs are blighted by grinding, just that some present it better than others,

  9. sisk
    Stop

    Need read no further

    "I loved Neverwinter Nights 2 "

    Anyone who loved that turd need not be writing reviews on RPGs. NWN2 flopped for a reason, and it certainly wasn't because they yanked the Linux support that it's awesome predecessor had. It was simply a bad game. The fact that the author admits to loving it screams loudly that he has poor taste in games.

    1. Peladon

      For want of an s...

      Capitalisation emphasis is mine:

      'The fact that the author admits to loving it screams loudly that HE has poor taste in games.'

      Capitalisation emphasis is mine:

      Author:

      LUCY Orr

      '... hey, what's a GIRL without a fairy?'

      Perhaps you left the 's' in your other jeans...

      Sorry. I mean, really sorry. I shouldn't be taking my bad day out on you. My apology for having already done so...

      1. sisk

        Meh, my fault

        I should have looked closer at the authors name instead of just reading the article. Sorry bout that Lucy.

  10. CaptainHook

    Neverwinter

    God I used to love Neverwinter Nights, the player run roleplaying servers consumed far too many of my years.

    Anyone know of any modern alternatives, player controlled sandbox games?

    1. Filippo Silver badge

      sandbox

      I've played several new sandbox MMORPGs, and I've come to the conclusion that by "sandbox" developers mean "it's just like WoW, only with no content". I'm losing hope of ever seeing a sandbox game where the developers took all the money they saved from doing no quests, no plot and no dungeons, and spent it on systems that actually enable player freedom. Mortal Online and Earthrise aren't sandboxes - they're flat, empty parking lots. About the only modern sandbox I know where you can actually, y'know, *do* something is Eve Online, which is a very unorthodox game and not everyone's cup of tea.

      1. CaptainHook

        EVE Online

        I played EVE Online fanatically for a couple of years but after a period of redundancy and as a result probably playing the game too much I got bored. Last year I tried to get back into the game but found the grind was too much to bear a second time around.

        EVE could have been great but I feel its gone down a mass market route (not blaming them, they have to make money after all) but in doing so they lost what I had hope the game would be. It's got the right ingredients but it was baked wrong.

        The main problems I had with EVE were related but different.

        1) Crowded Space - Everything is owned by someone, even if you don't see anyone in the system

        2) Roleplay - No one does roleplay because you are always going to be interacting with those that don't roleplay in your system.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Rift: maybe it will wow me in v2.x, but for now it's zzzzzzzzzz

      I have to say i agree that rift brings little new to the party.

      closing rifts is great fun ... for the first 5, then it's just more of the same.

      The graphics are generally dingy (at least in the zones i've been in). A brighter, more colourful world would be nice, but not necessarily a wow cartoon world.

      As a visually impaired person I find the font very hard to read - why they couldn't give us an "arial" or similar option i don't know.

      The soul system sounded more interesting than it proved to be.

      I'm torn - will they improve it in the same way they did with WoW? Should i abandon founder pricing or continue throwing money at it & not playing it til they do?

      (Yes, I play WoW, but after X years it too has nothing new to interest me. Cataclysm was a huge disappointment - 5 new levels completed in no time, no WotLK certainly. I was looking to Rift to re-enthuse me, but what little i play now tends to be on WoW).

  11. AndricD
    Pirate

    not a good review

    Poor review - obviously he like's WoW gameplay and graphics, and as Rift isn't WoW he didn't like it.

    Personally I can't stand playing WoW and loath its FisherPrice colour scheme/graphics - Rift I'm enjoying only question is for how long. Quests are good, Rift invasions and so on are really good fun, pvp is decent. Graphics are good and scale very well. Main weaknesses are the lack of a group finding mechanism, crafting needs work and some itemisation is dodgy. With the multi soul builds for characters you can easily swap out builds 9up to 4 at max level) to meet playstyle/situatio - typically soloing, grouping and the two arch roles.

    Its quite a complex game once you start into the diferent souls you can mix'n'match so most want to stick to 1 class and learn the options and balance them around playstyles and roles.

    Overall I'd give it an 80

  12. HP Cynic

    This was an attack not a review

    This is a blatant crucifixion of the game by a WoW "Fangirl" rather than a review. The factual errors alone demonstrate to me that the Reviewer barely played the game at all and either invented or assumed a lot.

    Yes Rift is very much a WoW-clone but it's improved many aspects and is the first MMO since WoW to be launched in a playable and polished state.

