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xyzzysqrlI was gonna write a biiiig thing about the Rift beta, but screw that, I am exhausted and dehydrated and generally feel terrible, so you get the quickie version:
THE GOOD:
I like the world. It's very pretty.
I like the Rift events. Suddenly a big goddamn hole in reality opens and everyone sprints over there to beat it down. It's cool.
It's fun. I mean... I really got a sense of joy out of roaming around this world doing stuff. It's SO fun I almost don't want to play in the next couple betas for fear of burning out.
I love the class system. Playing "But what happens if do THIS mix of souls --" will keep me occupied a while.
Collections. There are shiny trinkets everywhere to collect. I stayed in one zone the entire beta and got like 26 collections, 5 of which I managed to finish. That felt GOOD. And the trinkets weren't just randomly-spawning, they seemed to be in reasonable logical places for lost items, like under the roots of a tree or wedged between two boulders or in a tiny cave on the ocean floor.
Sound design felt good. When I was underwater, it sounded like I was underwater. EXCELLENT.
Trion knows what they're doing. The beta was a day away from ending, and people were having a ball. What does Trion do? Extend the beta another day. Holy crap, awesome.
The plot revolves around bad guys in the shape of dragons which means no less than SIX HOT DRAGONS for me to look at HELL YEAH.
Did I mention the game looks fantastic?
THE BAD:
Gated questing. You roll up to an outpost and you're like ANY QUESTS TO DECLARE and the people are like NAW MAN WE'RE COOL and then ten minutes later you get a quest to go back to the outpost and everyone's like OH SHIT THE UNDEAD and I'm like man where was this ten minutes ago?
Lack of variety. Everyone who has a pet will have One Pet unless they upgrade the hell out of their tree, and then they will get the same pet as everyone who upgraded that tree. Boooring.
My big warrior girl swings her sword like a boat oar, and has an attack that looks like a golf swing. Attack animations are kinda weak. Boring. Do better.
RACES. I just rolled off Everquest 2 with their eighty freaking bajillion races and now I'm SAD about the race variety here. There's human, human, elf, elf, purple stuff, dwarf. What the hell? MORE RACES. Furry races, demon races, lizard races, different skin colors, different sizes, people from the planes. Why three races per side? Boring. More races. If not more races, at LEAST more customization options.
More tutorials. How exactly do we succeed in zone-wide invasions? People were doing it, I don't know how. These souls synergise well, you say, but HOW? Why? Tell me. What do I do with collections? I figured it out because I've played Everquest 2. Other people haven't played Everquest 2. Tell them. Achievements. Aee these points good for anything? Tell me. TELL ME MORE STUFF. Don't assume your target audience has played every MMO to death. I should have pages and pages of optional help-database info to read through.
Collection rewards felt a bit weak. Eh. That's my problem.
Crafting seemed really sparse. I did apocethery and I had, like... two potions and an explosive by end of beta. Three recipes? What? More please.
I had one more complaint in mind, but I forgot what it was. Something like... there's not a lot of sense of connection between what you do at a rift and how much loot you get? Or what you do at a rift and the overall metapicture? I forget. Something grumpy about not understanding connections or mechanics that feel like they should be critical. I don't recall. My problem again.
THE AWESOME:
Cruising up to a rift and suddenly like 40 people were there trashing enemies and racking up BONUS STAGE - DOUBLE BONUS STAGE - EXTRA STAGE.
Even the 5-20 zone (for Defiants, where I spent 99% of my beta time) is pretty big and fun to explore.
The beta extension. Excellent. PR move of brilliance.
There were two dudes on general chat, one named God and one named Satan. They argued briefly, then suddenly realized that it would be the best thing ever if they teamed up to go dungeon running. I find this hilarious.
It was also fun to watch the chat channels drift from "lolWoWclone" to "wait this is actually fun" to "FUCK YEAH RIFT MAN PREORDER'D" as the beta period wound on.
