Rift: Storm Legion hit the stage last month and, since that time, we've been chronicling our adventures through the first expansion. See how Storm Legion fares in our official review. Played Storm Legion? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Early last year Trion Worlds burst out onto the MMO scene with their freshman debut Rift. Rift was arguably the best MMO to come out in a limited class of 2011. Rift would overwhelmingly be considered a theme park MMO in the same vein as Everquest and World of Warcraft; but has enough of a twist to it, with the addition of the namesake rifts, to make its mark on the MMO landscape. Trion has also released content for Rift at a voracious pace defining new standards for how fast a developer can publish new updates for their game. Late last month Trion released their first full expansion for Rift, Storm Legion. Storm Legion has brought with it a number of new features to the game as well as giving the players more of what they loved about the original game to begin with.

Read more of Rob Lashley's Rift: Storm Legion is a Winner.

Crucia is an ugly beast, no wonder she is so mad.

It is the best expansion of 2012 easily, IMO it might be one of the best expansions for any game ever - if you consider how bland and meh rift was at release, now look at Storm Legion - I honestly had a feeling of "this can't be the same game" - it is FAR improved in almost all aspects.

Storm Legion would go down in history as one of the most epic expansions period, the Trion team should be awarded for the work they've done here, as since Kunark (1st eq1 expansion), what else has even come close?

Whilst I agree with the grade, there are a few things on the review I don't agree with.

I find it unfair to say the game added nothing to the 1-50 leveling experience. Whilst this is true, it's not something the expansion aims to do. Also the 1-50 leveling has been given a huge speedboost because of the adding or random warfront dailies, they give as much as 120-40% of xp up to level 40, after which it drops. RIFT also has Instant Adventures in almost every pre-50 zone now as well, giving yet another thing to pick whilst leveling. These weren't in the expansion, but they did add them on top of the 'do one of both storylines'.

Also the fact that the PvP part is mentioned very briefly as a new argument in the conclusion surprises me. It's mentioned nowhere else and it doesn't hold up for PvP servers, where the Guardians and Defiants are still fighting. Conquest also is back up, they probably (and this is speculation on my part) waited until there were enough people at level 60 to enable it once again.

With the points of gameplay and innovation I got the feeling it wasn't much more of a summation of things new to RIFT. I found the reviews in progress to be much better, maybe there's just too much RIFT to put into this small a space :D

I know the game is polished, plays great, and is being run by one of the best teams in the industry. I played the game for the first 10 months, from headstart till december. I just couldn't get back into it.

Questing for levels in a high fantasy world. GW2, then Panadas, now RIFT. I couldn't make it past a month. If a person who is new to the genre asked "Which mmorpg should I play?" I would probably tell them RIFT. I'm not new though, and I can't help but feel like "I've seen this before."

I think the score is spot on; it's undoubtedly the best expansion of 2012 and represents a significant landmark to the game. I can’t think of any expansion that has added so much to a game and represents such high value to the consumer.

The polish score is way too high.  This is the buggiest most poorly thought out release they've made yet.  They've made some clunky changes and "it's really big" isn't a good excuse for poor execution.

Dimensions will be great when they're polished.  If they integrate them into the rest of the game better as time goes on then I think they will easily rival what EQ2 housing has to offer.

I'm not a big fan of their homegenization of Planar Attunement (not to mention the lack of PA tier 3 still), massive class rebalancing, or how they gated the game for those who didn't buy the xpac.  Hey, I've still got paid subscription time left Trion.

I think they made a huge mistake, or at least missed a great opportunity, from not shifting to B2P.  That's just my opinion, and we'll see how time treats that.

Even so I think the expansion is really good for those who are satisfied with the direction Trion has taken rift.

Originally posted by Azuri21
Spot on review. I'd add the content is not face roll and also loot is just handed to you at max level. Gear progression has multiple paths they don't require raiding if you don't want too. The newest level 60 chronicle is also well done.

Oh please, several main stream games have alternate paths to second tier or weaker gear that don't require raiding.  EQ2, LotRO, WoW, etc. all offer second rate gear for non-raiders.  Rift isn't any different than any other progression raiding game where the best loot is locked behind raiding.  Sure you can get good gear through alternative paths that serves well for non-raid content.  You can do that in pretty much any game though.

Nice writeup. I would say its pretty accurate.

Originally posted by DMKano

It is the best expansion of 2012 easily, IMO it might be one of the best expansions for any game ever - if you consider how bland and meh rift was at release, now look at Storm Legion - I honestly had a feeling of "this can't be the same game" - it is FAR improved in almost all aspects.

Storm Legion would go down in history as one of the most epic expansions period, the Trion team should be awarded for the work they've done here, as since Kunark (1st eq1 expansion), what else has even come close?

EverQuest 2: "Echoes of Faydwer" expansion is by far still the best MMO expansion ever.

It was THE expansion that completely turned that game around and brought people back.

Innovation is way overrated especially in the time of GW2. Rifts do not spawn randomly, they spawn at predetermined points, and follow a formula. They have little to do with the world they spawn in. Combat is the same old stand in place and mash buttons, dps, heal or tank.

I think its obvious that GW2 raised the bar. And Rift is now below it.

oddly enough, I bought SL, have been playing it daily since launch, even had a raid scheduled for last night.  But where was I?  Playing an 8 hr consecutive session of AC2, and having far more fun then I have had in at least 6 yrs of gaming

Originally posted by mCalvert

Innovation is way overrated especially in the time of GW2. Rifts do not spawn randomly, they spawn at predetermined points, and follow a formula.

Weird, you talk as if GW2's events don't.

On topic, I think the score is a little too high - I read some big issues with the launch, and polish is not one of the pro's IMO. But still, good work Trion.