    If you are still having fun in WoW then you are unlikely to find much reason to switch, but if you don't like WoW or don't play any MMOs right now this is definitely one to try out yourself.

    At the least seek out proper reviews elsewhere as this "review" should never have been published.

    1. Jedit Silver badge
      Flame

      Agreed - this reviewer should not be published again

      This is probably the laziest review I've seen since I bought my first issue of Commodore User in 1984.

      Miss Orr says she was just getting to areas that weren't dull brown when she gave up "the grind". Well, it's true the Defiant starter area is mostly dull brown. It's set immediately before the end of the world, and concludes with you being sent back in time to prevent the catastrophe.

      However, when it ends you are sent to Freemarch. Freemarch has blue skies, sandy beaches, green fields, trees, farms and a big shiny city in the middle. It cannot be mistaken for anything dull and brown. If Miss Orr was only just getting to Freemarch when she gave up, then she spent at most one hour playing the game.

      One hour. It probably took longer to write the review. And that should tell you how much Lucy Orr's opinion is worth.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WoW clone

    Played it, thought I was playing WoW which put me off instantly. Unimaginative copycat hoping to cash in on the WoW factor. Yawn.

  14. Idy
    WTF?

    This was a review?

    Really? Did you even play the game? If you had you'd know that you don't always get one skill point when levelling up, you sometimes get two, and you can't put all of your points into one tree, forcing you to have some diversity - unlike WoW which until you've spent 41 points (or whatever number it is now) forces you to spend your points in one tree only.

  15. Lionel Baden
    Thumb Up

    W.O.T.

    LOOKS FUKKEN AWEOSME !!!!!!!!

    i have already signed up and downloading now !! Many thanks.

    I am forcing the rest of our gaming community to download now :D

  16. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
    Paris Hilton

    Rift PVP

    void knight/rift blade...

    How big is this issue or non-issue? Been thinking of subbing but I hear a lot of QQ about this...

    Don't honestly give a crap about pve, but if the pvp is really that lopsided.... I might stick to my crappy WoW instead for now (till D3 or Blade and Soul). At least it is crap I have maxed out toons for.

    Thanks for the tip for World of Tanks. Will check it out.

    1. Thomas 4

      PVP in Rift

      I'm only 27ish in Rift but while there are certain specs that are powerful (Dominators, Saboteur + Bard combos certain warrior specs), almost everything has a counter in some form. It's still too early to make precise calls on balance (it's only been live a couple of weeks) but I do enjoy the PVP when I do it.

      Druids don't have bears in Rift though, not even strong ones. They do have freakishly big satyrs at higher levels which are bad news for anyone near by.

      1. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

        Druids..

        Yeah, that's another reason I've been slow to play a lot of other MMO's...

        One you've played a WoW druid, it's kind of hard to play anything else. For small group world PVP, druids are insanely fun. Sometimes, we'd go 5 man into a city and cause a bit of chaos. Very good mobility, stealth, and you got your full group of melee and ranged dps, cc + heals. Alright, you don't have absolutely everything, but you have enough, and surprise here is king. Kill a few flagged guys and disappear and hide. Rinse repeat till they get organised and its untenable then bugger off. Really pisses people off.

        Yes. We like mischief.

        If there's anything like that in Rift, I'm in :)

        1. Jedit Silver badge
          Pirate

          You'll love Saboteur, then

          The signature move of the Sab is the Charge. They're a poison-class debuff that deals no damage, come in half a dozen flavours including stun, slow, bleed, armour reduction and AOE damage, and up to five of them in any combination can be stacked on a single target. Pick your victim, put up a stack on him without him noticing, then hit Detonate - KABOOM!

          You can tell how much fun this is by visiting the official forums and looking at how many threads there are QQing about Sabs.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Regulos the god of bran

    You've got to be shitting me?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rifts

    Misread and got all excited that there had been a computer translation of Rifts (the RPG from Palladium - http://www.palladiumbooks.com/WhatIsRifts.html)

    Oh well.. it still looks good though.

  19. ZeroGravitas

    She's completely right about one thing...

    Go and try World of Tanks (although there are only a few weeks left for the open beta now).

    I let my WoW sub lapse because I've been playing back-to-back team deathmatches (there are 15 tanks per team) every evening for the last few months. Very, very addictive.

    1. Dapprman

      Damn Right !!

