Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

Rift is a MMORPG focused on providing a flexible class system - in which the same character can play multiple roles - and random group quests centered around preventing the invasion of your plane by creatures that reach your homeland through Rifts. The game knows how to take advantage of its strong features so these two distinctive traits are well explored and focused upon during the time you'll spend on Rift.

The class system allows most character classes to select skills from offense, defense and support, so that you're never stuck with a single role. Should a group need a support class, you can change your character on the fly and join it. If you ever get bored of being support, you can easily change to defense or offense and experiment with your character without the need of creating a new one and, most importantly, most of your equipment won't need to be changed. Changing roles easily does allow one to experience a new perspective of the game and prevents the sacrifice of one's single player experience for the ability to group.

Also worthy of notice are Rifts, portals from other planes that will spawn throughout the world and whose difficulty and frequency are related to the number of players online. Rifts serve as entry points for creatures from other planes to attack your realm and you're immediately summoned to your plane's defense during major invasions. Game play wise, rifts spawn several waves of creatures, each wave being more difficult than the former until a boss spawns and, should your group succeed in defeating it, the Rift will be closed. The great feature here is not the Rift itself but how easy and pleasant it is to form a group and tackle a boss without the hassle of screaming in towns or the need of having a specific equipment set or role selected. Loot is also given based upon a contribution rank so there's no group or raid leader.

Aside from those new mechanics, Rift is a copy of past MMOs. It's impossible not to remember World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online and other games as you experience it. From the colors and rarity of items to the quest and craft system, everything is so similar one will definitely feel at home. It might not be bad because it prevents crass mistakes but it's also not good because the feeling that you've already done this sets in very quickly.

Just as past games, there are also two factions to choose from, the character roles boil down to the classic tank, dps and healer (even though the flexibility of the class system prevents you from being stuck with a single role), and many other traits would be better described with references to past games.

Graphics wise, characters look nice, the environments are worth paying attention to and the spell effects are cool and do feel powerful. It runs on DX9, on a modified version of Gamebryo. It's stable and doesn't require a powerful PC to look good.

In short, it's a worthy experience due to its class system and rifts are sure to keep one entertained through the 30 initial days, it just lacks the variety to keep the same level of satisfaction for a longer period. A few updates have already been released and there are indications of upcoming improvements in the forums. If you're willing to try a few new features, it's definitely worth the price of admission.