Rift (2011)

 PC
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 587 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 344 out of 587
  2. Mixed: 150 out of 587
  3. Negative: 93 out of 587
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. ojinneal
    Jun 16, 2011
    4
    I feel there's something missing. Rifts and invasions were fun for a little while and I liked tinkering with the soul tree, but after that it was just another mediocre MMO.
  2. moocow
    Apr 22, 2011
    4
    Definitely overrated game. Certainly better than other MMO releases within the last 3 or 4 years, but nothing special or new. Pros- beautiful graphics; great scaling with system compatibility; extreme character variety; smooth launch and updates; fresh take on PvP; non-instanced raids; takes the best from well-played MMOs and bundles them.
    Cons- the grind: same old linear quests;    Definitely overrated game. Certainly better than other MMO releases within the last 3 or 4 years, but nothing special or new. Pros- beautiful graphics; great scaling with system compatibility; extreme character variety; smooth launch and updates; fresh take on PvP; non-instanced raids; takes the best from well-played MMOs and bundles them.
    Cons- the grind: same old linear quests; single player is far too easy, no one forms parties or even chats; PvP is chaotic and unbalanced-but at least it is not WoW garbage; horribly convoluted lore; character classes have too much variablility- I wanted to build a melee healer (Justicar) but the lack of abilities and DPS forced me to cast (Purifier) ranged spells all the time. Most character builds oddly end up performing in a similar fashion despite the vast breadth of choices for development. ---I wish this game luck because WoW veterans (I started in 2004) have been starving for a decent MMO again.    … Expand
  3. TwsitedComplex
    Mar 13, 2011
    4
    I give this an average score for an average game

    There's nothing special about it. It's just blah.

    Skip this if youre playing one already. If you're pining for an MMO, then play a free one until something good comes along this year
  4. dark_heresy
    Apr 11, 2011
    4
    For those who have played World of Warcraft for the majority of their MMO carry, Rift will feel like a breath of fresh air by the very nature of being different. Unfortunately, for veterans, such as myself, who have dedicated countless hours to every major MMO release since before the dawn of the WoW behemoth, there isn't anything new under the sun to see, here. Additionally, there areFor those who have played World of Warcraft for the majority of their MMO carry, Rift will feel like a breath of fresh air by the very nature of being different. Unfortunately, for veterans, such as myself, who have dedicated countless hours to every major MMO release since before the dawn of the WoW behemoth, there isn't anything new under the sun to see, here. Additionally, there are plenty of glaring balance issues, and server shards go down on an almost daily basis with very little prior info (usually a 10 minute prior announcement). The whole game feels defined by imbalance. Additionally, while the graphics are better in terms of polygon count compared to WoW, other games ranging from Everquest 2 to Age of Conan have much better engines and don't have an almost constant problem of armor clipping on characters. Likewise, the character animations look lethargic and stilted and loose their appeal quickly. While I will give Rift credit for having a better more recent MMO launch, it is sadly not the savior of the MMO genre that I am looking for, nor is it even compelling enough to permanently keep me from playing what still remains the best of the genre: World of Warcraft.… Expand
  5. Tredskies
    Jul 16, 2011
    4
    The only way to get even close to objectivity, I have attempted the past few days to take a step back and make a list of things I like about the game. On the same sheet of paper I tried to record day to day what the Official Rift Forum Community says most about the gameâ
  6. Necrotaur
    Jul 18, 2011
    4
    Rift is a game that fails to live up to it's potential. It has a few interesting concepts: multiple "souls" (aka talent trees) to play around with, and world events in the form of rifts or gateways to elemental planes, which spawn monsters and must be combated. The soul system at first seems like a good idea, but it quickly becomes clear that spreading your talent points between moreRift is a game that fails to live up to it's potential. It has a few interesting concepts: multiple "souls" (aka talent trees) to play around with, and world events in the form of rifts or gateways to elemental planes, which spawn monsters and must be combated. The soul system at first seems like a good idea, but it quickly becomes clear that spreading your talent points between more than 2 trees actually hampers you, and there still is an "optimal" build that you should be using if you want to maximize your effectiveness. It also suffers from talent point bloat, similar to WoW prior to 4.0's talent reorganization - you will spend 5 points to increase the damage of an ability by 5%, for example. The rifts/invasions I felt were fairly well done, if a little simplistic. Even if you shut one rift down, another will open in a short while. I was disappointed when, after closing several footholds on a beach, I turned around to see the first one open again.

