Post-Open Beta RIFT Review

LMS here once again, this time with a post-beta RIFT review. I played for a few hours during the February 15th-20th Open Beta session (I wish I could have played more to really review the game but work got in the way... >_<) and I found myself LOVING this game and yet, at the same time, a little dissatisfied with it. I was able to take a few screenshots of the character selection and customization screens because they were interesting to note and unfortunately... I was too wrapped up in playing the game to get screenshots in-game, but I've supplemented with outside screenshots. I'll start from the beginning of the game and work through it in a similar format to the preview from last week.

(I'm refraining from posting the basic info for RIFT because I had done so last week. If you want to look for it, see the preview!)

Ratings:
Graphics: 4.5/5

Character Customization: 4/5
Beginning/Tutorial: 3/3
Class Skills, Character Development, etc.: 5/5
Story, Quests, Content: ???

I'm just going to quickly explain why the Graphics and Story, Quests, Content sections were rated as they were (or not, in the case of the second one). RIFT's graphics are GREAT. Really, really wonderful for in-game graphics, even on low settings. The only minor beef I had with the graphics is that when the character moves, it's a little awkward and not completely fluid. The Cleric I made had a staff for a good portion of the time and she just... ran awkwardly with it and it didn't feel natural. Otherwise, the graphics are phenominal.

This is from the RIFT website and not my own screenshot.

This is also from the RIFT website. These are both in-game screenshots, how cool is that?!

The Story, Quests, Content section is left as a sort of "mystery" rating because I only played for a few hours and didn't even make it to level 10. I don't want to judge something that I didn't get to see enough of. The little that I was exposed to was great but I won't go into it too much for the reason that I didn't get very far. And, yes, technically I shouldn't review a game that I didn't get to the end-game content of, but I think the few hours I did play gave me enough of a sense of what to expect to be able to review RIFT. If you have any objections to it, well... Too bad. :P

  

So, I'll start off with the character customization screens, which were REALLY good. It looks like once you choose a faction (Guardians or Defiant), you can't make a character of the opposite faction. Games like Aion had done this before and, frankly, it makes me sad because I would like to be able to play on both sides of the field, but whatever.

The character customization is INTENSE in RIFT, allowing for practically endless combinations to create your perfect character. I imagine that there will be more hairstyle and racial-specific options (ie., Mathosian or High Elf tatoos, ets.) as the game develops, but the base range of colors and styles are great to work with. I'm surprised you can't alter the character's physique at all but at the same time, with a new, Open Beta game, I can imagine that the developers would try to keep it simple for early development. I hope the option becomes available soon! To really see what I'm talking about, full screen the video I posted below, made by Youtube user WheelOfGamesDotCom. The video does an awesome job going through the Guardian (Mathosian) Character Creation Screen and Cleric introductory video. It's long and a little boring at times but watch it! :D

Anyway, I sided with the Guardians because I imagined my healer would, and rolled for a High Elf Cleric female. The class-introduction video for the Cleric is particularly awesome; I remember being super pumped to play for this faction by the end of it. It's voice by a male of your race, so this video has a Mathosian voice (I swear it sounds like a wrestler trying to make a commercial for one of the championship matches...). I think the High Elf male voice sounds a lot more... How should I say it? more... Captain-ly, I guess. I felt like I was being told this story by an army general rather than a wrestler and it definitely made me want to battle more than the Mathosian-wrestler. The introductory video gave JUST enough background to the Guardian faction to fill in new players and still kept your personal character involved with the storyline, which is always a plus.

As far as introductory quests, movement/combat tutorials and things, RIFT takes time to let the player get familiar with the game's systems. There are picture-based instructions that teach the player everything they need to do in order to move around, speak to NPCs, and other basic functions. The starting map gets the player from level 1 to level 6 in very little time, depending on how adept of a gamer you are (of course). One of the first quests you receive allows you to attune to your first soul by speaking to the various NPCs around you, each one aligned with a different soul. I chose the Sentinel as my first. A handful of quests later and you are given your other two souls, which were the Purifier and the Warden for me. (I'll post my build later on when I talk about Cleric souls specifically). The beginning quests and zones are the basic teaching-you-how-to-play-this-friggin'-game ones and they do a good job of combining both speak-to-this-NPC-WAY-over-there and go-kill-shit quests so it didn't feel like solid grinding at first. Money was also very easy to come by in early levels which was nice, since I didn't feel like I was starving for gold. When you level up, gain a quest, or complete a quest, there is a HUGE animation that appears on your screen (the one for leveling up is PARTICULARLY EPIC-- it gives like a flash of lightning and things like that) which made me feel more and more awesome as I progressed in the game. I noticed that there was a high HP regeneration rate and I'm not sure if it was just because I had low HP to begin with or not but my health regenerated quickly which was nice.

