Rift (MMO)

[anvi]

I played most MMOs big and small and this is one of the better ones. I think people should try, especially because it is old and doesn't have many players left so it will die eventually. Playing an MMO by yourself isn't for everyone but I think if anyone liked Skyrim or DA:I or similar modern MMOs, then they would like Rift, but probably far more.

 

[ADL]

Played this shortly after they went free2play but before the first expansion pack released in 2013-2014 and the hybrid class system kept the gameplay more interesting than most of its contemporaries. Heard the business model went to complete shit, which as an ArcheAge player rings true under Trion/Gamigo. If that doesn't bother you and you don't mind playing a MMO from 2011 give it a shot.

 

[anvi]

TL-DR Yes it has some really good ideas, deserves to be remembered at least. I really enjoy playing it.

Longer story:

At release the mobs were really tough so general noob questing was actually fun for me. I played with 2 real life friends and it was smooth sailing but for solo players it was a real challenge. I really loved that about the game... I played as a Bard whose attacks built up points that you spend on varied effects mid fight. So it was strategic and felt good even in the low levels.

As ADL said you can switch class at any time (out of combat) and each class could also perform any role. So Warriors, Cleric, Rogue, Mage, each can be built as a tank, healer, damage, or support (control and healing). It made grouping so much easier because people could play their first choice or switch to something different to fill a slot of a group that was ready to go. It has other advantages too.

I finished the game as a Bard and then played through again as a Mage. It was even more fun and powerful.

Each 10 levels or so there is a dungeon for groups. They are pretty typical of post WoW MMOs but I think much better and bigger than most modern MMOs. (I'm thinking of TSW and ESO etc)

I love the game but at release there was really only about 1 month of content. So I saw all there was and the game loses a lot of magic when you reach the end and kind of see the limits of the game. One of the thing that made EQ so amazing to people was that most people didn't get close to reaching any sort of end, and when they did a whole new expansion was released. Rift only ever got 1 expansion and it wasn't great. They lowered the difficulty at some point when the popularity dipped, and then repeated it. So further play throughs are a lot less fun for me because I really liked the difficulty. But at least it's now soloable for anyone.

The main problem now is that they reworked it so that level 1-40 ish is about as fast as ever, but 40+ is a super huge grind. And there is a bunch of pay to win shit in the store that lets you skip the grind. I got to 50+ before they made it a grind and I didn't like it much anyway. It felt like they were stretching out the game in not a good way and with obnoxious monetization. But still, 1-40 ish is fun and to me it's much better than a lot of modern RPGs (I'm thinking Dragon Age Inquisition). p.s. Also the population is really low and has been for many years so I don't expect this game to last that long. I would really miss being able to play it.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I tried it at launch. Aesthetically the game was ugly! For all the hype about "you are not in Azeroth anymore", Azeroth sure looked a hell a lot more appealing to hang around in for countless hours.

Mixing and matching different souls (this game's equivalent of specializations) felt like a halfbaked idea. IIRC you could only mix and match specializations within the same archetype (ie, cleric). They should've gone all the way and allowed you to mix and match any souls. FF11 and GW1 already allowed you to equip any class you wanted as a secondary so why the limits? Felt like a step back rather than forward.

I remember one of the expansions having nifty concept art. No idea if the 3D artists managed to replicate it faithfully ingame (probably not).

That place looks cool.

 

[Dr1f7]

the 'rifts' were a cool idea and sad that it didn't really catch on with mmos in general. the warhammer mmo had something similar but that game died too

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i grew bored of this in two days. at least it lasted about double than lotro.

 

[Angthoron]

the 'rifts' were a cool idea and sad that it didn't really catch on with mmos in general. the warhammer mmo had something similar but that game died too

Tbh it did. WoW has it with the "dynamic" phased dailies. GW2 is pretty much dynamic event-centric. The form is different, sure, but it's the same concept.

I played Rift at launch (HP pools were overtuned as hell), then about a year in (HP pools were undertuned as hell), and then on and off for a couple of years.

There were some very interesting things it did - the class system, the "dynamic" events, and the gimmick they had that kept world exploration alive longer than it normally would - the artifact hunt. I really enjoyed the artifact hunt bit.