      World of Tanks is not perfect, but it is dam good, I'm another Closed Beta onwards player looking forwards to the go-live.

      Ok it's no MMORPG , but then jsut how much roleplaying do people actually do in those games ? - having spent a long time playing Dark Age of Camelot (and expansions), City of Heroes, Eve, and World of Warcraft I can say not a lot.

  20. Abremms
    Dead Vulture

    people who hate MMOs shouldn't review MMOs

    this is a pretty awful review. the writer clearly didn't play much of the game. I thought that was why MMO reviews take a couple weeks after launch to come through? so the reviewer has time to play the game and experience a good bit of the content?

    either way, Rift is sitting at 82 on meta critic right now with reviews ranging from 70-90. pretty good for an MMO since all MMOs recieve a 5-10pt penalty for not being WoW. Its not a perfect game and does deserve some critisism for not taking many risks. However, Rift does just about everything WoW does at least as good as WoW does them, plus a few other neat tricks besides.

    If you ever enjoyed wow but got tired of it over time, or didn't like some of the design descisions in recent years, Rift is worth a try. It really is an impressive game. and the first MMO to be released that is technicaly stable, realatively bug free, and it has far FAR more launch content than most recent MMOs (I'm looking at you, DCUO), at least as much as WoW had at launch.

    1. Dapprman

      and on mmorpg.com

      also 8.7 on MMORPG.com - and while I find the fan/hate base can skew results, not by that much if it were to be a bad game.

      1. Thomas 4

        PC Gamer

        Clocked it in at 85% - quite a detailed review and they didn't even have to use the word "blandflakes" even once.

  21. Dana W
    Coat

    I suppose.

    I'd try it if personally if there was a Mac version. But for the time being there is not. Yes I play WOW, I have nine alts last I counted.

    I was seeing it played at a local convention recently, I was intrigued till I found out about its Microsoft dependence. I can play WOW on my Macs or my Linux box. Let's see it run under wine.

    What I'd like to see is how well it plays on laptops, or are the whizbang graphics going to tie it down to desktop computers? I like the freedom of not being tied to a desktop.

    Personally I don't need super graphics, I need a game I can enjoy playing. Final Fantasy XIV had beautiful graphics, but who wants to play it? Part of WOW's success is it's friendly to the casual gamer who may not want to own a graphically intensive gaming rig.

  22. This post has been deleted by its author

  23. Parkaboy

    An expert in what being a noob

    So how long would you force a reviewer to play a game so they can say whether the game was good or bad? Would you have them play 40 hours 50 hours on a game that adds nothing to the genre. I can see how spending as much time as would be needed to play to get to an "end game expert raid" would be really worth the time, not

    For all you noobs with more money than game sense you should really take a look at all the FREE to play MMO's.

    1. Thomas 4

      What I would expect

      ...is for a reviewer to do theur journalistic duty and analyse the game from a professional standpoint and not bring personal bias into it. Adding a little humour to a review is fine and actively welcomed but not at the expense of conveying important information. To go back to one of the shining comments of this review:

      "The levelling system is totally blandflakes"

      ..hardly tells you much about the process. There is no detailed information about the way the classes work, the use of different roles for different situations, the synergy between various soul trees and the way that points can be attributed. There is no mention about the overlap between certain classes means that some mechanics often override each other (for example, Warlord buffs are occasionally overwritten by Bard and Archon skills).

      You could also cover how experience can be gotten from a number of different sources (quests, warfront PVP, closing rifts), talk about the various crafting professions (again, you could mention how certain crafts have issues at present, such as Apothecary). Miss Orr's problem with her reviews (not just this one - I'm also thinking of the review she did for the high performance network card) is that she assumes too much prior knowledge on the part of the reviewer. For some people, Rift may be their first entry into MMO gameplay and describing a certain warfront as "like Alterac Valley" is not particularly helpful if you have no idea what Alterac Valley actually *is*.

      If I were doing a full review of Rift (a tempting idea when I have a free moment), I would use the time spent levelling from 1-20 as a good indicator of how well the game performs. As you point out, expecting a reviewer to reach the end game stages is unreasonable given the normal time for a review, which is why its important to explain as much about the early stages as possible. Granted, you don't have to get right down to tiny detail (e.g. attacks are performed by right clicking on an enemy target and clicking on various skills from the tool bar) - most gamers looking at Rift will have a little experience of basic RPG systems.

      Just remember that not everyone has played World of Warcraft.

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