So I uninstalled WoW and disabled my account last week just because I'm bored with it, Same classes, same races, same quests, same story, same dungeons you know? It just got boring. So now I've heard about Rift, an MMORPG that I've heard actually stands up to WoW, when all of the other so called 'WoW killers' (Warhammer, Aion, EQ/EQ2 etc.) just sort of died off. Any people out there that recommend it?

It's the same basic deal, but the class combo system is a very nice touch. Also not grindy.
(Also, why should anybody consider Everquest and EQ2 "WoW killers"? Is WoW a "LotRO killer"?)

The coolest feature I've heard about was the invasions. I'm hoping Guild Wars 2 has something similar. Haven't played Rift, but it sounds pretty cool.

Ah yes. The public quests by any other name. Yes, rift events are really awesome, especially the later ones when you actively compete with the other faction.

:huh:

You do realize EQ 2 came out at the same time as WoW, right? And that EQ predates it by 5 years or so?

Sorry, but as a former EQ player that just really bugged me.


Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing about people's opinions about this game too; I haven't heard much about it other than that it exists(probably not a good sign).

You won't hear about stuff unless you take the time to ask questions. I just did some youtube investigating, and a bunch of well known directors that play WoW are absolutely loving Rift

I looked at the game on youtube and it does look nice, but idk about the story after I saw the opening scenes. The opening didn't seem that cool to me, but I like the level of customization and if the gameplay is nice so should the game be, plus gameplay is what's most important in an mmo.

Very nice game, I'm playing in Estrael server on both Guardian and Defaint. The calling system is great, you don't ask for which class, but which role when you look for more grouping for dungeons. Rogue can tank or heal, cleric can tank or dps, mage can heal and dps or crowd control, warriors have range attacks and teleportation. This design is simply amazing, you can create your own character based on playstyle concept instead of the "pwnage class of the month" and you can still contribute a lot to the group. More to that, you can change your role any time you like as long as you're out of combat, so when your tank bailed, just switch to tank and you're back to action.

The game is not cake walk however, even against pve mobs you can't assume you could aoe kill 10 mobs at a time just because you're geared well or of higher level. The elites in this game is serious business, you have little chance taking on one not 10 levels below.

The prime time rift invasions are quite exciting, some may think otherwise but I enjoy them quite a lot.

I highly recommend this game to anyone into MMORPGs.

I played in 2 of the last 3 betas. (Missed one because I thought beta6 was bugged, turns out my GPUs were not getting enough juice.)

I quite enjoyed it, especially the rift events. (When there were others to help. Got my ass handed to me alone, not surprising obviously.)

My issues is I'm not a fan of subscription games. (Paying for them that is.)

I'm waiting for GW2, until then, I'm playing GW1

I played the beta and enjoyed it more than WoW, especially the graphics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwRATF7STKU

I do recommend you wait a while though, there's some nasty security issue going on and nobody knows the cause.

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Seems a very resourceful and experienced ex-hacker has figured out the problem and worked with Trion to fix it: http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?127127-Account-Security-Discussion/page53, second post on the page.

I heard it was pretty good and has amassed a decent sized base within the first month of release. Over 1million if I remember right. From what I heard its a strongly PVP based game with a really cool class combo systems. You can make something like a Melee Warrior who heals while tanking.

I've personally played the Rift beta.
Please explain to me how it's not the exact same thing as World of Warcraft, and how it's not grindy. That statement just made me laugh out loud.

For one, no arena and it's not balanced around pvp Two big plusses in my book.

It's not a cartoon MMO full of comedy and pop culture references.

The storyline seems a lot more serious, so serious that there's genuine debates over who's right and who's wrong, vs. the generic "alliance fights horde, nobody knows why and nobody cares anymore" of WoW.

The class system is the most interesting I've ever seen, and since it only says what basic type someone is when clicking on them (warrior, cleric, rogue, mage), you almost never know what you're up against.