    The rest of the game, I'm sorry to say, is horrible. For one, there is virtually no replayability. If you've played one Defiant character, you've played them all, and questing is crushingly linear. Except for dwarves and bahmi, the races are virtually identical and consist of a fair skinned human and elf for Guardian and a dark skinned human and elf for Defiant. Boooooring. Questing is 100% the stereotypical 'go here, kill X, click on Y and talk to Z' fare. You will also encounter many instances of finishing a quest in an area, only to get a follow up quest that takes you back into that same area you just cleared. Also, I hope you enjoy the way you look at level 2, you will be wearing that same outfit up through your 20's, not to mention if you are a pet class such as a beastmaster, that creepy purple cat will be with you throughout the entire game.

    In closing, you might find a few features you like, but they will be drowned out by the negative aspects of the game.    … Expand
  7. simph1
    Jul 21, 2011
    4
    The hype was amazing. The graphics are amazing. In a few words, you get to level 30+ and you suddenly realise that everything is getting teadious. You find yourself grinding over and over again the same areas. The variety of souls that you pick to create your character skills unique in many ways, is all that was keeping me playing to be honest. You can level to 50 in 5 days. Pity, it couldThe hype was amazing. The graphics are amazing. In a few words, you get to level 30+ and you suddenly realise that everything is getting teadious. You find yourself grinding over and over again the same areas. The variety of souls that you pick to create your character skills unique in many ways, is all that was keeping me playing to be honest. You can level to 50 in 5 days. Pity, it could have been a wow killer.… Expand
  8. Riot
    Jul 30, 2011
    4
    This game is nothing more than a WOW clone with some improvements and fine touches here and there, few bugs and a very prompt developer studio when it comes to patches and adding content so far. the graphics are very nice although while running the game using the recommended hardware, FPS starts to drop at medium settings. The Soul engine is a nice addition to RPG, but it does not workThis game is nothing more than a WOW clone with some improvements and fine touches here and there, few bugs and a very prompt developer studio when it comes to patches and adding content so far. the graphics are very nice although while running the game using the recommended hardware, FPS starts to drop at medium settings. The Soul engine is a nice addition to RPG, but it does not work very well and it confuses players ranging from newbies to mmo veterans. The crafting is an absolute joke, there is nothing new here, the same professions you can find in any other fantasy mmo and leveling them up is a child's play. The quests add nothing new to the genre, same kill X, gather Y time intensive tasks to keep you more in game. The gear and items are basically the same as in most mmos, I encountered dozens of profession items that have the same icons and names and probably even prices wow has. I have to admit the Rifts are probably the best addition especially because it really makes players group together via the auto grouping feature so at least they are trying to not make it another solo rpg. All in all it is not worth it, either if you want an alternative to wow (and I'm comparing it to wow because Trion marketed this game as a better, more polished alternative to the giant). So in conclusion this looked to me as a game especially made so that Trion can grab a big share of the mmo market and grow some capital. Honestly, you get more atmosphere and involvement from LOTRO (which is free) that this game. On the other hand, I am more curious on their upcoming game Defiance, I hope it will sur class this yet another second hand fantasy mmo.… Expand
  9. Booface
    Nov 1, 2011
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Alrite guys I'm going to break this down into simple sections based on PvP, PvE, whats available in the market and why I would give this game a 4 and why it would seem like a troll score compared to what others are saying.

    1: PvP. If you are buying rift for PvP, do not buy it. I cannot stress this enough. It is a PvE centric game with PvP tacked on in a horrible way that is horribly unbalanced. If you send me a message I will send you a link to show me deleting my top rank level cap Warrior for PvP. Warrior just cannot be used in PvP at end game. Its that simple. Other classes have had similiar nerfs/buffs completely changing your ability to play the game overnight with little to no community feedback before going live and even months after the change and hundreds of threads, they will not change a thing. The Second part of PVP - Gear. You gain gear by pvping, but the gear gap on the PvP is insane. I have seen players go afk in the highest tier gear vs people who are FORCED to fight them because of no tier seperation and not die to lower tier gear players only to have the player return, use a potion or skill, and then go about killing the 2-3 players that were on top of him for the last 30 seconds. You MUST go through this process in order to obtain gear and it can takeup weeks upon weeks of basically getting beaten from an unfair advantage until you are better. That is statistics speaking, some may say it isn't like that, it really is.

    2. PvE: For PvE, this game is not bad. It has horrible graphics and really bad rendering problems due to the water in the maps but I'm not going to comment on graphics and optimization because I'm not a tech junkie its not what you want to read about. The major draw for PVE is end game Raids and partying, and of course RIFTs what this game is named after. Raids: Simple, scripted encounters based on gear and hotbar setup just like other games of the genre. Not hard, not easy. Just a normal setup.
    Partying: Very easy, not even required until end game. Can solo most of the game and most players do.
    RIFTS: These will seem very 'random' and require a team at first. After reaching lvl 30 and being competent in how you go about PvE, Rifts are no longer requiring a team except for the final bosses which are extremely OP based on what class you are. The 'loot' they offer and other shinys are next to worthless compared to forced PvP and Raid end gear. Otherwise useless little things added to the game to try and attract people and if you play and enjoy rifting I'm not meaning to hurt your feelings, just pointing out that its a content void, like a death rift.