The two beginner maps introduce the player to in-game Rifts HEAD ON. Like, it's part of the quest chains to get the hell OUT of the maps. I like this because it makes you a) less afraid OF Rifts and more likely to participate IN the events and b) quickly teaches you what the hell to do when you DO participate in Rifts. These two zones (I can't say for later on because, as you know, I didn't get very far) seem to have REALLY FREQUENT Rift spawning events and that might be because they are part of the quest chain and need to expose players to the spawns as often as possible. I'd imagine it'd SUCK ASS to have to wait for potentially hours for another Rift to open and you can't go further in the game as a result.

The crafting system seems like it still needs work (I know that for one of the craft skills you needed a workbench and I could not, for the LIFE of me, find one!) but the gathering skills (foraging for plants and butchering for animal skins) are well-integrated and easily manageable-- there are little "buffs" you can give yourself permanently to keep track of the two gathering types simultaneously which is nice. Can't tell you much about crafting anything because of the lack of a workbench, so I'll just assume it's still technically developing.

Now, I'm sure you're just sitting there and saying, "Yeah, okay. It's a good game. Get to the friggin' Healer information!" Calm down! :P Of COURSE I have Healer information for y'all. The classes were a little different than I had thought, namely the Purifier. I had found this out after reading this LOVELY RIFT forum post, [Guide] The Cleric, its Souls and You. I'll give you a side-by-side comparison of what I thought the classes would be like versus what they actually are. The italicized information is my own from the preview and the "regular" text is from the guide posted above and will be centered for emphasis (that and it was formatted that way when I copied and pasted it :P) and my comments will be below that.

Sentinel
"Sentinels are defensive clerics who excel at group support. Their divine powers aid the weak and ensure that everyone in their group lives through the fray."
The basic-of-basic healer for raids and dungeons, from the sounds of it. While they gain massive defense, they have troubles doing offense, which can be a problem in PvP situations. However, if you're strictly doing healing, offense-output shouldn't be your priority. 

Sentinel (Life-based healer)

Strengths: Sentinels are defensive clerics who excel at group support. Their divine powers aid the weak and ensure that everyone in their group lives through the fray.
Weaknesses: Sentinels sacrifice offense for a strong defense, and thus struggle to deal massive damage to their opponents.
Pros: Wide variety of AoE heals, decent damage/soloing capabilities, in-combat rez
Cons: Limited instant/quick heals, no shield spells

These are the staple healing class and, surprisingly, can hold their own in combat. They are better for bigger heals than instant or quick heals, which would make them ideal for healing the Main Tank as opposed to the entire group. This soul would probably require more strategic, knowing-what-the-fuck-you're-doing skills as opposed to thinking quick on your feet. Obviously, if you're planning on healing, pick this soul up. Most recommend it for primary, but I would recommend either this or Purifier as the primary soul if you plan to heal for dungeons and such.

Purifier
"Purifiers dedicate themselves to mastering the healing properties of fire, and as such are potent support Clerics who can burn away disease and instantly cauterize the most horrific wounds."
It looks like they specialize in fire-based healing and some offensive fire spells. The heals sound like they stop potential bleed effects and heal wounds. Against melee fighters, they don't fare as well.

Purifier (Fire-based healer)

Strengths: Purifiers dedicate themselves to mastering the healing properties of fire, and as such are potent support Clerics who can burn away disease and instantly cauterize the most horrific wounds.

Weaknesses: Purifiers are not known for their offensive capabilities, and while they are capable of marshaling the fury of their ancestors to strike down foes, they rapidly lose ground against the focused assault of a determined melee combatant.

Pros: Instant cast shields that absorb incoming damage, quick heals (Healing Flame), spammable instant heal (Healing Flare), lots of abilities/talents that enhance crit chance and crit heal, +wisdom buff

Cons: Virtually no Area of Effect/group heals, very few damage spells

The Purifier is essentially a quick-heals raid- or dungeon-healer, capable of healing the entire party or raid at one go. They're more arcane-types of Clerics than melee-types and are more supportive than offensive. The fact that they can shield against damage is also a HUGE plus (think of Discipline Priests from WoW as a comparison). It is HIGHLY recommended that if you're playing a group healer, for any circumstances, you pick this soul up as one of your primary souls.