Basically, you'd be going around the map, and occasionally find a shiny morsel to loot, and that morsel could contain some random artifact, some of which were just vendor trash, and some were cosmetics etc. It was pretty much always worth keeping an eye open for 'em, since they were a major money source when selling to collectors. IIRC I lucked out and sold something for enough coin to fully gear up in best buyable gear, plus buy riding skills and a nice mount, all from one lucky find.

Graphics were somewhat horrible though, there's this awful oil-like quality to everything, and the palette is too heavy on blues, I think, and generally oversaturated in a bad way. Still, it was fun enough for a while, even to solo.

Too bad it's managed by Gamigo now, I guess it's on its last legs.

 

[anvi]

I'm trying to play Dragon Age Inquishition and it just keeps reminding me of this and how much better it was.

 

[Angthoron]

I'm trying to play Dragon Age Inquishition and it just keeps reminding me of this and how much better it was.

God

Why

Don't

 

[Cryomancer]

I liked a bit, played as a warlock/necromancer (would't pay for frostguard with the high risk of the game dying thanks to Gamigo owning it) and was a bit of fun, but also repetitive. I got tired around lv 45 and stopped.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i want to rectify my last reply. more recently i tried lotro again, and i didn't grow bored: i was furious how obtuse and limited the dorky character creation was. i uninstalled before actually playing.
this said, rift still sucks as much.

 

[Late Bloomer]

i was furious how obtuse and limited the dorky character creation was

Have you by chance visited the LoTRO thread here? They have a new character creation that might be right up your alley.

 

[Beans00]

TL-DR Yes it has some really good ideas, deserves to be remembered at least. I really enjoy playing it.

Longer story:

At release the mobs were really tough so general noob questing was actually fun for me. I played with 2 real life friends and it was smooth sailing but for solo players it was a real challenge. I really loved that about the game... I played as a Bard whose attacks built up points that you spend on varied effects mid fight. So it was strategic and felt good even in the low levels.

As ADL said you can switch class at any time (out of combat) and each class could also perform any role. So Warriors, Cleric, Rogue, Mage, each can be built as a tank, healer, damage, or support (control and healing). It made grouping so much easier because people could play their first choice or switch to something different to fill a slot of a group that was ready to go. It has other advantages too.

I finished the game as a Bard and then played through again as a Mage. It was even more fun and powerful.

Each 10 levels or so there is a dungeon for groups. They are pretty typical of post WoW MMOs but I think much better and bigger than most modern MMOs. (I'm thinking of TSW and ESO etc)

I love the game but at release there was really only about 1 month of content. So I saw all there was and the game loses a lot of magic when you reach the end and kind of see the limits of the game. One of the thing that made EQ so amazing to people was that most people didn't get close to reaching any sort of end, and when they did a whole new expansion was released. Rift only ever got 1 expansion and it wasn't great. They lowered the difficulty at some point when the popularity dipped, and then repeated it. So further play throughs are a lot less fun for me because I really liked the difficulty. But at least it's now soloable for anyone.

The main problem now is that they reworked it so that level 1-40 ish is about as fast as ever, but 40+ is a super huge grind. And there is a bunch of pay to win shit in the store that lets you skip the grind. I got to 50+ before they made it a grind and I didn't like it much anyway. It felt like they were stretching out the game in not a good way and with obnoxious monetization. But still, 1-40 ish is fun and to me it's much better than a lot of modern RPGs (I'm thinking Dragon Age Inquisition). p.s. Also the population is really low and has been for many years so I don't expect this game to last that long. I would really miss being able to play it.

I played rift for a few weeks with my runescape clan around the time it went f2p in like 2013-14.


We had like 25-30 people playing guardians. The big mobs were non instanced, so I would use my laptop to log in with a defiant character and my goons and I would run around spawn killing low level defiant guys. Because I could see where all of them were on my alt/laptop. We would be massacring them and talking a ton of trash, it was hilarious.


The game itself sucked ass, we all got to level 50 and quit.

 

[anvi]

I loved it but there wasn't enough content. And the harder beta combat was much better, it forced to you to make the most out of the combo points and things. Combat was more strategic and challenging, much more fun. After they changed that it lost a lot. It became button bashy.