    What else is on the market: There are alot of other games and if you haven't tried some of the higher rated more fan related and better % of happy player games out there, I suggest you would go for that one before this one. This is a large mix of what is on the market, and while it is captivating for 50 hours, it becomes very stale. The developers also have no ability to speak to the playerbase and do not attempt to help them out or listen to their concerns at all. There are multiple posts with people deleting their highest tier characters and unsubscribing due to what they feel is unfair and the developers will not speak with the players or even attempt to fix anything. They post feedback threads and delete actual feedback posts and stick with the players agreeing that its not broken. I'm not speaking of troll posts, I'm speaking of posts of people who do the math and do care about the game.

    So like I said, its a decent game worth trying if you have nothing else. It is not worth staying subscribed to for long and I believe most of the 10's on this website are lies and fake reviews written because if these people played as long as they said they did and play right now, they would not be posting that. Just check the public forums on the game site.    … Expand
  10. majypoo
    Mar 13, 2011
    3
    Honestly don't see what the fuss is about, Rift is a average game that has done nothing to progress the MMO genre. It's just so bland, boring and dull with the same old same old kill 10 badgers quest system. Animations are clunky with overuse of glow effects, PvP is unbalanced due to many souls. Dungeons lack imagination and are far to easy, the game doesn't offer a challenge at all andHonestly don't see what the fuss is about, Rift is a average game that has done nothing to progress the MMO genre. It's just so bland, boring and dull with the same old same old kill 10 badgers quest system. Animations are clunky with overuse of glow effects, PvP is unbalanced due to many souls. Dungeons lack imagination and are far to easy, the game doesn't offer a challenge at all and the Rifts just get in your way and become tedious.… Expand
  11. horsington
    Apr 25, 2011
    3
    I played the beta and this should have been a clear indicator of what was in store, but there was a group of gaming friends still interested in playing so I tagged along on release. Here it is a month later and I'm bored to tears of the end game content, fed up with repetitive key mashing for DPS and lackluster PVP. It was a great idea of Trion to learn from their peers in the gamingI played the beta and this should have been a clear indicator of what was in store, but there was a group of gaming friends still interested in playing so I tagged along on release. Here it is a month later and I'm bored to tears of the end game content, fed up with repetitive key mashing for DPS and lackluster PVP. It was a great idea of Trion to learn from their peers in the gaming world, to simply create a frankenstein game that just mashed together parts of others is a bit weak though. The leveling was a series of 'quickly get to the yellow ring and kill everything, never mind WHY I'm doing it' that was simplistic and short lived (thankfully). You are rewarded at endgame with tedious dungeons littered with trash mobs, weak loot and the never ending quest for items with purple frames. Trion did add new class structure and features, but these are not enough to overlook the boring old shell of a game this is. It's environments are generic and cliche, its encounters are the same old formula and the story is lacking on so many levels (as well as utterly unimportant), They had the chance to make something amazing, and instead spit out a WoW clone.… Expand
  12. Itzal
    May 16, 2011
    3
    The good:
    Some of the dungeon mechanics are refreshing. The environment and UI both are pleasing to the eye. The music in some of the zones is excellent. The in game community is both helpful and friendly.
    The Bad: The class system is still under development. It should have been handled in alpha. Itemization needs some work. Crafting system still needs some work as the numbers on the    The good:
    Some of the dungeon mechanics are refreshing. The environment and UI both are pleasing to the eye. The music in some of the zones is excellent. The in game community is both helpful and friendly.

