http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?14805-The-Rift-NDA-Free-Podcast-Scott-Hartsman-Alyvian-Abigale-amp-Beta-Gameplay


Lets hear some reviews


I only got them chance to play the game to level 9 this last event. I really liked it thought and playing around with my rogue/bard character. Graphics are nice but the quests are like WoWs in content.


Locked. Thread got stuck on stupid.

 

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Tag, I am interested to hear some reviews also.

 

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While I abore questing, and Rift has a lot of it, the dynamic aspect of the rift content keeps ANY game time exciting and unpredictable. It is VERY easy to get sidetracked from questing to chase rifts and find yourself an hour later having earned 1/2-3/4 of a lvl.

When rifts do pop, and in the beta they popped a LOT, you'll see squads of players sprinting across the landscape to confront it. Nowhere is safe, as rifts can open in (and attack from without) any town or outpost with the capability to take it over and convert it into a foothold for the element of the rift the mobs came from.

Combat isn't too dynamic from what I played, although the beta has been limited to lvl 20. I'm sure there's a lot more depth to be had once you can break that barrier.

The soul system is pretty awesome. It opens a retarded amount of customization to how you want to play your chosen archetype. I won't get into details, as I'm sure tons will come out now that the NDA has been lifted. But to say it isn't intuitive, is to say the sky is solid.

I didn't touch crafting or PvP, so I can't comment on those.

 

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My computer consists of the basic requirements listed for the game, and I had a hard time playing. I could only achieve 16fps max in an uncrowded area with every setting turned down (at 1680x1050). When I was introduced to crowds of people I would drop down to 3fps. So if you're interested in playing this game then you will have to upgrade to a new machine.

The character customization is really nice. Lets you change them a good portion (face details, tatoos, height, a plethora of colors to chose from for eye/skin color).

Like Arc said, the soul system is pretty damn bad ass. What he didnt mention is as you start moving up the tree and branching out earning new spells you also earn enhancements to your abilities/spells in the roots of the tree.

While in beta alot of the old schoolers complained that the questing was being forced to level. Sorta like WoW, and they wanted an alternate way. IMO I see the rifts that spawn as an alternate way of leveling, grant it they wont be there 24/7...but if left untouched they will grow bigger and take over the area/zone.

 

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I edited my long remarks because I am not sure how much of the previous beta's we can discuss. Will repost if somebody else says they don't care:


-The gameplay is "more of the same".

-What is here is actually fairly well done and high quality.

-Performance is good

-Graphics are good

-UI and responsiveness is good.

-World design/architecture/models are good.

-Character progression seems to be fairly quick and more like WoW and less like Aion but I have no idea how the higher levels are, which is where most MMO's bog down.


My bottom line is this:

I like what I saw and I recomended that people check out the beta if at all possible and check it out. What is here, seems to be very well done. However, I said the exact same thing about Aion and I quit that after 5 weeks.


The main issue I have is that while this is an all new world with nice new textures, the gameplay was nothing different than what I have seen before. The core gameplay is really no different than everything else out there, but I imagine a lot of people won't have any issues with that though. Myself, I am a MMO Vet and would like something "different".


My biggest worries are that this will be a new Aion/Age of Conan/War/etc, meaning it starts out good and ends up sucking due to various issues (grind, slow leveling, only grouping, no content, {insert issue here}). However, I have that worry with every new MMO that comes on the market. For example, I have that same worry for SWTOR.


Incidentally, I recently made a post about how I like Cataclysm but it offers nothing "different". This is what Rift felt like to me, but please note, I have probably dumped 150 hours into Cataclysm already and only 10-20 hours into Rift, so my initial impression of that may be totally off base.

 

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It seemed cool but not cool enough to make me skip Cataclysm.

Nice writeup Mith, thanks!

 

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Kinda pissed me off I couldn't write about last weekend. I think technically, you still aren't supposed to write about experiences that were under NDA.

 

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cool icon.

 

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who is making it?

 

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