No fast travel to just anywhere you want.

No flying. (I'm so happy about that! Flying ruined WoW)

No standing around cities queuing for dungeons all day, you have to travel to dungeons, and no flying there either (see above, and queuing with instant teleport also helped ruin WoW).

Rifts and invasions.

All non-korean MMOs are basically like WoW, and WoW is basically like EQ. It's not a bad thing to take the best of the most popular MMOs out there.

I'm guessing there is no trial?

I don't think so. Probably will be one in the near future.

OT: If you're playing an mmo for graphics, you're doing it wrong.

Rift invasions = elemental invasions in pre-Cata events in WoW. They got old fast.

It's a WoW clone. Now before you freak out, there's nothing wrong with that, it is in now way a derogatory term.

With the exception of the soul system, allowing you to custom make your own class (To an extent, most souls don't synergize that well together so you do need to stick with certain archetypes to be effective) it is pretty much exactly the same, but with some annoyances taken away. For example, there is no level restriction on the basic (60%) mounts, when you have the money you can buy it. To regain health you simply need to drink, instead of carrying food and water around. There's more, but nothing that stands out, suffice to say that many of the small annoyances in WoW are not in Rift.

The Rift's themselves are pretty cool, they open up all over the place and people in the vicinity can automatically group up and fight back the invading hordes, closing the rift. If you're all alone and nobody is around, the rifts can be a major annoyance however, as most of the time you can't hope to close one alone, unless you outlevel it by quite a bit. This was especially a problem during the first days when not many people were playing (On my server at least).

I played WoW for 5 years and I got bored, I tried Rift with a few friends and surprise surprise...I got bored. I'm just tired of the formula basically, at least the way WoW does it. WoW is a very good game, but it has not aged that well technically, the visuals have improved, the content has had it's ups and downs but it's mostly gotten better (With the exception of Wrath if you ask me) but the engine was outdated when the game was released, that was 6 years ago...WoW can only go so far before the engine simply can't handle it, and it's getting close to that point now.

Here is where WoW beats Rift handily, variety. WoW has 10 races, all of them established in lore and with good variety across the board. Rift has 6, three for each faction. I'll go through them:

Guardians: Human, High Elves, Dwarves.
Defiant: Different humans, Kelari (Elves that in my opinion look terrible compared to high elves who look great) and Bahmi (Blue mongolians basically).

The factiosn themselves are not bad, there's no clear good or bad faction, the Guardians are in my opinion religious zealots, the Defiant are avid supporters of magic and technology combined, both are doing what they can to save the world, but their motivations and goals differ greatly, religion is a huge issue in Rift. Some call the Defiant atheists, they're wrong. The Gods in the Rift universe exist, there is no doubt about that, what separates them is that the Guardians worshop them whereas the Defiant consider themselves equal to the gods, or at least refuse to bend knee to them.

Still, while the factions are relatively interesting in terms of differing motivations instead of the constant war in Warcraft that seems a bit forced at times, I mean...a dragon is trying to destroy the world, the most powerfull and dangerous being ever seen on Azeroth, Deathwing is basically a demigod bent on the destruction of all life...sounds like the perfect time for a war right? Working together would make that a lot easier to deal with, but nah, this is the time to be at each others throat.

Overall, WoW has a much more established and well known background to support it, Rift lacks that (Allthough I hear there is quite a bit of lore, I've never come across it myself) and suffers for it.

If you still enjoy WoW but you want something darker, with more realistic graphics and some slightly refined systems as well as the soul mechanic, give Rift a shot. You'll probably like it, if you're like me and WoW bores you, Rift won't last long. it's really fun at first when it's all new content, but I got to level 25 or so and just couldn't take it anymore, I might resub again at some point, but it's not likely.

