RIFT™ received a fantastic reception from both industry and gaming media last week. In case you missed it, here is a small recap of the press coverage we received over the past week.
MMORPG.com Demoing Rift (4/30/10)
Bill Murphy received the full on game tour and demo from the RIFT Development team.
"They want players who pick up Rift to be able to quickly get into the game without much of a learning curve, and then later throw them at the things that make Telara stand out from a gameplay standpoint: Rifts, dynamic events, the class system, etc.
I couldn't argue with that decision, especially when I saw just how playable the game seemed in such an early alpha stage. The animations are gorgeous and Simon told me that they have something astronomical like over 10,000 plus animations in the game and that each class, character, and mob has a wealth of different movements to pull from."
GameSpot Spotlight on Rift: Planes of Telara (4/30/2010)
GameSpot Managing Editor Andrew Park takes a dive into the game.
"Among other things, this instance demonstrated that Telara will have numerous outdoor instances (rather than being limited to indoor caves and dungeons, as in most other games of this sort). In this area, we were also able to observe some of the game's different types of quests, such as "heroic challenges," which are essentially miniature raid bosses that appear in instances and immediately act as quest goals."
GameZone: Rift offers core MMO gaming and innovative ideas (4/28/10)
Michael Lafferty explores the new world of Rift: Planes of Telara.
"Most of the time spent watching the living, breathing world was as a third party in a carefully guided tour of one area. But if the developers live up to what was promised, then Rift is going to herald in a new age of MMOs and take players on a socially dynamic adventure."
Softpedia: Telara Now Focuses on Rifts and Planes (4/28/10)
Games Editor Andrei Dumitrescu writes about his Rift impressions.
"RIFT will not suffer from the problem field leader World of Warcraft has: players never visiting some areas of the game after clearing out the quests they find there and leveling up. Rifts, which are linked to actions coming from the players, create new realities as the game progresses and allow Trion to sustain a more dynamic MMO."
G4: Rift Planes of Telara First Look (4/27/10)
Tom Price takes a look at the game and talks about the quality of the world's look and feel.
"RIFT is being pitched as the MMO for the HD era, and looking at comparison shots between it and any of its competitors shows a significant uptick in the level of graphics compared to other MMOs before. Of course, technology is not allowing us to have MMO worlds that look like the highly-detailed areas of high-end shooters and the like, but Rift gives it a good go, and tries its best to look as good as it can. No reason to hate on that. Of course, considering the game’s central idea, one would have to imagine that Rift would be an art director’s dream."
Curse: Rift Planes of Telara First Impressions (4/26/10)
Kody takes a sneak peak at the rifts mechanic from the game.
"Each possible rift event is hand-crafted by the team at Trion and is set up in a multiple stage format. You'll start off with smaller minions and culminate in a boss fight to finally seal off the rift. The bosses all appeared to be scripted encounters on the level of World of Warcraft, so it won't be your generic "AoE / tank-n-spank" content of the early part of last decade."
Ten Ton Hammer: First Look at Rift: Planes of Telara (4/26/10)
Ethec takes a look at how rifts improve on the public quest concept.
"Improvements on the PQ concept weren't just skin deep. Puzzle elements, such as clickable mushrooms which stun enemies, will add another dimension to rift gameplay. Players won't need to wait for the endgame to encounter massively sized enemies that represent a tactical challenge, such as a giant treant that served as a final boss in one teen-level rift we toured. But perhaps best of all: rewards are all about participation - the more you do, the more you get, regardless of how you "place" in comparison to other players. Forget reward chests too; loot can be retrieved at any time, meaning that if you're running back from the spawn point when the final stage ends, you'll still get your rift rewards via the user interface."
MMORPG: Rift: Planes of Telara Preview (4/26/10)
Bill Murphy's full report on Rift: Planes of Telara.
“All said and done, Rift: Planes of Telara came out looking like a bold new take on a familiar game style. The Rifts themselves, dynamically spawning social events that can happen any time in the game world are potentially a very exciting way to bring players together and give them common goals or even something to fight over given the game’s competing factions.”
Massively: Hands-on look at RIFT (4/26/20)
Seraphina Brennan examines the state of the game and its progress.
"While Trion was happy to announce the name change for Heroes of Telara to RIFT, we were stoked to be able to get our hands on the game for the first time and really see it in motion. We've heard all this talk about delivering dynamic content, high quality "HD content," a deep back story, and an evolving world. But, could Trion deliver all of the hype they were promising?
Well, if the titular rifts are any indication of how the rest of the game will progress, then this game seems to be in good hands."
Warcry: Trion Worlds' Blockbuster Titles (4/26/10)
Warcry's Suzie Ford writes about Trion's upcoming slate of MMO games.
"MMORPG players will delight in the core MMO features that are included and find new features intriguing. The game is set up to be non-competitive in the sense that Rifts open either by device (player opening) or design (at a time determined by devs). Players in the vicinity of an opening Rift can join in and share experience and loot without being forced to group. With up to ten stages in each Rift's 'event', there is plenty to go around even if a player dies. Loot follows through death and even across the world when a box pops up to alert players about what was earned yet left behind."
