Returning to Rift: Visiting an Old Friend Abroad .

It has been three and a half years since Rift first was released, almost two years since its first expansion Storm legion, and a little over a year since it went full free to play. Over the years a lot of players have come and gone, some have stayed all 3 and a half years, while some only tested the game when it was released. Then we have the players including myself, who played it heavily from release and a couple of months from that, just to find a newer game or something in life to move on to, only to once again return when the expansion came, which gave at least me two more month with the game. But now that it has been over a year and a half since I last played, and with a new expansion is on the way I returned to Telara and see if it is worth staying.

Storm Legion brought both new content and less armor…

Getting Back Into Rift

Like always when returning to an MMO I log into my main character, and after a couple of minutes trying to figure all the new stuff out, I decide to create a new one to get a better understanding of the recent additions to the game. If you have yet to try the game since the launch of the first expansion, the first 50 levels are a boring grind. Trion has really put all the content love on the last 10 levels and the endgame, which might be necessary for an MMO to survive these days, but if you are an old player coming back, the content until then is the same as always. But Trion has not forgotten about the leveling process, instead of giving new players and players doing alts new content, Trion has sped the leveling from pretty fast to extremely fast. You will get XP fast by doing either quests, dungeons, instant adventure or even the little slower PvP. The absolutely fastest way is with the instant adventure, where there is always a party waiting for you, just a click away. Additionally while leveling you never have to wait long in the dungeon queue, even if you are only doing it as DPS, which in most other MMOs have to wait forever to get a dungeon group. So while the content for the first 50 levels are the same, the speed and how you decide to level has been greatly improved, making it a fast process for me to once again get back into the game, and get a new class leveled up while doing so.

Instant adventures pop the moment you click them.

Help From the New Expansion

So the main reason for me to once again give Rift a chance is the upcoming expansion, and I know I’m not alone in this. All MMOs have a rise in their active players when an expansion is close at hand, and the chat channels in Rift are filled with people returning with questions about changes to the game already. The expansion itself not only brings opportunity for those coming back or just starting in Rift it also gives older players something new to look forward to as well. For a returning player like me, this is a blessing. No one can complain about my gear when all new drops for the new zones are better than the epic gear the hardcore players had before. In the same wayt he expansion will be seen as a curse for the players who have spent all their time grinding raid after raid for their equipment, or spent all their virtual life in Telara crafting that epic ultimate chest piece.

The prologue to the expansion helps to bring returning players back into action.

F2P Done Right

One of the biggest concerns I had about the game was that it had gone F2P my fears grew when I read about the in game store expanding every month. But only after a short while back in Telara, I have to admit that all my fears were unfounded and Trion has actually made the best F2P MMO out there. The shop mainly sells cosmetic items. Sure, there are a few boosting potions and nice mounts which you can buy for real money but you do get the complete game for free without any restrictions at all, which in my eyes makes it the perfect example for how an MMO should do free to play.

The store of a good f2p game.

Returning To an Old Friend

In terms of new content before the expansion, Trion is giving the players a short and story wise quite boring transition quest chain. It is enough for me to once again return to my main character and relearn everything there is to relearn about it. And while we are talking about returning to old characters, Trion has made the process of getting the right skills for your character, new and old, much easier. They have a system implemented with preset soul trees and there are quite a few of them in the game. So instead of reading through all the skills once again, or trusting Trion in premade soul trees, you can use popular skill trees from players. Even if after a while decided to go with my own build, using the premades without having to search forums was a great reintroduction to the souls and their skills. If you are thinking about going back to Rift once again, this is the time to do it, never before has the game been so easy to get back into, and if you do decide to pay for the expansion, you will for the first days, have equipment equal to the most hardcore players in the game And being back with my main character, learning my skills once again was just like returning to an old friend living abroad.