Rift Online Beta

Whether it's because of vast improvements since we last saw it, or simply that the PCs here at IGN are pretty darn powerful, Rift: Planes of Telara is now an undeniably gorgeous game, and an MMO that any fan of World of Warcraft or EverQuest should pay a great deal of attention to, because it is also a lot of fun. Rift is built for experienced MMO players. Its setting, Telara, is a world enveloped by a war between the Defiants and the Guardians and several non-player factions, all vying for territory and dominance.


Read more here:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/113/1137700p1.html

I just got accepted in to the Rift Online beta. I'll take screenshots and let everyone know what I think. Keep in mind though, I'm a HARSH MMO critic. So I'm already expecting the worse out of this game.

Merged these for the sake of topic.

Cool mate! I need to look more into Rift, see a bit of what it's about, but I love me some beta info. Keep us up to date!

It is quite intriguing. I am not a fan of WOW by any means due to its tediousness and slow leveling not to mention the people that have played it since before expansions NADER *cough cough*. But this seems like an interesting alternative. The summarized plot of the game alone was interesting. Let me know how you like it.

I have played a few hours of it today. I'm lvl 9 Rogue Ranger/Nightblade. You have your base classes: Rogue, Warrior, Cleric, and Mage. However, each classes have 3 sub-classes you can freely put points in to so that you can truly tailor your character the way you want it.

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As I was walking by, a rift opens in the sky. Monsters pour from it to kick my arse.

Kromel wrote:I have played a few hours of it today. I'm lvl 9 Rogue Ranger/Nightblade. You have your base classes: Rogue, Warrior, Cleric, and Mage. However, each classes have 3 sub-classes you can freely put points in to so that you can truly tailor your character the way you want it.

[img][/img]

So it sort of works like WOW where you have 3 talent trees to pick from but in Rift you get to pick 2 to put points in that give you mixed abilities? Graphics look pretty good too.

you can go in to all 3, I just haven't trained in to the third profession.

The Characters look good, however, Rift's "elf" race looks too much like Cameron's Avatar characters.

Kromel wrote:The Characters look good, however, Rift's "elf" race looks too much like Cameron's Avatar characters.

No offense but your elf looks like he could hang/cut himself at any moment so i would keep an eye on him.

Wildman wrote:
No offense but your elf looks like he could hang/cut himself at any moment so i would keep an eye on him.

No, I agree. I really didn't spend too much on character creation. All I did was change hair and eye color.

mm, to me the setup looks a lot like they mashed wow with warhammer

Xian wrote:mm, to me the setup looks a lot like they mashed wow with warhammer

That is EXACTLY what they did. Warhammer's PvP kicked the snot out of anything in MMO's. The quests sucked. So far, the feel is like WoW.

warhammer pvp? i hope they also copied Wh's penalty if a high level char walked into a low level pvp area, that shit was funny to see

This game looks really good but looks can be deceiving ie Aion. But if you say it plays like WoW PvE and hits like WH PvP seems I'll be checking this out when I get the chance.

And if they have Guild Wars lack of grind and lack of wait for good content, then it'll be perfect. I'm anxious to await.

As of this time, I have NO idea what the PvP is like. I do know that at the start, it's faction based. The Guardians vs The Defiants, with no side really good or evil. The difference is in the belief.

PVP

Faction based, there are two factions. The differing factions cannot team up or guild
PvP will be completely consensual on PvE servers. [16]
There are "battlegrounds/scenarios". [20]
You can level with PVP, but you will need to some PVE. [26]
For faction population balance "...they intend to make up the player deficit by introducing NPCs where necessary." [35] (Hartsman made a special comment about this tidbit, see his post here.)
Servers could "potentially spawn RIFT events that encourage TEMPORARY and LIMITED world PVP" [45]
Full PVP server may see "ton of fast paced action revolving around RIFTS & Invasions" [45]
In general, opening or closing a rift on a PvE server does not flag you for pvp.

No idea on what the scenarios are like.

Hmm sounds interesting but kinda iffy at the same time.

Demon wrote:Hmm sounds interesting but kinda iffy at the same time.

Aye, so far, the game looks pretty. Leveling so far is pretty fast. The quests are not too boring, but built off the same formula of "Kill 3 arse #1 and arse #2". Other than that,I want to know more about the PVP system before I make my judgement.

Kromel wrote:

Demon wrote:Hmm sounds interesting but kinda iffy at the same time.

Aye, so far, the game looks pretty. Leveling so far is pretty fast. The quests are not too boring, but built off the same formula of "Kill 3 arse #1 and arse #2". Other than that,I want to know more about the PVP system before I make my judgement.

Ugh i wish there was something more creative for questing that they could think of but i guess its kind of limited. Let me know how PVP goes.

Kromel wrote:

Xian wrote:mm, to me the setup looks a lot like they mashed wow with warhammer

That is EXACTLY what they did. Warhammer's PvP kicked the snot out of anything in MMO's. The quests sucked. So far, the feel is like WoW.

Keep in mind that Warhammer's PVP is a direct descendant of Dark Age of Camelot's RvR that was superb.. Mythic knows how to make damn good PvP(as well as solid PvE).

So I got an invite into Rift Beta. My initial impressions are pretty favorable.. Fairly neat class system is what is standing out so far. When you start you can only choose from 4 base classes which made me say meh.. Generic.. Warrior, Cleric, Mage, Rogue.. BUT your first quest lets you select 1 of 8 subclasses(called souls) right off the bat. 2 quests later and you select yet another subclass(you end up with 3 total.. though I think you can get them all and have 3 active) and can spend your points gained with leveling into any of your skill trees.

Won't say much else honoring the NDA, but I strongly suggest you all hit up the website and sign up for beta. I made a brand new account with Trion Thursday night, applied for beta, and had an invite in my inbox the next morning. They do beta test events like some other betas I have been a part of. This one is Friday morning to Monday morning. I imagine it follows this type of schedule weekly. Look forward to seeing you online... Hit me up on steam/xfire/email/here and I will tell you which shards I have characters on.