I got an offer to try Rift's trial. I mean, they're spamming it everywhere, and I did express some interest as the game looked to be at least somewhat unique. I must say I was sorely disappointed.

The game seemed to start off nice enough, with decent looking graphics, good lore, and at least at the start, a decent sense of urgency. Then I step outside of the main complex and we're stuck with mobs wandering around waiting to be slaughtered. Oh, and quests to kill mobs and click sparkly objects. Where have I seen this before? I couldn't find any way to skip this part and get to the rest of the game. It seems each and every one of the quests in this area were essential, which was shame because this area was a chore to work through.

Even though I rushed through this area, the game seems to equally rush with throwing gear and class options at you. Gear at this point of the game is pointless and it discarded as soon as it's obtained anyhow. It feels like useless cluttering of the experience. The way classes worked seemed interesting before I played the game, but after playing it's just a way to limit what talent trees are available. Thus, how a person "builds" their character is still generally more important to how they play. Even still, the soul system seems similarly rushed, asking the player to make choices so early on with so little to go on. I guess a good contrast to this would be Guild War's secondary class option, where a player is given the chance to play with several skills from that class before solidifying that choice.

The starting area ended with the game's big bad guy showing up about to turn the starting area to void. Sounds pretty cool, except the big bad didn't look very epic at all. Oh, and "We can't fight this guy as a nation, but I can hold him off while you use that machine over there," was very disruptive to suspension of disbelief. And killing his henchmen? The only time I ever felt such a bad power disparity was when playing WAR where, very early on, I fought a dragon with a group, then 20 levels later fought a bare handed peasant that could beat that dragon up.

Once finally out of the area I ran to one of the rifts to see what gave this game it's namesake. Oh look, it's Warhammer's public quest system. It wasn't a bad idea, I'll admit, but the way WAR did it was superficial and shallow and repeated way too much. I can't say for sure it works better in RIFT, as the biggest drawback in WAR was that no one did the public quests past level 20. I did a couple of different Rifts, then went to do some normal quests and eventually signed off. In the rest of the 7 days I didn't have any calling to play this game again.

Then I log in to the forums and I'm told I can't post. This game has a 7 day trial fairly early compared to others, but it doesn't even care to find out why people like myself are subscribing. Well, unless they decide to check out fan sites I guess they'll never know.

I want a good MMO to spend my time with, I really do. But none of them are WORLDS, but mere theme parks. Theme parks with all of the same theme: "Hurry up and get to max level so you can play the real game." And the reason for this theme is that it takes very little time for a dedicated player to reach max level so the mid level areas are a complete ghost town. Sure, a theme park game can work, but not without some significant changes to the formula.

Rift never pretended to be anything different I just view it as the take over for eq/eq2 and draws in players who like fantasy but dislike wow.

WoW = Cola

Rift = Pepsi

Personally Im looking forward to server vs server vs server rvr concept games.

I tried the rift trial as well,first the weekend one then the 7 day one. It just didn't suck me in as I had hoped. I applaud the polish and it was a good looking game. For me though IMO it was too similar to the game I had recently quit. I was hoping the soul system would be as wide open as it seemed to be but from researching and looking at the trees it seems like other games there is the "optimal" way to spec and you really don't have the freedom I had hoped. I do see why people like it but it seemed to close to what I was trying to get away from. I probably would have played it otherwise.

I kinda agree with you OP, but I was not expecting much else of the core game (exept the Rifts). I did expect more of the Rifts though as I thought they were actually something to fear and having to fight or they will over-run the towns and so on.

But it turned out to be nothing more than WARs PQs with little to no effect on the world so you can safely ignore them and the worst thing that can happen is that, sometimes, you cannot turn in your quests. Kinda weak...

However I do think the soul system is a refreshing change from linear advancement that you see in games like Aion. However without a good core game to support it, then it will be pointless. Kinda how WAR was; several great ideas but all failed due to the core game, specially the end game, being kinda boring. Rift feels about the same.

Originally posted by Mylon

I want a good MMO to spend my time with, I really do. But none of them are WORLDS, but mere theme parks. Theme parks with all of the same theme: "Hurry up and get to max level so you can play the real game." And the reason for this theme is that it takes very little time for a dedicated player to reach max level so the mid level areas are a complete ghost town. Sure, a theme park game can work, but not without some significant changes to the formula.

For some reason this makes me think of Dark Age of Camelot.   There used to be this opinion on the vault forums that the battle grounds hurt end game RvR.   Yet no one seemed to grasp the idea that some people preferred to just RvR in Thid or Molv.   They really enjoyed the game that way and you would see the same people in there for years in some cases.  

Giving people the ability to play at other levels besides "max" is a smart idea that most companies overlook.   Then again I think if companies paid attention to why people stayed in those bg's...   It would help address some of the issues for the max level game.

