RIFT Preview

For January’s MMO Co-Opportunities, I did a write-up on a lot of the heavy-hitting MMOs which plan to release this year (or have the possibility of being released this year). One of the MMOs I named was RIFT, an MMO developed by Trion. You may have noticed that I’ve been participating in the game’s beta over the past few months and this is one MMO I’m definitely planning on playing when it launches in just a couple weeks. As the Beta 7 event is currently running (which is also an open beta, so you just need to sign up on their site and you’ll get invited) and the head-start begins in a week, it’s high time for a preview of all the things this game has to offer - lingering, of course, on the co-op-like aspects of the game. I was also lucky enough to sit down with Trion’s Hal Hanlin (Design Producer) and Chris Schmidt (Corporate Communications Manager) this Monday to get any lingering questions answered.

In some ways RIFT is like a lot of other fantasy-style MMOs. As Hal told me (and I’m paraphrasing here), Trion has never claimed to be reinventing the MMO wheel, but instead trying to make the best MMO they can possibly create. That being said, RIFT still has a whole lot that does set it apart from other MMOs. Its high-def graphics and detailed and varied environments are things that one notices at first glance, but there are unique mechanics at work as well.

The Soul System

One such mechanic that I mentioned in my upcoming MMOs article is RIFT’s soul system. There are four familar archetypes in the game, known as Callings: Warrior, Cleric, Rogue, and Mage. Each of these callings has access to 8 Souls (plus a PVP soul) which at first glance might look a whole lot like what are known as talent trees from other games. You can have any three souls equipped at a given time. You distribute points throughout the branches of the tree. Some of the branch skills are passive and others active abilities. As you put more points in a given soul tree, regardless of which branch skills you choose, you unlock skills in the roots of the tree (most of these are active abilities, but there are some passive abilities in the roots as well). The souls you choose and the way you choose to distribute your points completely determine what kind of playstyle your character will have. Just because you’re a Cleric doesn’t mean you only get healing spells and just because you’re a Rogue doesn’t mean you only get dual-wielding abilities. While the different callings certainly have trends (e.g. Clerics do seem to get access to more heals, though they are not the only calling that has heals), the calling you pick will only determine what type of armor you wear and which souls you have access to. Everything else is up to your soul selection and skill tree point distribution.

Here’s a super brief run down of the differences between the souls. Many of these souls have unique mechanics that set them apart from other souls, but I won’t get into that at the moment:

Warrior (plate armor)

Cleric (chain armor)

Rogue (leather armor)

Mage (cloth armor)

Not only do you have a huge variety of combinations to choose from, but you can unlock up to four Roles. Roles are different builds that you can swap between whenever you feel like it, so long as you’re not in combat. One can easily have a soloing role, a grouping role, a PVP role, and a dungeon role, or maybe you just want four roles of four completely different types of characters. This system makes it very easy to group up with people and not have an awkward amount of overlap. I’m built as a healer, but we already have a healer? No problem, I’ll switch to my dps role. Furthermore, if you build a role that you’re not happy with, respeccing is extremely affordable and you can start off anew again with completely different souls slotted if you so choose.

Dynamic Content: Rifts and Invasions

Dynamic content has quickly become a valued asset to an MMO, and RIFT certainly delivers in that area. All the zones have your standard questing fare for leveling up and such, but there is another system in play as well: the rift and invasion system. Rifts will randomly spawn in the world starting as tears which you can either force open or will open on their own after a short time. The story here is that the world of Telara is overlapped with six other planes of existence: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Life, and Death. Frequently, one of these planes will tear into Telara creating a rift which allows creatures from that plane to enter the world. Though the rifts themselves are stationary, they will spawn invasions (groups of mobs that can run willy-nilly throughout the zone, attempting to slaughter everything in their path). These invasions can overrun quest hubs and towns, killing all the NPCs. This makes it super important for players to beat the invasions back to reclaim the territory. To nip the problem in the bud, however, the rift spawning the invasions must be closed.

Rifts are often several stage events where you have to kill the enemies that remain at the rift, guarding the walkway between worlds. There are minor, major, expert, and raid rifts of increasing level of difficulty. Once a rift or an invasion is defeated, participants are rewarded with planarite (a currency), consumables, or wearable items. This is handled via the UI, so you can just collect all your goodies after you’re done fighting without having to worry about your awesome loot decomposing. Defeating rifts and invasions can be quite good xp as well (in fact, some of my friends actually prefer to do as much of their leveling as possible “rift-hunting”). There’s also a grouping system in place that makes it easy to get into groups with players for rifts and invasions. If there’s a public group available around that rift or invasion, a button will appear at the top of your screen, displaying the words “Join Public Group.” No more spamming “can I get an invite, please?” or having to waste time figuring out who to invite to your party.

The more active the zone is, the more rifts and invasions will spawn. I like to think of it akin to the director in Left 4 Dead 2. The better your side is doing, the more the AI wants to beat you into the ground, so it will spawn more and more rifts and more and more invasions. Every once in awhile, it will trigger a zone event. These are zone-wide invasions of a particular type of rift. Literally dozens of rifts can simultaneously spawn and start pumping out invasions. Players in the zone will automatically get a quest informing them of the objectives to “win” the event, such as closing a certain number of rifts or defending certain important points in the zone. Most events culminate in a huge boss or bosses. If these bosses are taken down, participants are rewarded with extra special loot.

These zone events feel suitably epic (I’ve participated in events where hundreds of players have been beating on a boss), and I’ve had a blast doing them. Hal even mentioned to me that the way RIFT is set up, it would be possible to even do world-wide events in the future. That just blows my mind. I’ve never felt so unsafe in an MMO world before, and I think that’s awesome. The world of Telara isn’t sunshine and rainbows. It’s at war with not just one but six other planes of existence which are all in turn vying for power against each other as well. When I play RIFT, I feel like I’m in a world besieged and that I’m part of a resistance defending that world. I can’t just plop myself down in a quest hub and go make a sandwich, because there’s a good chance when I get back I’ll have fire goblins dancing gleefully on my corpse.

There’s certainly much more to say about RIFT, but one has to stop somewhere, and some things are better experienced. I’m planning on doing an MMO Co-Opportunities on RIFT for either March or April, so look forward to that. In the meantime, Trion supplied me with a video focused on rifts and invasions, so you can check that out below. Rift releases on March 1, 2011 with head-start kicking off February 24, 2011 for those who preordered the game.