What Makes Rift Different From Other Mmorpg’s

So what makes Rift different from other MMORPG’s(massively multiplayer online role-playing games)?

In Rift you are adventuring in a world called Telara and get to choose from two factions, Guardian and Defiant. There are 4 classes to choose from and each race has its own racial ability. As you level you will gain access to new souls which you get to choose, in total there are 8 souls for each class. You also get to unlock roles to a maximum of 5, we will talk more about roles in a bit.

The basic principle is the same as any other MMO but with a some very nice features that set this MMO apart from all the others. Well the biggest difference is the game title, that is what the game is all about and when you see your very first Rift open in front on you, it just blows you away. The whole enviroment around you changes and the detail in amazing. And then theres the zone invasions that take place, when one of these invasions starts the whole zone is invaded by Rifts opening and planar creatures emerging from them. This is one of the differences from other MMO’s, another is what happens next and that is to fight off the invasion. Every boby can take part in this and help fight, whether it be just fight off the planar creatures that are in front of you or join the main battle to get the control of the zone you’re in back. Another nice feature is the group function, when you make a group you can choose to either make it a private or a public group and for invasions this is a very nice feature indeed, if there is a group that is already formed as soon as you are in range you can choose to join that group with a click of a button. There set objectives to complete for each invasion and as they are completed new stages open that lead you to the invasion boss. And at the end of the invasion you are rewarded for taking part.

Rift also has pvp(player vs player) which is also a little different to other MMO’s. As you pvp you earn favor that you can use to purchase items. You’re able to begin pvp at level 10 and can start earning favor and you gain experience to level, at level 50 you start gaining prestige. Once you get enough prestige you will get to the next level, and for each level you gain access to new pvp gear aswell as get a pvp title. There are also different factions that you gain reputation with and these will also open new items that you can have access to.

There is also the Dungeons to talk about, in Rift you have 3 types of dungeon, there is Normal Dungeons that you can enter as you level and then theres Expert Dungeons that have two difficulties, Tier 1 and Tier 2. The tier 1 and 2 dungeons can only be entered when you hit level 50 and in total there are 9 Dungeons. In expert mode you will receive Plaques of Achievement on each boss kill, you will be able to purchase tier 1 and tier 2 items with them. The boss will also drop loot that is either tier 1 or tier 2 depending on the dungeon entered.

Now another very big but nice difference is the souls in this game. As i mentioned before there are 8 souls for each class. Each soul has its own talent tree and you can only have 3 souls active at a time, but this is where that big difference is, you can train all the souls for you’re class at the class trainer and you can reset you’re souls when ever you want to and choose any soul combination you want. You can also put talent points into any of the soul trees that you choose. Another feature is the option to train five roles this is the maximum that can be unlocked. Roles allow you to change your spec, so for example if you were a rogue you could have role 1 as your melee build and make role 2 your ranged build. So not only do you have 8 souls to choose from you can have 5 different combinations of those souls.

And another feature that i will mention is the interface, The interface in this game is extremely user friendly, you can edit the layout of your screen and place items anywhere you want, and I do mean everything. Key bindings are very easy to setup and macros are as easy as drag and drop. They couldn’t have made it any easier and there it also has social network access from within the game, you can upload messages and pictures straight to your network of choice. The networks included are Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Tumblr. I have tested Youtube and Facebook from within the game and they both worked very well, you record video in game and once you stop recording it decodes it and then its ready for upload to Youtube. The upload can also be done with within the game or you can upload to Youtube from outside it as the video is saved in a folder. The Facebook feature is also very easy to use, with a simple command in game you can put messages on your wall from within the game and even upload screenshots.

The last feature i will mention is the ability to change the way your character looks. They have added wardrobe slots to you character and in these you can place costume pieces or even armor that you just want to keep because you liked the look of it. You have 4 slots that you can unlock. But it doesn’t stop there, you also have the ability to dye your armor in Rift which is awesome. How many times has that been left out of MMO’s?

Well I hope that you found this useful to you. I tried to cover as much as possible about the game and everything it has to offer.