Yeah, pretty much what Urge said.
Rift is exactly the same as WoW, with more polish to make up for it's lack of uniqueness. Not to say that WoW is unique, but Rift is no different, so why is it "better" than WoW?
I have personally played it. The UI is exactly the same as WoW. The quest are exactly the same as WoW. Hell, literally the unitframes, pet frames, action bars, etc, EXACTLY the same as World of Warcraft. It's a joke to say that Rift is not a WoW clone.
Now, I'm not hating on Rift at all. Quite the contrary. I play the game that Rift is essentially copied from. So it can't be that bad. But please do not joke yourself and say that Rift is some WoW breaking amazing game so different from WoW. Because that's hilarity.

Using the same UI as WoW, and the same basic gameplay that every non-korean MMO has, does not make a game a clone.

I really wonder how many people making this claim have played it for any length of time?

Using the same UI as the most popular MMO of all time is a smart move, keeping things familiar to players who more than likely are coming from WoW. It's a tried and true UI.

When WoW gets 4 archetype classes with interchangeable classes within each, gets rid of flying, the awful arena, queueing for dungeons without traveling, gets outdoor puzzles to discover, and rifts and invasions, then it's OK to call Rift a WoW clone. To call it a clone based on it's UI is to say you haven't played it for any appreciable length of time.

(Rift is closer to Warhammer than it is WoW btw)

EDIT: And Rifts are nothing like pre-Cata elemental invasions. In Rift there's actually people out in the world to group with to take them out. In WoW you can travel through an entire zone and never see anyone else, unless it's Dalaran (at the time of the invasions)

I also know about not playing a game for it's graphics. I grew up with text adventures and Pac-Man. But WoW's cartoonish graphics have always bugged me. I seriously dislike anime and seriously dislike the oversized weapons and armor in WoW, as well as the goofy architecture. It's not as bad as playing a korean MMO (I'd rather poke my eyes out than suffer through one of those games again) but Rift's more realistic graphics were a breath of fresh air.

I'm not calling it a WoW clone simply based on it's identical UI. I'm calling it a clone because it's essentially WoW with better graphics. The gameplay is essentially the same. Kill monsters. Do quest. Repeat. That's exactly the same as WoW. Instead of "talents tree" you have "roles" *exactly the same thing* which you can switch between when not in combat *duel talent specialization*.
Just because the game has a more in depth class system does not mean anything whatsoever, other than the fact that it does have a more in depth class system.
Woohoo. Congratulations Rift. So much different than WoW. :rolleyes:

Umm you do know Everquest and Dark Age Of Camelot had essentially the same gameplay too? Does that make WoW a clone of them? Or maybe Rift is a clone of EQ and DAOC, and not WoW?

That's the basic gameplay of all non-korean MMOs I was talking about. Koreans do the same basic thing but it's a total grindfest, mind numbingly so.

If a new MMO has that same basic gameplay as other MMOs it doesn't make it a clone, it makes it a MMO.

How long have you played Rift? I assume you're making a comparison of the two based on first hand experience? How long have you played the other older but popular MMOs like Everquest and DAOC? If I were to guess I'd say you haven't, because if you had you would know that calling one MMO a clone of another because of UI or the basic gameplay of "kill monsters, do quests" means they're all clones of each other.

Yes, Rift is a clone of WoW. It's also a clone of Warhammer, EQ, DAOC, EQ2 and Aion. They're all basically the same at heart.

No one said they WEREN'T clones of those games. They are all pretty much the same. No one time did anyone say that. You're just attempting to make your invalid point valid by putting words in my mouth that I did not say.
WoW isn't much different than EQ either.

From what I can see, Rift has more in common with Everquest and Vanguard than it does with WoW. And since Vanguard is an shameless (but fun) Everquest clone, Rift is an Everquest clone. Not a WoW one. WoW, itself, is a clone of Everquest spliced with Warcraft 3.

Not saying that's a bad thing.

I'm sick of people always throwing the "WoW clone" tag on any new MMO that comes out.