I liked the mood of dungeons and some fun challenging encounters, but a lot of it was mindless as hell. A lot of filler. I liked some of the game's locations. The big spooky forest area, I loved questing there.

My only issue with the game besides the noobifying of the combat, was that the lack of content. Nice variety... soloing, puzzles, group dungeons, pvp, raiding. But a small number of each so I was done in a month. I liked the game but it needed more... Also some areas were very unfinished. The only thing I didn't do much of was raiding which seemed decent. But I don't see any point in getting gear that you have nothing to do with.

 

[anvi]

TL-DR Yes it has some really good ideas, deserves to be remembered at least. I really enjoy playing it.

Longer story:

At release the mobs were really tough so general noob questing was actually fun for me. I played with 2 real life friends and it was smooth sailing but for solo players it was a real challenge. I really loved that about the game... I played as a Bard whose attacks built up points that you spend on varied effects mid fight. So it was strategic and felt good even in the low levels.

As ADL said you can switch class at any time (out of combat) and each class could also perform any role. So Warriors, Cleric, Rogue, Mage, each can be built as a tank, healer, damage, or support (control and healing). It made grouping so much easier because people could play their first choice or switch to something different to fill a slot of a group that was ready to go. It has other advantages too.

I finished the game as a Bard and then played through again as a Mage. It was even more fun and powerful.

Each 10 levels or so there is a dungeon for groups. They are pretty typical of post WoW MMOs but I think much better and bigger than most modern MMOs. (I'm thinking of TSW and ESO etc)

I love the game but at release there was really only about 1 month of content. So I saw all there was and the game loses a lot of magic when you reach the end and kind of see the limits of the game. One of the thing that made EQ so amazing to people was that most people didn't get close to reaching any sort of end, and when they did a whole new expansion was released. Rift only ever got 1 expansion and it wasn't great. They lowered the difficulty at some point when the popularity dipped, and then repeated it. So further play throughs are a lot less fun for me because I really liked the difficulty. But at least it's now soloable for anyone.

The main problem now is that they reworked it so that level 1-40 ish is about as fast as ever, but 40+ is a super huge grind. And there is a bunch of pay to win shit in the store that lets you skip the grind. I got to 50+ before they made it a grind and I didn't like it much anyway. It felt like they were stretching out the game in not a good way and with obnoxious monetization. But still, 1-40 ish is fun and to me it's much better than a lot of modern RPGs (I'm thinking Dragon Age Inquisition). p.s. Also the population is really low and has been for many years so I don't expect this game to last that long. I would really miss being able to play it.

I played rift for a few weeks with my runescape clan around the time it went f2p in like 2013-14.


We had like 25-30 people playing guardians. The big mobs were non instanced, so I would use my laptop to log in with a defiant character and my goons and I would run around spawn killing low level defiant guys. Because I could see where all of them were on my alt/laptop. We would be massacring them and talking a ton of trash, it was hilarious.


The game itself sucked ass, we all got to level 50 and quit.

I played on a PVP server too. I can't remember any fights as a Bard but I switched to a mage and had lots of fights with people. The combat against players a lot more interesting than the dumb mobs.

If you played this you are half way to knowing what EQ was like. It was 1000x better than this game and a decade earlier. Far bigger, much more advanced, much more difficult. Almost everyone you see is dead or dying at first. No quest hubs, no constant questing, a lot of people did no questing at all. Everyone starts naked and every item is something you have to go on an adventure to get and each one is well known by the players. Each item has an impact on your character, it can even change the gameplay completely. Far more advanced and interesting combat, lots of intricacies that you need to get good at if you want to get good at the combat. Far more mob types which each have unique abilities and spells so you have to be careful about your enemies.

Also 'trains'.... When a mob chases a player in EQ, all other mobs that are allied with that will join in the fight if they see it. So some noob tries to kill a roaming goblin but another goblin is roaming by, it will join in. So the noob runs away but now all the other goblins that he goes near will join in... Pretty soon people are running from 20+ mobs. And they will never leash or give up until the player is dead or they are dead. Or the player escapes somehow. And when that player dies, that huge bunch of mobs will walk together back home and kill anyone that gets in the way. This can cause mayhem at times, especially in dungeons. And remember there was no instancing so dungeons might have had 100 people in.