    The Bad:
    The class system is still under development. It should have been handled in alpha. Itemization needs some work. Crafting system still needs some work as the numbers on the green gear are bellow quest rewards and random green item drops. Mats for some of the crafting tiers are sparse and are in zones higher than what your questing in. End game is the standard grind dungeons and BG's for faction to get gear for next tier of faction grind. Gold spammers are a little more prevalent than I would like. Overall leveling was fun until about level 40. That is where it went stale for me as I did not see too many new quest types or mechanics. New MMO players will like it . Vets that expect something more might not. If you have a interest I recommend the 7 day free trial before you drink the cool aid    … Expand
  13. Cruz
    Jun 9, 2011
    3
    Despite the seemingly innovative rift system for dynamic content, I found that Rift was one of the least imaginative, most formulaic MMO I have experienced in some time. It looks gorgeous on a high-end PC, but the game has little substance. The setting isn't very immersive or memorable, and there is almost no attempt to provide any mission content beyond the bog standard "hunt X of Y"Despite the seemingly innovative rift system for dynamic content, I found that Rift was one of the least imaginative, most formulaic MMO I have experienced in some time. It looks gorgeous on a high-end PC, but the game has little substance. The setting isn't very immersive or memorable, and there is almost no attempt to provide any mission content beyond the bog standard "hunt X of Y" stuff. The game is linear to the extreme; there's not much opportunity to cut your own path through the world. The dynamic rift events turn out to be context-free grinding...chaotic and not all that fun. The character customization is one of the more impressive features, but it is not as robust as it first appears since here are only certain soul combinations that are practical...a small minority of the technically possible combinations.… Expand
  14. jazzif
    Jun 29, 2011
    3
    Rift has a decent lore, graphics and a unique soul system that allows customization beyond other mmo games. Unfortunately that is about all it has above the rest because the rest is just good old fashion grinding and same old boring dungeon runs. Yes you will have to grind reputation, many different currencies and the rift feature is also just another form of grinding and are just reallyRift has a decent lore, graphics and a unique soul system that allows customization beyond other mmo games. Unfortunately that is about all it has above the rest because the rest is just good old fashion grinding and same old boring dungeon runs. Yes you will have to grind reputation, many different currencies and the rift feature is also just another form of grinding and are just really quick public quests that aren't anything special. You should be pulled into a rift, that would be much cooler :P Even warhammer had public areas similar to the rifts so its nothing that hasn't been done.

    If you are a pvp junkie (like myself) then Rift will let you down completely. The potential for great pvp play is in Rift but with the amount of stunning, silences and confusion along with spammable "polymorphing" and severely overclocked souls pvp play becomes frustrating and boring very quickly. PVP also has no affect on the game world as its just arena scrapping in small, chaotic and simple warfront maps. Once again, even Warhammer has this beat as well.

    Even though the game is all around plain and identical to the rest, the player base is very friendly and can be a lot of fun to play along with, so if your just a casual gamer this game is for you, but if your more hardcore and don't leave your basement often, I wouldn't recommend investing your time in it. Even at 50, raiding is just the same old stuff, nothing new at all. You will just once again have characters on a game that will eventually be behind within a year or two.

    We need something original! Rift gets a 3 for its effort at graphics, soul system and decent enough lore.    … Expand
  15. RevertedInted
    Aug 23, 2011
    3
    This game is terrible. The graphics are just not as pretty as these reviews make them out to be. The gameplay is generic, leaving you with almost too many options. It's such a shameless WOW clone, just play wow... I can't believe I fell for that and bought this. I fell through giant bugs in the map at several points, and then the servers were down like half the time I wanted to get on toThis game is terrible. The graphics are just not as pretty as these reviews make them out to be. The gameplay is generic, leaving you with almost too many options. It's such a shameless WOW clone, just play wow... I can't believe I fell for that and bought this. I fell through giant bugs in the map at several points, and then the servers were down like half the time I wanted to get on to play. I played appx. 3 hours and I never plan on touching this game again. I wish I could take it out from my steam account.… Expand
  16. Jaunty
    May 13, 2012
    3
    Don't bother with this one. It's so derivative that it fails to create it's own uniqueness. It may have fun technical features, but it lacks soul. Borrowing heavily from World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online, it fails to be better than either and instead settles as a solid "time filler" while you wait for better games to come out. The animations are poor, the music is generic, and theDon't bother with this one. It's so derivative that it fails to create it's own uniqueness. It may have fun technical features, but it lacks soul. Borrowing heavily from World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online, it fails to be better than either and instead settles as a solid "time filler" while you wait for better games to come out. The animations are poor, the music is generic, and the performance is all over the place. The community is also the absolute worst I've seen in a MMO, and I've played many. When I made a new character on the Seastone, I said "Hi, I'm new to the game" on local chat and everyone told me to "GTFO." So after giving this game 3 weeks of my time, I decided I'd rather not play with a bunch of immature kids who bought time cards at Walmart because they're not old enough to use credit cards, and find something better to do with my time.… Expand
  17. Casualobserver
    Nov 11, 2012
    3
    Leveled a few characters to the trial limit of level 20, solo and through the instant adventure. Played the open beta a week before Storm Legion is to be released. I felt picked on if I tried to go against the flow, like some petty gamemaster meddling with mobs. The veterans awards stinks of con job, where you see in server messages people getting rewarded for 1-36 month subscriptions. TonLeveled a few characters to the trial limit of level 20, solo and through the instant adventure. Played the open beta a week before Storm Legion is to be released. I felt picked on if I tried to go against the flow, like some petty gamemaster meddling with mobs. The veterans awards stinks of con job, where you see in server messages people getting rewarded for 1-36 month subscriptions. Ton of fail mechanics, I'll list a few. I could kite enemy guards around a tent or building in such a way that some if not all of the would end on the roof in an eternal stand off, looks kind of dumb. My pet would only hold agro on one mob and the other mobs would attack me if I healed my pet, except if I did it out of line of sight. One class from both factions has the ability to leap, which can be somewhat exploited if done during a normal jump to get on top of structures. I was able to get guards, quest npc's and invading mobs stuck in walls during the predecessor event for Storm Legion and no player could attack them. Seems to be covert fanboys or staff hanging around to jump in and cover up flaws in high visibility areas and events. Mount speed plays a huge factor in whether you'll be annoyingly dismounted every 15 seconds or never. A 150 to 200 percent mount goes faster than the game can populate an area you are in, until you stop, at which point might be in the middle of a pack of mobs that you would of seen and avoided on a slower mount. During level 9-18 zone invasions, it is routine for level 50 players (unmentored for you fan boys) to be there 1 shotting bosess etc, ruining the challenge to players of the appropriate level. The mentoring system is allow to lower yourself from a higher level say 50 to do quests with say a lvl 10 friend, totally is half-baked, you are twice if not tens as powerful a normal level 10. The chat system is awkward and daily bashing of other mmo's becomes annoying if not necessary to distract you from all of Rift's shortcomings. I am strongly against fraternization between players and gamemasters because of favoritism. I quit Wow with a slight bad taste at Wotlk due to huge faction imbalances. I can't rationalize Rift charging the same rate as Wow with a fraction of the player base and quality. Rift main hype is the graphics which will stumble badly on the average video card causing you to pause during prime time in the capitals or raids. It has been slipped that many developers are ex-wow developers, I think even ex-wow emulator, get my drift. Spawn location or mob placement very rough to many here to little there, like rough it in, oops sidetracked, finish it someday.

