Rift: Planes of Telara Previews
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GameZone:
Every MMO faces concerns over grinding and fetch quests. Though there is no shortage of quests to take on, they all feel fresh and engaging. Whether it's to escort an NPC through a dangerous zone, or turn lazy students into animals to teach them a lesson, I never felt bored. So far I have not encountered a need to grind at all, as quests more than compensated me with enough XP. Dying is handled similarly to WoW. If you die, you have an option to resurrect at the graveyard or run to your body and resurrect there. Once every hour, you're also able to Soul Walk, which let's you come back to life right on the spot.
One glance at RIFT and you'll see that the game is absolutely stunning, provided you have the rig to maximize your graphic settings. It might not be the most original when it comes to control and overall user interface, but I think that's what Trion is trying to capitalize on. Rather than completely reworking their own UI, RIFT plays a lot like World of Warcraft, and other similar MMOs. Though this might come across as a cop-out, it ensures that you'll be able to jump into RIFT and feel right at home, if you're already an established veteran of MMOs.
Front Towards Gamer:
What really caught me off guard from testing Rift was how actually done the product was. When I participated in the WoW beta, I was used to having the game server complete crash every 10-30 minutes. I played Rift for hours straight without a hiccup. Graphics just plain worked. I didn't get any of those weird artifacts where you're holding a big black ball where you're weapon is supposed be. In fact, I've never played in a beta that didn't have some sort of major (OH MY GOD THE SKY IS FALLING) problem. I was so shocked to just have a game that worked.
The story is nothing new. An outer planes entity is invading the land of Telara. You are a chosen Guardian of the gods. You're job is to challenge those who would wreck your world. Or.. you can play the steam punk Defiants who lived to see the world end, but defied the end by sending you back in time to stop the world from being demolished. Good and evil isn't nearly as well defined as in other games. Originally I would have said, Guardians = good and Defiants = bad. But having played the starter area of the Defiants, I'm not sure its quite that clear cut.