Really just a 1000x better than MMOs that came after it. I respect WoW a lot though for adding the pvp arena and battlegrounds. They are awesome.

 

[anvi]

In other MMOs the players wade into mobs to slaughter them. In EQ you would avoid mobs to avoid getting into combat. Mobs were hard so you didn't spend the time or risk it unless you were ready for some battle. So when you travel players would often use invisibility to avoid mobs. And undead could see through it. And if they hit you the invis disappears. You could use Invis vs Undead which works, but then normal mobs can see you, and the two didn't stack together. So getting through a valley or dungeon or something could be a stealthy thing. eg: Run to a corner and wait for an undead to walk past, then cast another invis and run to another corner and then you can get through.

Also a lot of spells like invisibility would randomly fail after a random amount of time. And there was no warning... just pop, there you are. So half the time when you see people go invis and then try to run through a bunch of mobs, it would fade half way and they get swarmed to death. At higher levels it became more reliable but travel was still tricky. There was stuff that could kill you no matter how good you were. And stuff you didn't want to waste time getting into a fight with for no reward. So travel took some skill too.

The size is a big deal though... I can't care that much about a game if it's going to be all done in a month. That's one of the best things about EQ, the world was huge and there was always more to do and see. And any effort you put in getting something to improve your character, would be something that pays off for many months. Things like this makes a huge difference to how a game feels.

 

[Beastro]

nd the two didn't stack together.

They did, or used to, at least.

You could double invis, but it required someone else putting one on you and then escorting you for when it dropped.

 

[Beans00]

I loved it but there wasn't enough content. And the harder beta combat was much better, it forced to you to make the most out of the combo points and things. Combat was more strategic and challenging, much more fun. After they changed that it lost a lot. It became button bashy.

I liked the mood of dungeons and some fun challenging encounters, but a lot of it was mindless as hell. A lot of filler. I liked some of the game's locations. The big spooky forest area, I loved questing there.

My only issue with the game besides the noobifying of the combat, was that the lack of content. Nice variety... soloing, puzzles, group dungeons, pvp, raiding. But a small number of each so I was done in a month. I liked the game but it needed more... Also some areas were very unfinished. The only thing I didn't do much of was raiding which seemed decent. But I don't see any point in getting gear that you have nothing to do with.

I only played MMO's to do pvp and grief people. If you can't do that then it's not worth playing to me.

 

[anvi]

You could do that in EQ too but it wasn't the focus. There were people who became infamous like Fansy the Bard who would get into conflict with players and then Charm huge giants and things to fight the players and then the Bard runs away before the giant kills everyone. But the game ended up with 'play nice' rules which stopped a lot of that. In PVP you could do anything but those servers were always small. And it got no balance so originally it was awesome because everyone just played it straight. But later people figured things out that were kind of unbeatable and it became all about doing that. Which wasn't fun.

I wanted more PVP but it wasn't to be in that game. They were focused on PVE. But the PVE was so good it ruined other games for me.

 

[Cryomancer]

Played a bit. Reached lv 50 and dropped. Enemies takes forever to kill, using my minion + dots, some enemies last over 15 seconds. Also don't like the wowish aspects of the game, like stat stickie itemization.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Played a bit. Reached lv 50 and dropped. Enemies takes forever to kill, using my minion + dots, some enemies last over 15 seconds.

How long are you wanting fights to last?

 

[anvi]

With a group they died in 0.1 second. It was super dumb.

 

[Cryomancer]

How long are you wanting fights to last?

Depends against "bosses" or regular enemies? IMO DDO did a great job with TTK/TTD(time to kill/time to die).

 

[Late Bloomer]

How long are you wanting fights to last?

Depends against "bosses" or regular enemies? IMO DDO did a great job with TTK/TTD(time to kill/time to die).

Reached lv 50 and dropped. Enemies takes forever to kill, using my minion + dots, some enemies last over 15 seconds.

The ones that took 15 seconds to kill. How long would have been ideal for those fights to last.

 

[Cryomancer]

How long would have been ideal for those fights to last.

Like in early fights. I could throw some DoTs and move to next mob.