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First Impressions: Rift F2P
12 years ago
General
So yeah, for those of you who keep up with online gaming the MMO Rift has recently entered the realm of Free to Play, once again leaving World of Warcraft one of the only subscription-based MMOs on the market. Well, since the price is right I decided to download the game and give it a try. Here's a short list of some of the stuff I do and don't like about it.
Things I like:
Custom Classes: Okay, so there's four classes. Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Cleric. Doesn't seem like much right? Well, each class has several subclasses (called souls) that you can mix and match as you please. The souls unlock different skill trees and abilities for each character and you can have any three at a time. You could have a paladin that can also summon animal companions for a warrior, a necromancer who also uses fire magic for a mage, or a cleric who can summon fae creatures as well as be a healer.
Its pretty fun to screw around with really and see just what you can get. Each class has about a dozen of these subclasses, so the replay value is really high. One mage will play totally different from another.
Crafting:
A few things for this one:
- Breaking down all items: Good god there is no way to say how much I love this. Lets say you're taking blacksmithing, specifically armorcrafting in my case, and you've used up all your tin or iron or whatnot grinding up skill levels.
Guess what? You can break those things down for parts! In WoW (lets face it, any MMO will be compared to WoW) you have to sell or auction off your leftover gloves when you're done, but Rift believes in recycling apparently. You can break down anything that you have the profession to make (like a weaponsmith could break down weapons from a quest that they didn't want or can't use) and each one will give you crafting materials that you can reuse.
- You don't need to have the item with you to use it: Another nice bonus here. Store your crafting materials in the bank and, when you go to craft, it'll treat it as if you were lugging them around in your inventory. This is especially important for F2P guys like myself since our inventory space is severely limited (you get up to seven bag slots, but four of them are locked until you pony up some cash).
Cross-faction mail: Blizzard take note: Making it so we can't send mail between our own alts if one is horde and one is alliance is a really really dumb idea. But in Rift, well, my Defiant Mage was able to send my Guardian Warrior a few crafting mats and some coin so he could get his armorsmithing up and buy a horse.
Mages actually use their weapons: This is a minor thing, but I really like it. In other MMOs, again WoW, a mage's weapon is basically dead weight. They cast spells with their hands and their staff is just a glorified walking stick. In Rift your mage will channel spells through his weapons rather than his hands. If you have a staff they'll focus on it and then raise it up into the sky to shoot lightning down on a target for example, or my warlock will hold his book open as the pages flip over to summon a skeletal knight, he'll also point his dagger at an enemy and use it to channel entropic energies into them.
Again, minor, but for someone who likes to get into their characters like I do it's a very nice touch.
Things I'm not thrilled with:
Three races per faction: Maybe I'm just being picky here, but I guess I'm just used to Blizzard's races having a lot more variety between them. The Guardians get Humans, High Elves, and Dwarves. The Defiants get the other Humans, Night Elves/Dark Elves/Other Elves, and large purple men. Mind you, we all know that if it had any animal-people in it I'd play those and nothing but so yeah. :P Just nitpicking with this one.
Auction houses are for loyalists only: This one kinda irks me. To use the auction house you have to have 'loyalty' first. Though I guess it's just Trion's way of blocking gold farmers, it's still irritating for new players. Mind you thats only to sell, you can buy stuff no problem.
Things I like:
Custom Classes: Okay, so there's four classes. Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Cleric. Doesn't seem like much right? Well, each class has several subclasses (called souls) that you can mix and match as you please. The souls unlock different skill trees and abilities for each character and you can have any three at a time. You could have a paladin that can also summon animal companions for a warrior, a necromancer who also uses fire magic for a mage, or a cleric who can summon fae creatures as well as be a healer.
Its pretty fun to screw around with really and see just what you can get. Each class has about a dozen of these subclasses, so the replay value is really high. One mage will play totally different from another.
Crafting:
A few things for this one:
- Breaking down all items: Good god there is no way to say how much I love this. Lets say you're taking blacksmithing, specifically armorcrafting in my case, and you've used up all your tin or iron or whatnot grinding up skill levels.
Guess what? You can break those things down for parts! In WoW (lets face it, any MMO will be compared to WoW) you have to sell or auction off your leftover gloves when you're done, but Rift believes in recycling apparently. You can break down anything that you have the profession to make (like a weaponsmith could break down weapons from a quest that they didn't want or can't use) and each one will give you crafting materials that you can reuse.
- You don't need to have the item with you to use it: Another nice bonus here. Store your crafting materials in the bank and, when you go to craft, it'll treat it as if you were lugging them around in your inventory. This is especially important for F2P guys like myself since our inventory space is severely limited (you get up to seven bag slots, but four of them are locked until you pony up some cash).
Cross-faction mail: Blizzard take note: Making it so we can't send mail between our own alts if one is horde and one is alliance is a really really dumb idea. But in Rift, well, my Defiant Mage was able to send my Guardian Warrior a few crafting mats and some coin so he could get his armorsmithing up and buy a horse.
Mages actually use their weapons: This is a minor thing, but I really like it. In other MMOs, again WoW, a mage's weapon is basically dead weight. They cast spells with their hands and their staff is just a glorified walking stick. In Rift your mage will channel spells through his weapons rather than his hands. If you have a staff they'll focus on it and then raise it up into the sky to shoot lightning down on a target for example, or my warlock will hold his book open as the pages flip over to summon a skeletal knight, he'll also point his dagger at an enemy and use it to channel entropic energies into them.
Again, minor, but for someone who likes to get into their characters like I do it's a very nice touch.
Things I'm not thrilled with:
Three races per faction: Maybe I'm just being picky here, but I guess I'm just used to Blizzard's races having a lot more variety between them. The Guardians get Humans, High Elves, and Dwarves. The Defiants get the other Humans, Night Elves/Dark Elves/Other Elves, and large purple men. Mind you, we all know that if it had any animal-people in it I'd play those and nothing but so yeah. :P Just nitpicking with this one.
Auction houses are for loyalists only: This one kinda irks me. To use the auction house you have to have 'loyalty' first. Though I guess it's just Trion's way of blocking gold farmers, it's still irritating for new players. Mind you thats only to sell, you can buy stuff no problem.
