Today’s quick opinion is on Rift, the latest, greatest MMO to come down the line. I’ve only got to level 14 so far so this article will be on very early observations.
Rift’s rifts are indeed fun to group up and close. The random teamwork is unlike anything I’ve seen in an MMO to date. My biggest concern is whether this gung-ho attitude will still be intact six months to a year from now. Sure, it’s fun to battle these inter-dimensional invaders now because it’s new. it’s a novelty. However, novelty eventually wears off, leaving the rest of the game to carry the load, and I’m just worried that there’s not going to be enough left over to keep people’s attention in the long term.
The short term prognosis however, is very good. The playtime accumulated by the game so far is staggering. Rift stands tall as an all-too-rare early success story in it’s genre, and I’m going to for now give the benefit of the doubt to Trion Worlds that they’ve got plans for the future to keep the game’s gimmick fresh. What about the rest of the game, though?
Combat isn’t entirely interesting and the quests are of the redundant fetch this or kill that and come back to me variety. To tell you the truth, the gameplay –aside from the rifts – us so decidedly tiresome that if not for the rift events I would have quit some time ago. You never feel like your attacks have any punch at all, even when fighting lower-level baddies. The animations – at least at my level – are anemic and it always takes longer then it feels like it should to kill anything. If I’m fighting something four levels below mine, don’t make me beat on him for 20-30 seconds to kill it. DC Universe Online’s combat, on the other hand, was dynamic and kinetic. World of Warcraft, for it’s part, has powers that are fun to use and you can bat aside foes who are significantly weaker then you.
If the combat doesn’t improve and the quests remain a chore, Rift is going to fall apart at the seams. It’s still young though, and the MMO that all MMOs are compared to, World of Warcraft, didn’t get out of the gates this fast. Time will tell the tale of Rift’s success or failure, and e-AAGH.net will be there to cover it. Alphasim out.
