I haven't written an entry about RIFT yet, for (mainly) a couple of reasons. The first is that I haven't got a lot of time to play in the three beta events that have happened so far. The other is that the game is very well covered by the blogging world and gaming press anyway. But, I felt it was time to talk a little about it.

I've been in all three of the beta events to date, but have only had a few hours at most in each. As a testing vet, the first thing I noticed was how stable and polished the game was, even during the first beta event. Tooltips were already in place for instance; many times they're the last thing that gets added before release! I kept wondering who funded the game, as this is not the level of quality and polish I expect from a new/unknown developer; it's A-list polish/quality all the way. Trion's got some big funding from somewhere, else they're just amazingly talented. Perhaps both.

Another interesting thing is that during the first beta event, chat was alive with Everquest vets saying "Wow, this brings back my old EQ memories!" and similar. Also interesting is that before I said anything, my wife looked over at my monitor and said "Wow, that reminds me of EQ!" Now, RIFT looks nothing like EQ, really. Sure, it's a fantasy game. But the graphics are leaps and bounds over what EQ can do, of course. But as I played a little more, yeah, I can see what people mean. It's not any one thing. It's just... somehow... EQ-like. In every good sense of the word.

The class system is very cool. You pick a "Calling" - Warrior, Cleric, Rogue, or Mage. Yeah, sounds boring, eh? It's not. Then, each of those Callings has a bunch of "Souls" within it, all of different classes. So Mage has Pyromancer, Necromancer, and maybe 8 others. So right away, you pick one of these souls. And then you gain the abilities of that soul - basically, you are now that class. But that's not where it ends! After a few levels, you can pick another soul and gain the abilities of that class too. And you don't have to swap back and forth - you're both at once! Eventually, you get more. Of course, to gain abilities in a class, you have to put points into a tree - but - this still gives you the ability to custom-roll a unique combo that you like. It's not as flexible as truly skill-based building systems like UO or AO or EVE, but it's a good balance between rigid single-class systems and skill-based systems. There are tooltip suggestions as to what classes are good combos, but you're free to do what you like.

The game is a fairly standard PvE MMO along DIKU (EQ, WoW, LOTRO, EQ2, etc) lines. You do quests, you explore, you level up, you get loot, etc. A lot have called it an evolved WoW with more back-to-EQ roots. I pretty much agree. A big difference between RIFT and WoW is the lack of pervasive pop culture humor and cartoon hijinks. RIFT feels "serious;" those of us that like our RPGs serious will love RIFT.

The big feature in RIFT is of course the Rift invasions that can happen anytime, anywhere. I haven't experienced one yet, but from what I'm reading, if players don't band together to fight one back, the whole zone it's in can be overrun! It's a real cooperative effort, and people are saying it's a ton of fun! So that brings back the old "OMG OMG OMG Sand Giant in North Ro!" feeling from EQ. North Ro is a level 8-15 or so zone, and Sand Giants are level 35 mobs that hit like mack trucks. One could appear and just mess up your world. ;) Rifts are like that, times 1000 from what I hear.

During the last beta event, #3, I got to try out the Necromancer soul (class). Oh boy. As readers probably know, I'm a Necromancer fan. I was a Necromancer in EQ from 1999-present. First Sevok, then after a stupid "I quit" break where I sold my original account, I came back and made Sovek, and re-leveled. In EQ2 I'm also a Necromancer. I love the class. Did not like what AoC did with the Necromancer name. Cold nukes? Sorry, not a Necro. Anyway! RIFT's Necromancer is a Real Necromancer©™. Sevok seal of approval. A skeleton pet, and lots of disease and death based DoT spells. Oh yes. :)

Anyway. I've received my invite for the next event, which starts today - event #4, which will test the PvP system. Should be interesting. The game releases 3/11/2011, which to me seems very quick since we're still in closed beta and the beta still isn't 24/7, but, like I said earlier, it's very polished and this one might have a smooth release, after years and years of mostly disastrous MMO releases. If release goes smoothly, I predict a very bright future for this one. But as always, it all hinges on release smoothness!

I hope it's flawless.