Okay guys. It's official (again). I've hopped on board the Rift train. Kind of. I've been trying it out through means I will not say. Trying this out has so far involved me spending 10 mins making my character; another 5 minutes thinking of a name; 45 mins of getting to about level 6, where you get the Third soul; then restarting.
I'll admit it. I love this game. I see what all the hooplah is about. But at the same time, I have a side of me screaming
ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?!
It's almost insulting how similar this game is to WoW. The look of it is what I always imagined FFXI to look like. Pretty. Shiny. "Realistic." But the feel, the way you go about things, the way the UI is set up. It's basically WoW. But in FFXI. With Rifts. Yeah....
Okay, so what's different?
You mean besides the storyline, world, factions, races, and conflicts? The talent tree. Talk about getting whacked in the head with a huge bag of choices. Idk if I like this more. While WoW has definitely slimmed down the "right" and "wrong" spec, so much so that I do sometimes miss the 71 talent point trees, I found myself missing WoW trees, as I sat there within the first quest, trying to pick out which Soul to take (pun?). Then within another 3 quests I had to pick out a second soul... I understand the greatness of all these choices. When you only have 4 classes, you need complexity to bring people back. But gosh....3 souls, and deciding which one to compliment which; then you get points to put into the trees but you have so many trees...I guess in reality it's like WoW...but the souls are all so unique, almost like a job within themselves, that it's not like simply choosing a role via spec in the old WoW tree.
WoW, but better
It's basically playing WoW with everything I want come true. I like the UI and I like that you can tweak it without having to download loads of addons. Don't get me wrong. I love builing UIs...LOVE it. I have a saved unpublished post about the evolution of my ui. I never finished it because it's evolving ALL THE FREAKN TIME! I love addons!
Anyways, The placement of everything in the UI is pretty much exactly like WoW. You can move things around, which is really nice, but it's creepy how similar it is. There was basically no learning curve as far as controls go because they are pretty much the same. I can't think of anything different. If it was different from current WoW, it was similar to WoW in WotLk.
Does the community get it?
My boyfriend doesn't want to play Rift because of one thing. The community. He says he is really turned off when reading WoW blogs and seeing comments from Rifters trolling around and bashing WoW because Rift is soooo much better. (I am sure WoW does the same to Rifters, but from his point of view he is annoyed)
But do these people really get it? Do they realize they might only love this game so much because it is EXACTLY like WoW, but with a shiny new look and content. It's basically what I think Cataclysm should've been. An expansion that actually expands greatly, not just enough to pull in some cash.
You can't go around waving a TRION flag saying "bravo! thou are't so brilliant and innovative." It's unfortunate, but TRION only deserves credit for being smart enough to take things people love about MMOs and smashing it all into one game. Because honestly, if there was no WoW, there would be no Rift. WoW took steps that were risky; they did trial and errors, constantly evolving WoW to cater to their ever growing player base. TRION's only risk was taking on WoW as their competition.
Yes yes, the rifts in Rift are unique and interesting. I have not done an invasion, but my friends say they are a sight to be seen and I believe them. I want to keep playing so I can see these Rifts. But I don't want my playing Rift to seem like an abandonment of WoW. I did not leave WoW to play Rift. I left WoW because it was time to move on. And I play Rift because it is a fun game that I happened to stumble upon. I like that I don't have a devoted time to raiding anymore. I like the feeling that I am in new content, but still playing WoW.
And thus, the adventures begin.
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