VERDICT: I'm keeping my preorder. I expect to enjoy this game for about... four, five months I'd say, given my attention span. That's long enough for me.
THE GOOD:
I like the world. It's very pretty.
I like the Rift events. Suddenly a big goddamn hole in reality opens and everyone sprints over there to beat it down. It's cool.
It's fun. I mean... I really got a sense of joy out of roaming around this world doing stuff. It's SO fun I almost don't want to play in the next couple betas for fear of burning out.
I love the class system. Playing "But what happens if do THIS mix of souls --" will keep me occupied a while.
Collections. There are shiny trinkets everywhere to collect. I stayed in one zone the entire beta and got like 26 collections, 5 of which I managed to finish. That felt GOOD. And the trinkets weren't just randomly-spawning, they seemed to be in reasonable logical places for lost items, like under the roots of a tree or wedged between two boulders or in a tiny cave on the ocean floor.
Sound design felt good. When I was underwater, it sounded like I was underwater. EXCELLENT.
Trion knows what they're doing. The beta was a day away from ending, and people were having a ball. What does Trion do? Extend the beta another day. Holy crap, awesome.
The plot revolves around bad guys in the shape of dragons which means no less than SIX HOT DRAGONS for me to look at HELL YEAH.
Did I mention the game looks fantastic?
THE BAD:
Gated questing. You roll up to an outpost and you're like ANY QUESTS TO DECLARE and the people are like NAW MAN WE'RE COOL and then ten minutes later you get a quest to go back to the outpost and everyone's like OH SHIT THE UNDEAD and I'm like man where was this ten minutes ago?
Lack of variety. Everyone who has a pet will have One Pet unless they upgrade the hell out of their tree, and then they will get the same pet as everyone who upgraded that tree. Boooring.
My big warrior girl swings her sword like a boat oar, and has an attack that looks like a golf swing. Attack animations are kinda weak. Boring. Do better.
RACES. I just rolled off Everquest 2 with their eighty freaking bajillion races and now I'm SAD about the race variety here. There's human, human, elf, elf, purple stuff, dwarf. What the hell? MORE RACES. Furry races, demon races, lizard races, different skin colors, different sizes, people from the planes. Why three races per side? Boring. More races. If not more races, at LEAST more customization options.
More tutorials. How exactly do we succeed in zone-wide invasions? People were doing it, I don't know how. These souls synergise well, you say, but HOW? Why? Tell me. What do I do with collections? I figured it out because I've played Everquest 2. Other people haven't played Everquest 2. Tell them. Achievements. Aee these points good for anything? Tell me. TELL ME MORE STUFF. Don't assume your target audience has played every MMO to death. I should have pages and pages of optional help-database info to read through.
Collection rewards felt a bit weak. Eh. That's my problem.
Crafting seemed really sparse. I did apocethery and I had, like... two potions and an explosive by end of beta. Three recipes? What? More please.
I had one more complaint in mind, but I forgot what it was. Something like... there's not a lot of sense of connection between what you do at a rift and how much loot you get? Or what you do at a rift and the overall metapicture? I forget. Something grumpy about not understanding connections or mechanics that feel like they should be critical. I don't recall. My problem again.
THE AWESOME:
Cruising up to a rift and suddenly like 40 people were there trashing enemies and racking up BONUS STAGE - DOUBLE BONUS STAGE - EXTRA STAGE.
Even the 5-20 zone (for Defiants, where I spent 99% of my beta time) is pretty big and fun to explore.
The beta extension. Excellent. PR move of brilliance.
There were two dudes on general chat, one named God and one named Satan. They argued briefly, then suddenly realized that it would be the best thing ever if they teamed up to go dungeon running. I find this hilarious.
It was also fun to watch the chat channels drift from "lolWoWclone" to "wait this is actually fun" to "FUCK YEAH RIFT MAN PREORDER'D" as the beta period wound on.
VERDICT: I'm keeping my preorder. I expect to enjoy this game for about... four, five months I'd say, given my attention span. That's long enough for me.
