Over the weekend, I got quite a bit of time (for me anyway!) to check out the RIFT beta, and I'm still very impressed. The level of polish and detail is amazing, especially for a closed beta. Obviously they've had this thing in intensive internal testing for a very, very long time.

The game is being covered fairly heavily by the entire blogging and gaming press world, so I won't spend much/any time on general game stuff; instead I'll talk about my experiences as a Necro, and also as an EQ1 vet looking for some of the good parts of EQ1 in a new game.

Most of the somewhat unique playstyles of EQ1 are represented in RIFT, either in a single Soul (class) or by an easy-to-figure-out combination of 2 Souls (classes). Want a melee class that can somewhat tank, and has a pet to help out (EQ1 Beastlord)? Well, that's a Beastmaster in RIFT. A nuking class with pets for each element (EQ1 Magician)? Elementalist in RIFT. Enchanter (crowd control) in EQ1? Dominator. There's even a ranged DPS class with a pet (somewhat like a WoW hunter). It's all there!

What I wanted was an EQ1 Necromancer. A caster with a strong undead pet to hold mobs off, and disease/death themed DoT's and nukes to hurt mobs. And preferrably with lifetaps to keep my health up should mobs decide to attack me. That is, in summary, the main playstyle of an EQ1 necromancer. So, in RIFT, you take Necromamcer for your first soul. That gives you the pet, and some DoTs/nukes. Then, for your second soul, you take Warlock, and that gives you more damage spells, and more importantly, lifetap DoT. Bingo, it plays like an EQ1 necromancer (though admittedly a little more fun!) For your third soul, I suppose it's up to you - I took Dominator, because when soloing what'll mess you up are adds - with Dominator you just turn 'em into squirrels for 30 seconds and deal with 'em when you can. It's a lot of fun.

The newbie progression is fairly standard for a modern MMO. You go from camp to camp, following a linked chain of stories. In the case of RIFT these are very good stories, and definitely "serious" as opposed to more "comedy" ala WoW. You get introduced to game features such as world interactions, gathering skills, and the Rift system that is the game's main unique feature. The "newbie rifts" are said to be pretty weak compared to real ones, but they were still fun.

Anyway, I haven't even thought of buying an MMO for all of 2010. I simply don't have much gaming time anymore, so it's hard to justify $50 or $60 for a game, much less the sub anymore. I haven't had a game sub active for quite some time - unless you count my Lifetime sub to STO, but of course I don't pay monthly for that. RIFT has me on the fence. I'm kinda thinking of buying it, but I know I'll never have enough time to really make it pay off, so I probably won't. But the main thing is, it has me excited about a game enough to even consider it. And that's no small feat.

I'm hoping Trion has their ducks in a row as far as release is concerned. If RIFT releases completely smoothly, with zero (or very minimal) issues, it will likely be a huge success. If it has the now-expected-as-normal disastrous release, well, it will fail like all the rest. I'm hoping Trion realizes this and over-plans for release. Demand will be huge, and if they estimate how many servers/etc they'll need and maybe double it... that might be enough. Real estate is all about "location, location, location" and MMOs are all about "release, release, release." Trion: don't screw the release-pooch! Buck the norm!