Rift: Planes of Telara
Review
Challenge Accepted!
by Andrew Hallam
reviewed on PC
Interdimensional Bad Guys (cntd.)
Rifts are public quests that involve having an unlimited amount of players help to contain and close a rift before the invading forces take over the area. While this is not only great fun and a really nice way to build the community it also presents a few unique problems. If no one is around to stop the invasion the enemy NPCs will just waltz right through and capture friendly territory, making some places not only death traps for lower levels but also denying access to things such as shops and quest givers, creating real problems for people who just want to finish quests. However, completing these public quests by stopping the invading forces by killing their commander or closing off a rift are great ways to not only earn yourself unique loot and experience but to also socialise with other players since the quests force you to work together to complete them.
All in all, its a nice idea in theory. Rifts open up, invaders pour in and players work to save the day. Unfortunately, they do tend to get a little annoying if the NPC you want to sell your 'Super Dooper Rocket Rifle 9000 +1' to just got sliced up by some baddie who's 5 levels higher than you and no one is around to help. This all adds to the world however. Rather than WoW's rather stagnant game world just plodding along as it does, Rift presents a world where you can see the storyline unfolding around you and really feel a part of it as you protect your land from the invaders. It is just a shame that this is not reflected in normal questing...
With all this going on, it is hard to see why the questing aspect is so stuck in the old-school mentality of those that came before it. The normal quests are mostly what you'd expect from an MMORPG. Go here, kill x amount of enemies and return with x amount of their internal organs or stolen loot, hand in quest, repeat. Of course there is the odd questline that involves you going somewhere and planting a flag or turning off a machine that's sucking the life out of Billy Bob Joe the 3rd's soul, but it is all very samey. If you've played World of Warcraft, or any other MMORPG for that matter, you've seen it all before. It would have been nice if the quests also changed the game world around you as seen in Wrath of the Lich King's “Death Knight” quest segments, but I suppose you can't have everything...
Class Types Galore
One place where Rift does shine is its class system. While at first you might feel a little disappointed at the apparently limited option of only four class types, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that it opens up to 8x that amount once in game. Through the introductory questline you'll be given the choice of 8 different specialisms that each relate to your chosen class. This it allows players to choose their specialisation very early on. With the freedom to combine 3 of any of the 8 different specialisms at one time, this gives the player a massive amount of freedom from the get-go. The specialisms are split into different groups such as healer, support, defensive, offensive and so on and each class gets a variety of different groups.
While you may have the choice of two different offensive specialisms, they are all distinctly different. Take the warrior class for example. While the two specialisms, Champion and Beastmaster, are both offensive in type, they are totally different. The Champion relies on getting up close and personal with melee weapons, smashing the living crap out of the enemy, while the Beastmaster sends various types of animals to do their dirty work. I simply cannot give enough praise to this system of class choices. By allowing players to choose so early on what they want to be, it allows players to be truly unique in their choices, instead of just being the average Joe warrior who has to follow the same route as everyone else.
9.0
fun score
Pros
A true Warcraft beater. Intuitive additions to standard formula
Cons
Some minor bugs. Quests a slight let down
