When a new MMO like Rift embarks on its journey, countless people in the MMO community flock to examine it under the Warcraft microscope. It’s easy to understand how and why this happens. Love or hate it, the majority of MMO players have, at one time or another, experienced Blizzard’s widely successful game.

The chief complaint amongst those that haven’t already sold their souls to Trion in exchange for a Bogling Wastrel and two-headed turtle mount is that Rift is a Warcraft clone. This isn’t far from the truth. For example, the trade skill and auction house windows are nearly identical in appearance and function. Key mapping is also the same. However, when reviewing an MMO the question isn’t whether or not the game uses a similar recipe. To illustrate this further, take a walk through the local grocery store. How many different brands of macaroni and cheese are there? All of them come in a box and contain macaroni noodles and a cheese sauce packet. Right? Yet, they don’t all taste the same. So yes, the two games share some common ingredients. Rift just tastes better. Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm. Good.

Here are the top 10 reasons Rift excels:

1.) Rifts

Any Rift top 10 list would be incomplete without acknowledging the rifts themselves. Rifts are zone wide events which open portals between the planes of Telara, unleashing the minions of Regulos. Elite rift bosses and invasion parties can and will destroy everything in their path and the people of Telara are counting on players to save them from this evil. While Guardians and Defiants may not always see eye to eye, they can agree on one point – Regulos and his Blood Storm need to be stopped.

Rifts are a breath of fresh air from the grind that comprises most MMOs. Questing is rarely, if ever, a dull experience because Rift invasions can and will blow through a zone and entirely change the pace of the game. Players aren’t forced to participate in rifts by any means, though they won’t gain any of the currency or rewards associated with them and may be forced to sit around doing nothing while an invasion tears quest givers apart. Participating in rifts is an engaging social experience, and more often than not, dozens of players work together to successfully rid the zone of the invasion. It’s a cooperative experience that encourages camaraderie. Moreover, the reward system is friendly to varying degrees of skill and play-style.

2.) Environment

The world of Telara is astoundingly well designed. It seems as though developers took a cue from American tourism as several of the zones appear to pay homage to the more popular tourist traps of America. For example, Granite Falls in Stonefield boasts an enormous rock waterfall and seems vaguely reminiscent of Yosemite National Park, while Scarlet Gorge bears a likeness to the American southwest.

Adding to beautiful landscapes, the architecture of Rift changes with the demands of the environment and thus, never becomes stale. Players are not likely to see the same houses and buildings over and over again. Similarly, most mine shafts and caves follow different routes and lead to new quests and treasures. This means exploration is rarely, if ever, dull. There is always something entirely new to see and explore in each zone and it pays to wander off the beaten path and see it all. Artifacts can be found in trees and high atop mountain peaks.

Moreover, the world Trion has created feels alive. Stormclouds in Moonshade Highlands sweep over areas of sunlight, darkening the hills and the grass so much so that it appears to be nighttime and it begins to rain. Then, minutes later the clouds shift overhead and the sun peaks out again. NPCs also wander around in quest hubs performing duties. This means the General Goods vendor may not be standing where he was the last time a player saw him. All of these things create an environmentally rich atmosphere.

3.) Factions

Perhaps one of Trion’s greatest successes is that it didn’t define the available factions, Guardian and Defiant, as being clearly good or clearly evil. Both factions have noble qualities. Both factions have committed atrocities. Both factions loathe the other.

For some players, this made choosing a faction a very difficult decision. Some chose based on lore and shared ideologies. For example, those individuals who are intrigued in the supernatural and find nobility in faith tend to roll Guardian. While those who hold a personal belief that placing faith in a higher power stunts progress and discourages the masses from taking action for themselves tend to roll Defiant. There are also those that chose a faction based on racial and zone aesthetics. And there are many more that chose a faction based on PVP potential. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t some people that rolled Guardian based on the fact that the faction outwardly appears to be the “good” side and the Defiants appear to be “bad.” However, the divide between players hasn’t been purely driven by this, making faction choice far more interesting.

4.) Lore

At its core, the war between Guardians and Defiants is a battle of religion versus science. This article won’t debate the merits of either, because these are hotly contested in our own world, which is precisely why they make for interesting lore. Religion and science is something we can all relate to, even if we don’t agree. This makes the characters in Rift easier to relate to and thus, the story is more engrossing.

According to the introductory cut scene, Guardians are not chosen for their virtue, but for their might. For good or bad, the Guardians place their faith in the Vigil in hopes they will save the world of Telara from destruction with the help of the Gods. However, the Defiant point of view holds that the Guardians place too much faith in the Gods and are thus, unprovoked to action. Defiants take matters into their own hands, seeking to understand the nature of the world while promoting the advancement of magitech.

