A Punchup at a Wedding (Day 178)

It seems like I'm playing a new game just about every day lately. My friend and I were discussing what other co-op games we might consider playing and we stumbled onto the idea of playing a free MMO. I don't know a lot about what's available but I had heard a little about Rift, which is evidently completely free to play. It seems very polished compared to other games I've tried so I figured--why not? There's no harm in trying it.

I'm definitely not what'd you call an MMO aficionado. I have very little experience with what's out there. I've played World of Warcraft pretty extensively, but I've only spent maybe an hour or two on any other game in the genre. I recall playing Dungeons & Dragons Online very briefly, as well as Runes of Magic and Ragnarok Online many years ago. I didn't spend very much time on any of these for various reasons. The first two seemed to lack polish, and Ragnarok Online seemed needlessly grindy and really dated, despite a really cute art style. I'm sure there are some more good MMOs out there that I haven't tried yet. I've heard somewhat decent things about Tera, The Old Republic, and Guild Wars 2. It's possible I'll try those at some point, but considering how time consuming MMOs tend to be, I'm not sure it'll be any time soon.

My initial impressions of Rift are pretty positive. It's fairly pretty compared to other MMOs I've played. As a WoW player, there's nothing about the game that seems utterly foreign to me. The Soul Trees available to each class are very reminiscent of the old talent trees in WoW before they were revamped. General mechanics and spells seem analogous to spells in WoW, although it seems you're generally rewarded with far more skills in early levels comparatively. As a level 16 Cleric, I already have access to something like 8 different healing spells and the Soul Tree seems to indicate many more are on their way. Whether or not some of the spells I have now will become obsolete as I acquire more powerful spells remains to be seen.

The rhythm of questing seems very familiar--derivative but polished. The main wrench that Rift throws into the mix is its namesake. Rifts will open up in the world as you are questing. You can team up with other players in the area to battle the demons that pour out of these rifts and then close the portal to prevent more from getting out. For completing these events you will be rewarded with a special form of currency that can be used to purchase gear from planar merchants. Admittedly, I don't know a lot about this yet.

One strength of newer MMOs compared to WoW lies in character customization. That game's character creation system is painfully dated. In Rift, you have a very high degree of control over what your character looks like, down to hair style, hair color, makeup, face shape, skin color, and height. I really appreciate being able to tailor my character specifically to my preferences. The customization doesn't stop at the aesthetic, either. Each base class (of which there are four) has access to a number of Soul Trees. You are allowed to select three of them and distribute points between them as you wish. This leads to a huge number of possible class combinations. It's hard to say how well balanced these different options are.

So far I'm definitely enjoying it. I haven't been able to participate in any major group encounters other than world events. It looks like I'll be able to start queuing up for dungeons once I hit level 18--but I'm not sure I'll jump into that right away.