First Impressions: RIFT Beta 3

After a rather long wait to get into the game, I am pleased to say I was pleasantly surprised. Been playing with a old gaming colleague Azik… he’s well impressed, which is something since all he’s really done is say every game is not EQ1 since we stopped playing back in 2003.

The character creation is flexible, but does not take hours. I’m still curious as to why red elfs, but at least it’s different! There are only a few races, 3 per side. After designing my character, I headed on into the game. For a change I’ve decided to try out the Rogue tree, on a PvE server. There are plenty of classes, all based around “The Ascended” system. This is similar to talent points in WoW, but it directly influences your end class choice. What’s nice as well is that by the end game, you can have up to three classes defined. Currently you will be limited to adding souls from within your specific calling (warrior, cleric, rogue, or mage).

Once into the game, it’s fair to say that if you’ve ever played an MMO you will know what’s going on. The game draws you in, slowly introducing you to the controls and interface. These are very polished for a beta, and drew positive comments from my colleague. So far, I’ve yet to find a need for any of the multitude of addons I use in WoW. Quests are (so far) your usual, go kill x of y and come back. That’s not to say this is bad; they are tied into the main story line and make for logical progression.

Overall my initial impression is very positive. The beta is very stable, with no apparent issues (so far). Will it defeat the almighty WoW? No, but it may steal some players who are already bored of the new content.

3 Comments