    During the open beta a week or so before the long overdue expansion, I felt they could not possibly fix, finish or tune it before the release. They made everyone instant 50 to test, the more finished zones. Then the last of the last day, everyone instant 60, which was way to late to be effective measure of anything besides maybe pvp, which is still going to be pre-made destroying pug. I able to get a dungeon group only twice in 5 days, steamrolled it. Impressing me with these are old players where are the new ones? I am totally against any kind of monopoly, but I laugh when someone says Wow killer about this game. I have played on similarly populated free "private" wow servers which I am not in any promoting.
    It is very easy to grief players because of developer short sightedness. Vote kick , no reason allowed, will often be yes to get the prompt out of your way. Or join a 15+ person instant adventure, trigger a ready check every few seconds and leave before you can be vote kicked. I have see a number of Wow bugs in a couple of years, but I could show Rift has a thousand times more at any given time. I do enjoy the hot looking females from the neck down, the faces seem slightly boyish.    … Expand
  18. Szani
    Sep 20, 2014
    3
    Grind fest mmo, very poorly optimized game client, kind of not bad implementation of f2p, but not best. End game isn't very satisfying. Bad class balance and nearly destroyed PVP experience, boring dungeons (imba mega grind, as I said).
  19. moifoi
    Mar 28, 2011
    2
    The game has balance issues in both pve and pvp, there are many talents in tree's that don't work, one was giving 100% armor penetration instead of 1% how this gets through alpha, beta and has been in the game for awhile is baffling, the only pvp in the game is a grind and the maximum pvp level can be achieved in a few days.
    There are no arenas or rated clan vs clan warfronts and they have    The game has balance issues in both pve and pvp, there are many talents in tree's that don't work, one was giving 100% armor penetration instead of 1% how this gets through alpha, beta and has been in the game for awhile is baffling, the only pvp in the game is a grind and the maximum pvp level can be achieved in a few days.
    There are no arenas or rated clan vs clan warfronts and they have stated in interviews they will not add them, so the new problem is premades are vsing public groups which is unfair.

    The good thing about the game is that it only takes 3 days played time to hit max level. It doesn't feel like to big a waste of time when you realize you've rolled the gimp class(rogue).    … Expand
  20. nopistons420
    Apr 19, 2011
    2
    i played it got to level 50 first week of the "head start"