I've been out of Rift for a while now those I guess it seems longer than it was.  I would probably have played longer but I didn't agree with some changes that were made early on.   All I did in the game was pve and craft so in case anyone wonders.. no it wasn't anything to do with pvp boosts/nerfs etc...  Anyway...

so many people seem to be waiting for what they consider a "good" mmo.. if anyone made that game.. you'd think they would be making a lot of money.   Yet mostly we see the same thing recycled with minor changes and companies wondering if going F2P would fix it... why does nobody just get that they need a bit different design...

Well I managed to find entertainment for a little bit longer than you, and maybe my problem is with mmos in general.  Though nothing new, I still enjoyed the story enough to read through all the quests, and so I was entertained up until 50 with that.  However, once you hit 50, you either do raids, PvP, or shiny hunting.  Raids are fine and all, but not something I want to do every day, and can get very repetative when you wiping on bosses over and over again.  The problem I had with PvP is, theres not much sense of accomplishing something for me.  Sure we win the Battle of Port Scion, only to do the same battle over and over again.  I prefered DAoC's method of capturing keeps, though even then, Warhammer tried that and it just ended up one faction owning everything, at least when I played.  I kind of think this had to do with two factions rather than 3,  And shiny hunting, well they didn't give much incentive.  Sure you got a coin that after 100 you could get a really fast, really dumb looking turtle, but usually that was all.  I prefered in EQ2 where you got a trophy at the very least, and sometimes a little bit of pointless lore(I like pointless lore=D)

Like I wrote earlier, it might just be MMOs don't hold me long, but thats my view on things.

What this game did was reinforce the thought that I'm done with the current mmos that are out there.

It did have a couple interesting things to it (souls, mass mob looting) and some downfalls (having to go back and quest in an area you were just questing in is so annoying) but overall it's the same as everything else out there.

I'm sure the game will be around for a bit.. but I do expect server merges coming within the next 6 months.

I Like how everyone now is saying that rift never tried to look like something new, like everyone knew it was going to be WoW 2.0 but few months before releasing any similar thought I post was bashed how I dont know anything about the game, how I should look deep into the soul system, the rift system, the invasion system etc even though I did..basicly persuading me how different and innovative it is..

And I find it funny that there are several threads about one particular hube budget game discussing the same thing and being defended the exactly same way as rift was, even after the hour long beta gameplay vid

I'm with you, OP. I beta tested it a week before release and had the same concerns. Then I tried the 7 day trial last week hoping they had changed some things based on suggestions I and some others had given. None of our suggestions were taken (And honestly that late in development I don't blame them. They were locked in), and the game remained boring and bland.

After the first play session I could only make myself play twice more, and anytime you're forcing yourself to do something is a good indication that it isn't the fun you were looking for.

For me, Rift was ok at the start. I was in three betas and liked it. In this last 2 months the direction class development has gone in, the pvp changes and the influx of min/max powergamers (on my server at least) has just killed it.

Trion touted their soul system "build how you want" except...you can't. XYZ ain't "viable" you MUST roll YXZ!!! you nooblulz!

They left enough holes in the system to allow this behaviour. The recent pvp changes have executed certain classes to the extent they are useless now. What were they thinking? There was so much potential, so very much and it's now trickling out of Trion's grasp:(

So I thought I'd piss in the pool of 'constructive criticism' as if they don't get enough. I submitted a support ticket about how I couldn't post on the forums, and they said something about how I needed to click an activation link to access the forums so they could make sure I was who I said I was (I had a game account, so what more do that need?) Then the next rep tells me to use an in game command to submit feedback.

No wonder Rift seems so lacking, these guys are totally clueless. They can copy a good game and even polish it pretty well, but that doesn't mean they understand what makes a game good or fun.

Rift is just weak sauce, it really is.  It's merely WoW with a twist, regardless of how much the fanboys beg everyone not to compare games to WoW.  I had such high hopes for the game, only to see it go down the same road as every other cotton candy MMORPG that's launched in the past six years.  It's for casual gamers, period.  Anyone who is interested in actually enjoying fruits of your labors need not apply. 

Like WoW, the game is offered up to you on a silver platter.  You need only peck away at the keyboard for the required amount of time to progress.  There is not strategy.  There is no need to group.  You can make it to max level without feeling like you've accomplished anything.  It's just an incredibly shallow game.

Oh, and rifts, the "crown jewel" of this game?  Irrelevant.  There just isn't much point to them beyond defeating them so that they don't overtake the area and make your life miserable.

Developers these days seem to think that their holy grail is a game that they can exercise complete control of dynamically (triggering rift events, for example) so that everything is tunable to the nth degree.  I'm shocked to be the one to break it to them, but no game will ever have any sort of immersive or organic feel when designed to be run in cookie-cutter mode.