5.) Customization: Character Models/Soul System/Dyes

Character models, talents, and gear are all highly customizable. The amount of diversity the game affords is refreshing when compared to Warcraft, where most players tend to look the same once tier gear becomes common place. It’s gratifying to be able to differentiate one’s character from the masses.

While there are only three races available per faction, there are thousands of potential looks afforded by the character generator. Players can adjust facial structure and look, eye color and slant, nose size and tilt, the size of the mouth and ears, hair style and color, markings (tattoos), makeup, height, and skin color. To say there are very few people running around Telara that look exactly like one another would be an understatement.

The soul system is also incredibly versatile, allowing any player to mix and match talents that suit his/her play-style. If players want to tank and heal at the same time, they can. As of this writing there isn’t a focus on min/maxing character performance and stats meaning that players can take talents that sound fun. Want to play a ranged warrior? Go for it. There is so much variety amongst the souls and talents available to each class that players are less likely to reach the end-game only to find out they dislike a particular aspect of their class, requiring them to reroll another character/class combination until they find one they like. Mages can range DPS and heal. Warriors can melee DPS, range DPS, and tank. Clerics and Rogues can range DPS, melee DPS, heal, and tank. In addition, each character is allowed up to four specializations (Quad Spec) and can respec at a moment’s notice, affording groups and solo players more flexibility in approaching difficult encounters.

Furthermore, dyes can be purchased from a dye vendor or crafted by an apothecary to color armor.

6.) Learning Curve

Anyone that has played World of Warcraft will find Rift easy to navigate. “C” still opens the Character Panel. “B” opens bags. Chat channel switching and grouping with other players is performed in the same manner, etc;. Rift is certainly not breaking the mold when it comes to basic game features. For some people, this detracts from the experience and diminishes much of what is ground-breaking about the game. However, one could just as easily argue that this isn’t a mold that needs to be broken. The likeness of basic features makes the game immediately accessible to those migrating from World of Warcraft. For many people, learning to navigate a new game can be a discouraging and overwhelming experience. Rift borrows from the good qualities of other MMOs (design and layout) while presenting some new systems for the player to learn (planar focus and ascended abilities).

7.) Travel

Trion opted not to make flying mounts a part of the game. This decision will likely be debated on the forums until the cows come home and only time will tell if Trion holds to their guns. While travel is restricted to ground mount or foot, there is a porticulum in each zone which allows players to fast travel to another zone for a sum. As a result, Telara seems enormous, despite the fact that there currently aren’t a large number of zones to visit. This lends the game greater continuity and allows the environment to trump the player, as it should. When the whole world is accessible to the player without requiring any effort, it becomes less immersive and less challenging. Like it or not, flying mounts tend to be anti-social, removing the player from the environment and the community. Trion has stated on several occasions that Rift intends to redefine the social experience of MMOs and this falls in line with that goal.

8.) The Little Things

Sometimes, it’s the little things that make a game great. Fortunately, Rift does a lot of little things very well and improves upon many of Warcraft’s shortcomings.

• Gathering professions can be tracked simultaneously. Herbs and Mining Nodes can be shown on the mini-map at the same time.
• Vendors have a “Sell All Sellables” button which sells all grey items.
• Players can mass auto-loot items from mobs.
• In-game mail arrives instantly from the Auction House and other players.
• Only one player needs to enter a dungeon to summon all players to it.
• Players don’t take durability damage, they take soul vitality damage. Soul vitality only diminishes if the player dies, making the need to repair less frequent.
• Weekly guild specific quests motivate guild members to participate in activities.

9.) User Interface

As previously stated, the interface design isn’t revolutionary, but the ability to customize it is liberating. Frames can be moved around on screen and scaled to the players liking. Moreover, players can import UI settings from one character to another using the Import button from the Main Menu. Currently, Trion has not opened Rift up to addon development, though it hardly seems necessary with this type of customization available. Hopefully Trion adds the ability to resize and move cast bars away from nameplates in the future.

10.) Patches and Hotfixes

By and large, reviewers agree that Rift’s launch was hugely successful. Servers have been stable since Head Start began and hotfixes have been relatively quick and painless. Hotfixes have been most impressive, with servers rarely going down for more than 10 minutes at a time and then going right back up. The Trion team does a wonderful job alerting players to upcoming server down time with system messages while in game. What’s more is that the system messages aren’t always robotic and impersonal. One time in particular, players were advised to grab a bite to eat while the game was patched.

Trion is also doing an excellent job responding quickly to bug reports and player complaints. (Granted, they aren’t responding to all of them, and this is to be expected.)

So, yes, some of the interface design and game functions are unoriginal. However, Rift stands on its own by offering content and features that have never before been implemented in an MMO and by creating an immersive world unique unto itself.