Rift MMORPG

[Tpek]

Seeing that the pre-order period for the new expansion (and especially the combo pack) is soon fading,
How is the game really?
Should I try it out?
Would the 45$ entry fee be good for a month even if I don't subscribe further?

I remember trying it for 5 minutes during the beta but never playing it any further.

So any suggestions? :P

[LongBlade]

Never played it. I have heard some guys like it, but not enough to say it's a smashing success.

[Yskonyn]

I have played it for about a year and enjoyed my time big time. It's a pretty game but with standard WoW like gameplay. The different soul builds are fun to tinker with, though.
But these days the lower level areas are pretty desolate which makes getting to max level grind for new characters.
Once you have joined the max level of crowd the game is quite fun.
Beautiful dungeons, maar but the quest monotony is very much present in Rift just like other classic MMO games.

[Tpek]

Are the classes interesting at all?
Are there PvE (non-PvP) worlds?
How is crafting? is it good? mandatory?
How is the grind?

[Yskonyn]

The classes are cool. You make a character build out of 3 souls. These souls you can mix and match to make the build you want to play and most combinations are viable. This is one of the bigger selling points of Rift IMHO.

Most worlds are PvE, actually I am not sure there even are sole PvP servers.
PvP is getting a revamp with the coming expansion pack. Before that you had Battlegrounds, pretty standard PvP MMO fare.

Crafting is resources/recipe thing. No mini games or anything.
You have nodes scattered around the world which you can harvest. You need resources for a recipe. Also pretty standard.
Not mandatory to craft at all. You can buy stuff from the AH.

Eventhough the levelling is pretty quick, I found it to be a grind after the first character. Mainly because the quest hub system is still very much in place and, quite frankly, that's boring after a while.

[Huw the Poo]

I don't have time to write a detailed post right now (and Yskonyn is doing a fine job anyway) but I'll say this: Rift is the best MMORPG of its type I've ever played.  The classes are great fun and there's massive scope to customise your character thanks to the soul system.  The lore is strong (for a MMORPG) and the game is insanely well polished.  If you like this kind of game you really ought to try Rift.

Don't forget you can play the first 20 levels free.

[Yskonyn]

I agree with the above, but there is one big item to keep in mind;
You need to be prepared to fight through the first levels solo as the main population is hanging out in other zones and the lower zones are pretty empty.
At least on my former server that was the case.
Other than that its a fine game indeed, but as with many MMO's, once you fall behind the pack you will have a fairly large amount of dull gameplay before you join up for the good stuff again.

[son_of_montfort]

I enjoyed Rift quite a bit, although I didn't go very far with it as I got distracted by work and other games. I would say that I think I like Guild Wars 2 better, although the experience is very very different. Rift is more traditional and their class system is the best IMHO. I loved being able to switch between three different types of Cleric depending upon the role I wanted to play at the moment. Rift was also one of the first to implement a really cool map encounter system, where you got different events pop up and you needed to participate in them for rewards. GW2 does that as well, but I think Rift did it better and the results were more compelling.

[Yskonyn]

No, as far as the maps and events are concerned I think GW2 nails it better, IMHO
But character development is much more interesting in Rift, I agree.

[son_of_montfort]

I really loved the cool monsters that showed up in Rift to attack, and the awesome rewards you could get from a giant impromptu raid against a huge crab-fiend boss or the like.

Otherwise, however, the map interaction in GW2 is much stronger. I actually like Secret World a lot as well, but there was something just too much work in Secret World and no real feeling of progression from leveling.

I would say that GW2 is much more casual friendly than Rift. I primarily like to log in and play a little bit when I get the chance and you just can't make that as viable in Rift where, as you said, the leveling in the early stages can be a slog.

[Tpek]

Anyway, I already bought it, yet had absolutely no time to play it, with work and all.

Might redeem my codes and start it really today :P

[Huw the Poo]

Nice one, Tpek.  You going Guardian or Defiant?  Which calling?

Personally I prefer the Guardian lore, but the Defiant's capital city is much better. ;)

[Tpek]

I'm not really sure what's the lore here at all.
Aside from Guardians are chosen of the gods, and the Defiants want to take fate into their own hands.
Also, I was sent back in time after being artificially created (Defiant), and found out that is seems to be a very common thing (considering how they were all
expecting me and used to me) :P

[Huw the Poo]

Yeah, the general deal is that Regulos has returned to Telara and the Vigil (gods of Telara) have chosen some long-dead heroes - the Guardians - to be resurrected and fight him.  The Defiant have a different ideology to the Guardians and, while not chosen of the Vigil, have decided to take the fight into their own hands.  They've discovered the technology to resurrect their own.  Together, the Guardians and Defiant make up the Ascended.

You were sent back in time because in the present, the fight against Regulos is lost.  Most of my characters are Defiant and I can't remember how the Guardians arrive at the same point in time.

[Tpek]

Well, I'm slowly advancing.
My level 10 Defiant Bahmi (?) Warrior (original purpose was a Dark Thane, but I steered away from it).

A quick question, what does purchasing a new "Role" mean?
Does it mean I can get a new Soul to the collection from which I choose my trio?