Originally posted by Wicoa

Rift never pretended to be anything different I just view it as the take over for eq/eq2 and draws in players who like fantasy but dislike wow.

WoW = Cola

Rift = Pepsi

Personally Im looking forward to server vs server vs server rvr concept games.

  I like Pepsi!

The common complaint (other than it's like WoW) from the official forums and around generally is that while an 'okay' game, it's far too easy. Not just easy to play, easy to level and max toons. People report the average is about 30 days from 1-50 just doing quests, with no grinding/dungeon running.

The problem is that once they get to 50, they are funneled immediately into a fantastic reputation grind for gear, which largely takes place in 'expert' dungeons.. nothing more than the same dungeons they've leveled in from 1-50 with a few boss twists.

After you conquer that, it's onto the fullcore raiding scene (Greenscale and such) but the casual players aren't really into that, just like they weren't into it in WoW. They would like lots more fluffy pets, fishing, side quests just for fun, and general exploration of the world.

The last part (exploration) is a major problem because even though the game is (granted) only a couple months old, it's still small by most standards. Just rerolling on the other side's factions doesn't fix the problem because there are a lot of shared zones you've already seen/done with your other toon.

Rift probably needs a full year to be worthy of a game with plenty to do but by then, other games like GW2, SWTOR and Tera will be out.

I know. Shame on me. :(

At least I didn't give any money to fund this lack of creativity.

Rift to me is no different than WoW from a game-play mechanics and enjoyment perspective. 

I really enjoyed the journey in both, but once you hit level cap, if grinding the same lobby-system dungeon over and over or participating in the same third-person shooter shoebox 10v10 pvp map over and over isn't your thing, you might not be a long-term subscriber.

Originally posted by SeeDarkly

For me, Rift was ok at the start. I was in three betas and liked it. In this last 2 months the direction class development has gone in, the pvp changes and the influx of min/max powergamers (on my server at least) has just killed it.

Trion touted their soul system "build how you want" except...you can't. XYZ ain't "viable" you MUST roll YXZ!!! you nooblulz!

They left enough holes in the system to allow this behaviour. The recent pvp changes have executed certain classes to the extent they are useless now. What were they thinking? There was so much potential, so very much and it's now trickling out of Trion's grasp:(

I played the betas and thought rift was a solid yet familiar game with way to much hurry up and wait in line questing...

While the game did not grab me and say PLAY ME! it did leave a good impression of trion and its sad to hear they are taking the path of fukcom with way to late on the fly changes and flavor of the month garbage that  turn fun classes into duds and anger the fanbase...

I am an extremely jaded currently ex-mmo player by admission as this genre has grown greedy, stale and uninventive it has been dominated by one game for to long and only a very few hopeful titles have any hope of bringing light to the future..

Im sick of the term "new generation" mmo when in fact the only thing new is decreased gameplay and increased eye candy with the probability you cant run it at full rez with a high end machine..

I'd agree RIFT is pretty generic but I would call the gaming evolution building and expanding on old ideas . Its not as immersive a world as I would have liked it to have been but its still a lot of fun and I find plenty of reasons to keep playing . The game itself is retaining its populations and if anything it seams to be building on them and its not just in the free trial areas so maybe the offers of free trials so early is working out . I'm not rushing to get to maximum level and I playing one defiant and one guardian character and am having a great time . For me this is the only fantasy based mmo thats worth paying for . Lots of people seam to be coming to Rift from World of Warcraft because they are disallusioned with the direction its taken of late . I certainly would'nt go back to WoW now I've played RIFT . I was appalled with how easy WoW had become when I returned for Cataclysm after a hiatus of over a year . RIFT while it may not exactly be hardcore offers some degree of challenge where as WoW now offers next to none for anyone but the most novice gamer ( a little endgame content aside ) . I proberbly will alternate between playing RIFT and Lotro on a month by month basis so I dont get too bored with it too quickly . I would like a new mmo which I could spend years in that offered what mmos did a half a decade ago I dont think RIFT is it but its a good stopgap till something new and fresh comes along . Mind you I said the same about WoW and ended up playing that for years lol  .

It was a nice try.  The way they did talents was interesting, but with so many variables it can never work as intended. Rift is now loosing players far faster than it's gaining them, this early on it means people are getting bored by the time their free month ends.

Rift is just to generic like others have said, they have taken old ideas and...not done anything with them.  MMOs like GW2 and ToR which are looking very good and bringing new ideas are going to completely overshadow Rift.

That's what happens when you reskin Tabula Rasa with generic fantasy skins, revert the combat back to run of the mill, and then tout your game as entirely unique and revolutionary. Guess that's why their entire ad campaign is "it's not WoW and stuff!"

Rift is an insult.