    this game is the grindfest to end all grindfests

    not to mention it runs on gamebyro; its like warhammer online 2 bascially except minus all the fun RvR stuff that made warhammer great - theres nothin next gen about it
  21. Blackcompany
    Aug 16, 2011
    2
    Did you play WoW? Did you enjoy WoW? Would you like to play WoW again, with slightly improved graphics and completely improved and innovated, well, nothing else? If you answered yes to these three questions, then perhaps Rift is for you. The game features loads typical MMO fare, replete with endless grinding, enemies completely devoif of personality, shoddy combat animations, weightlessDid you play WoW? Did you enjoy WoW? Would you like to play WoW again, with slightly improved graphics and completely improved and innovated, well, nothing else? If you answered yes to these three questions, then perhaps Rift is for you. The game features loads typical MMO fare, replete with endless grinding, enemies completely devoif of personality, shoddy combat animations, weightless weapon strikes, repetitive click fests while fighting and a never-ending need to craft items for the sake of crafting items. As for the game's namesake, the Rifts are an interesting mechanic. Unfortunately, you really just end up staring at the same invasion time and again, day after day and even hour after hour. Watching the same mobs and same boss invade 10 minutes after you just defeated that invasion really kills the fun. If you can find any in this endless grindfest to begin with. A must play for hardcore MMO lovers; a must avoid for everyone looking for a game with any sort of personality.… Expand
  22. Stanners179
    Jan 3, 2014
    2
    Rift is a game that looks good on the trailer/screenshots but when you get in the game you just think ‘Why did I waste all this installation time for a game that is almost nothing like the trailer’. What I mean is the trailer is supposed to be an example of the game and the Rift trailer is nothing like the game its self. I recommend you to stay away from that title.
  23. Patches13
    May 27, 2014
    2
    Don't bother unless you plan to spend roughly $30 USD for 1 set of souls and then have to spend $30 more dollars to get another set of souls so you are relevant for content.

    Don't bother if you think the forum's are going to help you learn your class, mostly filled with a toxic player community that is actively encouraged by Trion's Modder's. If the PTW doesn't spoil this game for    Don't bother unless you plan to spend roughly $30 USD for 1 set of souls and then have to spend $30 more dollars to get another set of souls so you are relevant for content.

    Don't bother if you think the forum's are going to help you learn your class, mostly filled with a toxic player community that is actively encouraged by Trion's Modder's.

    If the PTW doesn't spoil this game for you then the Trion support staff will.    … Expand
  24. richj8990
    Feb 3, 2017
    2
    Not sure why this got an 86 rating and Neverwinter got a rating in the 60's. Both are repetitive, but as some others have said on here this one is way too easy. After doing about 20 quests which lasted about two minutes each, I was wondering when the game would start. It never did. I'm not even going to play it to level 50. The graphics are fine, the class system is mediocre but acceptableNot sure why this got an 86 rating and Neverwinter got a rating in the 60's. Both are repetitive, but as some others have said on here this one is way too easy. After doing about 20 quests which lasted about two minutes each, I was wondering when the game would start. It never did. I'm not even going to play it to level 50. The graphics are fine, the class system is mediocre but acceptable (compared to LOTRO for example). I even liked it more than Everquest, but it has a huge flaw: quests are way too easy and way too short. Under level 50 it's basically: kill these 3-5 creatures 200 feet away, who don't even attack you, and if they do, they maybe do 5% damage to you, and do not even come remotely close to seriously harming you. You just walk up to quest creatures and kill them, often without even a fight, walk back to the quest start point and earn something. Over and over again. WTF? Why so easy? At least Neverwinter was challenging right off the bat.… Expand
  25. Ansatsu83
    Sep 12, 2011
    1
    Developers need to stop cloning World of Warcraft. This game could have potential but they need to have a new form of game play that is not a clone of WoW or Lineage 2.

    Part of the issue is that the game cloned wow far too much, while it did add a new multi-class system, the simple fact of the matter is, its been done many times before. In the end it leads to only two or three builds per    Developers need to stop cloning World of Warcraft. This game could have potential but they need to have a new form of game play that is not a clone of WoW or Lineage 2.

    Part of the issue is that the game cloned wow far too much, while it did add a new multi-class system, the simple fact of the matter is, its been done many times before. In the end it leads to only two or three builds per class that is viable for anything.

    The developers completely screwed up PvP, the PvE is repetitive and monotonous, this game seems intended to be played by the new "amateur" gamer's of this world. Yeah I know mmorpgs are for the community these days but listen, if the community is full of idiots and bullies (since I dont want to swear in my review) then why bother?

    If you are a real gamer, you might enjoy it for 20 to 30 levels, but after that, go seek an actual challenge. The questing is pretty much the same as WoW, the rifts are ok, havnt been done in an mmo but still, they need some work to have more variety.

    Part of the issue could be the world events do not happen enough, if there was one always going on at all times it would be so much better.

    I bought the game for a friend since they really wanted to play, I played a bit, to level 28 actually, but after 28 I just cant stand to connect to the game now.    … Expand
  26. reviewfrommewhe
    May 1, 2011
    1
    - Very boring and repetitive questlines. - PvP instances are really mediocre. PvP is quite often premades repeatedly steamrolling pugs, and this is apparently working as intended. Both sides have what is basically a Warhammer Bright Wizard locking down the battlefield with mass AE and mass CC.

    - While the class structure initially looks great, it in fact is a nightmare of min maxing    - Very boring and repetitive questlines. - PvP instances are really mediocre. PvP is quite often premades repeatedly steamrolling pugs, and this is apparently working as intended. Both sides have what is basically a Warhammer Bright Wizard locking down the battlefield with mass AE and mass CC.