Warden
"Echoing the soothing ebb and flow of the tides, Wardens specialize in slow healing that escalates over time, making them ideal for prolonged fights that would exhaust most healers. The Warden excels at slowly stacking powerful healing energies on their allies."
I'm not quite sure WHAT to make of this class. It sounds like HoTs mostly and stacked-healing abilities. I don't know how useful it would be as main-heals in a raid, but they probably would be good for off-heals or long-lasting-fight healer.

Warden (Water-based healer)
Strengths: The Warden excels at slowly stacking powerful healing energies on their allies. Given sufficient time to lay down magic, a Warden can bolster their allies through even the most grueling struggles.
Weaknesses: Unable to weave their protective spells quickly enough to overcome a concentrated attack, Wardens have little defense against a rapid or group assault.

Pros: Lots and lots of HoT spells and HoT AE spells, some utility spells and mana regen abilities, good dispeller
Cons: Lacking big/instant heals because most of it's heals are from heal over time effects

After playing this class, I highly recommend it as the third soul for a healer. It provides Heal over Time and Damage over Time and Area of Effect skills. When they say that the Warden specializes in "slow stacking" healing, they mean that the Warden cannot pop heals like the other two healing souls can. It does provide continual healing, though, which is good if you want to start to heal damage before it occurs (kind of like damage mitigation but not quite). HoTs are also a LOT less mana-intensive making them ideal for long-term, single-target healing. Probably idea for Main Tank/Off Tank healing and not as much for group healing. 

If you're looking to level up and don't want to have strictly healing souls on you, there are other, offensive (melee) souls available to the Cleric, which is GREAT. Since Buff Me, Bitch! is more about healing and less about damage-output, I won't discuss the souls in great detail in this review, but check out the Guide link above for more in-depth information. The information about these classes will be straight from the Guide link and I won't be comparing my previous thoughts or commenting on them.

Inquisitor (Death/Life-based caster)

Strengths: An Inquisitor is a potent one-on-one combatant who specializes in mixing life and death magic, stealing their opponent's greatest strengths and making it their own.
Weaknesses: Because they stand between the threshold of life and death, Inquisitors give up the strength found in those who walk a pure path. For that reason, they cannot support their allies in battle as strongly as other, more specialized clerics.
Pros: A good mix of single target damage and utility abilities, instant cast DoTs, CC/snare abilities and ability to remove enemy buffs
Cons: Not as much AE spells as Cabalist, lots of channeled spells therefore easily interruptable

Shaman (Physical-based melee)
Strengths: A Shaman strikes hard and fast like the fury of a winter storm. He can quickly close into melee and unleash powerful blows fueled by muscle and magic.
Weaknesses: Shamans lack other clerics’ abilities to bolster defenses and heal grievous wounds, so they fare poorly against foes with a strong defense of their own or those who can keep them at bay.
Pros: Multitude of buffs that increase cleric's and ally's melee damage, spell resistance and even endurance, decent AE melee abilities and with a shield and self heal spell, perfect for soloing
Cons: No abilities that directly heal another target, only one ability that removes snares/roots and is not attainable 'til you have 26 points in the tree

Druid (Earth/Life-based melee)

Strengths: Where fragile Mages force their minions to fight in their stead, the mighty Druid draws upon their bonded Fae to personally take the fight to their foes. Druids themselves are formidable combatants, using their pets more as conduits and sources of power than as direct attackers.
Weaknesses: A Druid’s bond with their Fae Spirit is both the key to their power and their greatest weakness. Enemies who destroy a Druid’s companion greatly reduce the Druid’s prowess and endurance.
Pros: Not only can it heal others but it controls pets that do all sorts of damage and heals to the druid and its allies, great melee debuffer and cc abilities like sleep and silence
Cons: Pet has its own aggro range proving diffucult sometimes if it pulls unnecessary mobs, not as effective without pet

Justicar (Life-based melee/tank)