    - While the class structure initially looks great, it in fact is a nightmare of min maxing players vs. devs. Yo-yoing balance patches and random nerfs are pretty commonplace, but they seem to break more than they fix. - The Rift events (their signature "thang") are either nonexistant or overly in your face, locking down entire zones with 12 total players in them with no chance against the NPC invaders. The loot from Rifts sort of sucks relative to other lvl 50 gear so its no surprise people dont really seem to bother.

    - The "elite" PvE instances (the ones you run to grind tokens for gear, just like WoW) are rehashes of the instances you see from lvl 1 - 50 with yet more trash to clear.

    - Crafting is a luck based system in which you grind dailies to get tokens to get uber patterns. So are some of the gathering "recipes" - random luck based drops off nodes. Yay for luck based MMOs.

    - The devs seem sort of out of touch as to what the players are actually doing in PvE, PvP and with the construction of their characters using the "unique" soul system. One example is that there are two main healing classes and the one that is the better of the two cannot even queue as heals using the (now in Alpha) looking for group tool. This is apparently working as intended.

    - While gathering or traveling expect masses of gray mobs to aggro you, slow you down, dismount you and force you to clear them. All while trying to get your luck based crafting daily done so you can once again not get a tablet that is necessary to get the good patterns.

    Try it if you gotta, but I highly recommend a one month sub because thats about all the gameplay Rift has in it.    … Expand
  27. Nehaxak
    Jul 3, 2011
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It's a good few months now since the release of Rift and the flaws within it and the ineptitude, incompetence and sheer lack of experience by Trion in the MMO scene is so shockingly evident at this stage.

    The PvP in the game and the state of it, is absolutely dire and has been since the start, with no effort from Trion to even show a modicum of change to set things right.

    The instanced PvP (warfronts as they're called, similar to Wow's Battlegrounds) although fun for a while, get very boring and repetitive - I should know, my main character is Rank 6 prestige in pvp.

    That boredom and repetitive nature of the warfronts (coupled with Trion inexplicably and inexcusably allowing premade groups to farm those that have joined the warfronts as solo puggers) makes your goal toward the higher ranks in pvp an absolute horrible grind - and after all that, there's nothing to aim for other than going back to those same warfronts to compete against those same premades again and again - zero fun.

    In the latest patch (June 2011) 1.3 - Trion attempted to address the premades wrecking everyone else's fun in the warfronts by splitting the queue system, so premades had to play premades and the solo pug players could just enjoy the fun of the warfront and the balanced challenge that they bring without premades destroying it for everyone.
    Lo and behold though, not a week passed with that patch being implmented when Trion reverted on their change to the queue system and we're all back to square one.
    When the 1.3 patch first hit, the queue to get into a warfront if you were solo was instant, even in the early hours of the morning, instant queue, decent enough fun.
    When Trion reverted the change in the subsequent hotfix 5 - the queues have gone from instant to between 10 minutes to an hour or more, worse even outside of primetime hours.
    This was mainly due to players just giving up at this stage, having had enough of the incompetance shown by Trion and coupled with a large majority of players boycotting the warfronts or just quitting the game completely - it really is that bad and it really is that big of a deal. That Trion have failed miserably to even forsee this, shows how bad and inexperinced they are to the MMO scene and the contempt with which they view the majority of their own paying customers.

    World pvp is almost non existent and that which does exist is baseless and tiresome. There's no goal to any open world pvp, no point and no fun. Trions response to this was to introduce some daily pve based quests, kill this mob, collect this stuff, lalala, oh and as your reward ? Here, have some free pvp favor and prestige points (WHAT THE HELL!!!).
    Oh, there was one daily quest which required you to kill members of the opposite faction - though the point of same on a pve server seems to be lost on Trion as that daily and none of the others auto flagged a person for pvp - seriously, face, palm, wall, head, bang, repeat...

    From a PvE perspective, there's a bunch of 5 man dungeons which you will need to farm constantly (yawn...) to get plaques/tokens for Tier gear, most just skip the T1 dungeons and go straight for the T2's due to Trion making them so much easier in a previous patch - bad mistake. The Dungeons were fine as they were, they were hard, they were a challenge - now they're just another boring grind, something you have to do to get the gear to allow you progress your character for raiding purposes.

    As for the Raids, they're a challenge at the start but generally, they're also fairly boring and lacklustre.

    There is no real end game in Rift, there really isn't, no matter how many Trion shills will post otherwise on forums et all, there is no end game. At this moment in time in Rift, there is no point and nothing to aim for after you've hit 50, ran the required dungeons to gear up and got yourself into a decent raiding guild. Once you've done the raids a few times you're left wondering what the hell do you do now ? So you dabble in pvp maybe ? Oh no, no no no, just don't go there. I mean sure, you can throw a guild premade together maybe and steamroll all over a bunch of solo players - but honestly, how fun is that after a few times ? There's no competition, no fun, no challenge.