Strengths: A Justicar’s healing comes from damage dealt in close combat. Thus he can survive and thrive in the thick of the fighting while ensuring his allies do the same.
Weaknesses: A Justicar’s divine magic depends upon his melee prowess, so foes are wise to try and keep the Justicar from the front lines.
Pros: Lots of defensive spells and self heal abilities with a mix of group heals, endurance increase/damage mitigation abilities, low cd rez, stuns and snare abilities
Cons: Tend to have lower damage output than the other 2 melee class, can have potential mana issues with its nonself heals

As I mentioned earlier, I chose the Sentinel, Purifier and Warden souls as my primary souls (in that order). I found a site that will allow you to experiment with builds and I came up with my own available here. I followed a good portion of the Guide's suggested build because I was unfamiliar with the spells and such available to these classes but I hope this is useful to some of you! :)

I can imagine you're looking back through all of this stuff and wondering where I was disappointed, as I claimed to have been earlier. Well, here it is: the gear. I know, I know, this is typical. Luckily, it's not with the designs themselves, they were fantastic, because they were modest and tasteful while still CLEARLY identifying you as a Cleric. It wasn't with obtaining gear because the quests saw to it that you upgraded frequently (I think I was on my second or third upgrade quests when I stopped playing). It was the fact that RIFT claimed to have given Clerics SERIOUS defense. While I get that the Cleric page says that the "militant" (ie., melee) Clerics wear chainmail and the "arcane" (caster) Clerics wear robes, many of the sample sprites on the individual soul trees are wearing chainmail, including the Sentinel, the basic healing-staple soul. "Why is that a bad thing?" You might ask. "Chainmail = more defense, right?" Well, sort of. I felt that the gear that I was wearing, which WAS chainmail, didn't protect me as much as I thought it would. Hell, I might as well have been wearing a robe because it protected me just as much.

Another issue I had was the color-coding for names of monsters. Most games give one color (like yellow or green) for monsters that won't attack you even if you're RIGHT IN THEIR FACE until you attack them and then give a second color (almost always red) to monsters that will try to tear off your face if you stand too close to them as if you're plagued with something or perhaps really tasty. However, in RIFT, while the color separation exists, EVERYTHING wanted to rape my face off as I was running by. And BOY, did those monsters LOVE to want to gnaw my face off. I must've been wearing some sort of monster-attracting perfume or something because I seemed to aggro them if I just LOOKED at them a certain way. If all monsters are going to attack me, then don't bother giving them different colored names in hopes that I'll just KNOW that they'll all eat me alive. I managed to die twice in the first map due to monsters attacking me for no real reason that I could think of other than that perfume. What defense I thought I had quickly went out the window; I can't tell if it was the gear I was wearing or just the fact that I had low HP at those levels, but I had to rest after practically EVERY monster. (A plus, though, was that I sent the monsters crying to their mothers in every battle that I fought. And I don't count those two deaths in that statement and neither should you! :P)

Leveling is never a fun, pleasant experience. Even in RIFT it was just as much of a PAIN IN THE ASS and involved LOTS and LOTS of grinding as it is in other games but it became more tedious faster than other MMOs. After three hours I was at level 8. Maybe it's just me being impatient and demanding to get further as fast as I could but I felt that it took FOREVER to level up after about level 5 or so, which makes me potentially want to beat myself with my laptop when I think about the fact that your character will be, at end-game, level 50. While I appreciate the fact that you have to work for your levels and that not everything will be a piece of cake, I at least would think that the first 10 or 20 levels would be relatively fast because your EXP requirements are so small. I was starting to get a little bored around the second map area because it was basically the same shit you just left just a different scenario and different setting. After describing this game to some friends and getting the "It's like WoW" comment shoved into my ear like some massive penis every time I opened my mouth, I sat and thought about it. Well, yes, it IS like WoW in a lot of different ways and it is also different from WoW in just as many. I can kind of describe it like this: WoW is like having fantastic sex and RIFT is expecting just as good, if not better, sex than what you got from WoW only you find out you get the same gratification out of it but it just changed the game up a bit. I think this is a good game, though, and I recommend it to any MMO player. There is a LOT of potential for improvement and expansion that this game could offer and I can see it displacing WoW with enough of a fanbase. As for me, I'm a fan of it. If, when the final version of the game is released March 1st, there are free trials available, I will try the game again and see if I like it any better. If I do, I would pay for the subscription cost. If not, well... Private servers will be available later on, just like any other MMO.

Want me to review an MMO? Have questions, comments, or suggestions for the blog or LMS? Leave a comment here or on the Facebook page. As always, this is Little Miss Squish, here for all your MMO Cleric needs!