    Rift had an awful lot of potential but alas, as always it seems the case these days, the developers themselves kill the game off before it's even had a chance to settle down to pull in the required amount of serious followers.

    Don't bother with this game, don't waste your time. It's just another poor clone of Wow, badly implemented, badly supported and full of utter fail.    … Expand
  28. krammerlock
    Nov 21, 2014
    1
    The game is entertaining in the beginning. Like a lot of MMORPG's it is very easy early on and you can get sucked into building your character. But after playing for a while you realize that this game offers nothing more than a standard MMORPG experience and contributes nothing new to the genre. At least not anymore. The combat model is dated and boring. The map system is useless when youThe game is entertaining in the beginning. Like a lot of MMORPG's it is very easy early on and you can get sucked into building your character. But after playing for a while you realize that this game offers nothing more than a standard MMORPG experience and contributes nothing new to the genre. At least not anymore. The combat model is dated and boring. The map system is useless when you are underground. If you are bored and love the old-style MMORPGs then give it a whirl but don't buy any of the DLC or become a supporter until you have played it for several days. My experience was it got boring very quickly.… Expand
  29. tollo555
    Aug 29, 2012
    1
    Under shiny graphics hides a polished turd. Quests are typical bring/kill x numbers of [insert here a random mob/item name] from start to level cap 50. PvP is an unbalanced joke, and an insult to the players Trion didn't do anything when people exploited new Conquest war front during its launch period. I found a new synonym to word boring; Rift.
  30. Nick95
    Nov 13, 2014
    1
    Rift used to be a nice game before it became "Free to Play" (or better said: Free to Pay).
    Since a year the game is going downhill faster and faster in both gameplay and stability. On top of that, the Customer Support almost completely disappeared and don't be surprised if you report a serious bug and find it still there even after many months.
    That is, except when the bug causes less    Rift used to be a nice game before it became "Free to Play" (or better said: Free to Pay).
    Since a year the game is going downhill faster and faster in both gameplay and stability. On top of that, the Customer Support almost completely disappeared and don't be surprised if you report a serious bug and find it still there even after many months.

    That is, except when the bug causes less income for Trion (like too much exp of too many free gifts ingame) , because then they suddenly have enough capacity to patch within 12-24 hours.

    With the release of 3.0 the game lost even the last bit of balance and there is no point of doing the 1-60 zones anymore because of the low quality gear, low exp and the new "sidekick" system, which makes it possible to party with a lvl 65 and instantly gets your level set to 65 and run around in the new zone.

    i tried and level 1-50 now can be done in less than 3 hours (that is if you dont buy the instant-60 item that instantly makes your char lvl 60)

    Since the game became FTP, Trion has been slowly (and without even informing players) removinig more and more items you needed to make the game attractive for Free players.
    Sneaky because these kinds of changes never make it to the patchnotes so after every patch you have to wait and see if they didnt remove or disable something.

    Now it comes to a point where you either have to grind low level dungeons for gear (good luck in finding anyone even willing to do low level dungeons now all dungeonrewards are removed from the game)
    or spend real money to buy gear.

    If you are planning to switch from WoW to Rift because it's Free to Play and thus cheaper, you will be in for a nasty surprise.

    On top of that, the number of gamecrashes increased dramaticly since the release of 3.0. Even with newer game pc's and graph. cards you can endup crashing every 10 minutes.
    That is, if you didnt already got disconnected because of the huge latency spikes the game is experiencing since 3,0 (and not will be fixed since Trion keeps telling us it's not a serverside problem)

    Conclusion: The game was great in the beginning, but Trion moved on to a new (and more expensive) policy, so it's time for the players to move on to another (cheaper) game.    … Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

27
#27 Best PC Game of 2011
31
#31 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
50
#50 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 59 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 59
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 59
  3. Negative: 0 out of 59
  1. AusGamers
    Nov 29, 2011
    90
    There have been obvious comparisons made to WoW, with some even going as far as calling it a clone. But what makes Rift so special is that it goes out of its way to avoid falling into the same traps as the many that have fallen before it. It avoids the painful, mindnumbing grind, makes incremental patches everyday and listens intently to its rapidly growing community.
    Read full review
  2. Computer Games Online RO
    Jul 20, 2011
    89
    It's true that the soul trees offer outstanding flexibility for character development and the rifts bring a welcome sense of insecurity into Telara's everyday life, but for some players this simply might not be enough.
    Read full review
  3. Gamers.at
    Jun 28, 2011
    88
    Rift offers a really polished MMO experience but looks and feels much like a mix of many good MMOs like World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online and Warhammer Online.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »